Disaster at Sea, Disaster in Print When the “unsinkable” ocean
liner Titanic collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic on
the cold night of April 14, 1912, and sank early the next
morning, newspapers, in their race to get the latest
information, carried conflicting accounts. - • "All Passengers
Are Safe," the Los Angeles Express reported. - • "2,000 Lives
Are Saved off Wrecked Titanic," said The Denver Times. - • "The
Titanic Sinks With 1,800 on Board; Only 675, Mostly Women and
Children, Saved," The New York Herald’s bold layout declared.
How could the facts be so mixed? The Titanic’s CQD, an early
Morse code distress signal created by the Marconi company and
exclusive to ships outfitted with its wireless equipment, had
flashed approximately 35 minutes after the collision. But the
signals sometimes were weak and garbled by interference, and the
conflicting details caused some newspapers to get the story
wrong. In fact, more than 2,200 passengers and crew were on the
Titanic and more than 1,500 of them p