by Walter Lord
The dedicated officers of the Titanic Historical Society rate a paragraph of their own: Charlie Haas, President; Ed Kamuda, Secretary; and Jack Eaton, the Society’s Historian. Even the lowliest stoker seems to have a welcome place in Mr. Eaton’s archives.
Other persons have been helpful on specific aspects of the story. Their specialized knowledge, together with the written material I’ve been able to gather, form the backbone of my own research. The late David Watson, for instance, provided a penciled journal that gives a vivid picture of Harland & Wolff at the time the Titanic was built. He clearly felt the ship’s plating was too thin. But for flaws in the Titanic’s design, I depended most of all on J. Bernard Walker’s An Unsinkable Titanic (Dodd, Mead, 1912). The actual building of the ship is covered in the “Special Number” of the magazine Shipbuilder, midsummer 1911 (reprint, Patrick Stephens, Ltd., 1983). The launching is described in the contemporary Belfast press and in “The Story of Harland & Wolff” by George Lavery and Alan Hedgley in the Fall 1980 issue of the Titanic Commutator, the lively quarterly of the Titanic Historical Society.
On Captain Smith’s qualifications, I’ve benefited greatly from long discussions with marine historian John Maxtone-Graham, especially with regard to the Olympic-Hawke collision and the Titanic’s near-collision with the liner New York. For details on the Olympic’s encounter with the tug O. L. Hallenbeck, I’m indebted to Thomas Thacher, who retrieved the court record from some long-buried file in Hoboken, New Jersey. The superficial nature of the Titanic’s trials is clear from testimony at the British Inquiry. Jack Eaton of the Titanic Historical Society has also provided helpful material on the trials.
For details on the Titanic’s maiden voyage up to the moment of collision, I’m grateful to various relatives and friends of survivors already mentioned. On the activities of “our coterie,” I have also depended on Mrs. Candee’s haunting account in the May 4, 1912, issue of Collier’s magazine. The gamblers on board formed a world of their own, and it’s fitting that they have an affectionate chronicler who has devoted himself to the subject. See George M. Behe’s two-part article, “Fate Deals a Hand,” in the Commutator, Fall and Winter, 1982.
There is no one left to interview on how the bridge handled the various wireless warnings of ice, but the testimony at the hearings gives a depressing picture of extreme casualness. Some mystery has surrounded the warning allegedly flashed by signal lamp from the steamer Rappahannock that last night. No one on the Titanic ever mentioned such an incident. The mystery is apparently cleared up by a story in the The New York Times on April 27, 1912. It all happened on the 13th, not the 14th of April.
On the actual collision and First Officer Murdoch’s last-second attempt to avoid it, I benefited greatly from a discussion with Fred M. Walker, Curator of Naval Architecture and Shipbuilding at the National Maritime Museum in England. On the damage suffered by the Titanic and the subsequent flooding of the vessel, I’m especially grateful to Alasdair McCrimmon of Toronto, Canada. I’m convinced that no member of the Titanic’s “black gang” knew his way around the bowels of the ship better than Mr. McCrimmon does today.
The shortage of lifeboats was an integral part of the tragedy. Recently it served as a basis for a major television documentary, Titanic—a Question of Murder, produced by Peter Williams. While I feel that the evidence does not support Mr. Williams’s conclusions, I have the highest admiration for his generosity in putting me in touch with his sources, letting me draw my own conclusions. He has set a perfect example of professional courtesy.
In this connection, a special word of thanks to Dr. Alan Scarth of the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool for the sharp reproduction of a plan uncovered by Mr. Williams proposing 16 additional life boats. Unfortunately, the plan is not dated, nor is there any clue as to how hard the idea was pushed.
In piecing together the story of the Frederick Goodwin family, I received generous assistance from the Reverend David Shacklock of Fulham, London. Additional information came from the contemporary press of Niagara Falls, New York. There’s some confusion over the exact names and ages of various members of me family. I’ve depended on the Board of Trade files at the Public Record Office in London.
The Titanic’s band continues to intrigue students of the disaster, and I’m especially grateful to the hymnologists who I feel have set me straight on at least one part of the story. They include Roland Hind, Jessica M. Kerr, Merrill Knapp, and David Shaddock. The most helpful information of all came from a series of letters I received from Fred G. Vallance in 1957. Mr. Vallance was leader of the band on the Cunarder Laconia at the time of the disaster. He knew several of the Titanic’s musicians personally and, more than anyone else, he knew what they were likely to play under the circumstances. Colonel Gracie’s remarks on how long the band played were contained in a lecture he gave at the University Club in Washington. Strangely, he left this information out of his well-known The Truth About the Titanic.
The troubles suffered by the bandsmen’s families after the disaster run through the magazine Musicians’ Report and Journal for much of 1912. I’m grateful to the Musicians’ Union for the use of their file of this magazine. Finally, I’m indebted to Patrick Stenson for tapping some memories regarding the agents who represented the ships’ musicians during this period.
On the Californian, I’ve benefited greatly from an interview and correspondence with the late Captain Charles Victor Groves, then Third Officer of that ship; from correspondence with Sir Ivan Thompson, former Commodore of the Cunard Line, who personally knew several of those involved; from interviews with Jac Weller, a recognized expert witness on ballistics; and from a long, interesting letter from A. Brian Mainwaring, who served as a navigating officer with the White Star Line during the 1920’s, and who also knew some of the individuals involved. I have also learned much from an engrossing manuscript written by Leslie Reade, who has devoted years to researching the Californian. If an unpublished book can be a tour de force, this is it.
The letter from Gerard J. G. Jensen to the President of the Board of Trade, which really opened up the Californian affair, can be found in the six boxes of Board of Trade material on the disaster at the Public Record Office in London (see MT 9/920, Item No. M12148). For Captain Lord’s letter conceding “a certain amount of slackness” on the ship, see same file, Item No. M31921.
But as valuable as all these sources are, the most important evidence of all is readily accessible to anybody: It is the testimony given at the British Inquiry by the five men on the Californian’s bridge that night.
The defenders of the Californian are entitled to their say, too. They have written bushels on the subject. A sampling of their work might include Peter Padfield’s The Titanic and the Californian (Hodder and Stoughton, 1965); John C. Carrother’s “Lord of the Californian,” United States Naval Institute Proceedings, March 1968; Leslie Harrison’s “The Californian Incident,” Merchant Navy Journal, March 1962; petitions to the Board of Trade filed by the Mercantile Marine Service Association in February 1965 and in March 1968; and finally, almost any article on the ship in the Titanic Commutator.
Not surprisingly, the legal joustings over the Titanic went on for years. I’m grateful to the present Lord Mersey for giving me the opportunity to spend a day at Bignor Park examining his great-grandfather’s Titanic file. For background on the U.S. Senate’s investigation, I depended mainly on Wyn Craig Wade’s fine book The Titanic: the End of a Dream (Rawson Wade, 1979). The claims of passengers were well covered by The New York Times throughout 1912-1913; and the legal decisions, as the case wound its way through the courts, are all summarized by the Supreme Court in Oceanic Steam Navigation Company v. Mellor, 233 US 718. The parallel British case is Ryan v. Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, 3 K.B. 731, affirmed by the Court of Appeals, February 9, 1914. For guiding me through the whole labyrinth of “limited liability,” I’m indebted to Eliot Lumbard, who is not only a member of the bar but a former third mate of the liner Oriente.
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Details on the later years of various Titanic survivors come from a variety of sources, including personal friendships. Bruce Ismay’s troubled life is described in numerous obituaries and in Wilton J. Oldham’s The Ismay Line (Journal of Commerce, 1961). The Ben Hecht poem originally appeared in the Chicago Daily Journal, April 17, 1912. Craganour’s disqualification is thoroughly explored in Sidney Galtrey’s Memoirs of a Racing Journalist (Hutchinson, 1934). The Carter divorce was fully aired in the Philadelphia press. William T. Sloper’s ordeal is covered in Sloper’s privately published biography of his father, reprinted in the Spring1984 issue of Ship to Shore, the magazine of the Oceanic Navigation Research Society.
The Duff Gordons are covered by a good roundup that appeared in the New York Sunday News, April 15, 1934. Details on confidence man George Brayton’s return to business-as-usual were provided by survivor Edith Russell, who was falsely accused of complicity. The White Star Line’s treatment of the Titanic’s surviving officers is touched on in Geoffrey Marcus’s Maiden Voyage, paperback edition (Woodhill Press, 1977); and Commander Lightoller’s heroism at Dunkirk is described in Patrick Stenson’s The Odyssey of C. H. Lightoller (Norton, 1984). The letter quoted was made available through the courtesy of Sharon Rutman and Sylvia Sue Steell.
The discovery of the Titanic was one of the major news stories of 1985. I’m grateful to Cathy Offinger (then Scheer), who was a navigator on the expedition, for clarifying many points that have puzzled me. I have also benefited from informal conversations with Bob Ballard, who led the expedition. For written accounts of the discovery, I’ve depended mainly on National Geographic, December 1985; Oceanus magazine, Winter 1985; and the Titanic Commutator, Fall 1985. The Knorr’s brief side trip to photograph the submarine Scorpion is related in the September 23, 1985, issue of the Navy Times.
For information on Ballard’s expedition in 1986, I have depended mainly on subsequent articles in National Geographic, Oceanus, and Titanic Commutator. I am also grateful to Charles Pellegrino for unpublished interviews dealing with this expedition.
Throughout my research, the librarians, as always, stood ready to help. A special bow to the Earl W. Brydges Public Library of Niagara Falls, New York; the New York Society Library; the Newberry Library of Chicago; the Southhampton Public Libraries; and the Temple University Library.
In studying the Titanic, there’s so much to explore that it sometimes seems there is no time left to write about it. Happily, I’ve had help from a small band of faithful researchers, including Preston Brooks, Evelyn Guss, Tom Longstreth, and (in London) Caroline Larken. Other helpful people pitched in on spot assignments: Elizabeth Hawn, Bob Meech, Steve Randolph, and Evan Thomas III come especially to mind.
Still others have added their professional expertise. Paul Pugliese provided the excellent map and chart. Colin Dawkins helped pull together the illustration section. Dr. Gerry Tidy photographed Mrs. Candee’s miniature of her mother. I’m grateful to them all.
Finally, special thanks go to two pillars of strength who have been with the project from the start: my editor, Howard Cady, and the ever-patient Dorothy Hefferline, who prepared the manuscript and handled all correspondence. Unlike the Titanic, they really are unsinkable.
All the people mentioned in these Acknowledgments get much of the credit for any new light this book may throw on the Titanic; while the mistakes and shortcomings are all mine. As I pointed out 31 years ago in A Night to Remember, it is a rash man indeed who would set himself up as final arbiter on everything that happened the incredible night the Titanic went down.
Index
A | B | C | D | E
F | G | H | I | J
K | L | M | N | O
P | R | S | T
U | V | W | Y
Abelseth, Olaus, 87
À la Carte Restaurant, 43, 44, 107
“Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” 109
Allison, Lorraine, 83
Alvin, 205
Amalgamated Musicians Union, 115
Amerika, 48, 50, 51, 52, 73
Andrews, Thomas, 69
Angus, 204-05
Argo, 201-05, 209
Arizona, 55, 71
Aspinall, Butler, 155
Astor, John Jacob, 6, 35
Mrs. Astor, 35, 131, 190 family, 172
“Autumn” (hymn), 110-13
Ballard, Dr. Robert D., 200-10
Baltic, 28, 48, 50, 52, 175
Band, ship’s
during sinking, 106-14
employment arrangements, 114-18
selections played by, 106-07, 109-13 see also Hartley
Barkworth, A. H., 108
Barrett, Leading Fireman Fred, 63
Barriers by class, 84, 86-88
Beane, Ethel, 4
Beckwith, Mr. and Mrs. Richard, 90-91
Beesley, Lawrence, 89, 93, 119-20
Behr, Karl H., 91, 190 Bisset, James, Second Officer of Carpathia, 129
Black, C W. and F. N., 114-15, 116-17
Board of Trade, 72-73, 76-79, 148, 149, 155, 165, 171
Boiler Room No. 4, 65, 66
Boiler Room No. 5, 64, 65, 69
Boiler Room No. 6, 63, 65, 69
Boxhall, Fourth Officer Joseph G., 48, 49, 51, 53, 60, 67, 68, 69, 130, 164, 192
Bradley, George (“Boy”), see Brayton
Brailey, Theodore, 113
Brayton, George A., 38, 45, 190-91
Bride, Second Wireless Operator Harold S, 8, 50, 51-52, 57, 108, 111-13, 122, 132
Bridge, ship’s
conversation between Lightoller and Captain Smith, 54, 59
scene immediately after collision, 59, 66-69
Bright, Quartermaster A. J., 120
British Inquiry, 47, 62, 66, 70, 78-79, 81-83, 123, 141, 143, 148, 153, 155-56, 158, 165-72, 180
Brooke, George, 183-84
Brown, Steward Edward, 103, 108
Brunei, Isambard Kingdom, 21
Buckley, Daniel, 87
Burlingham, Charles C, 172-77
Butt, Archie, 6, 7, 35, 44, 132
Café Parisien, 24, 44, 107, 113, 116; see also Luxuries of Titanic
Californian, Leyland Liner
warnings by, 49, 50, 51, 52,
stopped by ice, 58, 136, 156
watching strange ship, 136-40, 148-49, 153, 157
watching rockets, 138-39, 141-42, 145, 149, 169
awakening wireless operator, 143, 146, 149
trip to disaster scene, 135, 143-44, 159
searching the area, 131, 144
arrival at Boston, 134-35
dealings with the press, 134-35, 145, 146-48, 158-59
charges by McGregor, 146, 148, 158-59
affidavit by Gill, 147
statements by captain, 135, 147
findings of Senate investigation, 148, 169-70
findings of British Inquiry, 148-49, 169
defenders of, 149-56
Candee, Mrs. Helen Churchill, 40-45, 91-92, 189-90
Cardeza, Mrs. Charlotte Drake Martinez, 7
Cargo, value of, 211
Carlisle, The Right Honourable Alexander M., 76-79, 166
Carlson, Frank, 36
Caronia, 48, 49, 52, 55
Carpathia, Cunard Liner
arrival in New York, 132-33, 162
picking up survivors, 130-31
rescue preparations, 126-28
trip to rescue, 128-29, 142
wireless contact with, 131-32, 161
Carter, William E., 7, 183-84
Mrs. Carter, 183-84
Case, Howard, 45
Cassebeer, Mrs. Henry B., 36, 43
Casualties, analyzed, 81-83, 88, 99, 106; see also class discrimination
Cedric, 162
Celtic, 28, 192
Chalmers, Sir Alfred, 167-68
Cherry, Miss Gladys, 123 Chester, 161
Clarke, Captain Maurice Henry, 167
Class discrimination while lowering boats, 6-7, 81-83, 87-88, 89, 169, 170; see also Casualties
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Coal strike, effect on Titanic, 72, 84
Collapsibles, see Lifeboats
Colley, E. P., 41, 45, 189
Controversial behavior inabandoning ship,
see Carter, Duff Gordon, Ismay, Sloper
Cottam, Harold, Wireless Operator of Carpathia, 126, 131-32
Craganour (horse), 182-83
Crew discipline, 80, 106-09, 116, 118, 192
after disaster, 192-93
Crow’s nest, 59-60
Daly, Eugene, 101-02, 103, 105
Daly, Peter, 109
Damage caused by collision, 62-66, 69-70
Damages, claims filed, 116-17, 172-77
Daniel, Robert, 190 Dick, Mrs. A. A., 109
Dillon, Trimmer Patrick Thomas, 68, 122
Disorder while lowering boats, 97, 99-105
Distress signals, see Flares, Rockets, Wireless
Duff Gordon, Sir Cosmo, 36, 94-95, 123, 168-69, 185-86
Lady Duff Gordon, 36, 94-95, 168-69, 185-87
Duke of Argyll, 12
“Each man for himself,” 102-03
Englehardt collapsibles, see Lifeboats, specific
Evans, Cyril, Wireless Operator of Californian, 135, 137, 143, 145, 147-48, 149
Evans, Seaman E O., 121
Farrell, Jim, 87
Final plunge, Titanic’s, 62, 119-22
Firearms, use of by crew, 99-105
Flares, seen by Carpathia, 129, 130
Fleet, Lookout Frederick, 59, 60, 70
Francatelli, Miss L. M., 94-95, 168
Frankfurt, 143 Franklin, Philip A. S., 19
Futrelle, Jacques, 35
Gale, Captain, of the Vulcan, 27
Gamblers, see Bradley, Homer, Romaine, Yates Gibson, Dorothy, 184
Gibson, James, Apprentice of Californian, 138-41, 145, 149, 151, 152-57
Gill, Ernest, Assistant Donkeyman of Californian, 145, 147, 148
Gilnagh, Kathy, 87
Goodwin, Frederick, 83-84, 85, 86, 97-98, 212