1912 - DAY AFTER TITANIC DISASTER REPORTS 1492 DEAD

April 16, 1912

The day after the Titanic sank, the newspapers reported wild stories but not all of them were factually true.

April 16, 1912 edition of The Day Book newspaper

Reports were coming in to various newspapers but most were not yet finalized.  The Day Book newspaper from Chicago, Illinois dated April 16, 1912, (at a cost of one cent), reported that 1492 Titanic passengers died in the disaster, yet the original passenger list of names was not published for families to know if their loved one was on the ship.

On another note, readers would have thought the photograph was the actual iceberg that Titanic hit - that is, until they read the caption which says it is a "likeness as she appeared before her thrilling crash with a submerged iceberg at sea."  

The newspapers in those days were not getting the information about the disaster as fast as they would have liked, so they took a little creative license to elaborate on the story.  It sold newspapers, which was the intent. 

Since 2015, when President Donald Trump was a candidate, he tossed around his catchphrase "fake news" which he said was any news agency whose news item speaks negatively about him or tears down his popularity.

One might say that the Day Book newspaper article was reporting "fake news" when they said the iceberg was submerged. There were photographs of the iceberg field within an hour after the Titanic incident and the icebergs are shown to be well above water level, as you can see in these photographs.

Photo taken by Carpathia passenger Bernice Ellis Palmer
as they approached the area to rescue survivors

Photo by Bernice Palmer shows the iceberg field
was very visible from the ship's deck.

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