by Steve Turner
Although I didn’t mention Hartley’s name, for fear of leaking the story, he was skeptical that a wooden musical instrument could have survived the sinking. Any contact with water and the glue would have dissolved, leaving the violin to fall into its constituent parts. He mentioned the well-attested case of the “Red Diamond” Stradivarius, which was swept into the Pacific Ocean on the California coast in the 1950s and was painstakingly reconstructed by master craftsman Hans Weischar.
Paul Parsons, who had restored Arthur Lancaster’s tribute model, also didn’t believe a violin could last in such inclement conditions. First, there was water, then salt, then movement, and finally freezing temperatures. Hartley’s body floated for ten days and we know that by the time the Mackay-Bennett arrived, there was rain, dense fog, and a heavy swell. “It would have disintegrated,” Paul Parsons told me. “The glues that are used on an instrument are water soluble. Even in very cold temperatures the glue would eventually turn to gel within a very short space of time.”
Yet reports by the rescue team suggest that because of the way the life jackets were made, the upper portions of the bodies were kept well above the waterline. I was surprised to discover that Fred Clarke’s business card, which had been with his body in the water for eight days, had only a small watermark on the lower edge. Similarly, the letter that Wallace Hartley had from his friend Bill looked remarkably undamaged and, significantly, the ink hadn’t even run. It appeared to have had less contact with water than a letter accidentally dropped in a bathtub.
The violin’s possible price of £30 to £40 at first appears expensive for an engagement present around 1910, bearing in mind that it represented up to ten months’ pay for a ship’s musician and that Maria Robinson had no job. How could she have afforded such a gift? The clue may be in her father’s death in 1909, close to the time of the engagement. He unexpectedly fell into a diabetic coma and died three days later at the age of only fifty-one. Although he left no will, his work as a cloth manufacturer would have left him wealthy and his money would have been passed to his four children. In the 1911 census both Margaret and Maria were listed as being women of “private means.”
If Maria did get the violin back, what would have happened to it subsequently? There was no mention of it in her will when she died unmarried in 1939, so she may already have passed it on, possibly to her sister Margaret who was also unmarried. From there it could have gone either to Mary, the youngest sister, who married John Wood in 1910 and had a son, also John, in 1911, or to her brother William, who married Florence Noble in 1908 and had Helen in 1913 and Margaret in 1915. John Wood, Mary Robinson’s son, married Pauline Longstaffe in 1957, but they don’t appear to have had children, so the most likely inheritor would be a son of William’s daughters.
It could be that for years the violin was considered to be of sentimental rather than commercial value. It has been only in the last two decades or so that prices for Titanic memorabilia have rocketed. The record for a single item so far is £101,000 and for a collection of pieces £235,000. The owner of this instrument must have thought they would be better off with a cash reward than an old violin in a leather case languishing in a cellar or attic.
The primary question must be—even if it is shown to be the right age and to have had contact with seawater—how can it be definitively proved to have been the violin that Hartley played on the deck of the Titanic? There are no photos of him on that trip that can be blown up for detail.
The most compelling evidence is the diary with the draft letter. This suggests a feasible story of a violin rescued from the Titanic being returned to Maria Robinson. Other names on the same page can be verified as people who were alive at the time and living in the Leeds area: Arthur Roberts, of 10 Eldon Street, was a twenty-three-year-old shop assistant; “St Johns Adel” was a reference to St. John’s Church in Adel, a district of Leeds. The note “letter from Mary” most likely refers to Mary Hartley. Unfortunately, there are no letters between Maria and Frederick Mathers in the Nova Scotia Archives to corroborate the diary draft.
If the violin turns out to be Hartley’s Titanic instrument, it will be a huge media event and, one hundred years after their deaths, will bring the band back into the limelight. People will again be asking the question first asked in 1912: “Who were these musicians?” Those close to this unfolding story hope that the tests will be completed in time for it to go on a world tour before being auctioned in 2012. If it is proved to be what the vendor believes it is, it will be the most expensive Titanic artifact ever auctioned.
In June 2010 British composer David Bedford premiered The Wreck of the Titanic, a large-scale work for orchestra and choir, at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. Commissioned by the Lancashire Sinfonietta and three music services in Cheshire and Lancashire, it featured the band playing the tunes of the era along with new music based on such influences as the rhythms of hammers beating in a shipyard and the tapping of the Morse code. The leader of the Liverpool Youth Orchestra played with Arthur Lancaster’s tribute violin.
No one associated with this violin appears to have been aware of the fact that Arthur Lancaster’s son was Seth Lancaster, the twenty-year-old cellist who was offered a job on the Titanic back in December 1911. It was only during the first week of April 1912 that he learned the Black brothers had moved him to the Mauretania to take the place of Roger Bricoux. He had fully expected to be playing alongside Wallace Hartley on the Titanic. When the Titanic sank, he was three days behind it on the Mauretania, which had left Liverpool on April 13, and he arrived in New York on April 19, the day after the Carpathia arrived.
When Arthur set about making his tribute violin, he was no doubt not only grieving for his friend Wallace Hartley but keenly aware that but for the late switch he could also have been mourning the death of his own son. When news of the sinking was first received in Colne, anxious friends deluged the Lancaster home at 5 Smith Street to find out what had become of Seth.
A measure of Hartley’s stature among his contemporaries and of the affection that Arthur Lancaster had for him only came to light in 2010 when Paul Parsons began restoring the violin. After carefully removing the back, he noticed there was writing on the inside at the upper top that wouldn’t have been seen for almost one hundred years. It was in such a position that it could only have been put there as it was being made. Part of this was Lancaster’s name, address, and the date of the work—June 29, 1912. The rest of it was a moving tribute to the man who by word and example had led the Titanic’s band to play on.
In memory of my friend Mr Wallace Hartley, the heroic leader of the ill-fated Titanic. Life is dear to those we love. Hoping that this violin will be as pure in tone as my friend was pure in heart.
Message by Arthur Lancaster of Colne inside the tribute violin.
SOURCES
I used the following libraries and archives: Birkenhead Central Library; Brooklyn Public Library; Compton Estate Office, Eastbourne; Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth House; Colne Library; British Library; British Newspaper Library; Bristol Record Office; Magdalen College, Oxford; College of Psychic Studies, London; Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester; American Federation of Musicians; Companies House, London; Conservatoire Royal de Liege; Chicago History Museum; Sotheby’s of London; East Riding of Yorkshire Library Service (Bridlington Local Studies Library); East Sussex Library, Eastbourne; General Register Office for Scotland; the National Archives of Scotland; Dumfries Archive Centre; Dumfries Public Library; Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University; Liverpool Philharmonic; the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada; Performing Rights Society, London; Gloucester Cathedral; McMaster University Library, Hamilton, Ontario; London Metropolitan Archives; Lambeth Archives; University of Stirling, Scotland; Maritime History Archive, Memorial University of Newfoundland; Lancashire Sinfonietta; National Library of Jamaica; Merseyside Maritime Museum; Francis Hurd Stadler Titanic Collection, Missouri Historical Society Archives, St. Louis; Special Co
llections, Mitchell Library, Glasgow; National Art Library, Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Nova Scotia Archives & Record Management; Special Collections, Royal Academy of Music, London; Royal College of Music, London; Ritz Hotel, London; Prudential Insurance, Stirling, Scotland; Halle Orchestra, Manchester; Royal Society of Musicians, London; Southport Library; Lancashire Fusiliers Museum; Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall, Twickenham; UK Documents; National Maritime Museum, Greenwich; Royal Bank of Scotland; the Grand Hotel, Eastbourne; Government Register Office (UK); National Archives, Kew, Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Holywood, Northern Ireland.
The following people helped me with information about their relatives connected with the Titanic’s band; Shirley Brailey, Priscilla Clarke, Lesley Chapman, Beata Dustow, Grace Dalton, Alistair Crawford, Mary Gambell, Alex Glass, Liz Hiddleston, Yvonne Hume, Judith Jeremy, Dorothy Kiely, Ros Meeson, Margaret Mills, Graham Osborn, Jeanette Osborn, Anne Osborn, Jack Osborne, Annette Percival, David Powner, Christopher Price, Annette Robson, Doug Semple, Bobbie Seymour, Katherine Shone, Jeremy Steinhilber, Sue Steinhilber, Helen Turner, Peter Vannozzi, Christopher Ward, Bill Winton, Beverley Wolstenholme, Jeanette Woodward, Lilli Woodward.
I also had help from writers and researchers with expertise on the musicians. Olivier Mendez was generous in sharing his passion for Roger Bricoux. Yvonne Carroll answered my repeated questions about Wallace Hartley. Both Jean-Marc Haugustaine and Philippe Delaunoy sent me valuable material about the life of the fellow countryman Georges Krins, Robert McDougall gladly shared information and photographs relating to Wallace Hartley, and Christian Tennyson-Ekeberg, although writing his own book, kept me in touch with developments. Sally Wood translated some letters from French to English, Kelley McRae researched the Brooklyn Eagle (in Brooklyn) and Diane Eliopoulos Montgomery told me that Roger Bricoux was quoting from Balzac.
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ballard, Robert. Titanic: The Last Great Images. Toronto: Madison Publishing, 2008.
Ballard, Robert. Robert Ballard’s Titanic. Toronto: Madison Publishing, 1987.
Barratt, Nick. Lost Voices from the Titanic. London: Preface Publishing, 2009.
Bryceson, Dave. The Titanic Disaster: As Reported in the British National Press. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997.
Gibbs, Philip. The Deathless Story of the Titanic. London: Lloyd’s of London Press Ltd., 1912.
Haas, Charles A. and John P. Eaton, Titanic Triumph and Tragedy. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd., 1986.
Hansen, Erik Fosnes. Psalm at Journey’s End. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1996.
Hyslop, Douglas (with Alastair Forsyth and Sheila Jemima). Titanic Voices: Memories from the Fateful Voyage. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999.
Lord, Walter. A Night to Remember. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1958.
Lord, Walter. The Night Lives On. New York: William Morrow, 1986.
Matsen, Brad. Titanic’s Last Secrets. New York: Twelve, 2008.
Titanic Historical Document Archive, 2 discs, www.paperlessarchives.com.
Winocour, Jack ed., The Story of the Titanic as Told by Its Survivors. New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1960.
PRINTED SOURCES
CHAPTER 1
Books
Berger, Meyer. The Story of the “New York Times.” New York: Simon & Schuster, 1951.
Biel, Steven. Down with the Old Canoe: A Cultural History of the Titanic. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.
David, Elmer Holmes. History of the “New York Times” 1851–1921. New York: New York Times.
Fine, Barnett. A Giant of the Press: Carr van Anda. Oakland: Acme Books, 1968.
Heyer, Paul. Titanic Legacy: Disaster as Media Event and Myth. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995.
Morris, James McGrath. The Rose Man of Sing Sing. New York: Fordham University Press, 2003.
Ross, Charles G. The Story of the “St. Louis Post-Dispatch.” Ann Arbor: UMI, 1992.
Ticehurst, Brian. The Titanic Rescuers. Southampton: B & J Printers, 2001.
Newspapers
“Latest News from the Sinking Ship.” New York Times, April 15, 1912.
“Big Titanic’s First Trip.” New York Times, April 15, 1912.
“Titanic Boilers Blew Up.” New York Evening World, April 18, 1912.
“Women Go Mad in the Boats.” Daily Mirror, April 19, 1912.
“Rescue Ship Arrives.” New York Times, April 19, 1912.
“Thrilling Story by Titanic’s Surviving Wireless Man.” New York Times, April 19, 1912.
“Rescue Ship Arrives.” New York Times, April 19, 1912.
“The Story of the Titanic.” The Times, April 20, 1912.
“Band Goes Down Playing.” Daily Mirror, April 20, 1912.
“Band Played Solemn Hymn as Great Ship Sank.” Daily Sketch, April 20, 1912.
“Sinking Ship’s Band Chose Fitting Hymn.” New York Times, April 21, 1912.
“Operator’s Story Enthrals England.” New York Times, April 21, 1912.
“England Proud of the Band.” New York Times, April 21, 1912.
“Keep Your Mouth Shut: Big Money for You.” New York Herald, April 21, 1912.
“The Titanic’s Musicians.” New York Times, April 22, 1912.
“Brave as the Birkenhead Band: The Titanic’s Musician Heroes.” Illustrated London News, April 27, 1912.
“The Tragedy of the Titanic—A Complete Story.” New York Times, April 28, 1912.
“On the Other Side: Titanic Disaster Survivors in New York.” Illustrated London News, May 4, 1912.
“The Titanic Band Memorial Concert.” The Times, May 25, 1912.
“Capt. Rostron Guest of Mrs. J. B. Thayer.” New York Times, June 2, 1912.
Dorrance, James French. “The SeaGoing Reporter: Tugging the Titanic Story.” Publishers’ Guide, October 1912.
Hurd, Carlos. “When the Titanic Sank!” The Quill, June 1932.
“The Press: News Judge.” Time, February 5, 1945.
Stadler, Frances Hurd. “My Father’s Scoop of a Lifetime.” Mature American, Spring 1988.
CHAPTER 2
Books
Brinnin, John Malcolm. The Sway of the Grand Saloon: A Social History of the North Atlantic. London: Macmillan, 1971.
Herson, John. Liverpool as a Diasporic City. (Unpublished thesis.) Liverpool: John Moore’s University.
Oldham, William J. The Ismay Line. London: Journal of Commerce, 1961.
Scarth, Alan. Titanic and Liverpool. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2009.
The Shipbuilder & Marine Engine Builder, Titanic and Olympic Edition, June 1911.
Newspapers
“The New White Star Liners.” The Times, September 1, 1908.
“Ireland: The Shipbuilding Industry.” The Times, November 11, 1908.
“South Coast: Southampton Docks Reconstruct Trafalgar Dock.” The Times, November 3, 1909.
“The Olympic and Titanic: Insurances Effected.” The Times, January 6, 1911.
“The Transatlantic Service: Port Accommodation in America.” The Times, January 26, 1911.
“Launch of the Titanic.” The Times, June 1, 1911.
“Dock Works at Southampton.” The Times, June 14, 1911.
“The Titanic.” The Times, October 11, 1911.
“Shipbuilding.” The Times, January 22, 1912.
“Dry-Docking the Titanic.” The Times, February 5, 1912.
“Bandsmen Now Passengers.” New York Times, March 24, 1912.
“The Largest Vessel Afloat.” The Times, April 11, 1912 “Band Goes Down Playing.” Daily Mirror, April 20, 1912.
“The Titanic Disaster.” Musicians’ Report and Journal, May 1912.
“The SeaGoing Bandsmen.” Musicians’ Report and Journal, July 1912.
“News.” Orchestral Association Monthly Report, January 1913.
“The Truth.” Musicians’ Report and Journal, February 1913.
Babler, Gunter. “The Dinner at Lord Pirrie’s.” www.Titanicfiles.org, 2002.
&n
bsp; CHAPTER 3
Books
Barczewski, Stephanie. Titanic: A Night Remembered. London: Hambledon, 2004.
Carr, James. Annals and Stories of Colne. Manchester: Duerdon, 1878.
Carroll, Yvonne. A Hymn for Eternity: The Story of Wallace Hartley. Stroud: Tempus Publishing, 2002.
Cryer, M. Memories of Colne. Blackpool: Landy, 2006.
McDougal, Robert. Titanic Bandmaster Remembrance Book. Blackpool: Robert McDougal, 2000.
McDougal, Robert. Titanic Wake: Wallace Hartley Memoriam Tribute. Blackpool: Robert McDougal, 1996.
Moore, Benjamin. History of Wesleyan Methodism in Burnley and East Lancashire. Burnley: Faxette Printing Works, 1899.
Vickers, James. History of Independent Methodism. Wigan: Independent Methodist Bookroom, 1920.
Wyatt, Ken. The Lusitania’s Musician: The Tale of a South Yorkshire Survivor. Swinton: Babash Printers.
Newspapers
“Sale of Work at Bethel School.” Colne & Nelson Times, March 22, 1884.
“Colne Musician Lost in the Titanic.” Colne & Nelson Times, April 19, 1912
“Wallace Hartley.” Bridlington Chronicle, April 19, 1912.
“Shock for Thorp Arch Young Lady.” Boston Spa News, April 19, 1912.
“Band Leader’s Last Hymn.” Leeds Mercury, April 22, 1912.
“Remembering the Musicians.” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 24, 1912.
“The Lost Titanic.” Colne & Nelson Times, April 26, 1912.
