Missing Submarine: Tourist ship disappears in the area of the Titanic wreck
The Titanic was en route to New York on its maiden voyage when it hit an iceberg on April 15, 1912 and sank. The sinking made headlines around the world, including in The New York Times. Here’s some of The Times’ coverage as it was written that day. The digital version of the newspaper of that day can be viewed here.
The confession that the Titanic, the largest steamship in the world, was sunk by an iceberg and went to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, probably with more than 1,400 of her passengers and crew, was made in the White Star Line offices , Broadway 9, last night at 8:20.
Then PAS Franklin, Vice President and General Manager of the International Mercantile Marine, admitted that probably only those passengers who had been picked up by the Cunarder Carpathia had been saved. Advisories received early this morning tended to increase the number of survivors by 200.
The admission followed a day when White Star Line officials had been extremely optimistic. It was never admitted that everyone aboard the huge steamer was not safe. The ship itself, it was confidently asserted, was unsinkable, and interrogators were told it would reach port, probably under its own power, but certainly with the aid of the Allan liner Virginian, which was said to be towing her.
As the day passed, however, with no new authentic reports from Titanic or any of the ships known to have responded to her wireless call for help, it became clear that authentic news of the disaster could probably only come from Titanic’s sister ship . , the Olympic.
The wireless range of the Olympic is 500 miles. That of the Carpathia, the Parisian, and the Virginian is much less, and as they approached the Titanic’s position, they drifted further and further out of range from the coast. From the position of the Titanic at the time of the disaster, it is doubtful that any of the ships apart from the Olympic could establish communication with the coast.