Jackson Jambalaya

This week is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. I thought it would be interesting to pull up the local newspapers to see how they reported the disaster so I went to the Department of Archives yesterday and copied some of the coverage from the Jackson Daily News and Jackson Clarion-Ledger. The stories are posted below. I apologize for their configuration. I was copying from microfiche and the newspapers back then were printed using very small columns. Part of the print itself was blurry regardless of the adjustments made on the machine. The stories are posted below. The easiest way to read them is to download them so you can rotate and maximize the view as need be.


First thing I noticed was the date of the coverage. The story made the front page and dominated the headlines but it was not reported until April 16, 1912- 3 days after it took place. The only communication at the time with the ships on the scene was via wireless telegraph. Thus it was several days before the real story was reported as survivors arrived at shore. The first headline shows the initial confusion. It states everyone is rescued and the ship was "being towed to Halifax". Then the real story hits" Titanic Horror Grows; Death list over 1,400".

What is nice, if one can call it that, to read is the prose. A more elegant, flowing style is used (Are you paying attention, Grace?):

"When the Titanic struck the mountain of ice that sent her to the bottom within four hours after the impact, she was steaming at the rate of 18 knots an hour. The schock almost demolished the proubd vessel which her builders and her captian had believed nothing could master.

Hitting the impenetrable ice mass fairly with her towering bows, the ship was almost rent asunder at the first blow. Her decks were ripped and torn, her sides and bulkheads were split and shattered as with the hammer of some titan from the bow to a point almost midships..."

"But British seamanship and discipline prevailed, and it did what little might be done, as well as dauntless men could to it. Every officer and man leaped to his post while Capt. Smith, megaphone in hand, shouted ihs orders over that rolling hulk that an hour before had been the proudest ship in Christendom..."

The coverage lasted for nearly a week as reports poured in. The watch was not issued spyglasses. An unkonwn ship was in the distance and disappeared. The President's military aide (There was no Pentagon or NSA) was on board. Here is the rest of it for your review.