Titanic retelling of a tragedy

Press, 21 February 1987, Page 23

Titanic retelling of a tragedy

The Titanic: The FuE Story of a Tragedy. By Michael Davie. The Bodiey Head, 1988. 245 pp. Illustrations. 135.55 (Reviewed by Ted Glasgow) The White Star liner Titanic, at 46,328 tons gross then the biggest ship afloat and the most luxuriously appointed passenger liner, struck an iceberg when on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. The date was April 14, 1912. She sank in two hours and 40 minutes. Of her passengers and crew, 705 escaped in lifeboats and rafts, and 1522 were drowned. In the years since 1912 many hundred thousands possibly millions of words have been written about the tragedy. Nevertheless, among the younger generations, there may be some to whom the name Titanic means nothing, or at any rate does not conjure up a great and dramatic marine disaster. To those, and also to those who have read all the Titanic literature, this book may be commended. It is, as the sub-title says, the full story of a tragedy. The loss of the Titanic on her maiden voyage stunned the shipping world on both sides of the Atlantic. Among the general public the shock and horror were equally great and created a fascination which has persisted to this day. In the minds of the public and also shipping people many questions arose, and it is these which Davie examines. Among the questions were: why did the master of the Titanic, Captain E. J. Smith, elect to continue at high speed in the dark through an area where icebergs had been sighted and reported? The answer to this can only be speculative as Captain Smith went down with his ship. Davie dismisses as untrue one commonly-held theory that he was under orders to try to establish a new trans-Atlantic record. Was Captain S. Lord, master of the Californian, which was said to be the

ship nearest to the sinking Titanic, rightly condemned for not going immediately to her aid? One claim was that had he done so no-one from the Titanic would have drowned. Was the Board of Trade inquiry into the disaster, presided over by Lord Mersey, a whitewash job? Was the United States Senate inquiry, presided over by Senator W. A. Smith, a mere charade conducted by a publicityhungry American politician, or did it produce some worth-while recommendations? Was there confusion and lack of discipline when the lifeboats were being loaded, and did this continue later when the boats were afloat? Why did some of the boats leave not fully loaded? And why, after the Titanic had sunk, did they not return to the scene to pick up survivors who were calling for help? Why were some lifeboats in the charge of stewards or stokers rather than seamen? In the loading of the lifeboats were the rich (first-class passengers) given priority over the poor (second-class and steerage passengers)? Did J. Bruce Ismay, chairman of the White Star line and a passenger in the role of owner, behave in a cowardly fashion as the boats were being loaded? These are but some of the questions to which Davie has tried to find the answers. To do so he undertook widespread and meticulous research. His journeys took him from Halifax, Nova Scotia, where bodies recovered in their life jackets from the scene of the sinking were buried, to the archives of courts and'companies in Liverpool and London and in the United States, and to the records of the Titanic Historical Society. There is a chapter on the rich men (some of them very rich) among the passengers, a full report on the decisions of Captain Lord of the Californian, the Ismay family, the hours in the lifeboats until the rescue

by the Carpathla, . the curious behaviour of the Carpathia’s wireless operators who told the world nothing of the disaster during the passage back to New York with survivors. There is also, of course, a full account of the two official inquiries, Board of Trade and American Senate. Davie says that in the records and other evidence he read he found a great many contradictions and inconsistencies, especialy among the survivors’ stories, which one may suppose is not surprising. Mr Davie is not himself entirely free of inconsistencies. In the chapter on Lord Mersey, Titanic Wreck Commissioner, he says Mersey had a good baritone voice with which he used to entertain his dinner guests. A few lines later Mersey is described asj “being small with a weak voice.” One may be accused of cavilling for mentioning this; but it is surprising; Michael Davie is ah experienced journalist and has been on the staff of “The Observer” for many years. He has been able to disprove .many of the Titanic legends, including the claim that she was unsinkable. The word was always qualified by “almost or practically.” There is nothing tendentious in the selection and presentation of the evidence available from long and careful research. The questions mentioned above, and imany others, are examined in detail,! and the case for and the case against presented fairly and objectively. Davie has made an outstanding contribution to the literature of the Titanic, a story which began almost 75 years ago and is alive and well today. The book concludes with an interesting exchange of letters on the loss of the Titanic by G>. B. Shaw and Arthur Conan Doyle. The appendices also include the Titanic’s cargo manifest, the on-board provisions, and a list of the table linen and cutlery.