Monday, April 8, 2013
Monday, April 1, 2013
Shootings on the Titanic, Part III. The Bloody Quarter
'Where are all the women?', Titanic's First Officer William Murdoch must have been asking himself?
He had only been able to find two women to put into Lifeboat No. 1, and the starboard deck forward was empty now of both men and women.
Murdoch knew he was running out of time to get people off the sinking ship. He had four lifeboats waiting to be loaded at the stern of the Titanic but first he had to find women and children to fill them.
Somewhere, he located a half-dozen French-speaking First Cabin women---Leontine Aubert, her maid Emma Sagesser, Mrs. Elizabeth Lines, her daughter Mary Lines, Mrs. Marie Spenser, and her maid Eliza Lurette.
With them in tow, he marched to the rear of the ship, headed for Lifeboat No. 9. Purser Hugh McElroy accompanied them to help load.
Bosun's mate Albert Haines was standing by his assigned lifeboat, No. 9, when he spotted Murdoch coming.
"We had the boat crew there, and Mr. Murdoch came along with a crowd of passengers," Haines told the U.S.Senate Inquiry.
Saloon steward William Ward was among the crewmen at the boat:
"I think the purser ... said, "Are you all ready?" Haynes answered "Yes" - it was either the purser or Mr. Murdoch - and with that he said: "Pass in the women and children that are here into that boat." There were several men standing around, and they fell back, and there was quite a quantity of women and children helped into the boat."
Ward had trouble telling which officer was speaking at any moment.
"They were both tall men, and I would not be sure which one it was. It was dark, you know." he told the Senators.
As the loading of No. 9 began, Murdoch was already thinking ahead. He gave orders to some of the crewmen to ready the next boat (No. 11) for loading.
Assistant Second Class Steward Joseph Wheat, British Inquiry:
- Yes; he told me to take the rest of the boat's crew down on to the next deck as they had to send the people off A deck.
13195. Did you do that?
- Yes. I took about 70 men down altogether, I think.
Bathroom Steward Charles Mackay:
10757. Did you go down to A deck yourself?
- No, the first order I heard given was, Mr. Wheat, the second assistant-steward, had an order from Mr. Murdoch to take charge of that boat.
10758. That was on the boat deck?
- Yes. Steward, Wilson (saloon steward Edward Wheelton) and myself were ordered by Mr. Murdoch to collect all the women we could and take to that A deck, which we did.
10759. Did you collect women on the boat deck?
- Yes, and we took them down the companion to A deck.
10760. About how many do you think you collected?
- A matter of about 40 on A deck, we collected.
With those orders, Murdoch cleared the boat deck of more than one hundred people.
Murdoch had changed the rules for the aft boats that he would be loading. Whereas he had let men get into lifeboats very freely earlier on, he was still disturbed by the disorder that had broken out at Lifeboat No. 3 (as described here: http://titanicsecrets.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-shooting-on-titanic-definitive-story.html.)
The rule would now be women and children first--- and only then, men, to fill the boat. But there was no time to explain the rules to the men who accompanied the women and children going into No. 9, and none of them entered the boat before it was lowered.
In fact, they had no reason to believe they had any chance to get on.
"On the Carpathia was Mme. Hobart, who was complaining bitterly of the conduct of one of the officers. Her husband had been with her and at her request was about to enter the same boat with her. An officer pointed a gun at him and ordered him to stand aside, and enter a boat after the women had been saved. He obeyed, and his wife never saw him again." (New York Times, April 19, 1912, Some Stories of Panic.) Hobart? Try Mme. Aubert, mistresss of American gazillionaire Benjamin Guggenheim, whose wealth and prestige was no match for a loaded revolver.
While the loading of the First Cabin women was underway, Murdoch was calling loudly for more women to come forward. Among those who responded was Mrs. Elizabeth Watt and her 12-year-old daughter Bertha.
The young girl saw something unusual. She mentioned it to Walter Lord years later when he was researching his book A Night To Remember. Her letter to him still exists:
Lost Voices from the Titanic, Nick Barratt, 2010
"Shortly a call was made "Women and children this way" so we all went over to the starboard side, one boat was on the way down, and she was hanging on its davits overboard and full of men, looked as if they were steerage passengers and we had that they had more or less charged this boat so they left them hang(ing) there until after our boat left. The master at arms was standing with a gun at that point." she wrote.
The clues she provides identify the boat "full of men" as No. 15.
Bedlam
It's necessary to pause here for a moment, because the situation at this section of the Titanic would degenerate into bedlam over the next ten to twelve minutes. This was the bloody quarter. Nearly half of the men known to have been shot on the Titanic were shot here (12). And the majority of them (11), were shot in the next ten minutes or less. It's an entire book in itself.
The events took less time than it takes to read about them. Reconstructing what happened involves making sense out of more than a baker's dozen eyewitness accounts, trying to correlate the details and, where necessary, making a judgement call on what happened in what order.
Until more first-hand accounts become generally available, this is as accurate a recreation of the shootings on the Titanic as can be done.
His Jaw Had Been Shot Away
Seeing Second Cabin women filling the seats of No. 9, Murdoch gave the order to load the next lifeboat, No.11.
Joseph T. Wheat, assistant Second Steward:
13235. Was your boat lowered empty from the boat deck to the a deck?
- Yes, there was nobody in it.
13236. And it was filled from A deck?
- Yes.
Two boats now loading, there was the need to ensure that the remaining pair were ready for passengers.
A knot of Irish steerage passengers---sisters Agnes and Alice Mccoy, their brother Bernard, and their cousin Thomas Mccormack--- was on the boat deck after having donned lifejackets as ordered by stewards, when they saw " a boat half-filled with members of the crew and about to be lowered away. An officer came up pointing his revolver at the men and told them to get out or he would shoot. The men climbed out slowly. " (The Cork Examiner, April 27, 1912.)
Crew? Not likely. Bertha Watt's boat "hanging on its davits overboard and full of men", most likely.
"Then the officer turned to the two young women and their brother and told them to get back downstairs as there was no immediate danger."
Meanwhile, back at No. 9...
Bath Steward James Widgery picks up the story:
"...and we passed the ladies in. We thought we had them all in, and the purser called out, "Are there any more women?"
"Just then some one said, "Yes." This woman came along, rather an oldish lady, and she was frightened, and she gave me her hand. I took one hand, and gave it to the boatswain's mate, and he caught hold of the other hand, and she pulled her hand away, and went back to the door and would not get in. One of them went after her, but she had gone down the stairs."
"The chief officer was there and called out for any more women, and there seemed to be none, and he told the men to get in, four or five of them."
"We were filled right up then. Then they started to lower away."
But there were more women---immigrant, steerage women who had been corraled behind a rope 100 feet away, off the second class stairway, the only route to the boat deck and to the lifeboats.
In that crowd behind the rope was Abraham Hyman, who described the scene to the New York Times (April 19, 1912, Survivor Tells How He Was Standing on Deck Admiring the Scenery When Panic Began):
"When they got on deck they found a rope drawn closer to their quarters than usual and this made some of them think that there was danger. One or two of the women began to cry, and a panic began to spread. An officer came forward (and) stood close to the rope and waived (sic) the people back...The officer who was standing at the rope had a pistol in his hand and he ordered everybody to keep back. First one woman screamed and then another, and then one man (I think he was an Italian) dashed toward the boat and the officer fired at him and struck him in the chin, and so he came back to where the rest of us were standing. Then the office said to us to put the women forward and we began picking them out and shoving them beneath the rope."
In this way the loading of Lifeboat No. 13 started. And a legend was born.
The story of the "jaw shot" caught the imagination of the public---and other survivors.
In the book Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters (1912, edited by Logan Marshall), which is a compilation of newspaper stories of the day turned into a narrative, the incident is recounted with a more dramatic flair:
"'Stand back,' shouted the officers who were manning the boat. 'The women come first.' Shouting curses in various foreign languages, the immigrant men continued their pushing and tugging to climb into the boats. Shots rang out. One big fellow fell over the railing into the water. Another dropped to the deck, moaning. His jaw had been shot away. This was the story told by the bystanders afterwards on the pier. One husky Italian told the writer on the pier that the way in which the men were shot down was horrible. His sympathy was with the men who were shot. 'They were only trying to save their lives,' he said." (Sinking of the Titanic, p.52)
A hundred years later, in the book Voices From The Titanic (edited by Geoff Tibbals, 2012, Skyhorse Publishing), which is also a compilation of contemporary 1912 newspaper stories about the Titanic, this reference appears (Page 377):
"One of the steward last evening described there were many instances among the steerage passengers of attempting to rush the boats...he said that he would have been afraid to have jumped into a lifeboat even if he had felt inclined to do so, as he saw 7 men shot for attempting to do so. One had his chin blown off."
Canadian Arthur Peuchen, who had been allowed to climb into Lifeboat No. 6 to help row, repeated the jaw story to a reporter in Toronto. Here's that excerpt:
MAJOR PEUCHEN BLAMES CAPTAIN WHO WENT DOWN WITH HIS SHIP
The Toronto World
Saturday, 20 April 1912
One Man Shot.
"It was stated that the first officer shot himself. As the last boat left, I am told that the people began to jump in on to the women. One of the officers is said to have drawn his revolver and shot a man thru the 'aw [sic]."
Even Second Officer Lightoller couldn't help gossiping about the "jaw shot". The author of the book Titanic: Sinking the Myths, Diana Bristow, got a letter from the son of a good friend of Lightoller's, Captain James McGiffin. He wrote that his father heard the story of the sinking from Lightoller himself.
"After Titanic sank, Lightoller saw McGiffin and naturally told him all about the disaster, including the fact that Murdoch had been forced to shoot a crewman who led a rush on one of the lifeboats, pushing aside women and children. The bullet struck the man's jaw." (Titanic: Sinking the Myths, Diana Bristow)
By then, the story had morphed to identify the shot man as a "crewman", instead of a steerage passenger. The fact of the shooting was never in question.
Back to the story.
It had taken seconds for Murdoch to restore some order. Having seen the loading of Lifeboat No. 13 started, he could check how the first two boats under his supervision were doing.
The lowering of No. 9 was uneventful and the lifeboat had almost reached the sea. Murdoch could look over the rail and nine feet down at No. 11 which was now nearly filled up.
Assistant Second Steward Wheat:
13200. Having had your men up, as you say, two deep round the boats, what was done about the women and children?
- First I told the men off to make sure that the plug in No. 11 was in tight, and then I told five or six men, I cannot tell which, to get into the boat to hand the women and children in. Then the order was passed to pass the women and children along. After the women and children were all passed in we filled her up with as many as the boat would possibly hold, and Mr. Murdoch, looking over the top, said, "You have got enough there."
13208. ... When your boat was lowered, you say Mr. Murdoch gave the order. Was she full?
- Yes, quite full she could not hold another soul.
13240. He gave them from the boat deck?
- Yes.
13241. Over the side?
- Yes, we could hear him shouting over the side; he looked over the side when the boat was full and told us to lower her away.
Murdoch could not imagine the incendiary effect of his order. But that was still to come.
Did Murdoch see what happened next? We'll never know. But we have the eyewitness accounts of passengers in No. 11.
His Body Tumbled Into The Boat
Mrs. Emma Schabert wrote about it to her sister-in-law from the rescue ship Carpathia. Her letter is dated April 18, 1912. She wrote about escaping the Titanic with her brother, who she called by his nickname Boy:
(Excerpt from Schabert letter found at http://www.paullee.com/titanic/eschabert.html)
"Meanwhile the boat was sinking lower. Then someone said there was a boat on the lower deck and we went down to find it nearly crowded. There were just a few women left on deck so I risked it and went in, and after the other other women were put in then there was room for one man, and Boy was allowed to enter. The officers had pistols to shoot any man who entered without permission. Can you realize my joy when we were both in the lifeboat? Then we were lowered in the lifeboat jerk after jerk, and so unevenly, that we expected to be thrown into the water."
Addie Wells, was with Mrs. Schabert in No.11 along with her two children:
Akron Beaon Journal
Saturday 20th April 1912
Stood Up All Night Long in Lifeboat, Nestling Her Babies in Her Skirts to Keep Them Warm and Dry and Alive
(Special Dispatch to the Beacon Journal)
New York, April 20--Mrs. Addie Wells and her two chidlren (sic), Joan, aged four, and Ralph, aged two, survivors of the Titanic horror, were found last night at the Star Hotel, 57 Clarkson street, together with A. H. Wells, husband, and A. Trevaskis, brother of Mrs. Wells, the latter from Akron, O.
It is a thrilling story that Mrs. Wells tells of her night ride to safety. Like so many others she did not realize her peril and had she not been literally forced into a life boat might have shared the fate of 1,600 others. .... "I thought even then it was some sort of a drill or something, except that just as we went down I saw a revolver in an officer's hand. "
Marion Smith, another passenger in No. 11 told her story to a close friend:
Girl Titanic Victim Brands Ismay Coward
Miss Marian Smith Describes Scene of Horror When Liner Sank
Milwaukee Journal April 25, 1912
Miss Smith and her mother were rescued by the Carpathia. As soon as the vessel docked, Mrs. Smith was taken to a hospital suffering from the shock of the tragedy. Miss Smith came to Wauwatosa to visit Mrs. A. Desauer, 470 Wauwatosa Ave.
Sailor Shot Dead
"I didn't ask her much about the wreck," said Mrs. Desauer,"because she was so wrought up over it that I wanted to keep her mind from it as much as possible." But she told me she and her mother were pushed into one of the first boats that left the Titanic. A sailor, who tried to enter, was shot dead by one of the officers, she said. His body tumbled into the boat as it was being launched. The boat was crowded with women and children. They were afraid that if they attempted to throw the body overboard they would upset the boat, so for eight hours they had to stand on the corpse."
Edith Russell inadvertently provided corroboration to Miss Smith's story:
"In searching for extra clothing for one of the stewards we suddenly came upon a passenger in the bottom of the boat which we had not noticed before although he had been lying practically at my feet. By now there was enough light to recognize him as a stoker. The poor fellow was dead. I supposed he may have jumped head first into the boat, knocked himself unconscious and had frozen to death without being noticed." Titanic Commutator, Spring, 1979.
Further corroboration of sorts comes from a brief comment by Wallace Bradford, of San Francisco, who was a passenger on the Carpathia as quoted in 'Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters' edited by Logan Marshall:
"Four bodies have been brought aboard. One is that of a fireman, who is said to have been shot by one of the officers because he refused to obey orders."
Who was shot and who shot him, we'll never know. It's locked in the vault of time.
But we know what happened next. Pandemonium!
When Murdoch ordered No. 11 lowered, there had been a slight delay. Mrs. Jane Quick had put her two little children into the boat, but the crewmen were telling her she couldn't go with them and would have to take another boat. She protested loudly and forcefully until they relented and let her join her children.
According to a biography by George Behe published in Vol. 17, No 2, of The Titanic Commutator (1993) "a crew member announced with finality, "That's enough. No more can get in". Upon hearing this several people in the vicinity attempted to force their way but were held back by other men standing nearby."
First Murdoch, and now a sailor in the lifeboat. Both announcing "no more." Abraham Hyman, who was helping load No. 13 on the deck above, saw the effect.
"Then there was a shout that no more could go into that boat... And that was enough to drive them wild and a fight began among them to get to where the boat was being made ready. Some of the men tried to get their wives into the boat and mothers tried to get their children into them, and only the men who had nobody with them fought for themselves, so far as I could make out in the confusion. The forward deck was jammed with the people, all of them pushing and clawing and fighting...and then a line of men gathered along the side and only opened when a woman or a child came through. When a man tried to get through he would be pushed back."
In No. 11, Addie Wells saw the turmoil breaking out:
"As we got away, we saw a lot of wild eyed men come rushing up from steerage, but they were met by a man with a gun who pushed them back into a crowd of men and said, "Stand back there now, the first word out of you and I'll ----' I didn't catch the rest. Some of the men from the first and second class cabins were standing beside the officer."
Albert Caldwell, a second cabin passenger, had a closer view of the same scene from the deck of the Titanic: (The Times Dispatch (Richmond, Va.) April 20, 1912 and other newspapers)
"A second cabin passenger, who was taken to the Chelsea Hotel, said that he saw a man, who was pointed out to him as .Major Butt, standing alongside one of the lifeboats.
"He was in his shirt sleeves. In his right hand ho held a revolver, and as the crowd made toward the boat I heard him shout: 'Stand back, you men. Women and children first. I'll shoot the first man that tries to enter a boat.'
"This held them back. As I was shoved to one side I heard a pistol shot, but whether it was from his revolver I don't know. "
Steerage passengers, who had been kept below while the first and second cabin women were loaded into lifeboats, broke through the barriers and flooded the boat deck. At some point, Murdoch had given an order to load No. 15. We know that No. 15 and No. 13 were loaded concurrently from the accounts given by Irish steerage women who, once they reached the boat deck, could enter either boat.
Shoots Four Men Dead
The loading process was the same at every lifeboat. Some crew members would be sent into the boat to help the women and children who would be passed in by other crew members still on deck. It appears that whoever went into No. 15 first, got a surprise. An Associated Press story that was widely syndicated told of what one of the Irish girls saw:
[by The Associated Press]
New York, April 19—...A thrilling story was told by Ellen Shine, a 20 year old girl from County Cork, Ireland, who came here to visit a brother.
“Those who were able to get out of bed,” said Miss Shine, “rushed to the upper decks, where they were met by the members of the crew, who endeavored to keep them in the steerage quarters. The women, however, rushed by these men, knocking them down, and finally reached the upper decks. When informed that the boat was sinking most of them fell to their knees and began to pray.
Shoots Four Men Dead
“I saw one of the lifeboats and made for it. In it were four men from the steerage. They were ordered out by an officer and refused to leave. Then one of the officers jumped into the boat, and drawing a revolver, shot the four men dead. Their bodies were picked from the bottom of the boat and thrown into the sea.”
No. 15, you will recall, was the boat "full of men" seen by Bertha Watt, the boat the McCoy sisters saw emptied at gunpoint. And obviously the boat where at least four of those men hid until they were discovered.
Who were the stowaways? In 2011, an amazing book was published about the Titanic's Arab passengers---'The Dream and Then the Nightmare' by Leila Salloum Elias. The author did what hadn't been done in almost 100 years; she scoured Arab-language newspapers from 1912 and interviewed family members of survivors, and those that didn't survive, to tell, for the first time, the stories of a segment of Titanic's passengers that had been all but forgotten. And she tells the story openly, and without guile, the good with the bad, including the names of men who were shot on the Titanic as they tried to get into lifeboats to save their lives.
In the book, she tells the story of Latifah al-Haj Qurban al-Ba-qlini, who has come down through history with the Anglicized name Latifah Baclini. Mrs. Baclini told the newspaper Al-Huda that she saw three Syrian men shot and killed by officers while hiding in a boat. That's the key. There's only one shooting account that involves men 'in' a boat---Ellen Shine's.
Another witness, and names. Elias names at least two of the men killed at boat No. 15---Tannus Butros Ka'wi, 21, and Sarkis Lahhud Ishaq, 35. Tannus, the story goes, had been caught in the middle of the tension between Turks and Lebanese. He shot and killed two Turk-supporters who were stealing sheep, but was forced to go into hiding, and eventually flee to America to start a new life. Sarkis was coming to the U.S. to stay with his mother at the request of his father who had taken ill and would stay in his home village.
He was travelling with the Nakid family. (Said Nakid, his wife Mary Nakid and their 13-month-old daughter Mariyam escaped in No. 15.)
"I'll shoot the first man who jumps into a boat."
Identifying who fired shots becomes near impossible at this stage as it seems many crewmen had guns and were willing to use them.
Margaret Mannion told her grandson how the Irish passengers stormed the top deck. Her story, as he remembered it, was carried in the Connacht Tribune, December, 2002.
"Down below, Margaret recalled, the third class passengers began to get very panicky, especially as water started to rise about their feet. At last, one brave Irishman jumped up and said, “Tis do or die” and the rest of the men agreed. They stormed down the corridors followed by the ladies in their light clothes."
"They were stopped by a large barrier at the foot of a stairway, put there to stop steerage passengers mingling on upper decks, but a few strong fellows managed to smash it down. They moved on. At one stage a sailor tried to stop them, but they took care of him and soon reached the top where there were two more sailors standing with guns. They tried to threaten the passengers by firing shots in the air but this did not frighten the men, Margaret recalled. They just threw the sailors out of their way and rushed to the lifeboats followed by the women and children. The second class passengers were just about to board the boats. The sailors had no other choice but to let the third class women and children into the boats."
Irish passenger Bertha Mulvihill: (Providence Journal, April 20, 1912)
"Some of the Italian men from way down in the steerage were screaming and fighting to get into the lifeboats. Captain Smith stood at the head of the passageway. He had a gun in his hand."
"Boys," he said. "You've got to do your duty here. It's the women and children first, and I'll shoot the first man who jumps into a boat."
Eugene Daly (interviewed by Dr. Frank Blackmarr aboard the Carpathia)
"Finally some of the women and children were let up, but, as you know, we had quite a number of hot-headed Italians and other peoples who got crazy and made for the stairs. These men tried to rush the stairway, pushing and crowding and pulling women down, some of them with weapons in their hands."
Alice and Agnes McCoy, their brother, and their cousin had reached the lifeboats. The girls were about to get into No. 15.
"The girls put off in the last boat that left the ship, but not before three shots rang out from the officer's in command, and as many Italians dropped in their rush to precede them." (Three Shot By Officers As The Last Boat Put Off, Toronto Telegram, April 19, 1912)
Steerage passenger Elizabeth Dowdell was right in the middle of the melee. She was escorting a five-year-old girl, Virginia Ethel Emmanuel, to her grandparents home in New York, NY. Her account was in the Hudson Dispatch, April 20, 1912.
"When we tried to get to the deck the stairways were so crowded that we could not get to the deck above. Men and women were climbing over each other here, and it was impossible for them to move. They appeared to me to be steerage passengers, and their cries and curses were terrible to hear."
"Finally some of the men passengers realized that it would be impossible to get up by the stairways, and they hoisted the women and children to seamen on the gallery above. They clasped their hands together, to enable the women to step upon them and reach out to those who would grasp them."
""When we arrived on deck nearly al lof [sic] the boats were off. They were just filling No. 13... My charge and I were carried bodily into Boat No. 13."
"Several men tried to rush in on us before we were lowered. I saw an officer shoot three of them. The others stopped immediately."
They Shot Him and Pushed His Body Into the Ocean.
Berta Nilsson was right there. She survived the Titanic, stayed in America, got married, raised a family and kept her secret of what happened that night for more than sixty years right up to the day she died.
Twenty-four years after her death, Nilsson's daughter went to Sweden to reconnect with her distant relatives. What she learned about her mother and her dark secret left her stunned.
Berta had written letters home after the disaster. In them she told her story, the story she kept from her children and grandchildren. Her daughter, Dorothy Christensen Cherry, of Salt Lake City, Utah, shared what she discovered with the local newspaper:
http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=2483380&itype=NGPSID&keyword=&qtype=
"Nilsson was asleep in her third-class cabin on the night of April 14 when she was shaken awake by her fiancé, who told her to get dressed and don her life preserver. Although the ship's officers barricaded the third-class passengers from reaching the lifeboats, Edvard somehow broke through and ushered Berta to the rail."
"She boarded (the lifeboat) - with Edvard at her side. But the ship's officers, who gave preference to women and children, ordered him out of the boat. When Edvard refused to leave his fiancé's side, they shot him and pushed his body into the ocean."
Berta's fiance was Edvard Larsson-Ronsberg from Ransbyster, who had gone to Sweden to bring her back with him to Missoula, Montana.
The shooting was evidently witnessed by a steward, C.W. Fitzpatrick:
Journal of Commerce
30/4/12
Mr.Fitzpatrick, one of the stewards, stated in an interview that on Sunday, April 14, as he was serving the lunch of the engineers' mess, the chief steward, who had been an old
seafaring man, said that he knew ice was in the vicinity by the smell of the air.
"We retired to our cabin, which was situated on deck above the engine room, and were settling down to sleep when we were aroused by a sudden lurch of the vessel. After a few minutes the
engines were stopped. I inquired the reason for the sudden stoppage of the engines. After being informed that the ship had struck an iceberg and that she was not seriously injured, I settled myself to sleep again. I was awakened by a fireman. I went on deck and the ship was listing to port.
Fitzpatrick told how he saw a "foreigner" shot dead at one of the lifeboats, and again on the opposite side of the ship.
"A passenger tried to claim a seat in one of the boats. The officer told him to leave at once and as he hesitated a revolver shot was fired and he dropped dead in the water."
There was another witness to the shooting of Berta Nilsson's fiance.
Said Nakid told his story to the Waterbury Republican (April 25, 1912, recounted in The Dream and Then the Nightmare, Elias, 2011):
He said he placed his wife and daughter into the lifeboat but sailors pushed him away and ordered him to stay back.
"At this point that Sa'id saw another boat about to be lowered. The lifeboat was almost filled with only women when Sa'id saw a man attempt to board," wrote Elias.
"The sailors held him back but he managed to break thru them and jumped into the boat. When he stood up, a sailor pulled a revolver and shot him. The man's body tumbled over the side of the boat and that was the last I saw of him."
And still the carnage wasn't over.
L'homme qui d'une main tient un revolver, tire sure lui et l'abat
Paul Mauge, the only survivor from the Titanic's restaurant staff, was the secretary to Mr. Rousseau, the head chef. His account was published in Le Devoir, April 22, 1912, under the headline "La narration de Paul Mauge, un rescape". (The translation is mine.)
Mr. Mauge told how he met up with Chef Rousseau and they went up to the "third class bridge" (The C Deck promenade, I believe he means).
"At this site the terror was undescribable. We tried in vain to calm those surrounding us, then we went looking for a way to the second class bridge. (On the Boat Deck)
"A steward stopped us. However, he let us pass after recognizing us."
Mauge spotted a lifeboat, "half-empty", and in the davits suspended 15 feet below the boat deck.
"I convinced my companion to jump into the lifeboat, but the distance scared him. To encourage him I jumped in and called him to do it too. Voices told me to shut up while one of the men already in the lifeboat tried to throw me in the water. I clung to the gunwale, I was saved. At the very moment as I recovered my balance, a mother on the bridge of the Titanic threw me her baby. Two men threw her in, in turn."
"Suddenly, bangs could be heard. A passenger suddenly driven mad was shooting a gun in all directions. Our lifeboat was afloat, to starboard a man fell into the sea trying to snatch the gunwhale, a sailor armed with a knife tried to make him let go, the man who had a gun his one hand, fired at him and killed him. He hauled himself into the lifeboat and took his place.
Mauge's description of another lifeboat that almost swamped his leaves no doubt he was saved in Lifeboat No. 13.
The poor dead sailor can't be identified. But who fired the shot that killed him?
It was a male passenger who was saved in No. 13. But the meager options (Dodge, Oxenham, Beesley, Caldwell, Hyman, Johanessen, de Messemacher, Sap) offer no good, viable suspects. Not, that is, until you get to the last three---the professional gamblers---Harry Homer aka E. Haven, 40; George Brereton aka George Brayton, 37; and Charles Romaine aka Mr C. Rolmane aka C.H. Romacue, 45.
A professional cardsharp with a gun? For protection, of course. No surprise, there.
Ruthless? Risk-taker? Not out of the question.
But which of the three? Romaine, at 45, seems a bit old for such daring-do. But the youngest,
Brereton/Brayton was the most brash. Unafraid of the press, even as male survivors were being ostracized, he gave numerous interviews. Like Woody Allen's Zelig, he's everywhere.
Brayton saw the iceberg before it hit the Titanic. He saw J.J. Astor say farewell to his wife. He saw producer Henry Harris part from his wife. He saw Captain Smith get swept off the Titanic by a wave. He saw a steward shoot a foreigner who tried to get into a lifeboat before a group of women.
Perhaps, most importantly, Brereton told one reporter he leapt into the ocean and swam to a lifeboat.
And, there's support for that story. An interview with Molly Brown was published in the Denver Post, April 19, 1912, in which she said she had been on deck taking a walk with Harry Haven and George Brayton when the Titanic hit the iceberg. She was knocked off her feet.
“In the twinkle of an eye Mr. Haven was gone and Mr. Brayton and I lay stunned on deck. For the next few minutes I don’t know what I did. I have a recollection of running to my room in the awful darkness, grasping what jewels I had and hurrying out on the deck."
Mr. Brayton, she said, had also abandoned her. The next she knew of him, he had jumped overboard with a life preserver. He floated in the ocean for four hours, she said, no doubt repeating the story he told her on the Carpathia.
There's no concrete evidence he shot the sailor in No. 13 and took his place, but George Brereton would sure be a "person of interest" in any murder investigation into the sailor's death.
****Part Three of Six****
Saturday, March 23, 2013
The Shootings on the Titanic. Part II. The only First Class Passenger shot
"Yes, I know where they are. Come along and I'll get them for you," Second Officer Charles Lightoller said.
He wrote about the moment in his memoirs. He had just been asked if he knew where the ship's guns were. He led Capt. E.J. Smith, Chief Officer Henry Wilde, and First Officer William Murdoch to an obscure locker and distributed revolvers to each of them.
"I was just going out when the Chief shoved one of the revolvers into my hands, with a handful of ammunition, and said,"Here you are. You may need it"," he recalled.
Now armed, the Titanic's senior officers returned to loading lifeboats.
The Captain, Wilde and Lightoller went to port and Murdoch to starboard.
Capt. Smith knew he had to play catch-up with the forward starboard boats. Murdoch had already sent off a hundred people in three lifeboats. Only one port boat had been launched with fewer than 25 people aboard.
Smith had had to revise his game plan on the fly. He intended to load the port boats from A Deck, only to discover at the last moment that glass windows enclosed the deck and it would take valuable time that he didn't have to remove them. All the women who had been sent to A Deck were marched back up to the Boat Deck and were being helped into boats from there.
Another change in plan involved husbands and other men at the boats. Originally, Smith had ordered the men and women separated, with the men standing back as the women were led to the deck below to the lifeboats. The men were torn between two Elizabethan values; on one hand, they were expected to follow orders, to demonstrate strength of character, to show intestinal fortitute in the face of danger; on the other, they were expected to protect and comfort their women, to be at their side when danger threatened, to stand strong in uncertain circumstances.
Mrs. Emma Bucknell told a reporter what happened when men initially heard the Captain's idea:
"Once a group of men shouted that they would not be separated from their wives if it became necessary to take to the boats and made a rush to find accommodations for themselves. The captain seemed to straighten out his shoulders and his face was set with determination."
"'Get back there, you cowards,' he roared. 'Behave yourself like men. Look at these women. Can you not be as brave as they?"
"The men fell back, and from that moment there seemed to be a spirit of resignation all over the ship. Husbands and wives clasped each other and burst into tears."
Forced to adopt Plan B, Smith reversed himself. He maintained a strict policy of "women and children only", but he would allow husbands and escorts to lead women to the lifeboats and see them in. Then they were expected to step back. The only exception was made by Lightoller who, when loading No. 6, allowed Canadian yachtsman Arthur Peuchen to climb down the davits into the boat after the sailor in charge begged for help to row.
Twenty-four women were put in Lifeboat No. 4. Among the first was 18-year-old Ruth Taussig, whose mother Tillie refused to get in if her husband couldn't go with her. Mr. and Mrs. Isidor Strauss led her maid Ellen Bird to the boat, but even when the officers agreed to make an exception for him because of his age (67), he refused to take a seat that a woman could use, and his wife insisted on staying on the Titanic with her husband of 40 years, regardless of the danger.
Frederick Kenyon told his wife he couldn't leave the Titanic as long as there was a woman or child on the ship. He kissed her goodbye and offered her the hope they would see each other again the next day.
Caroline Bonnell told a reporter for the Youngstown Vindicator that her uncle, who had pooh-poohed the danger earlier, "gallantly stood aside." He told his wife and niece he would join an acquaintance and they would follow in another lifeboat.
It was all so by the book. Dr. Alice Leader wrote to a friend from the rescue ship Carpathia:
"It is all photographed on my mind. There was no panic. Every one met death with composure---as, one said, the passengers were a set of thoroughbreds."
Almost.
Mrs. Emma Bucknell recalled to a journalist (Chester Times (Pennsylvania), April 20, 1912):
"I did not hear an outcry from the women or the men. Wives left their husbands' side and without a word were led to the boats. One little Spanish girl, a bride, was the only exception. She wept bitterly, and it was almost necessary to drag her into the boat."
Gladys Cherry wrote to her mother, also from rescue ship Carpathia:
"We had a terrible scene with a little Spanish lady who would cling to her husband and at last he threw her in our arms and asked us to take care of her. (Published in On Board RMS Titanic, George M. Behe, 2011.)
"Pepita, que seas muy feliz" ("Pepita, you'll be very happy"), were his last words, she told family members.
The distraught woman was Mrs Maria Josefa Perezde Soto y Vallejo Peñasco the 22-year-old wife of Victor de Satode Peñasco. Although sometimes described as newlyweds, the couple had actually been on a 17-month European honeymoon of which the Titanic trip was the latest adventure. Penasco, 24, you see, was fabulously wealthy.
And connected. His mother was related by marriage to Spain's Prime Minister.
The boat loaded with as many woman as wanted or could be cajoled to leave, Capt. Smith, who was personally in charge of No.8, thought it time to lower away.
Said Mrs. Taussig (New York Times, April 22, 1912), who was watching from the deck,"Capt. Smith was preparing the eighth boat to be let down. There was only one seaman in sight, but a number of stewards had rushed up between the crowding men and women. The Captain turned to the stewards and asked them if they knew how to row. They answered ‘Yes' hastily, and four of them were allowed to jump in." (None of them knew how to row and the women in the boat would have to do it for them.)
Lucy Noël Martha Leslie, Countess of Rothes had the perspective of someone in the lifeboat. (New York Herald, April 21, 1912) "Captain Smith stood shoulder to shoulder with me as I got into the life boat, and the last words were to the able seaman--Tom Jones--'Row straight for those ship lights over there; leave your passengers on board of her and return as soon as you can.'
Mrs. Taussig again:
"There was room for fourteen more after the last woman had found her place, and they all pleaded to let the men take the empty seats."
"But the Captain said that he would not allow it. I was frantic. There was that boat, ready to be lowered into the water and only half full. Then the order came to lower. The men were pleading for permission to step in, and one came forward to take a place next to his wife. I heard a shot and I am sure it was he that went down."
"Then the boat swung out from the deck. I was still with my husband, and Ruth had already disappeared below the deck. I gave a great cry---I remember perfectly calling out the name of my daughter---and two men tore me from my husband's side, lifted me, one by the head and one by the feet, and dropped me over the side of the deck into the lowering boat."
Who was the husband making the fatal dash? Isn't it obvious?
A passionate Spanish gallant responding to his new bride's heart-rending pleadings?
Who else? Fifty-seven year old George Wick? Frederick Kenyon who was ready to die as a gentleman should? Thomas Pears, 29, was a risk-taker who raced cars and motorcycles, but his British upraising suggests he would obey orders on a British ship.
Spanish histories include quotes from Penasco's wife. In her account, she says she saw an officer fire his gun in the air to stop some disorder. Unless she's referring to the shooting at No.5, it's the earliest mention of anyone firing a gun at a port boat and coincidental with Mrs. Taussig's account.
She also said she saw Victor start to climb into the lifeboat, but stepping aside to let a woman with a child enter. She said she never saw him again---lost in the hubbub.
Did he try to get into the lifeboat, step back, and try again?
The circumstantial evidence points to Victor de Satode Peñasco being shot rushing Lifeboat No. 8.
Who shot him? By that point in time, Capt. Smith, Chief Officer Wilde and Second Officer Lightoller were all carrying guns and all three were helping load No. 8.
Lightoller made it a point of pride that he never fired his revolver (although he told Titanic survivor Dr. Washington Dodge on the Carpathia that he shot in the air one time at Collapsible D to maintain order).
Some survivors said they saw Capt. Smith with a gun in his hand later in the sinking, but while several women put into No. 8 mention the Captain, not one mentions a gun.
That leaves Wilde as the most likely suspect. (No ordinary crewman would shoot a passenger in the presence of the Captain or senior officers---without orders.)
On a final note, Victor and Maria Penasco were accompanied on their honeymoon trips by a governess-slash-maid, Fermina Oliva y Ocana. In a book published on the hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic ( "Ten of the Titanic, LID Editorial, by Javier Reyero, Cristina Mosquera and Nacho Montero) the authors ask, and answer, 'what happened to the maid?'
They quote her own account of being saved. (I'll paraphrase her story in Spanish.)
She was, she said, left out of the boat when it started to lower. She started screaming. She was desperate. She was seized by an officer and thrown "like a sack of straw" into the boat, about 3 feet.
"It was the most horrible moment of my life," she said.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
The Shootings on the Titanic. The Definitive Story
It's the deepest, darkest, best-kept secret of the Titanic disaster.
And it was reported on the front page of every newspaper in North America the day the rescue ship Carpathia reached New York a hundred years ago.
How can those two statements be reconciled?
Newspaper readers in 1912 were shocked, outraged, and more than a little bit titillated at reports that officers on the sinking Titanic shot and killed steerage passengers who tried to board lifeboats ahead of women and children.
In the days and weeks after the Titanic sank, the story of shootings was repeated by newspaper syndicates and in individual survivor accounts published in daily papers in towns and cities across the U.S. and Canada.
The tale reached a crescendo in the public hearings into the sinking held in the U.S. and England. Fifth Officer Harold Lowe, one of only a handfull of officers who survived, was questioned in public over whether he shot at passengers. It's true, he said, but the shots were fired in the air to warn off anyone thinking of leaping into his lifeboat as it was lowered to the ocean, and not at anybody in particular.
And with that, the story of shootings lost steam. For the next four decades, the Titanic story was nothing more than a curiosity to be dredged up at anniversaries of the disaster. Then, in 1955 came the book A Night To Remember which introduced the dramatic tale of the sinking ocean liner to a new generation.
As amateur historians tracked down the survivors who were still alive, held reunion conventions and published newsletters, interest in the Titanic grew and with it, the stories of shootings of passengers. A consensus developed that the shooting stories were bogus, invented by yellow journalists of the day to spice up their Titanic coverage.
But...then some personal letters of survivors surfaced, relating the story of officers shooting passengers shortly before the Titanic took its final plunge. And the consensus shifted a bit to include the possibility that there might have been one incident where two frenzied men might have been shot down. Maybe.
The new consensus is just as wrong as the old one.
More than 50 survivors saw with their own eyes passengers shot to keep them from swamping lifeboats. As well, at least two of Titanic's crew were shot dead, one by a passenger.
An estimated 27 men were shot in at least 16 different incidents. Remember, the Titanic covered an area of four city blocks square and the sinking took two and a half hours.
I can hear it now. How could this be? How could such a historical fact be missing from the history books?
Well, it's not.
Each of the shooting incidents was reported somewhere, or else how would we know they happened? It's just that nobody---until now---collected them all, correlated them with lifeboats, and pieced together when and where they happened.
Here, then, for the first time ever, is the true and full story of the men who were shot and killed during the evacuation of the Titanic. You will learn the circumstances of each shooting, the names the men who did some of the shooting, and the identities of many of the men who were shot.
**************
First Blood.
No way. Too early. It's impossible.
My sentiments exactly when I first discovered the story. But the harder I looked, the louder the evidence spoke until it couldn't be denied any more.
Nobody wanted to leave the Titanic when the loading of the first lifeboat started. Officers cajoled, pleaded with, instructed, encouraged, and begged women and their male companions to enter Boat No. 7. They did everything but hurl them in bodily, until, finally, they convinced honeymooning couple Helen Bishop and her husband Dickinson Bishop to step in. The precedent set, other couples began to climb into the boat and the loading began.
The loading of the next boat, No. 5, went smoother. People who passed on getting into No.7 were now eager to climb into a lifeboat. But--- the first signs of disorder on the ship broke out unexpectedly---and it wasn't from steerage passengers.
While First Officer William Murdoch begged men to get into No.7 with the women, at No. 5 the men were getting mixed signals. Seven men were allowed in---most to accompany their wives or sweethearts---but others were held back. First cabin passenger Charles Stengel testified at the Senate Inquiry:
Mr. STENGEL.
After my wife was put in a lifeboat she wanted me to come with them, and they said, "No; nothing but ladies and children."
The boat was nearly filled to Murdoch's satisfaction when men started jumping into the boat.
First ,Edwin Kimball jumped in to be with his wife. Then, Norman Chambers, whose wife was also in No. 5. But it wasn't until Dr. Henry Fraunthal and his brother Isaac Fraunthal leaped into the lifeboat to join their wives that Murdoch became agitated.
Bedroom steward Henry Etches described the scene to the Senate Inquiry:.
"There was a stout gentleman, sir, stepped forward then. He had assisted to put his wife in the boat. He leaned forward and she stood up in the boat, put her arms around his neck and kissed him, and I heard her say, "I can't leave you," and with that I turned my head. The next moment I saw him sitting beside her in the bottom of the boat, and some voice said "Throw that man out of the boat." But at that moment they started lowering her away, and the man remained."
That stout gentleman was Dr. Henry Fraunthal who weighed about 250 pounds. He not only remained in the boat, but his brother Isaac jumped in after him. Crewmen who survived the sinking of the Titanic said they worried that the lifeboats would buckle if they held too many people while still on the davits, so you can imagine their reaction to the sudden strain of two men, one huge, suddenly added to the boat.
First class passenger Charles Stengel again:
"I saw two, a certain physician in New York and his brother, jump into the same boat my wife was in. Then the officer or the man that was loading the boat, said "I will stop that. I will go down and get my gun"."
But Murdoch, "the man that was loading the boat", would have to wait to be armed.
The ship's firearms were under the control of the First Officer, who Murdoch was. But there had been a reshuffle of senior officers before the Titanic started its maiden voyage. Surviving officer Charles Lightoller explained it in his book 'Titanic and Other Ships' published in 1935:
"Owing to the Olympic being laid up, the ruling lights of the White Star Line thought it would be a good plan to send the Chief Officer of the Olympic, just for the one voyage, as Chief Officer of the Titanic, to help, with his experience of her sister ship. This doubtful policy threw both Murdoch and me out of our stride; and apart from the disappointment of having to step back in our rank, caused quite a little confusion. Murdoch, from Chief, took over my duties as First; I stepped back on Blair's toes, as Second..."
Murdoch had to go to Lightoller, who was now the keeper of the weapons, to get a gun. But Lightoller was busy loading Lifeboat No. 6, so Murdoch would have had to wait. He saw that No. 5 was lowered, then began loading No. 3.
The first rocket went off. Robert Hichens, who would be sent off in charge of No. 6, told the Senate Inquiry the first signal rocket went up before his boat left the ship. This confirms that Murdoch started loading No.3 even as No. 6 was still being loaded on the port side.
Henry Sleeper Harper and his wife were first to get in, it seems. In Harper's Weekly, April 27, 1912, Sleeper Harper told his story:
"Presently a number of stewards and other men of the ship's company began to fuss with the tackle of a couple of life-boats near where we were on the upper deck...We took a look at both boats. My wife thought the one farther off was better because there would be hardly a dozen people left to go in it after the big boat beside us was filled. I looked them both over, saw that the farther boat had no watertight compartments in it while the one near had; so I said," No, let's take this. It will float longest."
"With that I handed my wife down into the nearer, bigger boat and she comfortably seated herself on a thwart."
There was no reluctance to climb into Lifeboat No. 3.
Daisy Spedden's Diary,
April 10 - 18, 1912
There was a little group of men gathered on the deck at this time, and they were ordered by Chief Officer Murdoch to wait while Burns, Alice, D., F. and I were put in the boat. It was so dark we could hardly see where we were stepping, and as the boat was clear of the ship by a few feet, the short legged people had to be practically thrown in. I was placed up on the side of the boat, while B. and D. were on the middle seat, the latter stretched out with a rug over him and his head on B's lap, while F. and Alice were standing near me...
The diary refers to F, her husband Fred Spedden; D, her son Douglas; their nanny, Margaret Burns; and their maid, Helen Alice Wilson.
Mrs. Vera Dick, of Calgary, was asked by a reporter for the Saskatoon Daily Phoenix (April 20, 1912) "How was it so many men were saved?"
"They were permitted to get into the first two lifeboats as no one seemed quite to realise (sic) the danger. Then officers began to reserve the places for the women..."
Mr. Charles Hays assisted his wife and her maid into No. 3 and his son-in-law Thornton Davidson assisted his wife. Both men then stood aside.
Edith Graham was interviewed by the Trenton Evening Times (April 20, 1912) about how she, her daughter and Elizabeth Shutes, her daughter's governess, escaped:
"Mr. Roebling and Mr. Case bustled our party of three into the boat in less time than it takes to tell it. They were both working hard to help the women and children. The boat was fairly crowded when we three were pushed into it. A few more men jumped in at the last moment, but Mr. Roebling and Mr. Case stood at the rail and made no attempt to get into the boat."
Thomas Cardeza told the New York Sun (April 27, 1912):
"... we went back to the forward part of the starboard side and found a boat that was being loaded and they were calling for women to get in. My mother got in with her maid.The officer called for other women, but there were none thereabout. Then he called for men passengers. There were only about six just there, of whom I was one, and we got in."
The men climbed eagerly into the boat. Thomas Cardeza and his valet Hammad Hassab. Col. Alfons Simonius, Max Stahelin, Harry Anderson, Adolf Saalfield. Gustav Leseur, Henry Sleeper Harper's valet, "made himself quite at home," according to his employer.
A hundred years after the sinking, Walter Hawksford's granddaughter recalled a family legend for the local Weymouth, England, newspaper, the Dorset Echo.
Said Bridget Penney, “He was standing near lifeboat number three and they were a rower short. First officer William Murdoch turned and said ‘Is there anyone here who can row?’ “He put his hand up."
Even then, said Cardeza, there was room for more.
"The boat was still not filled, so the officer put in some of the crew."
Henry Sleeper Harper watched the boat fill up.
"Four or five stokers or some such men came along and jumped into the boat at the forward end. The sailor who seemed to be in charge of the boat laughed a little."
"Huh!" he said, "I suppose I ought to go and get my gun and stop this." But he did not go and get any gun and neither did he order the stokers out."
"Everybody seemed to take what was happening as a matter of course and there wasn't a word of comment. I stepped in and sat down among the stokers. There was no one in sight on the decks... I had on my arm a little brown Pekingese spaniel we had picked up in Paris...nobody made any objection."
The "sailor in charge", apparently AB George Moore who was in charge of No. 3 when it was launched, was clearly mocking Murdoch, for his comment is almost word for word what Murdoch said at Boat No. 5 (above).
As this was happening, Mrs. Dick and her husband stood off to one side of the boat deck. Three times Mrs. Dick had been called to get into the lifeboat and each time she declined. Then something happened to change her mind. Her husband told the Calgary Daily Herald ("Mr. and Mrs. Dick Reach Home And Tell, Over Again, Story of Escape From The Titanic", April 30, 1912, P.1):
"After the sixth boat had been lowered from where A.A. Dick and his wife stood and there were no more women in sight, some men in the crowd attempted to jump into the boat. This action on the part of the men angered the officer so that he called out: "If I had a gun I would fix those fellows."
"Immediately a sailor said "Here is a gun, sir" and handed the officer one."It was not till then," said Mr.Dick, "that I was absolutely convinced that we were in really extreme danger." Then he told his wife that she had better get aboard, but she said "I will not go without you" and clung to him..."
Mrs. Dick finished the story ("Mr. and Mrs. Dick Reach Winnipeg On The Way Here", Calgary Daily Herald, April 29, 1912):
"Mr. Dick stooped to kiss me goodbye and I just held on, and the officer shoved him into the boat."
Mr. Dick revealed even more to the Toronto Star ("Mr. Dick, Calgary, Owes His Life to Wife's Devotion", April 20, 1912):
"When my wife and I got into the boat there were no women left near it, and the men who remained began to fight for places. An officer drew a revolver and threatened to shoot, and that reduced them to order, yet our boat was nearly upset."
"The sailor who seemed to be in charge ordered "Lower away," said Henry Sleeper Harper in his account.
That was the story preserved for posterity.
But Helen Alice Wilson, the Spedden family maid, had a piece of the story, that never made the history books.
"While we were being put into the boat there was a mad rush of some foreigners to get in, and two Italian men were shot dead before my eyes." ("Sister of Plainfield Man Saved Little Boy", April 22, 1912, unidentified newspaper, posted on the Encyclopedia Titanica website. http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/sister-plainfield-man-saved-little-boy.html Plainfield, New Jersey, had only one newspaper in 1912, the Plainfield Daily Press.)
Daisy Spedden's diary (excerpted above) says that Alice Wilson was standing in the lifeboat. That would have given her a vantage point nobody else in the boat had.
The names of the men who were shot will never be known. Who fired the fatal shots? Fifth Officer Harold Lowe was helping load the boat with First Officer William Murdoch. Lowe put his own gun in his pocket when leaving his quarters. As he told it to the British Inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic:
6301. Now, what did you do after you went out on the deck and ascertained the position of the ship in the water, and saw what had occurred?
- I first of all went and got my revolver.
6302. What for?
- Well, sir; you never know when you will need it.
Murdoch, on the other hand, would have needed the loan of a gun.
He didn't get his own revolver until after No. 3 left the ship. Second Officer Lightoller told that story in his memoirs. He had just lowered Lifeboat No. 6 when he was approached about arming the ships' officers.
"It was about this time that the Chief Officer came over from the starboard side and asked, did I know where the firearms were?"
"...Murdoch, who was now First Officer, knew nothing about the firearms and couldn't find them when they were wanted..."
"...into the First Officer's cabin we went---the Chief, Murdoch, the Captain and myself where I hauled them out, still in their pristine newness and grease."
"The whole incident had not taken three minutes..."
Henry Stengel was one of only five passengers in Lifeboat No. 1, the next boat after No. 3 to leave the Titanic. As a single man (his wife went off in No.5) he kept a close eye on who was allowed into the lifeboats and who wasn't. In what appears to be his first account of the disaster (Newark Evening News, April 19, 1912, Stengel Tells Tragedy Story) he said:
"Some boats that could hold fifty were lowered with only twenty-five and even though there was room for men none was allowed to go. A mate said that only women and children could go after oars were manned and he said he would shoot any man who tried to get in. He fired a revolver off in the air to show it was loaded and that he meant business."
The nautical definition of a "mate" is more than just a member of the ship's crew. One definition, especially in British usage, means a deck officer just below the master. That would fit Murdoch perfectly at Boat No.3.
The big question is why three starboard-side boats were lowered in the time it took only one portside boat to be launched. The answer is less complicated than it appears.
As I discovered, the order to load the lifeboats was given by Captain Smith about 12:10 a.m. the morning after the Titanic hit the iceberg. This was roughly half an hour after the collision.
http://titanicsecrets.blogspot.com/2009/07/first-boats-cutting-gordian-knot.html
The Titanic's lifeboats, at the bow at least, had already been cleared, and lowered in their davits even with the boat deck. But the officers at the opposite ends of the ship had quite different ideas of how to load the passengers.
On the starboard side, Murdoch was in charge. He loaded the boats sequentially from the boat deck. That is, he filled No. 7 first, lowered No.7, then filled No. 5, lowered No. 5, then did the same with Nos. 3 and 1 boats.
On the port side, Chief Officer Wilde was in charge under the ultimate supervision of Capt. Edward Smith. Smith intended to load the boats from A Deck. To that end, he had Boats 4, 6 and 8 lowered one deck further to A. At the same time he separated the women on his side of the boat from the men and sent the women down the stairs to A Deck to wait for the order to climb into the boats.
Wilde, it would appear, intended to load his forward boats concurrently, just as he later loaded the aft boats (Nos. 12, 14 and 16) under his command.
First Class passenger Helen Candee was one of the women following orders. She wrote a detailed memoir for her family about her experience on the Titanic. You can read it here:
http://www.charlespellegrino.com/passengers/helen_candee.htm
In her account, she wrote:
"Captain Smith’s big voice called out an order:- “Lower all life-boats to the promenade deck, the deck below. Passengers will take the boats there!” My impulse was to remind him of the plate glass which would prevent passengers. But a Captain is to be obeyed, not informed..."
"... Woolner and I descend to the promenade deck. It was no surprise to see life-boats hanging unreachable on the outside of the unbreakable plate-glass. We sought the Captain. [going back the way we came.]"
"[Woolner]: “Beg your pardon, Sir, but the plate glass is too heavy to break and boats cannot be reached.”
“My God! I forgot it!” said Captain Smith in anguished humility. Then in the same breath -- an order. “Raise the life-boats! The passengers will take life-boats from this deck.”
Note her mention of lifeboats, plural. If the order to load the boats was given at approximately 12:10 a.m., Wilde would have spent about 10 minutes (at 3 minutes a boat) lowering three lifeboats to A deck and getting all the women in the vicinity down the stairs and ready for loading. Murdoch, on the other hand, would have spent that time loading No. 7 and getting the boat off the ship.
Ten minutes is also the estimated length of time that Capt. Smith was away from the bridge to visit the engine room. When he returned, he was informed that A Deck was enclosed by glass and the women couldn't be loaded from there until the glass was removed. This was exactly what Mrs. Candee said and her companion Hugh Woolner confirmed separately.
It appears Wilde then ordered Boats 8 and 6 to be raised to the boat deck, but left No. 4 at the level of A Deck. By the time he actually began loading No. 6, Murdoch had finished seeing off No. 5 and had turned to No.3.
No. 6 launched, No. 3 gone, Lightoller picked up the story with Murdoch approaching Wilde for a gun and Wilde coming to Lightoller.
In the next chapter of the story, Capt. Smith, Wilde, Murdoch, Lightoller and Lowe all have guns. But only one of them almost sparked an international incident.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Luigi Finole's account in his own words. Or not?
First hand accounts are the gold standard of Titanic research.
Unfiltered by reporters, rewrite men, or well-meaning relatives, they tell the story of a survivor's experience in his or her own words, frequently revealing valuable details of the Titanic story.
The only thing better is the first-hand story of a survivor whose tale has never, or rarely, been reported.
I've found several interviews of steerage passenger Luigi Finole, but this one is my favorite. You will immediately see why.
I've only come across it in two newspapers: New York Post, April 20, 1912, Page 8 and the Reading Eagle, April 20, 1912, Page 3. For the longest time I wasn't sure it was legitimate.
As a newspaper reporter for half my career as a journalist, I know how to "read" a newspaper story. That is, I can tell how a story was built, what questions were likely asked, who the sources were (often), and so on.
This story was a challenge. It was likely written by a stringer for either the New York Post or the Reading Eagle because it was so inconsequential. That means a reporter who was not on staff, but was hired to go to the dock where the Carpathia arrived to float. He was to gather interviews with whomever he could pigeonhole while the staff reporters chased the rich and famous survivors.
The story mentions the subject was interviewed on the pier. Access to the pier was severely limited and everyone permitted to approach had to be screened. You either had to have a relative aboard the Titanic or to be a member of the press. So, even for an unaccompanied Italian immigrant who speaks broken English to be there means he was undoubtedly off the Carpathia.
The story was published April 20, two days after the Carpathia delivered the Titanic's passengers to shore. That indicates it was considered too minor to make the April 19 paper which, of course, was filled with the broad story of the sinking of the Titanic plus as many accounts as possible of how the ship's more prominent passengers survived or died.
And why not? It's the story of a steerage passenger nobody ever heard of who had little exciting to say. It starts with the alleged survivor himself saying that his name is not on the survivor list. How much less interesting could the story be?
Add the fact that he's identified as Phillipo Franginoli, a name that's unknown even today, when passenger lists are available on the Internet and when the names of all Titanic survivors have been checked and rechecked by Titanic buffs.
Why, then, imagine that he's the Luigi Finole from Philadelphi who survived the Titanic and not one of the many fraudulent survivors that sprang up in the wake of the Titanic? The answer lies in what popped up when one day I decided to search for Phillipo Luigi Finole.
In 1927, Filippo D'Angelo, an Italian living in Pennsylvania, applied for American citizenship and his naturalization petition was online. He had been in the country since 1920, it said. His application was supported by two witnesses. The first witness was Luigi Finoli.
Publication Number:
M1522
Publication Title:
Naturalization Petitions for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1795-1930
Publisher:
NARA
National Archives Catalog ID:
573414
National Archives Catalog Title:
Petitions for Naturalization, compiled 1795 - 1991
Record Group:
21
State: Pennsylvania
Short Description:
NARA M1522. Naturalization petitions for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania 1795-1930.
Roll:
309
Court:
US Circuit Court
Year:
1927
Date:
1927-02-10
Immigrant Full Name:
Filippo D'Angelo
Document Type:
Petition for Naturalization
Home Country:
Italy
Witness 1 Full Name:
Luigi Finoli
Witness 2 Full Name:
Luigi Michetta
Year Immigrated:
1920
Original data from:
Naturalizations - PA Eastern
These are Naturalization Records of the US Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Compare the names. Phillipo Franginoli and Fillipo D'Angelo. They're too close to be coincidence.
Did Luigi Finole give the reporter a false name? That certainly wouldn't be unusual as anybody who has studied the Titanic survivors knows. Or was he pretending to be Fillilpo D'Angelo and the reporter misunderstood the name, seeing as it was given in thick broken English?
The interview certainly has the ring of truth. It doesn't contain any false heroics that are a staple of bogus survivor stories. Instead it's the simple story of a steerage passenger who was offended by the swearing of crewmen and who was ashamed of his own helplessness in the face of women and children facing certain death.
And finally, what makes this story unique is the reporter's style---telling the story in his subject's voice with no interruptions. Priceless.
Wreck As Seen By The Steerage
New York, April 20---"My name notta on de list? Allrighta, but I'm here!"
Phillipo Franginoli, third classs passenger on the titanic, hugged a little bundle closely under his arm as he stood on the pier."
"Sure, I was comen back o de States for de make-a de mon'! Me make-a de mon' over here! Diavolo! I am so shake that I canno spik! De sheep w'en she strike de ice? W'at happen den? I was sound asleep, an' you know in dose sheeps de stee'ge passagire ees far down. So w'en I feel kind-a shiver an' shake I turn over an' go 'sleep 'gain. Bimeby, come boy. He say, 'Get up! Sheep doin' sink!' I say 'Go way! Bimeby (by-and-by...ed.) I hear croosh, croosh. And I hear feets ronning all round an' Ieesten. Den I hear somebody say 'De boats! Run for de boats!' Per Baccho, I jomp up an' go lok for see w'at she has 'appen! Dere was a woman crying.
" 'In de steer'ge was many dat wan' be save! Signor, dose in de bad part of de sheep want be save same as mans and womens wid de mon' dat buys de bes beeg room! I'm onlee poor Italian, work for liven'---work hard, an' when I see so mooch cry, so mooch unhapp', I say, 'Phillipo, you help dose. An' so I try help! De officiere was joompin' round givin' words to evereebodee w'at to do, and I couldn't get no chance.
" 'Get out of the way!' dey says to me an' I went straight up in de front of de sheep, and' dere I wait. Bimeby I hear officiere saying "Room for all, women first!' Den I see de lots peoples all crowd togedder an' den de boats begin leave. I donno what happen w'en de boats dey gone. Dere was one womans next to me an' she said, ve'quiet, 'Ees de water cold?' I look at her an' she put her face in her han's an' was cry. I say 'Maybe more boats come quick to save us.' 'No,' she say,'I'm goin' have to drown---an' its so terrible cold!'
"Was I 'fraid? No, Signor, I was no 'fraid! De onlee ting dat I was leesten to was de croosh-crossh of de water an' de begs of de women dat could not be save. Some say 'Oh, God, help us.' Some say 'Deat 'ees too hrr'bl!' Joost w'en all was quiet I hear a baby---a leetle babmino. Signor, cry an'den my heart come t'rogh my face, an' I feel such a awful sadness! Not for me myeself, Signor, but for dose poor womens an' bambinos.
""an' so de sheep she being seenk. She deed not go fas', joost leetle by leetle, an'all the time dere was music playin'. De Capitano was doin' bes' he know, but we keep goin' down jus' same. De stars dey won'ful an' de water fine. De boats was all vanish an' den de firemens an' de enginemen come on de deck. Dey spoke bad words, Signor, an' dey hitted each odder bad. Somebody knock me down as he pass. I stand up; I get knock down 'gain an' I stan' up, and bimeby de sheep goof one ver' bad---how you say---stagg'r, an' she begin go down.
"De womens, Signor, dey run so fast can from de water, an' de mens dey say bad things. One-two-t'ree presto! I hear onlee de screams an' de soun' of de water tryin' to get into my ears as I go down. Bimeby boat come along an' de mens pull me in. Da's all, Signor, onlee say prayer for de odders."
-30-
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Lady Duff Gordon, Short Skirt Advocate
In the search for scapegoats following the Titanic disaster, nobody not named Bruce Ismay was more villified than Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon and his wife.
Duff Gordon, rich, titled and Scottish, was accused of buying his way into a lifeboat along with his wife and her secretary Laura Francatelli. Compounding the allegation was the charge that the Duff Gordons argued against returning to rescue people who went down with the ship.
The fact that his lifeboat, built to save 40, only held five passengers and seven crewmen didn't help his defence. Neither did his offer in the boat to cover the cost of replacing the personal kits of his oarsmen.
One of the officers who loaded the lifeboat and some of the crew that manned the boat testified at a public inquiry that there were literally no other passengers in the vicinity of that lifeboat. But it wasn't enough to remove the taint from the Duff Gordons.
Maybe it was spillover from the fact that Lord Duff Gordon had married a divorcee, still scandalous in 1912. Or that Lady Duff Gordon's sister Elinor Glyn was a novelist who wrote mass market women's erotic fiction.
Nevertheless, the reputation of the Duff Gordons was ruined, first in the press and then by being interrogated like accused criminals at a public inquiry.
As this obituary shows, Lady Duff Gordon never forgot, nor forgave:
The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Washington
April 22, 1935 Page 5
----- Obituary ------
Elinor Glyn's
Sister Passes
Lady Duff Gordon, Survivor of
Titanic Disaster, Noted
as Short Skirt Advocate
London, April 21 (AP)---Lady Duff Gordon, one of the last of the dwindling survivors of the ill-fated Titanic and elder sister of Elinor Glyn, the novelist, died today at a Putney nursing home.
Formerly a well-known modiste, urged adoption and maintenance of the short skirt.
In 1910 Gordon opened a dressmaking establishment in New York, which eventually involved her in financial difficulties and litigation.
When in court during the hearing of a suit in 1919, she was asked if she had bought any Liberty bonds.
"Why should I buy any," Lady Duff Gordon replied. "This country means nothing to me. I have had nothing but trouble over here. It is an awful country."
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Fifth Officer Harold Lowe---Hero and Liar
Every calamity needs a hero. A beam of light in the darkness. A ray of hope.
Fifth Officer Harold Lowe was the hero of the Titanic disaster.
He outshone all other contenders. He showed leadership, courage, and quick-thinking. He took decisive action. He saved dozens of lives. And the biggest criticism of him was for some salty language.
Lowe took command of Lifeboat No. 14. He fired his pistol to deter frantic men from jumping into the boat as it was lowered to the ocean. He corraled four other boats and got them to tie to each other. He transferred the passengers in his boat into theirs, filled his boat with oarsmen and returned to the disaster zone to find and rescue survivors in the water. He found an overloaded collapsible lifeboat and took it in tow, then went to the aid of an overturned lifeboat on which survivors were standing precariously. Lowe overcame his own exhaustion to lead lifesaving efforts for hours until the rescue ship Carpathia arrived.
Harold Lowe is also the only witness that anyone can definitely say lied to a public inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic.
He testified truthfully to the American Inquiry. He said he slept through the collision with the iceberg. He couldn't remember being informed by another officer who came to his room. "When we sleep, we die," he said poetically.
He was roused finally by the noise of people milling about outside his quarters and was surprised to find them all wearing life-belts. He dressed and helped about the ship, he said. "The first boat I helped to lower was No. 5, starboard boat."
Lowe told a different story at the British Inquiry. They didn't ask and he didn't tell about sleeping through the crash. And his recollection of jumping into action was starkly at odds with what he told the U.S.Senate.
"The first boat I went to was No. 7." he said in England.
15808. (Mr. Rowlatt.) Why did you go round to No. 7?
- Because the people were there.
15809. What was being done at No. 7?
- Loading it with women and children.
15810. Did you assist there?
- I did.
15811. Did you see that boat lowered?
- I did; I assisted in lowering it.
15812. Then did you go to No. 5?
- I went to No. 5.
The Brits had a transcript of the Senate Inquiry, but they didn't challenge Lowe. There's no great need to undermine a hero.
There was one odd moment, though, during the questioning of a sailor who went off in Lifeboat No. 1, which had been loaded by Lowe and First Officer William Murdoch.
Out of the blue, able seaman Albert Horswell was asked:
12322. Who ordered you to get into the boat?
- The first Officer, Mr. Murdoch.
12323. Do you know Mr. Lowe?
- Yes.
12324. The fifth Officer?
- Yes.
12325. Was he about at the time?
- I did not see him.
Why did they want to establish that a sailor who knew Harold Lowe on sight hadn't seen him at No. 1? Who knows?
But that wasn't the only mystery Lowe left behind.
After lowering Lifeboat No. 1, the emergency boat at the extreme starboard front of the ship, Lowe said, he went to Lifeboat No. 14, a port boat at the diagonal opposite end of the ship. The British Inquiry asked why he went there?
15828. Where did you go then?
- I then went to No. 14.
15829. That is right aft on the other side, is it not?
- That would be the second forward boat of the after section, and the second boat from aft of the after section.
15830. Why did you go to her in particular?
- Because they seemed to be busy there.
It defies all logic.
Lowe had been working under First Officer Murdoch who was in charge of the starboard lifeboats. Boat No. 1 had the lightest load of any lifeboat---only five passengers and seven crew. There's no reason two officers had to stand by as it was lowered; it makes sense that Murdoch would have left that task to the junior officer while he went along aft where four lifeboats were waiting to be loaded.
There was a slight delay in lowering No. 1 as it got stuck on a guy wire. One crewman testified that the wire had to be chopped loose. But one of the five passengers said even that became unnecessary.
Laura Francatelli was travelling with Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon and his wife as their secretary. A personal letter she wrote to a friend which was only published in 2010 states:
"They began to lower away, then the boat became hooked up on something, the officer said Look out below, and threw down a length of steel which jarred the lifeboat loose. The dear brave officer gave orders to row away from the sinking boat at least 200 yards, he afterwards poor dear brave fellow, shot himself."
The problem with the guy wire took almost no time to fix, according to Miss Francatelli. And the officer who did it was Murdoch who many survivors later said shot himself as the Titanic made its final plunge. It makes sense that, problem fixed, Murdoch left to find women for the next lifeboat while Lowe stayed to make sure No. 1 got off safely. He testified he stayed until the boat touched the water.
It would take less time for Lowe to lower No. 1 than for Murdoch to load and lower the next lifeboat in line, No. 9. You would expect Lowe then to go to Murdoch's assistance with Boats 11, 13 and 15.
Instead, he says he crossed to port to No. 14---a section of the Titanic where there were already three other officers loading boats---Chief Officer Henry Wilde, Second Officer Charles Lightoller, and Sixth Officer James Moody.
There's about a ten to fifteen minute difference between the lowering of Nos. 1 and 14. What was Harold Lowe doing in that time period? Where was he?
We know where he wasn't.
Divide the ship's top deck into four quarters. He left the front starboard quarter after lowering No. 1 to go elsewhere. He didn't stay to load, or even clear Collapsible C, the last boat in that quadrant. He didn't go to the front port quarter; where Boats 2 and 4 were waiting to be loaded. He certainly didn't go to the starboard rear quarter where Murdoch was working.
And he didn't arrive in the port rear quarter until much later.
So we can say with confidence he wasn't on the boat deck.
The next deck, then? A Deck.
There was nothing for an officer to do on the front starboard quarter of A Deck. Lifeboats 11, 13 and 15 were lowered from the aft starboard quarter, but nobody saw Lowe helping. No boats left the aft port quarter and Boat No. 4 was lowered from the front port quarter of A Deck only after Lowe had left the ship.
So he wasn't on A Deck.
That leaves B Deck, or lower. But if we can't detect where he was, can we deduce why he was there?
And to find Why, we start with Who. In this case, 'who' would be Capt. Smith.
The Captain was usually found on or near the bridge, close to the distress signals being sent off to ships in distance and the ship everyone could see on the horizon. But, as reported here, he made one last never-before-reported trip to the boiler room in the waning moments of the Titanic's life.
Did he leave take Harold Lowe with him when he went aft?
Did the Captain, with Lowe in tow, stop to talk with First Officer Murdoch as Murdoch shifted his efforts from Nos. 9 and 11 to Nos. 13 and 15, with Officer Moody helping on A Deck? Did he take Lowe with him to the boiler room, or at least into the lower decks?
Why? To carry messages if necessary? For protection from frantic steerage passengers?
Was Lowe stationed at the stairway up to the Boat Deck to keep order in the steerage quarters, to ensure that women and children went up first, to provide the presence of an armed officer to instill a sense of British control?
Its a logical sequence of events.
First class passenger Rene Harris wrote in an account published in Liberty magazine, April 23, 1932: "Standing at a door leading to the deck, two armed officers were directing the passengers to the lifeboats."
Many years later she wrote a detailed memoir for Walter Lord in which her memory of the moment had changed slightly:
"As we reached the foot of the stairs where an armed officer was standing, he said, “Women only.”
Interestingly, while Mrs.Harris got off on Collapsible D, the last boat lowered, this sighting of an armed officer controlling access to the top deck took place much earlier.
"... Harry replied he was going to put me in a lifeboat as I had a broken arm and could not take care of myself, he allowed us to pass. When we reached the boat deck they were about to lower a lifeboat when Harry said, “Just a minute. I want to put my wife in the boat.” I wouldn’t go. I said, “I’m safer here than in that little boat and I won’t leave you. So around the deck we walked, seeing boat after boat lowered from its davits..."
Did she see Officer Lowe and possibly the master-at-arms? All other officers are accounted for during the sinking of the ship, loading lifeboats or sending off rockets.
It will take a lot more dots to connect to confirm Lowe's whereabouts between his presence at Lifeboat No. 1 and his taking command of No. 14.
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