The Trip Home

THE TRIP HOME

After all the survivors had boarded the Carpathia, the ship steamed towards the harbors of New York. By this time, the press had gotten word of the Titanic tragedy, and calls started to stream into the White Star offices. As the time neared for the Carpathia to reach port, over 10,000 people crowded the docks. Swarms of reporters wanting to buy the rights to survivor’s stories desperately searched for any leads into the Titanic.

Meanwhile, the Mackay-Bennet, a cable laying ship was left with the morbid task of collecting bodies. After almost five days at sea, many of the bodies had been terribly deteriorated. Armed with tons of ice, over a 100 coffins, 40 embalmers, and a canon to conduct burials at sea, the Mackay-Bennet collected a total of 328 bodies, 119 of which were unrecognizable.

Back in New York, the Carpathia had docked ship. Most of the first class passengers either stayed in the city’s finest hotels or boarded trains for other cities. Many of the third class passengers had all of their possessions taken away in the sinking, and most of them had no where to sleep. White Star happily complied with lodgings for any of the survivors who had no where to go.

There were two official inquires into the sinking of the Titanic. A Senate investigation was organized and was chaired by Senator William Alden Smith. The inquiry started on April 19, just four days after the sinking of the Titanic. Lasting 17 days, the hearings included testimony and affidavits from witnesses totaling 1,145 pages. The senate inquiry made its official report on May 28. Senator Smith chastised the British Board of Trade for their lack of standards, Captain Smith for not slowing down amidst iceberg warnings, and lastly Captain Lord, captain of the California for not responding to distress signals. On May 2, The Court of Inquiry convened under Wreck Commissioner Lord Mersey. By the end of the inquiry, over 25, 622 questions had been asked and answered. As a result of the inquiry, the Board of Trade drastically updated their maritime standards.