Call Me Ismay

by Sean McDevitt

  Bruce Ismay drew a short breath before replying. “Yes.”

  “And that company was the owner of the Titanic?”

  “Yes.” Ismay cleared his throat quietly, preparing himself for what he knew would be yet another intense line of public questioning.

  “You are also, I think, Managing director of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, Limited?”

  “Yes.”

  “And the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company owns all of what we call the 'White Star Line' steamers?”

  “Yes, the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company is the legal name of the company.”

  Sir Rufus rubbed his chin for a moment before continuing. “The White Star Line runs from New York to Liverpool, does it?”

  “Yes.”

  “And New York to Southampton?”

  “Yes, and to many other ports as well.” Ismay was silently grateful that Sir Rufus hadn't phrased his question as 'Southampton to New York.'

  “The White Star Line and these other vessels which are owned originally by British companies still run under the British flag, do they not?”

  “Yes.” Ismay was trying to sound helpful without being too eager.

  The Attorney-General leaned in. “Now, Mr. Ismay. I want you to tell me about the building of the Olympic and the Titanic, the two sister vessels. I am not going to ask you the details of the construction, I am going to keep that for some of our more skilled witnesses-” there seemed to be a derisive chuckle or two in the Hall, Ismay feared- “and those who have had more to do with it and who know, but generally speaking- well, first of all, have you any financial interest by way of shareholding or otherwise in the shipbuilding firm of Harland and Wolff?”

  “Absolutely none.”

  “That is what I thought.” Sir Rufus glanced at his notes for a brief moment before continuing. “Now one other general question with regard to the construction of the vessels- are they constructed under contract at a lump sum in the ordinary course, or are they constructed at cost price plus a percentage?”

  “Cost price, plus a percentage. We build no ships by contract at all.”

  “So, what it amounts to, if I follow you correctly, is that there is no limit placed by you upon the cost of the vessel?” Sir Rufus's tone carried a hint of surprise.

  “Absolutely none. All we ask them to do is to produce the very finest ship they possibly can. The question of money has never been considered at all.” A few of the reporters cast a furtive glance amongst their colleagues: was Ismay truly about to go into an advertising mode?

  “And the Olympic and Titanic were both built upon those terms?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Will you give me approximately what the cost of the Titanic was?” Sir Rufus asked, expectantly.

  “A million and a half sterling,” Ismay replied. Once again, a rumble of significance and recognition echoed in the Hall.

  “Now, you were on board the Titanic on this voyage?” Sir Rufus asked, taking on a decidedly more interrogative tone.

  “I was.” Ismay felt the energy from the horde of the reporters as they shifted excitedly in their seats, their pencils at the ready.

  “You sailed in her as a passenger?”

  “I did.”

  “You joined her first, I think, at Southampton?”

  “Yes.”

  “She carried mail as well as passengers?”

  “Yes.”

  “I only want to ask you one question with reference to that. Under that contract, are you bound to keep up to a certain rate of speed?”

  “No.” Clearly, Sir Rufus was trying to introduce the possibility that commerce might have played a role in the disaster, but Ismay replied with certainty.

  “Now, on Sunday, the 14th of April, do you remember dining in the evening?”

  “I do.” Ismay steeled himself as he realized the chaos and horror of that night were about to be revisited.

  “On this very fateful day?” Sir Rufus called out.

  “Yes.”

  “Did the captain dine with you?”

  “He did not,” Ismay grimaced ever so slightly. The captain Sir Rufus was referencing wasn't a distant figurehead to Ismay; he had a name- Edward James Smith, known as 'E.J.' to White Star Line management. Ismay had known E.J. for decades, and was still trying to comprehend the fact that his old friend had been consumed by the unforgiving sea.

  “However, the captain was in the restaurant dining, I think, with somebody else?”

  “Yes, I believe he was- in fact, I know he was.” Ismay shifted his weight on his feet for a bit, uncomfortable.

  “In any case, you say he was not dining with you that evening?”

  “No, I never spoke to him at all, I had nothing to do with him at all.” Ismay, out of the corner of his eye, saw dozens of pencils scribbling away furiously.

  Sir Rufus seemed to collect his thoughts for a moment before continuing. “You were a passenger on the vessel, but I suppose you travelled as a passenger because of your interest in the vessel and in the company which owned it?”

  “Of course I was interested in the ship.”

  “I mean, you had nothing to do once you were in New York- you travelled because you wanted to make the first passage on the Titanic?”

  “Partly, but I can always find something to do.” Ismay cringed slightly, wondering if he'd misheard the question.

  Sir Rufus clarified: “You mean to say, you were not travelling on the Titanic because you wanted to go to New York, but because you wanted to travel upon the maiden trip of the Titanic?”

  “Yes,” Ismay verified, grateful for the clarification.

  “Because in your capacity as managing director, you desired to see how the vessel behaved while at sea, I suppose?”

  “Naturally.”

  “That was the real object of your travelling on the Titanic?”

  “Yes, to observe the ship.”

  “What I want to put to you,” Sir Rufus intoned, seeming to build his questioning as a bit more forceful, “Is that you were not there as an ordinary passenger?”

  Ismay seemed to answer a bit too quickly. “So far as the navigation of the ship was concerned, yes.”

  As some of his colleagues on the Board of Trade stole suspicious glances at each other, Sir Rufus replied, “I will ask you some questions later on about all that. I am not suggesting you controlled the navigation, but what I suggest to you is that it would not be right to describe you as really travelling on that ship as an ordinary passenger, because of the interest you had in the Titanic, and because of your natural watchfulness as to the behaviour of the Titanic on her first voyage?”

  “I looked upon myself simply as an ordinary passenger.” Ismay cut his eyes from side to side for about for a moment, startled, as he thought he could make out exclamations of disbelief coming from the spectators.

  The Attorney General chose his words carefully. “You have told us in what capacity you were travelling across the Atlantic?”

  “Yes.”

  Lord Mersey suddenly broke in. “Did you pay your fare?”

  Ismay paused for a moment, embarrassed, feeling as though he'd just been reeled in. “No, I did not.”

  Sir Rufus quickly resumed, allowing Ismay to save face. “Now I think we understand what you mean when you say you were travelling as a passenger. Now on this day, on the 14th, did you get information from the captain of ice reports?”

  Ismay coughed vigorously before answering. “The captain handed me a Marconi message which he had received from the Baltic on that Sunday.”

  The Attorney General seemed startled. “He handed you the actual message as it was delivered to him from the Baltic?”

  “Yes, sir,” Ismay replied, confused and uncomfortable. How can the Attorney General not be aware of that ghastly awkward exchange I had with the Americans at their inquiry? he wondered.

  “Do you remember at what time it was?”

  “I- I think it was just before lunch.”

&nbs
p; “On the Sunday?”

  “Yes, on the Sunday.” Ismay replied, trying hard to sound truthful, but not frightened.

  The Attorney-General fell silent for a moment, shuffling through his notes, before turning to Lord Mersey. “Your Lordship remembers the copy of the message from the Baltic. I am going to hand you a little later a document which gives the messages in their proper order of dates, but this copied message is the one I am referring to now. I will read it.”

  Ismay's mind was reeling; the Board of Trade certainly had to have known of the whole telegram affair. He had been thoroughly humiliated at the American Inquiry, telling every detail of a story he knew sounded implausible and yet as far as he had known, it was the truth. His eyes blinked rapidly as the Attorney General continued.

  “It is sent at 11:52 a.m. to Captain Smith, Titanic: 'Have had moderate, variable winds and clear, fine weather since leaving. Greek steamer Athenai reports low on coal, also passing icebergs and large quantity of field ice today...' If your Lordship will take this list you will see how convenient it is,” Sir Rufus stated, as he offered up a copy to Lord Mersey. “We will have some more printed to hand up to the assessors.”

  The Attorney General then continued. “Now, if your Lordship would like to complete this whilst you have got it before you, you will find, if you turn to the bottom of the page, the answer: 'Time received 12:55 p.m., to the commander of the Baltic. Thanks for your message and good wishes. Had fine weather since leaving, Smith.'” Sir Rufus turned his attention back to Ismay. “Now what I want to understand from you is this- that message was handed to you by Captain Smith, you say?”

  “Yes.”

  “He handed it to you because you were the managing director of the company?”

  “I do not know, it... it was a matter of information.”

  “Information which he would not give to everybody, but which he gave to you,” Sir Rufus replied, his eyes narrowing. “There is not the least doubt about it, is there?”

  “No, I do not think so.” For the first time since the proceedings began- and he had been battling the urge to do so for several minutes- Ismay pulled out a handkerchief and patted it gently to his forehead.

  “He handed it to you, and you read it, I suppose?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did he say anything to you about it?”

  “Not a word.”

  Sir Rufus placed down the papers he had been shuffling throughout the testimony and addressed Ismay directly. “He merely handed it to you, and you put it in your pocket after you had read it?”

  “Yes, I glanced at it very casually,” Ismay stated, quickly clearing his throat. “I was on deck at the time.”

  “Had he handed any message to you before this one?”

  “No.”

  “So this was the first message he had handed to you on this voyage?”

  “Yes- I daresay the only message he handed to me while on Titanic, really.”

  “The only message,” Sir Rufus repeated, and became more animated in his questioning of Ismay. “And when he handed this message to you- when the captain of the ship came to you, the managing director, and put into your hands the Marconigram, it was for you to read?”

  “Yes, and I read it.”

  “Because it was likely to be of some importance, was it not?” Sir Rufus's tone became a tad incredulous.

  An ingratiating smile flashed on Ismay's face- an unfortunate nervous habit that surfaced under moments of duress. “I have crossed with Captain Smith before, and he has handed me messages which have been of no importance at all.” Once more, Ismay was confused by the apparent sound of a contemptuous laugh or two coming from the crowd in the Hall.

  “Surely he had other reports which he hadn't said anything about?”

  “Not a word.”

  “Therefore, he singled out this one, apparently, to give to you?”

  “Yes.” Ismay tucked away his handkerchief.

  “And, as I understand, you took it from him and read it?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you kept it for the time being?”

  “Yes, I realized later that I had put it in my pocket.”

  “Where was the message handed to you by Captain Smith?”

  “On deck.”

  “Were you alone?”

  “N-no, I was not.” Ismay's eyes darted about nervously. “At least... at least I believe there were others present, either before or after he handed it to me...”

  “Were there other passengers present?”

  Ismay seemed uncertain and evasive. “I'm... yes, yes, there were, I believe so... well... yes. My memory seems to have blurred. But certainly, I believe so, yes.”

  “Did you read the message to them?”

  Ismay was suddenly oddly firm in his response. “I did not. No, not really, no.”

  “But having read it, you put it in your pocket?”

  “Yes, I must have.”

  “Did you understand from that telegram that the ice which was reported was within your track?”

  “I did not.”

  Sir Rufus was learning that some of his questions for Ismay had to be very specific. “Well, it at least conveyed to you at any rate that you were approaching within the region of ice, did it not?”

  “Yes, certainly.”

  “At least we know this, Mr. Ismay- that certainly there was no slowing down of the vessel after that ice report was received?”

  More than one reporter glanced up from their notes and several counselors shifted in their chairs, aware that Sir Rufus had just interjected the possibility the Titanic had been headed at a reckless rate of speed into a region filled with dangerous ice.

  “Not that I know of.”

  Lord Mersey suddenly interjected. “I thought you said just now that you knew that this was the point at which you were approaching the region of ice?”

  “I knew we were approaching the region of ice, yes.”

  Sir Rufus quickly reclaimed his role as interrogator. “How did you know that, Mr. Ismay?”

  “By reading this Marconi message.”

  “Then you knew, did you not, that you would be in the region of ice some time on that Sunday night?”

  “I believe so, yes.”

  “You knew, I suppose, that you would have to alter your course, then?”

  “Yes. Yes, I knew that.”

  “And you would alter your course, I think, more to the northward?”

  “Yes.”

  Sir Rufus was now hastily taking down notes as the questioning continued. “And therefore you certainly knew that would bring you nearer to the region of ice which had been reported to you?”

  “I... I could not say exactly where the ice was. I do not understand latitude and longitude.”

  To Ismay's great dismay, he was greeted with a minor explosion of gasps and laughter from the spectators in the Hall. The head of the White Star Line, operator of some of the most famous steam ships in the world, was now claiming to have no knowledge of even the most basic and simple of navigational details?

  Sir Rufus was incredulous. “Do you mean that? You are giving evidence here in the Court. Would you reconsider that statement, that you do not know the meaning of latitude and longitude?”

  “I- I said the Marconi message did not convey any meaning to me as to the exact position of that ice,” Ismay stammered. “That- that is for the captain of the ship. I had- I had nothing to do with the navigation.” Ismay berated himself internally, knowing that he'd just come across as far more defensive than he had intended.

  “Yet you were the managing director, and he thought it of sufficient importance to give you the first Marconigram he had shown to you on this voyage, and then you put it in your pocket?”

  Ismay paused before replying, “Yes.”

  “And you, of course, appreciated that the report meant that you would be approaching ice that night?”

  “I expected so, yes.”

  Sir Rufus's voice began to rise in v
olume. “And, therefore, that it behooved those responsible for the navigation of the ship to be very careful?”

  “Of course...”

  “And that it would be prudent to perhaps double the lookouts?”

  Ismay's shoulders sank. “I cannot question the actions of the crew,” he offered, nervously.