Titanic on Trial
Page 24
The British Inquiry
The message from the Mesaba clearly indicated the presence of ice in the immediate vicinity of the Titanic, and if it had reached the bridge would perhaps have affected the navigation of the vessel. Unfortunately, it does not appear to have been delivered to the Master or to any of the officers. The Marconi operator was very busy from eight o’clock onward transmitting messages via Cape Race for passengers on board the Titanic, and the probability is that he failed to grasp the significance and importance of the message, and put it aside until he should be less busy. It was never acknowledged by Captain Smith, and I am satisfied that it was not received by him.
WAS THE TITANIC ON THE CORRECT COURSE?
The British Inquiry
It is quite incorrect to assume that icebergs had never before been encountered or field ice observed so far south, at the particular time of year when the Titanic disaster occurred; but it is true to say that the field ice was certainly at that time further south than it has been seen for many years.
The outward- and homeward-bound southern tracks were decided on as the outcome of many years’ experience of the normal movement of ice. They were reasonably safe tracks for the time of year, provided, of course, that great caution and vigilance when crossing the ice region were observed.
Captain Smith was not fettered by any orders to remain on the track should information as to position of ice make it in his opinion undesirable to adhere to it. The fact, however, of lane routes having been laid down for the common safety of all, would necessarily influence him to keep on (or very near) the accepted route, unless circumstances as indicated above should induce him to deviate largely from it.
DID THE DELAY IN ‘TURNING THE CORNER’ AFFECT WHAT HAPPENED?
The British Inquiry
At 5.50pm the Titanic’s course was changed to bring her on a westerly course for New York. In ordinary circumstances, this change in her course should have been made about half an hour earlier, but she seems on this occasion to have continued for about ten miles longer on her south-westerly course before turning, with the result that she found herself, after altering course at 5.50pm, about four or five miles south of the customary route on a course S 86° W true.
Her course, as thus set, would bring her at the time of the collision to a point about two miles to the southward of the customary route and four miles south and considerably to the westward of the indicated position of the Baltic’s ice. Her position at the time of the collision would also be well to the southward of the indicated position of the ice mentioned in the Caronia message. This change of course was so insignificant that in my opinion it cannot have been made in consequence of information as to ice.
WHY DIDN’T THE WATERPROOF BULKHEADS KEEP HER AFLOAT?
The British Inquiry
I am advised that the Titanic as constructed could not have remained afloat long with such damage as she received.z Her bulkheads were spaced to enable her to remain afloat with any two compartments in communication with the sea. She had a sufficient margin of safety with any two of the compartments flooded which were actually damaged. In fact any three of the four forward compartments could have been flooded by the damage received without sinking the ship to the top of her bulkheads.
WHY WEREN’T THE WATERTIGHT DOORS KEPT SHUT?
The British Inquiry
There does not appear to have been any appreciable effect upon the sinking of the ship caused by either shutting or not shutting the doors. Evidence was given showing that after the watertight doors in the engine and boiler rooms had been all closed, except those forward of No 4 group of boilers, they were opened again, and there is no evidence to show that they were again closed.
It is probable, however, that the life of the ship would have been lengthened somewhat if these doors had been left open, for the water would have flowed through them to the after part of the ship, and the rate of flow of the water into the ship would have been for a time reduced as the bow might have been kept up a little by the water which flowed aft.
There does not appear to have been any difficulty in working the watertight doors. They appear to have been shut in good time after the collision. It is thus seen that the efficiency of the automatic arrangements for the closing of the watertight doors, which was questioned during the inquiry, had no important bearing on the question of hastening the sinking of the ship.
WERE THE BILGE PUMPS ACTIVATED?
The British Inquiry
The engineers were applying the pumps when Barrett, leading stoker, left No 5 boiler room, but even if they had succeeded in getting all the pumps in the ship to work they could not have saved the ship or prolonged her life to any appreciable extent.
DID SUCTION HAVE ANY EFFECT?
The British Inquiry
The committee deems it of sufficient importance to call attention to the fact that as the ship disappeared under the water there was no apparent suction or unusual disturbance of the surface of the water. Testimony is abundant that while she was going down there was not sufficient suction to be manifest to any of the witnesses who were in the water or on the overturned collapsible boat or on the floating debris, or to the occupants of the lifeboats in the vicinity of the vessel, or to prevent those in the water, whether equipped with lifebelts or not, from easily swimming away from the ship’s side while she was sinking.
The Biographies
The biographies below include all the Titanic survivors quoted in this book, as well as other inquiry witnesses directly involved in the rescue operation. The lives of certain key figures who perished in the disaster (such as Captain Smith and wireless operator Jack Phillips) are also covered.
Olaus Abelseth, 26, Third Class Passenger
Abelseth was one of 31 Norwegian passengers on the Titanic. Born in Norway in 1886, he worked as a fisherman and casual labourer until he emigrated to America with his brother Hans in 1902/03. In 1908 he set up his own homestead in South Dakota. He visited his family in 1911, and was on his way back to America when the Titanic sank. After testifying at the US Inquiry, he travelled through Canada, Indianapolis and Montana. He married Anna Grinde, eight years his senior, in 1915, and the couple had four children together. Anna was 100 years old when she died in 1978; Abelseth followed her two years later.
Frederick Barrett, 28, Leading Fireman
A former coal miner from Stoke-on-Trent, Barrett is said to have gone to sea after discovering his wife was being unfaithful. He initially found work as a stoker, before working his way up to leading fireman. Before joining the Titanic, he was on board the New York. Although little is known about his whereabouts after the disaster, his character played a prominent role in the 1997 Titanic musical on Broadway. Unlike the real Barrett, who survived the sinking and gave evidence at the US Inquiry, however, the fictional Barrett goes down with the ship.
Helen Bishop (née Walton), 19, First Class Passenger
Helen and Dickinson Bishop were heading home after a four-month honeymoon, taking in Egypt, Algiers, Italy and France, and delayed their return to travel on the Titanic. Both of them escaped unharmed but, eight months later, Helen gave birth to a baby boy who died soon after birth. Bishop survived a near-fatal car crash in 1913, but was taken ill after a trip to the West Indies in 1916 and died at a friend’s house near Chicago, just two months after separating from her husband.
Joseph Boxhall, 28, Fourth Officer
Boxhall came from a family with a strong nautical tradition and joined his first ship, a square-rigged barque, when he was 15. He joined the White Star Line in 1907, and served on several of the company’s ships, including the liner Oceanic, before boarding the Titanic. After returning to England, he joined the Royal Navy Reserve and was promoted to lieutenant, serving on a commando boat in Gibraltar during the war. After the end of hostilities, he rejoined the White Star Line, serving initially as second officer on the Olympic. Although reluctant to talk about his role in the disaster, he was technical consultant on the Titanic film A Ni
ght to Remember in 1958. He died in 1967, and, following his instructions, his ashes were scattered at sea at 41° 46’ N, 50° 14’ W, the position he had calculated Titanic sank.
Harold Bride, 22, Assistant Telegraphist
Radio was in its infancy when Bride decided he wanted to become a wireless operator. He trained with the Marconi Company in 1910 and 1911 and served on several ships before joining the Titanic. He was a key figure at both inquiries, and went on to serve as wireless operator on the steamship Mona’s Isle during World War I. After the war, he married Lucy Downie and, partly to escape the notoriety of being a Titanic survivor, the couple moved to Scotland, where Bride became a travelling salesman. They had three children.
Edward Brown, 34, First Class Steward
Brown was born in Holyhead in 1878. He served on several White Star Line ships before joining the Titanic in Belfast.
Daniel Buckley, 21, Third Class Passenger
Buckley was among a group of friends who joined the Titanic at Queenstown, planning to start a new life in the New Land. His reasons for going to America were straightforward: ‘I wanted to come over here to make some money.’ After surviving the sinking, he found work in a hotel in New York. In 1917, he joined the 69th regiment, the so-called ‘Irish Brigade’, and served at the Western Front, where he was shot by a sniper while rescuing injured soldiers. His remains were buried in Ireland in 1919.
Edward Buley, 27, Able Seaman
Buley had been in the Royal Navy for 13 years, including serving on HMS Dreadnought as a gunner, before joining the White Star Line. The Titanic was his first trip in the merchant service. Although he survived her sinking, he was not so lucky when his ship, HMS Partridge, was attacked while escorting a convoy from Scotland to Norway in 1917, and he became one of 92 casualties on board.
George Cavell, 22, Trimmer
Cavell had served 18 months with the White Star Line before joining the Titanic. His job was to feed coal from the bunkers to the firemen, who controlled the fires which heated the boilers that supplied steam to the ship’s engines. It was the dirtiest job on the ship – and one of the worst paid. After the disaster, Cavell carried on working for the company and, according to his daughter-in-law Dorothy, quoted by BBC Hampshire, ‘lived to a grand old age’.
Norman Chambers, 27, First Class Passenger
Chambers was a mechanical engineer from New York, where he worked for a tool company on East 44th Street. He and his wife Bertha survived the sinking and remained together until she died in 1958. Chambers remarried, and died of a heart attack while on holiday in Portugal in 1966.
Frederick Clench, 34, Able Seaman
Frederick and his younger brother George Clench were both Able Seamen who were initially assigned to the Titanic’s sistership the Olympic, but at the last minute transferred to the Titanic. Frederick survived, but George died in the disaster.
John Collins, 17, Assistant Cook, First Class Galley
One of the youngest members of the Titanic crew, Collins was born in Belfast in 1894 and worked at the Ulster Reform Club before joining the ship. He eventually married and returned to Belfast, where he died of syphilis in 1941.
Harold Cottam, 22, Marconi Officer, SS Carpathia
At the age of 17, Cottam became the youngest person to graduate at the British School of Telegraphy – a record that is still unbeaten to this day. So young was he that he had to wait five years before he could fulfil his ambition and go to sea. He worked at a number of stations, on land and at sea, and befriended both Jack Phillips and Harold Bride, before joining the Carpathia in 1912. After the accident, Cottam continued to work as a wireless operator on board a variety of ships. He married Elsie Shepperson in 1922 and retired from the sea to help raise their four children. He died in 1984 at the age of 93.
Alfred Crawford, 41, Bedroom Steward
According to his evidence at the US Inquiry, Crawford had been ‘going to sea’ since 1881 and had worked with the White Star Line for six years before joining the Titanic. He gave his age at the inquiry as 41, while he told his employees he was 36 – suggesting that he started ‘going to sea’ at the age of either ten or five – although even the former seems improbably young.
Andrew Cunningham, 38, Bedroom Steward
Born in Edinburgh, Cunningham joined the Titanic at Belfast. His previous post had been on another White Star Line ship, the Oceanic.
Thomas Dillon, 34, Trimmer
Born in Liverpool in 1878, Dillon served on the Oceanic before joining the Titanic. He died suddenly in 1939, and was buried in his native Liverpool.
Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon, 49, First Class Passenger
A keen sportsman, Sir Cosmo represented Britain in two Olympic Games, winning silver in the team fencing event in 1906. He was co-founder of the London Fencing League, and a keen wrestler. In 1900, he married Lucy Sutherland, founder of the Lucile fashion chain, and herself a divorcee. The couple boarded the Titanic using the pseudonym ‘Mr & Mrs Morgan’, probably to avoid publicity. The events of the Titanic cast a shadow over Sir Cosmo’s life and he tried to keep out of the public eye thereafter. He died in London in 1931, aged 68.
Lady Lucy Duff Gordon (née Sutherland), 48, First Class Passenger
One of the most colourful characters on the Titanic, Lady Lucy ran a successful fashion label known originally as Maison Lucile, and later Lucile Ltd. As well as promoting less restrictive lingerie and lower necklines for women, she is credited with training the first professional models and introducing the concept of the catwalk. Famous clients included Mary Pickford and the Duchess of York (later Queen Mary). By 1912, Lady Lucy had left the company she set up but continued trading under the name of Lucile. She published her memoirs, Discretions and Indiscretions, in 1932, and died of breast cancer three years later, aged 71.
Henry Etches, 40, Bedroom Steward
Although living in Southampton, Etches joined the ship in Belfast. He is said to have survived another sinking after the Titanic: that of her sister ship Britannic. With the advent of war, the Britannic was turned into a hospital ship in 1915 and was sunk off the Greek island of Kea the following year.
Frank Evans, 27, Able Seaman
According to his evidence at the US Inquiry, Evans served on more than 15 ships during his ‘nine years and six months’ in the Royal Navy. In common with many of the crew, he transferred from the Oceanic to the Titanic for her maiden voyage. He later worked for the famous Southampton yacht builders Camper & Nicholsons. He died in 1974, aged 86.
Frederick Fleet, 24, Lookout
Raised as an orphan, Fleet escaped to sea at the age of 16, training first as a deck boy and eventually qualifying as Able Seaman. He worked as a lookout on the Olympic for four years before joining the Titanic. After the disaster, he spent another 24 years at sea, before retiring to land in the mid-1930s. He later worked for Harland & Wolff and the Union-Castle Line, but ended his days selling newspapers on the street in Southampton. He slipped into depression following the death of his wife in 1965, and two weeks later hanged himself. He was buried in a pauper’s grave, which remained unmarked until 1993, when the Titanic Historic Society paid for a headstone to be erected.
Archibald Gracie, 53, First Class Passenger
Gracie came from a wealthy New York family. A colonel in the 7th Regiment, he was active in the New York real estate business and dabbled in military history. Gracie was profoundly affected by his experiences on the Titanic and spent the months after landing in New York contacting other survivors while researching a book about the disaster. His manuscript was at the printers when he died the following year, apparently still haunted by his memories of that night. The Truth About the Titanic was published in 1913, shortly after his death, and is still in print.
George Harder, 25, First Class Passenger
Harder was at the start of a successful career in manufacturing when he and his wife Dorothy boarded the Titanic on their way home from honeymoon. They were one of only three honeymoon couples, out of 1
3 on board the ship, to both survive the sinking. Dorothy died of kidney failure in 1926, but George remarried and went on to become chairman of a large foundry. He died in 1956.
John Hardy, 36, Chief Second Class Steward
Hardy had served 12 of his 14 years at sea with the White Star Line, including six years as chief Second Class steward, when he joined the Titanic in Belfast. He later emigrated to America and worked for the United States Lines for 20 years, retiring in 1940. He died in Maplewood, New Jersey, in 1953.
John Hart, 32, Third Class Steward
Born in London in 1880, Hart fought in the Boer War before signing up as crew on the White Star Line ship the New York. After the disaster, he worked briefly on another White Star ship, the Oceanic, before moving to Rhodesia with his wife and two children. There, both children drowned and his wife died soon after. He moved back to England and was married again in Devon, where he lived until his death in 1954.