A Night to Remember

15. Statistics told only one part of the tragedy. Third-class casualties included the entire Sage family of eleven and all five Rice children (Illustrated London News)

16. No matter how valid the circumstances, any male survivor from first class came under severe scrutiny – note the quotes around ‘men’ in the caption of this cartoon from the London Daily Herald (photo John Webb)

17. controversy swirled around Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon, who left the Titanic in boat 1, carrying only twelve people.

Lady Duff Gordon. She and her secretary were the only women in boat 1 (both Illustrated London News)

Fifth Officer Lowe rescued swimmers from the water

The Countess of Rothes handled the tiller of boat 8

Captain Edward Smith, last seen swimming in the debris, holding a child

Thomas Andrews helped many women escape from the ship he built

Baker Charles Joughin was probably the last man off

18. Titanic heroes (Illustrated London News)

19. When the erisis came, the low-paid and hard-worked crew set a matchless example of devotion to duty. The ship’s band, pictured above, played on with ragtime until the water was over their feet; all were lost (Illustrated London News)

20. All day on 15 April, anxious crowds besieged the White Star offices in New York. They were assured that the Titanic was practically unsinkable (Brown Brothers)

21. A one-word telegram told steward Fred Hartnell’s family all they wanted to know (photo John Webb)

22. Southampton crowds scan the lists of lost and saved posted outside the White Star offices. Many of the crew lived here; in one street twenty families were bereaved (Illustrated London News)

23. Memorial pictures, heavily bordered in black, were eagerly bought from street vendors, as were souvenir napkins, postcards, buttons and bits of pottery. Columns of incredibly poor poetry emerged, and at last eight different pieces of commemorative sheet music appeared on the stands (author)

Acknowledgements

This book is really about the last night of a small town. The Titanic was that big and carried that many people. To tell everything that happened is impossible; to piece even part of the picture together has required the help of literally hundreds of people.

Many of them were there. Some sixty-three survivors were located, and most of these came through handsomely. They are a stimulating mixture of rich and poor, passengers and crew. But all seem to have two qualities in common. First, they look marvellous. It is almost as though, having come through this supreme ordeal, they easily surmounted everything else and are now growing old with calm, tranquil grace. Second, they are wonderfully thoughtful. It seems almost as if, having witnessed man at his most generous, they scorn any trace of selfishness themselves.

Nothing seems to be too much trouble. Many of the survivors have contributed far beyond the scope of the book, just to help me get a better feeling of what it all was like.

For instance, Mrs Noël MacFie (then the Countess of Rothes) tells how – while dining out with friends a year after the disaster – she suddenly experienced the awful feeling of cold and intense horror she always associated with the Titanic. For an instant she couldn’t imagine why. Then she realized the orchestra was playing ‘The Tales of Hoffmann’, the last piece of after-dinner music played that fateful Sunday night.

Mrs George Darby, then Elizabeth Nye, similarly contributes an appealing extra touch when she tells how – as it grew bitterly cold early Sunday evening – she and some other second-class passengers gathered in the dining room for a hymn-sing, ending with ‘For Those in Peril on the Sea’.

And Mrs Katherine Manning – then Kathy Gilnagh – vividly conveys the carefree spirit of the young people in third class when she talks about the gay party in steerage that same last night. At one point a rat scurried across the room; the boys gave chase; and the girls squealed with excitement. Then the party was on again. Mrs Manning’s lovely eyes still glow as she recalls the bagpipes, the laughter, the fun of being a pretty colleen setting out for America.

Most of the survivors, in fact, give glimpses of shipboard life that have an almost haunting quality. You feel it when Mrs G. J. Mercherle (then Mrs Albert Caldwell) recalls the bustle of departing from Southampton … when Victorine Perkins (then Chandowson) tells of the Ryersons’ sixteen trunks … when Mr Spencer Silverthorne remembers his pleasant dinner with the other buyers on Sunday night … when Marguerite Schwarzenbach (then Frolicher) describes a quieter supper in her parents’ stateroom – she had been sea-sick and this was her first gingerly attempt to eat again.