Strickland
Member
I put together what “breaking news” looked like in the Boston Herald on the morning of April 16. Newspapers handled breaking news with multiple editions with small or large changes throughout the day. I have the complete, original early morning edition of the Herald for April 16, thanks to my grandparents (living in Cambridge, Mass. in 1912) having kept it. Not in perfect condition, especially at the fold. I had a one-off poster made of the front page in 1982 for display with my just completed 1/350 Titanic model (brownish tint, below). I have an image from someone else online of the late morning edition (bright white, below). Comparison is interesting. The two editions thus appeared on the street at most several hours apart. Rather than glued to cable news, the public would have been running out to buy the latest edition (one cent!).
Early morning edition has come to the correct conclusion that all is lost, but its numbers of saved (too high) and lost (too low) are off by quite a bit. "Women and Children Probably Survivors" also correct. Below the fold two headlines are at opposite extremes, complete despair (Hope Abandoned by Line’s Officials) but grasping at a sliver of hope (Hope Roused by Word From the Virginian). Latter was based on an (incorrect) deduction: Why was Virginian, bound for Liverpool, returning, except because it might have survivors? Paper admits lack of any telegraph message about survivors from Virginian is not encouraging. By the late morning edition, all is indeed lost, no sliver of hope anywhere. Numbers, while still off (number saved is now too low and number lost too high), are moving towards the correct range of saved and lost. Changed headline has let sensational take over (“Crushed” is completely inaccurate), but that is what headlines are for, up to and including today's news. The later edition has shifted the morning edition's "Partial List of Passengers Saved" to make way for further articles about the sinking ("Boats and Wreckage All That Was Left").
Interesting too that the artist’s impression of collision and sinking have it about right, glancing blow on starboard side with the berg rising just above the deck, and ship sinking with the stern in the air. There is a puzzling fanciful note as in the far background behind the upraised stern the artist has another ship, which according to paper’s own reports can’t be the Carpathia and I think it is too soon for any depiction of the Californian.
One can sense the confusion and chaos of the newspapers trying to sort out the aftermath of what is now completely confirmed, the loss of the ship and a huge loss of life. The shock, emotion and drama of the event are well transmitted and the impact on Bostonians easily imagined, 110 years later.
![20220129_102351[13417].jpg](https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/community/attachments/20220129_102351-13417-jpg.78707/ "20220129_102351[13417].jpg")
Early morning edition has come to the correct conclusion that all is lost, but its numbers of saved (too high) and lost (too low) are off by quite a bit. "Women and Children Probably Survivors" also correct. Below the fold two headlines are at opposite extremes, complete despair (Hope Abandoned by Line’s Officials) but grasping at a sliver of hope (Hope Roused by Word From the Virginian). Latter was based on an (incorrect) deduction: Why was Virginian, bound for Liverpool, returning, except because it might have survivors? Paper admits lack of any telegraph message about survivors from Virginian is not encouraging. By the late morning edition, all is indeed lost, no sliver of hope anywhere. Numbers, while still off (number saved is now too low and number lost too high), are moving towards the correct range of saved and lost. Changed headline has let sensational take over (“Crushed” is completely inaccurate), but that is what headlines are for, up to and including today's news. The later edition has shifted the morning edition's "Partial List of Passengers Saved" to make way for further articles about the sinking ("Boats and Wreckage All That Was Left").
Interesting too that the artist’s impression of collision and sinking have it about right, glancing blow on starboard side with the berg rising just above the deck, and ship sinking with the stern in the air. There is a puzzling fanciful note as in the far background behind the upraised stern the artist has another ship, which according to paper’s own reports can’t be the Carpathia and I think it is too soon for any depiction of the Californian.
One can sense the confusion and chaos of the newspapers trying to sort out the aftermath of what is now completely confirmed, the loss of the ship and a huge loss of life. The shock, emotion and drama of the event are well transmitted and the impact on Bostonians easily imagined, 110 years later.
