The Story

Through the hours of Saturday night and yesterday there was a continual conference in a room on the second floor of the Bowling Green Building, 9 Broadway, where the offices of the International Mercantile Marine are situated. The officers of the company who took part in this informal meeting of what might be termed the ways and means committee included Vice-Presidents John Lee and P. A. S. Franklin, General Passenger Manager W. W. Jefferies, Mr. Mitchell, and R. H. Farley, third class manager.

In addition to the officials named many secretaries, clerks, and managers of various degrees remained in the offices of the line most of the night, few getting more than a few hours sleep and the greater majority not sleeping at all. The big room on the first floor of the building in in [sic] which the bulletins were given out was filled most of the time with relatives and friends of the Republic's passengers and with newspapermen. A messenger boy would come in, running for once, and a clerk would tear open the envelope and glance over the message. Then it would go upstairs to the men who sat in conference. Soon the substance of the wireless message would be given out to those waiting, and a few minutes later a clerk would emerge from the conference room with an order to Capt. Ranson or some other bit of instruction to the company's own men or to a tug company. ...

N. Y. Sun, January 25, 09, 2:1

 

Mr. Franklin [P. A. S. Franklin, Vice-President of the White Star Line] held a consultation with Gen. Clarkson, Surveyor of the Port, and Col. Edward S. Fowler, Collector of the Port,1 early in the evening [Saturday], and it has been arranged to expedite the landing of the passengers. Deputy Surveyor Coney's and Deputy Collector Conrow, together with several custom house inspectors, will go down the bay on the General Putnam and the revenue cutter. So for as known no baggage was taken off the Republic. Only the baggage of the Florida's 700 immigrants will have to be examined.

Questioned about the baggage of the Republic's passengers, Mr. Franklin said:  
'We do not know whether any baggage was saved or not; what we were most interested in was saving the lives of our passengers. The baggage can take care of itself.'

N. Y. World, January 24, 09, 2:5&6

 

COULD NOT MOVE BAGGAGE

Officers of the Republic said that passengers should not have complained because their baggage had not been transferred to the Baltic. They said the work of transferring the Republic's passengers to the Florida and then to the Baltic had exhausted the crew of the Republic, and it would have been physically impossible for them to have moved baggage at such a time. [emphasis supplied]

N. Y. Herald, Jan. 26, 09, 4:1

The REPUBLIC, while under tow, sank stern first 8:07 p.m., Sunday, January 24, 1909, 39 hours after the collision. She was the largest and most technologically advanced vessel to sink to that time and the second largest of her era. She was succeeded only by another White Star Liner, TITANIC, which was to sink just three years later.

The REPUBLIC is now in the port of lost ships, resting in 260 feet of water 50 miles south of Nket Iantucsland.

  

FOOTNOTES

1E. S. Fowler, the Collector of Customs for the Port of New York, was responsible for reporting the imports and exports of gold and silver which had taken place at New York to both the U. S. Mint and the Bureau of Statistics in Washington.  
"COLLECTOR OF THE PORT OF NEW YORK - Federal official in charge of collecting the import duties on goods coming into the United States via New York, [in 1909] the busiest port of entry in the nation. The collector is appointed by the President and reports to the Secretary of Commerce. Local party leaders in New York City, who preferred that the collector be someone who would turn a blind eye to the party's corruption in administering the customs facility, usually suggested particular individuals to the President for consideration." Source, Glossary: http://www.americanpresident.org

 
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