The front page of The Morning Oregonian on April 16, 1912, was full of stories about the demise of the “unsinkable” Titanic the day before, after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic on her maiden voyage. (You can read the articles at bit.ly/TMOtitan).

One headline, “Wireless flashes tragedy to world,” brings up an interesting point. If it were not for the ship’s telegraph operator reaching out with a CQD distress call, it’s likely no one would ever have known what happened to the Titanic. It would have just disappeared.

Fortunately, by an act of Congress in 1910, all ocean-going vessels with more than 50 passengers aboard were required to have wireless transmission. Too bad they didn’t enact rules about the number of lifeboats required at the same time.

Another headline pondered all of the wealthy world travelers, mostly men, who boarded the Titanic: “Seven on ship have wealth $420 millions.” The richest by far was Col. John Jacob Astor IV, great-grandson of Astoria’s founder, who was estimated to be worth $150 million (actually, he was worth $87 million, but who’s counting). All seven millionaires perished.

Speaking of money, another story notes that the Titanic cost $10 million to build (about $261 million now), and was carrying $5 million in diamonds that had been consigned to dealers, and “a large amount of bonds.” She was only insured by Lloyd’s of London for $5 million.

As a historical footnote, one article, “Portland people on doomed boat,” mentions there were believed to be five passengers from the City of Roses aboard the Titanic, among them Mr. and Mrs. Frank M. Warren.

Actually, they were the only first class passengers from Oregon on board. She survived; he did not. You can read her harrowing tale at bit.ly/AnnaWarren