Voices from the Titanic

by Geoff Tibballs

  Carlisle, Alexander – General manager of shipbuilders Harland & Wolff and the leader of the team that designed the Titanic. He retired in 1910.

  Carter, Billy – A prominent Philadelphian, aged thirty-six, who travelled with his wife Lucile and children Lucile and William. Their entourage also numbered Mrs Carter’s maid, Mr Carter’s manservant and his personal chauffeur for his luggage included two dogs and a brand new Renault car. The Carter family survived; the car didn’t. He later claimed $5,000 for the loss of the car and $300 for the loss of the dogs. He reached the Carpathia before the rest of his family and did not recognize son William, who was hidden under a lady’s hat, said to have been placed on his head by his mother in response to an order that no more boys were to be allowed in the lifeboat. Billy Carter died in 1940.

  Cavendish, Mrs Julia – Born in Chicago, although she lived much of her life in Staffordshire, England. She was twenty-five when she boarded the Titanic with husband Tyrell and her maid Nellie Barber. She and the maid were rescued but Mr Cavendish perished when the ship went down. Mrs Cavendish died in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, in 1963.

  Cherbourg – Town in northern France, the first port of call for the Titanic on her transatlantic journey. Having left Southampton an hour late, she arrived at Cherbourg at 6.35 p.m., local time. Twenty-two passengers got off and 274 got on, among them Benjamin Guggenheim, the Duff Gordons and ‘Molly’ Brown.

  Cherry, Miss Gladys – The thirty-year-old cousin of the Countess of Rothes with whom she shared first-class cabin B77 aboard the Titanic. After the disaster she married George Pringle and died at Godalming, Surrey, in 1965.

  Chevré, Paul – Born in Brussels to French parents in 1867 (his father ran a foundry), Paul Chevré made his name as a sculptor, staging his first exhibition in Paris in 1890. His best-known work is the sculpture of Samuel de Champlain, Canada’s founder, which stands in Quebec City. Commissioned by Charles Hays to do a bust of Canadian Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier for the lobby of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway’s Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa, Chevré joined Hays on the Titanic to return to Canada for the hotel’s official opening on 26 April 1912. He boarded at Cherbourg and on the evening of the disaster was playing cards in the Café Parisien with Pierre Maréchal, Alfred Omont and Lucien Smith. Chevré survived the night but died in Paris two years later.

  Cottam, Harold Thomas – Twenty-one-year-old Nottinghamshire-born wireless operator on the Carpathia (for which he was paid £4. 10s. a month plus board) and the man who took the first call for assistance from the Titanic. Cottam went on to serve on many other ships and renewed his friendship with Titanic operator Harold Bride. He died in 1984.

  Crosby, Mrs Catherine – A resident of Milwaukee, she travelled on the Titanic with her husband, Captain Edward Gifford Crosby, and their daughter Harriette. Their son Fred stayed behind in the US. Captain Crosby was drowned but Catherine and Harriette were rescued. Catherine Crosby died in 1920, aged seventy-one.

  Daly, Eugene – Twenty-nine-year-old steerage passenger from Athlone in Ireland who was emigrating to the US. He played ‘Erin’s Lament’ on his bagpipes as the Titanic left Queenstown and later filed a claim for $50 to cover their loss in the sinking. He settled in New York where he died in 1965.

  Daniel, Robert W. – Philadelphia banker who leapt from the sinking ship wearing only a bathrobe and lived to tell a colourful tale. Aboard the rescue ship Carpathia he met Mary Eloise Smith whose husband Lucien had gone down with the Titanic. Daniel and the newly widowed Mrs Smith struck up a romance and married within two years.

  Dodge, Dr Washington – Assessor for the port of San Francisco and a first-class passenger on the Titanic. He, his wife and four-year-old son – Washington Jnr – all survived. But in 1919 Dr Dodge suffered a mental breakdown and shot himself.

  Douglas, Mrs Mahala – American first-class passenger who travelled with husband Walter and her French maid Berthe Le Roy. She and the maid were rescued, but Mr Douglas was not among the survivors. She later went to live in California and died in 1945 at the age of eighty. She is buried in Cedar Rapids, Ohio.

  Drew, Marshall – The son of a Cornish marble sculptor who emigrated to the United States, Marshall was born in Suffolk County, New York. His mother died two weeks after he was born and his aunt and uncle became the boy’s adoptive parents. The three sailed on the Olympic to England to visit his father and uncle’s family, returning to America on the Titanic, by which time Marshall was eight years of age. Surviving the ordeal, he married in 1930 and went on to teach fine arts at a New York high school. He died in 1986 and is buried in Rhode Island where the inscription on his headstone reads: ‘Teacher, Artist, Friend – Survivor of the Titanic Disaster 15 April 1912’.

  Duff Gordon, Sir Cosmo – Eton-educated husband of international dress designer Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon, with whom he travelled on the Titanic under the names of Mr and Mrs Morgan. A noted fencer who represented Britain at the 1908 Olympics, allegations about his lack of bravery on the night haunted him right up until his death in 1931 at the age of sixty-eight.

  Duff Gordon, Lady Lucy – The daughter of a Toronto engineer, at eighteen she married James Wallace by whom she had a child. They were divorced in 1888, after which she found herself in dire financial straits. To support herself and her child, she set up a dressmaking business and rented a shop in London’s West End – ‘Maison Lucile’. The shop became so successful that in 1897 she moved to larger premises in Hanover Square. Within three years her enterprise had turned it into one of the leading London fashion houses and branches were subsequently opened in New York and Paris. Work commitments meant that she and Sir Cosmo tended to lead separate lives but they were reunited on the Titanic for an urgent business trip to New York which required her to take the first available crossing. Her business hit hard times in the early 1930s and she died in 1935.

  Evans, Cyril Furmstone – Wireless operator on the Californian.

  Fleet, Frederick – Twenty-four-year-old lookout on the Titanic, the man who sent the chilling message: ‘Iceberg right ahead.’ He remained at sea until the 1930s before landing a job as a shipbuilder with Harland & Wolff, the firm that built the Titanic. He later found work as a nightwatchman and then sold newspapers on street corners in his native Southampton. In 1965, devastated by the death of his wife, he hanged himself.

  Franklin, Philip A. S. – Forty-one-year-old American vice-president of International Mercantile Marine, the parent company of the White Star Line.

  Frauenthal, Dr Henry – The son of German immigrants, Frauenthal was born in Pennsylvania. He qualified as a doctor in 1890 and in 1905 set up the Hospital for Joint Diseases in Madison Avenue, New York. On 26 March 1912 he married Clara Heinsheimer in Nice and two weeks later the newlyweds boarded the Titanic at Southampton for their return journey to the US. At Cherbourg they were joined by his brother Isaac. All three survived, but Henry’s mental health began to suffer and in 1927, aged sixty-four, he committed suicide by jumping from the seventh floor of the hospital he had founded. In his will he requested that his ashes be scattered from the roof of the same hospital building on its fiftieth birthday. This ceremony was duly performed in 1955.

  Frauenthal, Isaac – Had travelled to Europe for his brother’s wedding. Sailing home on the Titanic, he revealed a dream he had experienced shortly before boarding the liner. ‘It seemed to me that I was on a big steamship that suddenly crashed into something and began to go down. I saw in the dream as vividly as I could see with open eyes the gradual settling of the ship, and I heard the cries and shouts of frightened passengers.’ So when he got out of bed on the night of 14 April and discovered that the Titanic had hit an iceberg, he was aware of the impending danger. While his brother insisted that the ship was too big to sink, Isaac masterminded their escape. Isaac, a lawyer, never married and died in Manhattan in 1932.

  Frolicher-Stehli, Max – In 1885 he married Margaretha, the daughter of his boss at the Swiss silk factory where he worked as managing clerk. Tog
ether they had five children and in 1912, sixty-one-year-old Frolicher-Stehli, accompanied by his wife and daughter Hedwig, sailed on the Titanic to visit old friends in the United States and Canada. All three were rescued but he died the following year of heart failure.

  Futrelle, Jacques – Born in Pike County, Georgia, to a family of French descent, Futrelle, thirty-seven, was a successful mystery writer when he went down with the Titanic. His last novel, My Lady’s Garter, was published posthumously. Beneath his photo in the book, his wife May wrote: ‘To the heroes of the Titanic, I dedicate this my husband’s book.’

  Futrelle, Mrs May – Wife of Jacques. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, she was thirty-five at the time of the sinking. Her son, Jacques Jnr, later became night news editor of the Washington Post. May Futrelle died in Massachusetts at the age of ninety-one.

  Gibson, Dorothy – twenty-two-year-old model and silent movie star from New York who, in March 1912, sailed with her mother for a holiday in Italy after completing the film The Easter Bonnet. But their stay was cut short when the film company wired for her to return to the US. They came home on the Titanic and, after escaping in lifeboat No. 7, Dorothy co-wrote and starred in the first Titanic movie, Saved From the Titanic. This was released on 14 May 1912 – just one month after the disaster – and was heavily criticized for its insensitivity at a time when so many were still coming to terms with their grief. She gave up her acting career shortly afterwards and, following a brief flirtation with marriage, she moved to Europe, dying in Paris in 1946.

  Gracie, Colonel Archibald – US historian, the author of an acclaimed book on the American Civil War. He travelled back to his Washington home on the Titanic having been in England conducting research into the war of 1812. The thrilling story of his escape was one of the first survivors’ tales to appear in book form but Gracie did not live to reap the profits, dying barely six months after the disaster from the aftereffects of his ordeal.

  Guggenheim, Benjamin – Forty-seven-year-old American mining baron who travelled first-class while his chauffeur, René Pernot, sailed second-class. With the ship doomed, Guggenheim and his valet, Victor Giglio, appeared on deck in full evening dress with Guggenheim declaring: ‘We’ve dressed up in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen.’ They did.

  Harder, George – Chairman of a foundry, the twenty-six-year-old New Yorker sailed first-class on the Titanic with his new bride Dorothy. Both survived. Dorothy died from kidney trouble in 1926 and George remarried – his second wife Elizabeth being fifteen years his junior. He died in 1959.

  Harland & Wolff– Belfast shipbuilding firm which built the Titanic. Founded in 1862 by Yorkshire engineer Edward Harland and German engineer Gustav Wolff, the Queen’s Island yard quickly became a major player in international shipbuilding. In 1864 the gross tonnage of ships built at the yard was 30,000; by 1884 the figure had risen to 104,000.

  Harris, Henry B. – St Louis-born Broadway producer who managed such stars of the day as Lily Langtry. After travelling to London to arrange a play for another actress client, Rose Stahl, Harris and his wife René planned to return to New York on the Titanic. He never made it, helping his wife into the last lifeboat before going down with the ship. He was forty-five.

  Harris, Mrs René – Thirty-five-year-old wife of Henry B. Harris (they married in 1898), she struggled to carry on his crumbling theatrical business after his death. She re-married on three occasions and died in 1969.

  Hart, Eva – Seven-year-old British girl who was travelling second-class to Winnipeg with her parents. The Harts had been due to sail on another ship – the Philadelphia – but were forced to switch to the Titanic as the result of a coal strike in Britain. Eva’s mother, Esther, had grave misgivings about the new liner and declared: ‘It will never get to the other side of the Atlantic.’ Even as they boarded the ship at Southampton, she begged her husband to turn back, but he refused. Reluctantly she joined him and little Eva but, convinced that disaster would strike the ship at night, opted to sleep during the day and remain awake during the hours of darkness. It was her vigilance which saved her and Eva’s lives. Mr Hart was less fortunate. Eva Hart went on to become one of the last British survivors, dying in 1996.

  Hartley, Wallace – Thirty-three-year-old violinist and leader of the eight-man band on the Titanic. The band famously played on until the bitter end, although argument still rages as to the identity of their final tune. Hartley’s funeral in his home town of Colne, Lancashire, was almost a state occasion with thousands of people turning out to pay their last respects.

  Hays, Charles M. – Illinois-born president of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad, the Canadian company which had recently built a bridge over the Niagara River at Niagara Falls. Keen on expanding into hotels, he travelled to London in April 1912 for a board meeting. Returning on the Titanic, he was relaxing in the first-class lounge with Colonel Archibald Gracie and Captain Edward Crosby on the fateful evening. An hour before the ship struck the iceberg he had expressed the view that ‘the trend to playing fast and loose with larger and larger ships will end in tragedy’. Nevertheless he did not think the liner would sink so quickly and as he put his wife Clara and daughter Margaret into a lifeboat, he assured them that the Titanic would stay afloat for ‘at least ten hours’. He gallantly went down with the ship, aged fifty-five. The town of Hays in Alberta is named after him.

  Hichens, Robert – Thirty-year-old Cornish quartermaster who was at the wheel of the Titanic when she struck the iceberg and whose surly behaviour in boat No. 6 infuriated Arthur Peuchen and ‘Molly’ Brown. In 1914 he moved to South Africa to work as a harbour-master. On returning to the UK, he was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in 1933 for the attempted murder of a man in Torquay. He was killed in 1941 during a German air-raid on the south coast.

  Hippach, Miss Gertrude – Born in Chicago, sixteen-year-old Gertrude Hippach had been touring Europe with her mother Ida. They boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg and occupied a first-class cabin. In the years following the disaster, she married and had three children. The union ended in divorce and she settled in Massachusetts before her death in 1974.

  International Mercantile Marine (IMM) – Parent company of the White Star Line. Its proprietor was American financier John Pierpont Morgan.

  Ismay, Joseph Bruce – Forty-nine-year-old chairman and managing director of the White Star Line and president of International Mercantile Marine Company. Ismay occupied luxury suite B52 – the best on the ship – after the Titanic’s owner, J. Pierpont Morgan, mysteriously withdrew from the trip at the last minute. Ismay’s opportunist escape from the sinking ship – sneaking into a lifeboat as it was being lowered – coupled with allegations that he had demanded a transatlantic speed record from the Titanic and had deliberately withheld ice warnings from Captain Smith, made him the ideal scapegoat for the American press who labelled him ‘J Brute Ismay’. Although exonerated by the British Court of Inquiry, he was left a broken man. He retired as chairman of the White Star Line in 1913, later sold his country home near Liverpool and retreated to County Galway in Ireland. He died from a stroke in 1937.

  Lightoller, Charles Herbert – Second Officer on the Titanic and the senior surviving officer. At thirty-eight, Lightoller already boasted twenty-five years’ experience at sea and his no-nonsense approach, particularly his strict adherence to ‘women and children first’, was a feature of the evacuation. He retired in the early 1920s to run a chicken farm. Then in 1940 his yacht Sundowner formed part of the fleet of ‘little ships’ at Dunkirk, where he single-handedly rescued 131 British soldiers. It is claimed that one soldier, hearing that he had been rescued by an officer who had served on the Titanic, immediately threatened to jump overboard because he thought it would be safer! Lightoller died in 1952, aged seventy-eight.

  Lord, Stanley – Thirty-five-year-old captain of the Californian, born in Bolton, Lancashire. The US Senate Investigation into the disaster was severely critical of Lord’s failure to respond and said that he had inc
urred ‘a grave responsibility’. The British inquiry also concluded that the Californian could have saved the lives of most of those on board the Titanic. Lord was forced to resign from the Leyland Line in August 1912 but served with another London shipping company until his retirement in 1927. The 1958 film A Night to Remember, starring Kenneth More, stirred up the controversy again and Lord sought to clear his name. Before being able to do so, he died in 1962.

  Lowe, Harold – Twenty-eight-year-old Welshman, the Fifth Officer on the Titanic. He admitted firing his gun to deter steerage passengers from storming the lifeboats and was forced to apologize to the Italian ambassador in the US for using ‘Italian’ as a synonym for ‘coward’. Despite the fact that his coolness in marshalling lifeboats into a flotilla had saved many lives on the night and that his was the only lifeboat to return for survivors, he was overlooked for promotion by White Star and his career drifted into decline. After serving in the Royal Navy during the First World War, he retired to Wales.

  Maioni, Roberta – Born in Norfolk, England, twenty-year-old Cissy – as she was known to her friends – served as maid to the Countess of Rothes. Apparently Cissy struck up a romance with a young Titanic steward who gave her a White Star badge from his uniform as a token of his affection. After her rescue she always kept it with her although she never revealed the steward’s identity. She subsequently married Yorkshire author Cunliffe Bolling but in later years was stricken with severe arthritis which she attributed to prolonged exposure to freezing temperatures in the lifeboat. She died in 1963 and her beloved badge was auctioned in 1999.

  Marvin, Daniel Warner – Son of Henry Marvin, the founder of Biograph, one of the earliest motion picture production companies. Legendary film-maker D. W. Griffith perfected his technique at Biograph with Henry Marvin. In 1912, Daniel, aged nineteen, married Mary Farquarson. Their ceremony was restaged for filming and was thus reported as the world’s first wedding to be ‘cinematographed’. They honeymooned in Europe and were returning to their native New York on the Titanic when disaster struck. Mary survived, but her young husband went down with the ship.