Paul McGann
Appearances
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
Titanic: Ship of Dreams - Trailer
April the 14th, 1912. RMS Titanic is midway across the Atlantic, when suddenly... The explosive force of hitting the iceberg was a million foot-tons a second. Introducing Titanic Ship of Dreams, the new podcast from the award-winning Noiser Network. Join me, Paul McGann, as we explore life and death on Titanic.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
Titanic: Ship of Dreams - Trailer
From the captain on his last voyage before retirement to the snowball fight using pieces of iceberg. I'll delve into my own family story following my great-uncle Jimmy as he tries to escape the engine room. We'll hear the harrowing tales of the victims and the testimonies of the lucky survivors.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
Titanic: Ship of Dreams - Trailer
He cuts a lock of his hair and said, give this to my wife and tell her that I love her. I saw that ship sink. And I saw that ship break in half.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
Titanic: Ship of Dreams - Trailer
Titanic, Ship of Dreams. Coming soon. Hit follow for new episodes.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
3. Into the Atlantic…
Two decks above steerage, in the first class dining saloon, both the food and the decor are much more elaborate. The portholes here are hidden behind stunning stained glass windows. Exquisite cornicing covers the ten and a half foot high ceiling. Diners sit at private tables on tasteful padded green leather chairs.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
3. Into the Atlantic…
On Wednesday evening, Titanic leaves Cherbourg for the 300-mile journey to Queenstown in Ireland, the final stop before the real voyage begins. The ship's wealthiest passengers are just settling down to their first dinner on board, a sumptuous 11-course feast. The dining saloons on the upper decks are heavily indebted to French haute cuisine.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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In particular, the work of celebrated chef Georges Auguste Escoffier, known for his kitchens at the Ritz Hotel in Paris and the Savoy in London. Fortunately for us, some survivors of the disaster kept their first night menus as souvenirs, so we know exactly what they were eating.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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In fact, somewhat ironically given the ship's ultimate fate, Titanic has its very own Iceman on board. Adolf Mattmann, a 20-year-old confectioner from Switzerland, works in the Alucard restaurant on Bedeck, just off the ship's aft grand staircase. He is one of 400-odd catering personnel on board, and he's a man with plans for the future.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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But there's a delay, an hour of bobbing up and down by the harbour side, waiting for their ride to come in. The Grand Ocean Liner is en route from Southampton, they're told, currently running behind schedule. Eventually, the little boat sets off. It's a half-hour journey to the meeting point. Finally, the migrants get their first glimpse of the new state-of-the-art vessel they'll be travelling on.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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With food that could easily pass muster at the finest hotels in Paris and London, Titanic's luxury credentials are secure. But fine dining is nothing without something to wash it down. During the stop at Cherbourg, it wasn't just migrants brought on board. The ship also took on a very important delivery, 10,000 bottles of French wine. That's in addition to the ship's 850 bottles of spirits.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
3. Into the Atlantic…
First-class passengers expect to be able to order all the latest cocktails. There's the Clover Club, an exotic pink concoction featuring a dash of raw egg white. The Robert Burns, a warming whiskey cocktail that comes with a side of shortbread. The Punch Romaine, featuring champagne and shaved ice, often served as a palate cleanser before dessert.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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And most popular of all, on Titanic's maiden voyage, the Bronx.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Titanic's caterers have brought more than 30,000 oranges on board, partly to meet demand for the new Bronx cocktails, though it's unlikely that all the passengers ordering them know the reason behind the drink's name.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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How much is too much, at least as far as Titanic's classiest passengers are concerned, is a question best left to the imagination.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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But experiences vary. Some steerage passengers are shocked at the amount of alcohol consumed, much of it by men for whom the prospect of six consecutive days off work is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. They might not have access to the fine wines and cocktails served in the first-class lounge, but there's no shortage of Wrexham lager.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Titanic's first-class ticket holders can make use of an array of luxury facilities, from the squash court down in the bow of G-Deck to the gymnasium seven levels above. There's even a spa complex, with a heated saltwater swimming pool and elegant Turkish baths, decorated in traditional Moorish style, with chaise longue dotted around the cooling room.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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That's in addition to the mahogany-panelled smoking room on A-Deck, which evokes a gentleman's club. The stylish first-class lounge, modeled after the Palace of Versailles. The airy Georgian-style reading and writing room, complete with silk upholstered chairs. In short, there's more than enough to keep the first-class passengers occupied during the six-day voyage.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Those in steerage are expected to make their own entertainment.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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It's big, bigger than they could ever have imagined. As they approach this leviathan, gazing up at the looming black hull, they can just about pick out the name emblazoned on its starboard bow. Titanic. The name means nothing to the Lebanese travelers. Most of them don't speak a word of English. As far as they're concerned, this ship is just a means to an end.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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The biggest party animals down in steerage appear to have been the Lebanese migrants.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Ray Hanania is a journalist and broadcaster who has researched Titanic's Lebanese passengers.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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But most thrilling of all is the traditional Lebanese dance known as the Dabke.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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For the steerage passengers, lights out comes early, at around 10 PM. And while families might have their own cabins, single passengers are strictly segregated by gender. Men at the front of the ship, women at the back.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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With Titanic plying the 300-mile route from Cherbourg to Queenstown, the thousand odd passengers on board settle down to their first night at sea. The poorest of them unfold out bunks in shared cabins, the wealthiest on four-poster beds in luxurious suites. But there's one person on board who has no intention of sleeping. Esther Hart.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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The Harts are sharing a four-berth second-class cabin on the port side of the ship. With only three of the beds made up, there's plenty of room for Mrs. Hart to sit up reading at a little table, while her husband Benjamin and daughter Eva sleep soundly. The next morning, when Eva and Benjamin rise for breakfast, Mrs. Hart finally turns in.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Meanwhile, down in the boiler rooms, where my great-uncle Jimmy is working, an important safety test is taking place. Titanic's designer Thomas Andrews has joined the maiden voyage to check that everything is working correctly on board.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Together with a nine-strong team from Harland and Wolff, electricians, carpenters, decorators and more, he is ensuring the new liner is not just ship shape, but Bristol fashion as well. For the most part, Andrews is sweating the small stuff, remedying minor aesthetic snags or adding the odd extra coat hook. But today, one of Titanic's key safety features is being put through its paces.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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The watertight doors. Designed to seal off a flooded area in the event of a collision at sea. As the drill begins, bells ring out for ten seconds and red lights flash above the doorways. A warning to workers to stand well back. Then, right on cue, the automatic doors fall into place. It's an encouraging sign. One of Titanic's celebrated safety features appears to be operating flawlessly.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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The ship is now divided into a series of sealed, watertight compartments. Thanks to this technology, even four separate hull breaches wouldn't be enough to sink her. At 11am on Thursday morning, Titanic makes her final scheduled stop before the voyage proper begins. Passengers look on admiringly as the rugged coast of Ireland comes into view. Titanic anchors two miles offshore.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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The final leg of a month-long journey from their rural villages to the bustling metropolis of New York City. As the weary migrants traipse along the gangplank, they can have no idea what awaits them. Least of all, the sobering fact that of 154 Lebanese men, women, and children on board Titanic, only 29 will make it to America. From the Noisa Podcast Network, this is Titanic Ship of Dreams, Part 3.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
3. Into the Atlantic…
From the port of Queenstown, the final 123 passengers are embarked. 63 men and 60 women, along with a number of temporary visitors. Local peddlers who come on board and set up their stall fronts on the promenade deck, touting their arts, crafts and souvenirs. Most popular are some exquisite examples of traditional crocheted Irish lace.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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But amidst the cheerful atmosphere of this impromptu marketplace, a sinister omen is spotted. At the top of Titanic's fourth funnel stands a figure, soot black from head to toe. Some of the more superstitious Irish visitors are convinced it's a harbinger of death. In fact, the ghoulish figure is just one of the engine room workers. The aptly named Black Gang.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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For all we know, it might even have been my great-uncle Jimmy. Author Tim Moulton
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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For some Irish people, Titanic has already weighted with symbolic significance. The ship was built in Belfast, at the height of sectarian tensions between Protestants and Catholics.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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1 30 p.m with the irish merchants back on dry land titanic weighs anchor for the last time the 2240 passengers and crew on board settle in for the 137 hour voyage to new york One of the newest arrivals is Eugene Daly, a 29-year-old Irishman who's travelling to America in search of work. He's timed his journey carefully.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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There's a Gaelic festival in Queens the following month, and he intends to compete in the Ulam Pipes competition. Eugene is an accomplished musician, and has brought his own set of pipes on board with him. Over the next few days, he'll become a popular figure down in steerage, providing the soundtrack to many a lively Irish hoolie.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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But as Eugene and his fellow migrants bid farewell to their homeland, many of them for the last time, it's a sad tune that seems to fit the occasion. Erin's Lament Woe is to me in my grief that my sons are not here. Deep is the gloom in my soul, deep my fear. Lonely my cry brings no child to my side. Tis for others, not me, have they died.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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81 years later, during an expedition to the Titanic's wreck site, Eugene's pipes will be discovered on the ocean floor, nearly 4,000 meters beneath the surface. In the next episode, as ice warnings begin coming in over the radio, Captain Smith must decide what to do about them. Titanic's engines are put through their paces as passengers place bets on how fast the ship can go.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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And at 11.39pm on Sunday, April the 14th, something large is spotted dead ahead. That's next time You can listen to the next two episodes of Titanic Ship of Dreams right now without waiting by subscribing to Noisa Plus. Just hit the link in the episode description to find out more.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
3. Into the Atlantic…
Titanic's first-class ticket holders tend to be seasoned travellers. Many of them have made the voyage across the Atlantic several times before. Some, in fact, on Titanic's almost identical twin sister, Olympic. But down in steerage, as third class is colloquially known, a transatlantic crossing is often a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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It's March 1912. We're in Thoum, a village in rural Lebanon, 30 miles north of Beirut. It's a serene spot, dotted with olive and almond trees. The village is perched on the easternmost edge of the Mediterranean. There are spectacular views across the sea towards Cyprus. But the four men and two women gathered in Thun today are looking a lot further west than that.
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They're at the start of an epic 6,000 mile journey. A journey only some of them will survive. It begins in time-honored fashion. On the back of a donkey. Trekking slowly up the coast by day. Sleeping in tents by the side of the road at night. In Beirut, they board a freighter that will take them across the Mediterranean, all the way to the south coast of France.
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Nonetheless, as far as Titanic's owners, the White Star Line, are concerned, the steerage passengers are an important part of the financial equation. Clifford Ismay, biographer and fifth cousin of White Star chairman Bruce Ismay.
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Even so, not all Titanic's passengers are treated equally. Those travelling in steerage are subjected to medical inspections that are not required for first or second class ticket holders. Their hair is searched carefully for lice, and their eyelids peeled back to check for signs of trachoma. These intrusive procedures are not up to White Star, however.
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They are mandated by the US authorities, as are the physical barriers between the classes that stop steerage passengers from mingling with their supposed betters.
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Titanic steerage passengers have come from all over the world. The large Irish contingent are well known, thanks in part to James Cameron's hugely successful 1997 film, with its memorable depiction of a raucous party down in third class. But in fact, there are more Swedes on board than there are Irish people.
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Dr. Josiane Abisar is the great-granddaughter of one of the Lebanese migrants who boarded Titanic at Cherbourg.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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It's a five-day voyage and conditions are basic. This is no luxury liner. But eventually, after almost a week at sea, the travellers arrive in Marseille. Next comes a train journey from one end of the country to the other. They reached the northern French port of Cherbourg in early April.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Did you know that the team behind Titanic Ship of Dreams makes other podcasts too? Discover them all at Noisa.com, the home of the Noisa podcast network. Real Dictators, also hosted by me, Paul McGann, returns on April the 30th with the story of Fidel Castro. Head to Noisa.com to find out more.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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By the evening of April the 12th, when Gerios and his travelling companions board the ship in Cherbourg, the sun is beginning to set on the horizon. In fact, they've arrived just in time for dinner. They make their way along Scotland Road, the broad corridor that runs the length of the port side of Edek, named after one of my great-uncle Jimmy's old haunts in working-class Liverpool.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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From here, the third class passengers descend a small stairwell to the dining saloon, taking a seat at one of the long communal dining tables. With white tablecloths and solid wooden chairs, the decor is basic. None of the elaborate ornamentation of the first and second class dining rooms up above. Down here the ceilings are low, with visible pipes running across them.
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There's no fancy wood panelling on the walls, only painted steel. But the room is clean, light and airy. It even has portholes, so the passengers can glimpse the sky while they eat. All in all, it could be a lot worse. And as for the food? Well, it's hearty and plentiful, though what the Lebanese make of the stodgy English dishes on offer is anyone's guess.
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In fact, until very recently, only passengers traveling in first and second class on a transatlantic voyage would be catered for on board.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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White Star, it seems, take customer satisfaction seriously. Regarding both the quality of the food itself and the behavior of those serving it.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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By now they've joined up with fellow countrymen and women, more than 150 Lebanese travellers, ready to begin their voyage across the Atlantic. At Cherbourg Harbour, the migrants are bundled into a small boat. Its name is SS Traffic, and it does what it says on the tin, ferrying passengers a couple of miles out to sea, where the real deal will be waiting for them.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
9. The Long Hours Before Dawn
Sir Cosmo Doff Gordon and his wife, Lucy, otherwise known as the fashion designer Lucille. An Eton-educated baronet, Sir Cosmo isn't short of a bob or two. But his decision to offer money to the crewmen in his boat, while 1,500 people freeze to death nearby, will ultimately land Sir Cosmo in hot water.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Specifically the decision not to go back and rescue passengers who were dying in the water. Susie Miller.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
9. The Long Hours Before Dawn
With 28 empty seats in Lifeboat One, that's a lot of lives that could have been saved. Julian Fellowes.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
9. The Long Hours Before Dawn
After all, if he does survive the night, he doesn't want to wake up with a hangover. Now Joggin hears the ship begin to creak, as the weight of the stern, tilting out of the water at a steep angle, starts to rip it in two. He makes for the third-class poop deck, all the way aft. It's here that the remaining passengers are scrambling to make their last stand.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Whatever the truth about Sir Cosmo's bunch of fivers, the question of whether or not to go back and search for survivors is a tricky one.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Between the 20 lifeboats, there should be room for almost 500 more people. And yet, when it comes to it, hardly anyone else is saved.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
9. The Long Hours Before Dawn
For those in the lifeboats, it's a night of tough decisions. Some of the toughest are taken on Collapsible B, the upside-down boat that my great-uncle Jimmy is balancing on Topol, along with Second Officer Lightoller and a couple of dozen men. My brother, Stephen.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
9. The Long Hours Before Dawn
Jockin grabs hold of a railing as Titanic begins to slide into the deep. By the time she goes under, the way he tells it at least, he simply steps off into the water as it rises to meet him, like somebody gently alighting from a moving lift. Jockin claims he doesn't even get his hair wet. It's a far-fetched story, the kind you might expect from a salty sea dog.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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For men like Uncle Jimmy, it must have been a horrifying experience.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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It's not only on Collapsible B that such awful decisions are having to be made. Collapsible A, too, is very close to Titanic when she sinks. Close enough that the men and women inside it soon find themselves besieged by blokes in the water. Accounts from the official Titanic inquiry sound like something out of a zombie movie.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
9. The Long Hours Before Dawn
At least on Collapsible B there's a clear chain of command to follow, thanks to the presence of Lightoller. He is the controversial figure who launched boats half-empty rather than allowing husbands to flee with their wives, who told thirteen-year-old boys that they should act like men rather than trying to escape the sinking ship.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Now, though, Lightoller is just what his fellow survivors need if they are going to make it through the night. cometh the hour, cometh the man.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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The survivors on Collapsible B are a mixture of Titanic crew members, including hard-as-nails black gangers like Jimmy and passengers who would never normally have given them the time of day. Among them is the famous Archibald Gracie, who will later write the first book-length account of the disaster.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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But the next bit is even more extraordinary. And for the most part, at least, it seems to be true. Somehow, while almost every passenger in the water succumbs to hypothermia, Jokin survives long enough to make his way to a lifeboat. Collapsible B, the half-sunk, upside-down raft on which my great-uncle Jimmy and the ship's second officer, Charles Lightoller, are balancing precariously.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Gracie does manage to find some common ground with his fellow survivors.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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But there's another very good reason for the men on Collapsible B to pray together. It helps drown out the screams of the remaining people in the water. In some of the other boats, survivors have begun singing for the same reason. One of the songs performed that night is a popular hymnal, Pull for the Shore. Pull for the shore, sailor, pull for the shore.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Heed not the rolling waves, but bend to the oar. Safe in the lifeboat, sailor, cling to self no more. Leave the poor old stranded wreck and pull for the shore.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
9. The Long Hours Before Dawn
In Lifeboat 6, the so-called unsinkable Molly Brown gets into a furious argument with quartermaster Robert Hitchens, the man who was at Titanic's helm when the ship hit the iceboat.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
9. The Long Hours Before Dawn
Hitchens' response is brutal. He tells them that by now there's no point looking for survivors. All they'll find in the water is a load of stiffs. And he isn't entirely wrong. By the time Lifeboat 14 returns to the scene of the disaster, under the command of Fifth Officer Harold Lowe, pretty much everyone in the water is dead.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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As Lowe later explains it, he wanted to wait until the number of survivors had thinned out.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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But now that the screams have stopped, there's an eerie beauty to it all as well.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Susie Miller's great-grandfather, Tommy, is among the 1,500 who died that night.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
9. The Long Hours Before Dawn
For Titanic survivors, at around 4 a.m. on the morning of April the 15th, salvation arrives at last. They can just make out in the distance a rescue vessel, RMS Carpathia, steaming towards them. And then, as the sun begins to rise, the new dawn reveals an astonishing scene. The lifeboats are surrounded on all sides by icebergs, 20 of them at least, each one a good 200 feet high.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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A gang of men tightly gripping each other's shoulders, doing their best to prevent the flimsy wooden structure from capsizing. But there's no room for Jockin to join them. One of Titanic's cooks, Isaac Maynard, offers him a hand in the tower, but they can't risk bringing him on board and sinking the raft.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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In the next episode... As RMS Carpathia arrives on the scene, Titanic survivors are hauled aboard. White Star boss Bruce Ismay retreats to a private cabin, refusing to speak to his fellow passengers. And as Carpathia makes her way to New York, both the US Senate and the American press are already planning where to pin the blame. That's next time.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
9. The Long Hours Before Dawn
you can listen to the next two episodes of titanic ship of dreams right now without waiting by subscribing to noiser plus just hit the link in the episode description to find out more
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
9. The Long Hours Before Dawn
Jokin spends about half an hour treading water, still gripping tightly onto Maynard's hand, hoping that sooner or later, one of Collapsible B's current occupants might die of cold and slide off, leaving a space for him. But no dice. Eventually the baker decides to try another boat instead. He makes for lifeboat 12, only 50 yards or so away.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Astonished to find a survivor in the water, the crew pull him in. He sits with them, shivering, sodden and frostbitten, waiting for rescue. How Charles Jokin survived in the water for so long remains a mystery, even more than a hundred years later. The best theory he can offer at the time is that the alcohol in his system kept the cold at bay.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
9. The Long Hours Before Dawn
Titanic's Baker, so this story goes, was saved by the ultimate beer jacket. But then Jochen isn't the most reliable narrator. He later claims he saw the iceberg that sank Titanic with his own eyes, and that a polar bear waved at him as it went past. From the Noisa Podcast Network, this is Part 9 of Titanic, Ship of Dreams.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
9. The Long Hours Before Dawn
It's 2.19 a.m. on April 15, 1912. RMS Titanic is sliding under the surface of the water. At the stern of the ship, a large number of the 1,500-odd men, women, and children still on board have gathered, buying themselves a few more precious moments. Hardly any of them will survive the sinking of the biggest ship in the world. but one man surprisingly will.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Professor Stephanie Baczewski, author of A Night Remembered.
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His name is Charles Jokin, and he is Titanic's chief baker, a diminutive man just five and a half feet tall from Birkenhead, who first went to sea at the age of eleven. Now in his mid-thirties, Jokin is a seasoned sailor, with the liver of the saltiest sea dog.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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By the time Jokin is finally pulled onto Lifeboat 12, in the early hours of Monday morning, pretty much everyone else in the water is already dead. We tend to think of Titanic's passengers dying quietly, either pulled down underwater with the sinking ship, or gradually drifting out of consciousness on the surface. There's a poetic nobility to such deaths.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
9. The Long Hours Before Dawn
Captured in the 1997 Titanic movie, in which Leonardo DiCaprio quietly freezes by Kate Winslet's side. But the reality is a lot more brutal. Eva Hart.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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For seven-year-old Eva, that includes the father she left on the boat deck just half an hour earlier. Dr. Abisab's great-grandfather, Gerios, was one of the ship's 1,500-odd victims.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Half an hour earlier, when he realized he wasn't going to find a place on any of the remaining lifeboats, Jokin did what came most naturally to him. He went back down to his quarters to get a drink. The exact tipple he knocks back in Titanic's final minutes will be debated over the years. Jochen will claim it was whiskey. Others will suggest it may have been his own home-brewed schnapps.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
9. The Long Hours Before Dawn
One by one, in the dark waters of the Atlantic, 1,500 voices fall silent. What we're left with are the often contradictory words of the survivors, 700 or so people spread across 20 separate lifeboats. In the days and weeks after the sinking, it will become clear that those in the boats can't all agree on what they saw and heard that night.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
9. The Long Hours Before Dawn
Some are adamant that the ship split in two before it sank, others that it went to the bottom in one piece.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
9. The Long Hours Before Dawn
We are Theresa and Nemo, and that's why we switched to Shopify.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
9. The Long Hours Before Dawn
Finally, our Nemo Boards shop also makes a good impression on mobile devices. And the illustrations on the boards are now much, much clearer, which is also important to us and what makes up our brand.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
9. The Long Hours Before Dawn
The survivors can't even agree on what the famous band was playing before Titanic went down. Was it the 19th century hymn, Nearer My God to Thee? The popular waltz, song d'automne, or something else.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
9. The Long Hours Before Dawn
That was the first time. Canadian passenger Vera Dick is in lifeboat three when Titanic goes down.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Either way, by the time he returns to the boat deck, he's buzzing. Jochen goes onto the second-class promenade on B deck, where he starts flinging wooden deck chairs into the water, reasoning that these might serve as life rafts once the ship goes down. He then pops into the pantry on A deck, and swiftly downs a glass of water.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
9. The Long Hours Before Dawn
Exactly what tune the band played might seem like a trivial matter. Certainly when it comes to that dark night of the soul in Titanic's 20 lifeboats, there are more important questions to answer.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
9. The Long Hours Before Dawn
This liminal period between disaster and rescue, those long hours before dawn, will later become one more source of controversy in Titanic's complex and contested story, as the ship's first and only voyage is picked over back on dry land. Nowhere is that controversy more apparent than in the case of the infamous Lifeboat One, what will come to be known as the Moneyboat.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Boat 1 is a small wooden cutter with a capacity for 40 people. But when it was launched at 1.05 that morning, there were just 12 on board. Five passengers and seven crew. And despite Captain Smith's instruction to load women and children first, all but two of them were men. Two of Boat 1's passengers in particular will come under scrutiny after Titanic's survivors arrive in New York.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
Captain Lord isn't the only one who fails to grasp Titanic's dire predicament. More than an hour after the collision with the iceberg, many of the ship's own passengers are still oblivious to the danger they're in. Like the proverbial frog, slowly boiled alive, they won't understand what's happening until it's too late to do anything about it.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
We've struck a berg. In case Cottam should doubt the severity of the situation, Phillips adds, it's a CQD, old man, before giving Titanic's last known coordinates. Cottam is stunned. Shall I report this to the captain? He sends back feebly. The answer comes back right away. Yes, come quick. Cottam races to the bridge, where he finds First Officer Horace Dean on watch.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
Only 12 hours earlier, White Star Chairman Bruce Ismay was cheerfully boasting to first-class passengers, we are in amongst the icebergs. Even now, after the collision, hitting a berg is seen as a novelty. Fletcher Williams is in his first-class cabin on Seadeck, sipping on a whiskey cocktail, when his business partner, Elmer Taylor, knocks on the door.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
We've struck an iceberg, Taylor declares gleefully. I brought you a piece of it for your highball. Ever since Captain Smith gave the order to start loading the lifeboats, Titanic's stewards have been knocking on doors, doing their best to persuade the sleeping inhabitants to come up on deck, with limited success.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
To begin with, even senior crew members assume that launching Titanic's lifeboats is more a case of following procedure than responding to any real threat. When Second Officer Lightoller suggests getting the women and children aboard the boats, he is far from certain that Titanic will sink.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
When passengers come up and ask him if he thinks the situation is serious, Lightoller can honestly answer no. As he puts it, getting the boats in the water is just a precaution. Lightoller points out the lights of the Californian, which are easily visible from the boat deck. Whatever happens to Titanic, surely everyone on board will be fine. Like many of the passengers...
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
Lightoller was in bed when the iceberg first scraped along the side of the ship. From his cabin on the port side of the boat deck, the damage didn't feel that severe.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
That morning, Titanic's crew were supposed to have taken part in their first lifeboat trail at sea. But that was canceled by Captain Smith in favor of an extended church service. Now, a little over 12 hours later, they find themselves lowering the boats for real.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
Together, the two men go to wake Captain Arthur Rostron. What the hell? exclaims Rostron, demanding to know why Cottam and Dean have barged into his cabin. The young Marconi operator describes the message he just received from Titanic. You're absolutely sure? Rostron asks. Any trace of irritation gone now? Certain, replies Cottam. Captain Rostron leaps out of bed and throws on a dressing gown.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
The lack of rehearsal leads to some significant differences of opinion. Not only is there no direct line of communication between Captain Smith and his passengers, his orders aren't even clearly understood by his own crew. Titanic's engines are still venting exhaust, and the deafening rush of air means it's hard for anyone to hear each other on the boat deck.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
Smith has assigned his two most senior subordinates to supervise the lowering of the lifeboats. First Officer Murdock is responsible for the odd-numbered boats on the starboard side. Lightoller for the even-numbered boats on the port side. And the two men have very different ideas about the task at hand.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
Captain Smith's conduct in the two and a half hours Titanic takes to sink will be debated for more than a century. Is he a negligent commander who fails to save as many lives as possible? Or an experienced officer simply following the protocols he's been given?
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
The three men make for the bridge. Within moments, the captain is issuing orders. Call all hands on deck, he commands. Get ready to swing out the boats. Rostron sets a course for Titanic's position, full speed ahead. He tells Cottam to let Phillips know help is coming. But the distance between the two ships is more than 50 miles.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
One man who is doing little to help alleviate the chaos, despite his best efforts, is White Star Chairman Bruce Ismay. He is certainly no naval officer. Throughout Titanic's voyage, Ismay has occupied an ambiguous position on board, somewhere between an ordinary passenger and a member of Captain Smith's command crew.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
Now, still dressed in his pyjamas and slippers, with a suit and coat hastily thrown over the top, Ismay attempts to get involved with lowering the lifeboats. Lower away, he shouts at 5th Officer Harold Lowe, who's working the crank mechanism for lifeboat number 5. But Lowe doesn't welcome Ismay's input, and in the dark, he doesn't even recognize his boss.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
As far as he's concerned, Ismay is just an interfering passenger, one who needs to get back in his box. If you get the hell out of my way, I'll be able to do something, Lowe snaps back angrily. He then calls Ismay a word so rude that no account of the disaster dares to reproduce it. Ismay skulks away, suitably chastened. He tries to help with lifeboat number three instead.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
Eventually, number five is lowered, with just over half the seats taken.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
A little before 1 a.m., Quartermaster George Rowe is at his post on Titanic's afterbridge, right at the stern of the ship. Two hundred meters from the command center, the first he knows of the evacuation is when he spots a small white object in the water. Confused, Rowe telephones the bridge. Do you know that a lifeboat has been lowered? He asks Fourth Officer Bockthorpe.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
For a steamer like Carpathia, with a top speed of only 14 knots, that's about four hours sailing time. The question is, will Titanic still be afloat when they reach her? From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is Titanic Ship of Dreams, Part 6. An hour after hitting the iceberg, Titanic has come to a dead stop. The sea all around is as calm as the mill pond.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
In the next episode, the chaos continues as more lifeboats leave Titanic half-empty. Fights break out on deck over the rapidly dwindling number of spaces. And a senior officer pulls a gun on a teenage passenger. That's next time. You can listen to the next two episodes of Titanic Ship of Dreams right now without waiting by subscribing to Noisa Plus.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
Just hit the link in the episode description to find out more.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
The stars so bright that you can read your watch by them. Passengers have begun to come up on deck in their life jackets. But although this ship has already developed a slight list, very few people on board know that she's sinking. Let alone that her designer, Thomas Andrews, has predicted she'll go down within a couple of hours.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
In the wireless room on the boat deck, Marconi operators Jack Phillips and Harold Bride are hard at work. They're still trying to reach other potential rescue ships, and they're not having much luck. Tim Moulton.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
It's 12.37 a.m. on April the 15th, 1912. The small Cunard liner Carpathia is en route from New York to Gibraltar. In the wireless room, 21-year-old Marconi operator Harold Cottom is exhausted. He's been on duty since 7 o'clock in the morning. Kottam has just returned from the bridge, where he gave his final report of the day to the ship's officers.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
Now he's slipping off his work jacket and unlacing his boots, preparing for bed. But he keeps his headphones on, just in case. Like most liners at the time, Carpathia has only one operator.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
In fact, Titanic's wireless men have just made contact with another liner, the Frankfurt. Unfortunately, she's even further away than the Carpathia.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
Titanic's sister ship, Olympic, is captained by White Star veteran Herbert Haddock, the man who put Titanic through her sea trials in Belfast Loch just two weeks earlier. At first, it's hard for Haddock to grasp just how serious the damage from the iceberg really is. After all, these are the ships that everyone said were unsinkable.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
There is a ship much closer to Titanic's position, a cargo liner called the SS Californian. She is less than 20 miles away, stopped dead for the night on the edge of an ice field. The Californian's wireless operator, Cyril Evans, was in communication with Phillips and Bride before he knocked off for the night at 11.30pm, just nine minutes before Titanic hit the iceberg.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
Now though, Evans is sound asleep in his bunk. He won't be woken until after dawn. Californian's captain, Stanley Lord, knows there's another ship nearby, but he has no idea it's Titanic. The unusual atmospheric conditions that previously camouflaged the iceberg are now scrambling Titanic's identity as well.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
The ship's wireless communication is not an around-the-clock service, so when Cottam is off duty or out of the room, any incoming messages go unheeded, including, this evening, the distress calls broadcast by Titanic, both the old signal CQD and the brand new SOS. Before he turns in, the young man decides to do one last good deed for the day.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
It's an understandable misjudgment. But in situations like these, an honest mistake can prove deadly.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
In the inquiries that follow the sinking, witnesses from both vessels will testify to seeing an unknown ship about five miles away. In other words, midway between their respective positions.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
It's not until more than a century after Titanic sank that the discovery of the Coldwater Mirage offers a possible solution.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
Start your test today for one euro per month on shopify.de slash radio.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
Did you know that the team behind Titanic Ship of Dreams makes other podcasts too? Discover them all at Noisa.com, the home of the Noisa podcast network. Real Dictators, also hosted by me, Paul McGann, returns on April the 30th with the story of Fidel Castro. Head to Noisa.com to find out more.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
For Titanic's crew, identifying the ship they can see to the north of them is less important than getting its attention. Since their wireless distress call has gone unanswered, other means of communication must be attempted. But these two fall foul of the freak weather conditions that night.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
At a quarter past one, Captain Lord is woken by his second officer, Herbert Stone, and informed that rockets have been sighted. Are they company signals? The captain asks. Stone replies that he can't be sure. Well, go on morsing, Captain Lord tells him, before drifting back to sleep. It's a violation of the strict regulations regarding rockets spotted at sea.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
According to the Board of Trade rulebook, if there's any doubt about their intended meaning, then they must be assumed to be distress signals. In the inquiries to come, the Californian's captain will be heavily criticized for his inaction. With the benefit of hindsight, it's hard not to see Lorde as grossly negligent, certainly compared to the heroic Captain Rostron of the Carpathia.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
6. Save Our Souls
He's overheard the shore station at Cape Cod struggling to get private messages through to Titanic. Knowing that Carpathia is much closer to the White Star vessel, he decides to lend a hand. But when Cotton makes contact with Titanic to let them know they have messages waiting, he gets a lot more than he bargained for. Come at once, sends Titanic's senior operator Jack Phillips.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Despite Lytola's best efforts on the port side, one of the last wooden lifeboats to leave, number 10, did so with at least one man on board. A Japanese civil servant called Masabumi Hosono. Hosona's last-minute decision to jump into Lifeboat 10 rather than wait for an honorable death on Titanic is one that will dog him for the rest of his life. In his home country, Hosona will go down in infamy.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
He'll lose his job, and school textbooks will cite his behavior as an example of dishonorable conduct. The mores of Western culture may be slightly more flexible, but for one man at least, the decision to take up a place in a lifeboat will be equally damning.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
White Star Boss J. Bruce Ismay Throughout Titanic's four days at sea, Ismay has occupied an ambiguous position, part ordinary first-class passenger, part super captain, offering suggestions, if not orders, to the captain and crew. Since the collision with the iceberg, he's been trying to make himself useful with mixed results. Bruce's fifth cousin, Clifford Ismay.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
By 2am, Bruce Ismay has undoubtedly helped to save a few lives. Among them a young stewardess, Evelyn Marsden.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
When the time comes to load the collapsibles, Ismay is still trying to assist, coaxing anxious passengers to their seats. Among them, the Lebanese migrants, Shanina and Banura.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
The outflow from the pumps is shunted lifeboat 13 towards Titanic's stern, and another boat, number 15, is directly above them. The men up on deck working the davit cranks have no idea that the boat they're lowering is heading for a collision. The passengers in 13 are shouting up at them, but in the chaos, no one can hear their cries. Fifteen is getting closer by the second.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
But as the lifeboat begins to be lowered, there are still a few spaces left in it.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
It's at this point that the White Star chairman makes one of the most controversial decisions in the entire Titanic story. Up there with Captain Smith choosing to maintain speed when entering an ice field. And the White Star top brass rejecting the extra lifeboats proposed by Harland and Wolfe.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Although in this case, it's a decision that can't really be said to affect anyone other than Ismay himself.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Ismay quietly steps into the boat and takes a seat.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
It's a decision that will come to define the rest of Bruce Ismay's life. In the American press, he'll be slammed as the coward of the Titanic. a man who presided over the worst maritime disaster in history and didn't even have the decency to go down with his ship.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
collapsible C and D successfully lowered, all that's left on board Titanic are the two final life crafts, A and B. This is it. Collapsible B on the port side is the one Uncle Jimmy helped get off the roof of the officer's quarters, but it's still lying upside down on the deck.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Soon Thirteen's passengers can stand up and touch the bottom of it. They're going to be crushed, or drowned, or both. Fireman Fred Barrett has pulled out a knife. He's hacking away furiously at the ropes still holding them to the side of the sinking ship. Fifteen edges ever closer. Finally, Barret's blade cuts through. Thirteen is free.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Meanwhile, First Officer Murdock, with help from Officers Moody and Wild, has managed to maneuver Collapsible A off the roof on the starboard side. He's attempting to attach it to the davits recently vacated by Collapsible C. By now, more and more people are taking their lives into their own hands, leaping into the water and swimming for the lifeboats already launched.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Someone even releases the dogs from the kennels so they can have a chance to save themselves too. Rumor has it, the anonymous animal lover is none other than the richest man on the Titanic, John Jacob Astor IV. His Airedale Terrier, Kitty, is among the nine canines still on board. Two Pomeranians and a Pekingese have already mated into the lifeboats of their owners.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Around 2 a.m., Captain Smith formally dismisses the crew.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
The captain gives this announcement to the men around and he says, you've done your duty. You know the rule of the sea, lads. I release you all. It's every man for himself.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
At ten past two, the bulkhead between boiler rooms four and five collapses. Thousands of gallons of water surge through to the next compartment. The lights on deck start to glow red, a sign they will fail within minutes. The ship is now tilting forward steeply enough that it's hard for those on deck to keep their footing.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
From the lifeboats, passengers can see Titanic's giant propellers rising up out of the water as the ship tips head down. And then there's that heavier and heavier list to port, making Lightoller's collapsible B on the lower side of the deck pretty much unlaunchable. Murdoch's collapsible A on the starboard side is the passenger's last real hope of survival.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
The loading of collapsible A is the most chaotic of all the boats, and in some ways the most controversial. After the disaster, survivors will describe an officer shooting two male passengers who attempted to storm the boat, before turning the gun on himself.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
According to the Edwardian rumor mill, the man holding the gun was William Murdoch, Titanic's first officer, and the person in command of the ship when it hit the iceberg two and a half hours earlier. But even more than a century after the disaster, the question of who really fired those shots remains contested.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
They push off, clearing Boat 15's landing zone just as it crashes down onto the water. The screams of Titanic's passengers die down, for now at least. Soon, both 13 and 15 are moving away from Titanic. They need to get to a safe distance and fast. No one wants to be sucked into the whirlpool when the biggest ship in the world goes down.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
It's a stigma that persists through the decades. When James Cameron makes his epic Titanic movie in the 1990s, he includes a scene showing Murdoch shooting himself in the head. Murdoch's 80-year-old nephew is furious and writes to 20th Century Fox to complain. Cameron is forced to apologize, and a Fox executive is sent all the way to Scotland to smooth things over.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
In the utter chaos, it's not surprising that so much mystery surrounds the loading of collapsible A. Only a minute or so after the incident with the gun, Titanic suddenly lurches forward as water floods another compartment below decks. A huge wave surges over the boat deck. At the same time, the ship's lights go out, plunging everyone on board into darkness.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
One by one, Titanic's four giant funnels begin toppling. Each of them weighs a good 60 tons.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Among those believed to have been killed by the funnels is John Jacob Astor,
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
It's 1 41 AM on April the 15th, 1912. RMS Titanic has developed a 10 degree list to port. It's bad enough that fifth officer Wilde is ordering passengers to move over to the starboard side to compensate. The ship is not only down at the head, but twisting too, like a whale about to roll on its side as it plunges beneath the surface.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
The collapse of one of the funnels also has an unexpected consequence. The water displaced by this sixty-ton hunk of metal is enough to get collapsible Bea afloat. The stranded raft is suddenly propelled out to sea, with telegraphist Harold Bryde and writer Archibald Gracie clinging on for dear life.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
It's now about a quarter past two on the morning of April the 15th. With the last lifeboat gone, the 1,500 souls still on board Titanic are all out of options. Some rush desperately to the stern of the ship, which is now rising precariously up in the air. Others take their chances diving into the icy ocean. Among them, Second Officer Lightoller.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
He swims in the direction of the crow's nest, which by now is only just above the water. But as he ploughs forwards, he can feel something pulling him down. And it's getting stronger. Lightoller is swimming over an air intake shaft that runs all the way down to the engine room. And the rush of water being sucked into it is now pulling him down too.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
From the Noisa Podcast Network, this is Titanic, Ship of Dreams, Part 8.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
A few meters beneath the surface, he slams into the metal grating at the top of the shaft. He can't move. It looks, for all the world, like he's going to drown. Then suddenly, a massive air bubble is released, pushing Lightholler back to the surface. He swims away from Titanic, making for collapsible B.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Only a couple of minutes after Lightoller's desperate plunge, Captain Smith is seen leaping into the water as the bridge of the ship begins to sink underneath him. Though accounts of the captain's final moments vary, some have him nobly standing at his post as the bridge is submerged. Others see him valiantly rescuing babies.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Perhaps I'm biased, but one source I find hard to dismiss out of hand is the account of my great-uncle. Supposedly, he and the captain were together right up to the end.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
According to Jimmy, and in fact, it's corroborated by Harry Senior, another fireman, who said there were children there. And he said he picked up some Italian kids. Jimmy and the captain, according to Jimmy, said, we picked up little kiddies. We picked up these children who'd come towards us and jumped. They grabbed these kids and him and the captain jumped off with these kids.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
And what they call a medical term, a rough nickname of hydrocution, when you hit very, very cold water, it's like an electric shock to the system. And he describes the shock of it. You just let the children go immediately because it's so shocking. Even if you think you're prepared when you jump into icy cold water.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Somehow, Uncle Jimmy ends up in the water near Collapsible B, the very lifeboat he himself helped to launch. He clambers onto its upturned hull, shivering with the excruciating cold. Against almost unimaginable odds, this lowly trimmer has found his way off the Titanic.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
When I first heard about Jimmy, cynically and through ignorance, I didn't know where he was or how he might have survived. I didn't know how he got into a lifeboat. And my first cynical view was, did he sneak in like they say some of the stories where? Did he take a woman's place?
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
did he wear a frock how did this man was he a coward you don't know was he brave was he a coward you don't know the story and so finally finding this out you actually find out no no by sheer dint of luck he finds himself near the collapsible he's been trying to let loose it's turned upside down it has an air pocket in the bottom and one or two men are already beginning to try to scramble on it he swims up
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
He manages to get onto it. He's joined in the next few minutes by Gracie, by Lightoller, by a number of famous others. And very quickly, it starts to fill up with crew members, people who were tough enough and lucky enough to get there.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
It's from Collapsible B that Uncle Jimmy will witness Titanic's final moments, as the ship snaps in half and then plunges under the surface. From a distance, there's a brutal elegance to it. But up close, it's utterly horrifying.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Titanic's stern is 30 degrees up in the air now. Water is gushing down the grand staircase. Anything not bolted to the floor and not already under water is crashing down towards the bow of the ship, putting even more pressure on its metal spine.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
The ship is quite literally in pieces now, but the bow is still attached to the keel. The forward section is almost totally submerged and is doing its best to pull the rest of Titanic under. For the passengers still on board the stern, all they can do is pray.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Catholic priest Thomas Biles turned down a place in a lifeboat to minister to the steerage passengers, hearing confessions and performing the last rites. He's now on the poop deck, surrounded by kneeling men and women, praying the rosary. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Titanic's Lebanese passengers, meanwhile, are facing the end in their own way.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Susie Miller's great-grandfather, Thomas, is one of almost 700 crew members still on board in the ship's final moments. Recently widowed, he's left his two sons behind him in the little village of Bonnie before.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
With all 14 of Titanic's regular lifeboats now launched, as well as two small wooden cutters, there are still almost 1,600 people left on the ship. Their only hope of survival is finding a place on one of the four collapsible lifeboats, A, B, C, and D. Life rafts might be a better term for them.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
At 2.20 on the morning of April the 15th, 1912, Titanic's bow slides beneath the waves. Then the keel finally drags the rest of the ship down with it.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
But as Titanic plunges towards the seabed, almost 4,000 meters below, the forces acting upon it begin to increase. At some point, the ship's spine is broken altogether, leaving two separate shipwrecks to make their way to the bottom. Marine archaeologist James Delgado.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
In the next episode, with the world's largest ship disappeared without a trace, those in the lifeboats are left there in horror, bobbing in the waves. Fierce arguments break out over whether to row back and search for survivors. And as the cries of the dying give way to an eerie silence, the lucky ones must huddle together, waiting desperately for dawn. Is anyone coming to help them?
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
That's next time. You can listen to the next two episodes of Titanic Ship of Dreams right now, without waiting, by subscribing to Noisa Plus. Just hit the link in the episode description to find out more.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Flat hulls, made of a mixture of wood and cork, with canvas sides that can be pulled up to make them slightly more seaworthy. Each collapsible has room for another 47 passengers, so this is very much the last chance saloons. Professor Jerome Chertkoff, author of Don't Panic.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
By now, all but four of the ship's wooden lifeboats are already in the water. Wild and Second Officer Lightoller are still working on filling boats four and ten on the port side. While on the starboard side, now more crowded than ever, First Officer Murdoch and Sixth Officer Moody are lowering boats thirteen and fifteen. But there's a problem.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
It's just over two hours since Titanic hit the iceberg. The watertight compartments, designed to keep Titanic afloat in the event of a collision, have at least bought the ship some time. But many of them only go up as far as EDEC. Once the water level rises above that, things start happening much more rapidly.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Once water begins flowing along Scotland Road, the long corridor that runs down the port side of Edek, the game is truly up. This massive passageway provides a clear route to the compartments further aft. Soon, water is rushing into the third class dining room, the Turkish baths, the swimming pool.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
On the boat deck, Second Officer Lightoller knows they don't have long. He's been keeping an eye on an emergency stairwell that leads down below, watching as the water level creeps higher and higher. Right now, Lightoller's priority is getting the four collapsible boats afloat. Another 200 lives may depend on launching these. Unfortunately, it's far easier said than done.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
C and D are located on the boat deck, pretty much good to go. But A and B are stored on the roof of the officer's quarters, eight feet up. And the piece of equipment normally used to lower them is in the bosun's store, which is already underwater.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
It's around this time that my great uncle, Jimmy McGann, arrives on deck. Until now, he's been down in the boiler rooms, helping to keep the water at bay. My brother, Stephen.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
The firemen were all busy. They were all downstairs. The compartments were rushing with water rushing in. They tried to control it, but eventually the water was going from one into the next. The game was up about 20 to 2, fully up.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
My great-uncle was in the bottom of a ship with more than 2,000 people, some already away, 2,000 desperate people above him on walkways and gangplanes, and he's at the bottom.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Thanks to the accounts of Titanic survivors, Stephen has managed to piece together Jimmy's movements that night. He even found him mentioned by name in the first book published about the disaster, Colonel Archibald Gracie's The Truth About the Titanic.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Boat 13's route down the side of Titanic is blocked by a surge of water exiting the ship. The pumps down below are sending large quantities of seawater up and out of the sinking vessel, and now it looks like number 13 may be swamped by it. Soon the flood of water is rushing into the boat. The passengers must act fast, or they'll be sunk before they've even reached the ocean.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
From about 10 to 2, he's up on deck. I know because I then started to, in a sense, triangulate the different stories. Suddenly I realized I can do what detectives do. I can say, all right, it's 2 o'clock. Where is he at 2 o'clock? Because according to his story and Gracie's story and Lightoller's story and the telegraphist's story, they're starting to come together.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Colonel Gracie is a former soldier and an amateur military historian. His father was a brigadier general in the Confederate Army. With his broad walrus mustache, he cuts an imposing figure, and at 54, he remains a man of action. Along with Second Officer Lightoller and telegraphist Harold Bride, Gracie works to free the collapsibles from the roof of the officer's quarters, helped by Uncle Jimmy.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
By the time he gets up there, there's desperation. The ship is already angled in and the front of the bow is already in the water. People are looking towards the stern because the stern's getting a bit higher. The people have still got their heads. Lightoller, helped by Gracie, helped by Bride, the telegraphist, they noticed that two of these boats are still undetached.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
And so they tried to get these away, but they got stuck. The first one, A, couldn't move at all. They gave up on A. So then they tried to move B. And this is a race. This is a real race against time because they can literally see the waves coming in. There's madness all around. They're trying desperately. Gracie famously said, I threw them my penknife to help.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Jimmy's up there trying to help them. They finally get it released, and what they do on top of this first floor, like a sort of porter cabin, if you can imagine a porter cabin, they've laid oars up at the top of this porter cabin to try and get this, because it's heavy, it's a huge oak thing.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
So they're trying to slide it down onto the main deck after they've released it, and to see if that works, and then maybe try and get it into a lightbulb condition so when the waves come over the ship, they will be able to float away. It comes down, breaks the oars, and lands upside down on the deck. And then look at it. Kofreified.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Below them on the boat deck, collapsibles C and D are already being loaded with passengers. But by now, thanks to Titanic's heavy lists to port, deploying these last choppers out of Saigon is desperately difficult.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Anxiety levels are rising. Lightoller now brandishes his revolver. There are no bullets in the chamber, but the passengers don't know that. Lightoller gets a group of crewmen to link arms, forming a barrier around collapsible D. He's still determined that only women and children will be allowed to board on the port side.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Among those let through are two young French boys, Michel and Edmond Navratil. They've been traveling under aliases with their father, Michel Senior, who's involved in a bitter custody dispute. He abducted the boys a week earlier, determined to bring them with him to America. But now the only thing on Michel's mind is making sure his sons survive the sinking.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Tell your mother I loved her dearly, and still do, he whispers in Michelle Jr. 's ear. He then disappears into the crowd, never to be seen again. Michelle Jr. and Edmund will survive the disaster, but it will be over a month before they're finally reunited with their mother. The two boys don't speak a word of English. And they're not the only ones.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
They scrabble about for the lifeboat's long wooden oars, hoping to push themselves off from Titanic's hull. But the oars have been lashed together for safekeeping, and several people are sitting on top of them. Eventually, they manage to get at the oars and push themselves clear of the rushing torrent. They hit the surface of the ocean with a splash. But now there's a new problem.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
By now, a number of Titanic's Lebanese passengers have arrived on deck. Among them, Gerios Abisab and his cousins, Shanina and Banura. Dr. Josiane Abisab is Gerios' great-granddaughter.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Gerios is far from unique in abandoning the deck of Titanic, hoping to find a space in one of the lifeboats that have already been launched. Two engine room greasers try to climb down the side of the ship to lifeboat 16, which is floating in the water below them. One of the men lands in the boat. The other splashes into the water nearby and is soon hauled aboard. Lifeboat 16 rows away.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
The two lookouts are still casting their eyes ahead of them, searching for anything out of the ordinary. But all they can see is darkness, stretching into infinity. And then, almost imperceptibly, something begins emerging dead ahead. It's hard to make out at first, just a blank patch that looks somehow different from the space around it.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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even if they weren't on duty at the time. Trimmers like my great uncle Jimmy McGann would know that something bad had happened to the ship.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
We don't know whether or not Jimmy was working at the time of the impact. But either way, he was almost certainly at his post within a matter of minutes. My brother Stephen has researched our great uncle's story.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
For Titanic's firemen, the priority right now is shutting down the ship's engines. From the bridge, Captain Smith has ordered a dead stop. But for a ship as powerful as Titanic, that's no easy matter.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
With pressure in the boilers reaching dangerous levels, a series of safety valves has been activated, pushing large amounts of steam up and out of Titanic's giant funnels. On deck, the noise of the exhaust being vented is deafening.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
As Titanic gradually slows down, Captain Smith and his officers are doing their best to assess the damage the ship has sustained. They've been joined on the bridge by a visitor, White Star Chairman Bruce Ismay. Ismay is still wearing his pyjamas, with a warm coat thrown over the top. On his feet are a pair of comfortable slippers. But his mood is far from relaxed.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
Do you think the ship is seriously damaged? Ismay asks Captain Smith. I'm afraid so, the captain tells him. Although at this point, what exactly constitutes serious damage isn't clear.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
The men squint, trying to make sense of what they're seeing. With every passing second, the strange object grows larger. Then suddenly they realize what it is. Frederick Fleet reaches frantically for the bell in the crow's nest. He rings it three times. With his other hand he lifts the receiver of the telephone that connects to the bridge. What did you see? Comes a voice from the other end.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
While Thomas Andrews is down below compiling his damage report, up on deck Captain Smith and his officers are following Titanic's emergency protocols. And that means preparing for the worst possible outcome, however unlikely it may seem. At five minutes to midnight, Smith gives the order to uncover the lifeboats.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
By now, anxious passengers are beginning to appear on deck, wondering why the ship has stopped in the middle of the night. The scene they encounter is one of breathtaking beauty. Titanic is floating, perfectly still now, on a sea of polished obsidian. Overhead, the stars shine so brightly that passengers can read the time on their wristwatches.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
It's all because of the unusual atmospheric conditions the ship has sailed into. The same conditions that camouflaged the iceberg 20 minutes earlier. Now layers of hot and cold air are creating a strange optical effect above the ship.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
Right now, nobody on board knows the so-called unsinkable ship is doomed. But for those on deck, it's an eerie experience. Susie Miller, great-granddaughter of Titanic deck engineer Tommy Miller.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
Soon after midnight, Titanic's band have set up outside the entrance to the covered promenade on ADEC. They're doing their best to keep passengers' spirits up with cheerful ragtime tunes, though the music is almost drowned out by the noise of the engine exhaust venting overhead. Nearby, John Jacob Astor IV, the richest man on board, is deep in conversation with Captain Smith.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
The captain tells Astor that he and his pregnant wife Madeline should put on their life jackets. It's possible they may have to abandon ship. Meanwhile, six decks below, Thomas Andrews is assessing the damage from the iceberg. Already the ship has taken on more than 7,000 tons of water. She's starting to tilt downwards at the head, just a couple of degrees so far, but it'll get worse.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
On the ship's lower decks, already things aren't looking good. The squash court has turned into a swimming pool. In the mailroom, tens of thousands of letters and parcels are floating away. But as long as the damage is limited to no more than four of the ship's sealed compartments, Andrews is confident Titanic will stay afloat. And then he makes a truly horrifying discovery.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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A fifth compartment has been breached and a sixth slightly nicked as well. There's no doubt about it now. Titanic is doomed. From the moment she scraped the iceberg, her fate was a mathematical certainty. And Thomas Andrews is the only man on board who knows the truth.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
By now there's no doubt in Fleet's mind. Iceberg, he replies. Right ahead. From the Noiser Podcast Network. This is Titanic Ship of Dreams. Part 5. On the bridge, Titanic's first officer, William Murdoch, is in command. He's 39, a Scotsman, and a lieutenant in the Naval Reserve. Both his father and grandfather were captains before him. But Murdoch has never faced a challenge like this before.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
Andrews races back to the bridge, taking the steps of the grand staircase three at a time. By 12.25am, he's talking Captain Smith through his calculations. It's just three quarters of an hour since Titanic hit the iceberg. To those waiting on the upper decks, the ship still appears unscathed.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
Below them, on the forehead well deck, third-class passengers are playing football with large chunks of ice. But Captain Smith trusts Andrew's judgment. No one knows Titanic like he does. And Andrew's is unwavering. Titanic will founder. The only question is how long they have left. His best guess? About an hour and a half.
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Captain Smith exits the bridge and heads straight to the wireless room. Here he finds Titanic's senior Marconi operator Jack Phillips at his post. Send a call for assistance, the captain tells him tersely. Phillips begins tapping out the distress signal, CQD. The traditional three-letter code doesn't, strictly speaking, stand for anything. It's a bastardization of a French phrase.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
In combination with Titanic's call sign, M-G-Y, it should leave other ships in no doubt of the situation.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
C-Q-D-D-E-M-G-Y. The D-E again is French. Deux. A distress call from the Titanic. As luck would have it, it's picked up almost immediately by a French liner, the Provence. But she is 250 miles away. Too far to make it in time. After five minutes, Captain Smith returns for an update. What are you sending, he asks Phillips. CQD, the young man replies.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
At this point, Phillips' assistant, Harold Bride, chips in. Send SOS, he says. It's the new call, and it may be your last chance to send it. In the next episode, Titanic's still slumbering passengers are woken and told that the ship is sinking. But many of them refuse to board the lifeboats. Wireless operators Phillips and Bryde continue their attempts to summon help.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
And a rescue ship, the SS Carpathia, sets a course for Titanic's position. That's next time. you can listen to the next two episodes of titanic ship of dreams right now without waiting by subscribing to noiser plus just hit the link in the episode description to find out more
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
Now with the lives of more than 2,000 people in his hands, Titanic's first officer has just seconds to avoid disaster. Harder starboard, he calls out to the helmsman, throwing the engine telegraph into reverse. Slowly, the ship starts to turn.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
Tim Moulton, author of 101 Things You Thought You Knew About the Titanic But Didn't.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
With the helm harder port now, Titanic's stern swings away from the iceberg. It looks like Murdoch's audacious maneuver is going to work.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
It's 11.39 p.m. on April the 14th, 1912. The Atlantic Ocean, 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. RMS Titanic, all 47,000 tons of her, is plowing westwards at a speed of 22 knots. Up in the crow's nest, 90 feet above deck, lookouts Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee are scanning the horizon. They're approaching the end of their two-hour watch, and they can't wait to get back inside.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
The night is still and clear, but the temperature is only a few degrees above zero. The sea ahead looks like black glass. The stars shine brilliantly overhead, but all around is nothing but darkness. The lookouts have no binoculars, only the naked eye, although in these conditions artificial magnification might not make much difference. It seems clear enough, but looks can be deceiving.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
Professor Stephanie Baczewski, author of Titanic, A Night Remembered.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
It's a classic trolley problem. Do you risk the lives of everyone on board, gambling that you can save them all, or consign a small number to a certain death, knowing that their lives will buy the safety of everyone else?
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
Firemen like my great uncle, Jimmy McGann. Murdoch takes the only real decision he can. He rolls the dice.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
Did you know that the team behind Titanic's Ship of Dreams makes other podcasts too? Discover them all at Noisa.com, the home of the Noisa podcast network. Real Dictators, also hosted by me, Paul McGann, returns on April the 30th with the story of Fidel Castro. Head to Noisa.com to find out more.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
That position is held by Edward Smith, Commodore of the White Star Fleet. After a glittering three-decade career with the company, he is on the cusp of a well-earned retirement. But Smith is resting in his cabin at the moment the ship hits the iceberg, having spent most of the evening dining in the a la carte restaurant with some of Titanic's wealthiest passengers. Author Clifford Ismay
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
It takes less than a minute for Captain Smith to make it onto the bridge. His cabin is conveniently located right next door. What was that? he asks Murdoch as soon as he arrives. An iceberg, sir, Murdoch replies. Captain Smith wastes no time following the Titanic's state-of-the-art safety protocols. Close the watertight doors, he orders.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
That way, if the ship's hull has been breached down below, any water coming in should be contained within a single compartment. Murdoch assures him the doors are already closed. Right now, though, no one knows the extent of the damage the ship has received or, crucially, how it's distributed.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
In fact, the peculiar atmospheric conditions on this particular night are creating a cold water mirage, scattering the light in unusual ways. The horizon isn't quite where it's supposed to be, and as a result, anything just below it is camouflaged behind an indistinct haze, including anything directly in the path of the ship.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
The impact of the iceberg has been felt very differently in different parts of the ship. Many of the passengers have slept right through it. And those who are awake at the point of impact don't realize the damage the iceberg has caused. To Kate Boss on EDEC, it sounds like the scrape of an ice skate. To bedroom steward Alfred Kessinger, like a rowing boat being dragged over gravel.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
Predictably, Titanic's very own Cassandra, Esther Hart, takes things more seriously. She's been refusing to sleep at night ever since she came on board. And right now, she's convinced the bump she just felt must spell disaster.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
While the Hart family's neighbors on Titanic's port side are fast asleep in their bunks, in other parts of the ship, the iceberg's impact is felt more strongly. Millionaire Molly Brown is thrown to the floor of her first-class cabin on E-Day. 21-year-old Gretchen Longley wakes to find ice coming through a porthole.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
Virginia Clark, a young mother from Montana, stares in amazement as a white mountain seems to glide past her cabin. And down in boiler room six, the violence of the impact is unmistakable.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
1. The Biggest Ship in the World
It became known as the Ship of Dreams, the largest and heaviest moving man-made machine built to date. And this complex and ancient relationship between man and technology has always been captivating.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
On Monday morning, Carpathia's doctor brings Ismay a visitor, 17-year-old Jack Thayer. He's hoping a familiar figure might snap him out of his depression.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Thayer's account of the visit paints a picture of a man in a precarious mental state. He was seated in his pajamas on his bunk, staring straight ahead, shaking all over like a leaf. My entrance apparently did not dawn on his consciousness. Even when I spoke to him and tried to engage him in conversation, he paid absolutely no attention and continued to look ahead with a fixed stare.
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But amongst those who made it off Titanic, Ismay's disappearing act doesn't go down well. I know many women who slept on the floor in the smoking room, recalls the newly widowed Mary Smith, while Mr. Ismay occupied the best room on Carpathia.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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To many of the survivors, it's an open question whether the White Star boss really is under medical supervision, or just receiving the usual preferential treatment.
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Whatever the rights and wrongs of Ismay's behavior, one thing is clear. The man who climbs aboard Carpathia on Monday morning, still wearing a suit hastily thrown over his pajamas, is barely recognizable from the commanding White Star chairman who set sail from Southampton five days earlier.
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Up in the crow's nest, the lookouts are keeping a sharp watch, scanning the horizon for Titanic's four giant funnels. But all they can see, far away in the distance, is a little green light. It's too low in the water to be a liner, let alone the biggest ship in the world. Rostron orders Carpathia to slow down as they approach.
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Ismay will later testify that he believed all the women and children on Titanic had already boarded the lifeboats when he made the split-second decision to step on board Collapsible Sea. Now the consequences of that decision are starting to become clearer.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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At 8.30 on Monday morning, the very last of Titanic's survivors are brought on board, just as another rescue vessel belatedly arrives on the scene. It's the SS Californian, the ship that ignored Titanic's distress rockets the previous evening, that turned off their wireless set and went to bed, rather than coming to investigate.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Since waking early this morning, the Californian's captain, Stanley Lord, has been plagued by his own catalogue of what-ifs. Like Rostron, he's made the best possible speed to Titanic's position, but he has arrived too late to help. If he'd only set off eight hours earlier, things could have been very different.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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He sounds the ship's whistle to alert those in the water that they're coming. At 4 a.m., as the first rays of daylight begin to break through the night, Carpathia's lookouts spot a small boat a quarter of a mile away. It's Titanic's lifeboat two. The wind is rising now, and the surface of the water is becoming choppy.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Now Californian receives a new request for help from Carpathia's Captain Rostron. This one is delivered the old-fashioned way, using signal flags. Carpathia will soon be departing for New York. Rostron wants to get the Titanic passengers back on dry land as soon as possible, but he tells Captain Lord to remain at the scene of the disaster and continue searching the waters for survivors.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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As well as men, women, and children, and a handful of pet dogs, Rostron now has 13 of Titanic's lifeboats on board Carpathia, the only salvageable material from the disaster. He plans to deliver them to the White Star Dock in New York. The rest of the boats have been left to float away, some still containing the bodies of those who froze to death in them just hours earlier.
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Before they leave the wreck site, Rostron asks one of his passengers, an Episcopalian priest, to give a service in the first-class lounge. While the ship slowly circles Titanic's floating wreckage, Friar Roger Anderson leads the congregation in prayer for the 1,500 souls lost when she plunged to the bottom. He gives thanks, too, for the 705 lives that have been saved.
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When the service is over, Captain Rostron gives the order to bear away. It's a four-day voyage to Pier 54 in Manhattan, and he doesn't want to waste any time. After all, his ship is now full to bursting.
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The compassion shown by Carpathia's passengers is remarkable. But they aren't the only ones pitching in to help. The so-called unsinkable Molly Brown has barely stepped on board before she's hard at work, aiding her former shipmates. Veronica Hinckley
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
After they arrive in New York... Molly Brown will present Captain Rostron with a commemorative silver cup, along with medals for the rest of the crew. She'll give him a present of her own as well, a little turquoise figurine that she bought on her recent holiday to Egypt. It's one of the few things she took with her on Titanic that isn't at the bottom of the ocean.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Right now though, Molly Brown is focused on Titanic's poorest passengers. Those from steerage, who lost everything they owned when the ship went down. She pays for a number of third-class passengers to send telegrams home, letting their relatives know they're alive. She sets up a Titanic benevolent fund, roping in committee members and securing pledges from fellow first-class passengers.
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to the tune of $10,000. But not everyone wants to know. One wealthy looking lady responds to her story about the plight of the steerage passengers with a haughty, why worry? She boasts that on arrival in New York, she will be heading straight to the Waldorf Astoria. And she's not the only first class passenger whose privilege is showing.
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Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon honours his debt to the men in the so-called money boat, presenting each of them with a cheque for five pounds, as promised. His wife Lucy goes a step further, demanding that they all sign her life jacket, and then pose for a group photo. Smile please, Sir Cosmo orders, as their fellow passengers look on, appalled.
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Rostron orders his second officer, James Bissett, to board the lifeboat and help the survivors aboard Carpathia. Be careful that she doesn't capsize, he warns him. As Carpathia pulls up alongside the little boat, Bissett and three colleagues clamber down rope ladders. Inside, they find Titanic's fourth officer, Joseph Bogthor, along with a mixture of men, women, and children.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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On Monday afternoon, Captain Rostrand visits Bruce Ismay, still under sedation in the doctor's cabin. He suggests Ismay might want to contact the White Star office in New York, and let them know what's happened. Ismay scribbles a brief note on a slip of paper. Deeply regret advise you Titanic sunk this morning after a collision with iceberg.
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resulting in serious loss of life, full particulars later. Rostron has the message taken to Carpathia's wireless room that afternoon, and authorizes his Marconi operator, Harold Cottom, to transmit it. But for some reason, Ismay's message doesn't go through for another two days. In the meantime, rumors are beginning to swirl on land.
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Some of the previous night's distress calls have been picked up on shore. James Delgado.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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In later years, a former Marconi operator based at the Wanamaker department store in New York will claim to have broken the news about the Titanic disaster. Professor Stephanie Baczewski.
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In recent years, Sarnoff's claim that he broke the Titanic story has come under question. For a start, the Wanamaker department store wouldn't have been open on a Sunday night when Titanic was broadcasting its distress call. But what we can say with certainty is that however the story gets out, it's garbled in the process. On Monday, most of the newspaper headlines are woefully inaccurate.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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All saved from Titanic after collision, reads the Evening Sun. She did not sink, claims the Wall Street Journal. No lives lost, reports the Vancouver World.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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And it's not just the press who've got the wrong end of the stick. Bruce Ismay's number two in New York, Philip Franklin, spends most of Monday reassuring anxious relatives that everyone on board the ship is fine. We place absolute confidence in Titanic, he tells them. We believe that the boat is unsinkable.
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Franklin even charters a special train service between Halifax and New York so that Titanic's passengers will be able to finish their journey. It's not until 6.15 on Monday evening that Franklin learns the truth, thanks to a telegram from the Olympics captain Haddock. Carpathia reached Titanic's position at daybreak, found only boats and wreckage. Franklin is stunned.
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It takes him 45 minutes to compose himself enough to face the press. Later, in front of a room full of reporters, he breaks down in tears. Olympics Captain Haddock has the most powerful wireless set on the North Atlantic. He has been in contact with Captain Rostron on Carpathia for the past couple of hours, trying to get more details to pass on to White Star.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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Rostron's crew are compiling a list of all the survivors on board, as well as those known to have perished. Among the latter, Haddock's friends, Captain Edward Smith and First Officer William Murdoch. Olympic is on its way from New York to Southampton. Haddock offers to meet up at Carpathia en route and take some of the survivors back to England with him. But Rostron declines.
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Many of the survivors are in no state to climb the ladders. They have to be winched up to the deck instead. One woman, wearing a fur coat over her nightie, is clutching something tightly to her chest. Bissett assumes it must be a baby, until she cries out in terror, Be careful of my doggie! Last but one out of the boat is Joseph Boxall.
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He fears that seeing Titanic's twin sister could be traumatic for his new passengers. As Bruce Ismay later puts it, it might harrow their feelings. Haddock agrees to keep his distance. He sets a course well clear of Carpathia's, making sure to stay out of visual range. And Captain Rostron is carefully managing the flow of information as well.
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His wireless operator, Harold Cottam, is being pestered with queries sent from shore stations. But Rostron has ordered him not to respond. Even US President William Taft is told he'll have to wait when he gets in touch asking for news of his beloved aide, Archibald Butt. But despite the communications blackout, on land, the picture is becoming more accurate every day.
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On Tuesday morning, the New York Times gets most of the details correct, even if their sums are a bit off. Titanic sinks four hours after hitting iceberg. 866 rescued by Carpathia. Probably 1,250 perish. Ismay safe. On both sides of the Atlantic, White Star's offices are being besieged by angry relatives. You lied to us, they shout at employees in New York.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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And in Southampton, where most of Titanic's crew are from, the atmosphere is even more febrile.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
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On Wednesday morning, while Carpathia continues her steady progress towards Pier 54, the column inches are mounting in Manhattan. Titanic is now dominating the news agenda, so much so that the ship doesn't even need to be mentioned by name. That morning's headline in the New York American is stark. No hope left. 1535 dead. It's followed by seven pages of copy, dedicated to the doomed ship.
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But amidst the profiles of famous travelers, dead or alive, questions are beginning to be raised. How was it that Titanic had only enough lifeboats for fewer than half of the people on board? The paper calls for an act of Congress to be passed, requiring ships to carry more boats.
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And it's not just the journalists who are up in arms. 200 miles away in Washington, the debate has reached the floor of the Capitol building. The Titanic disaster comes just a month after the worst train crash in US history, when a boiler exploded on a locomotive in San Antonio, Texas, killing around 40 passengers.
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The way that house chaplain Henry Cowden sees it, the two disasters have one thing in common. On Tuesday afternoon, he leads the country's senior politicians in prayer. We most fervently pray that more stringent laws may be enacted and enforced, that those who travel by land or sea may be safeguarded from the selfishness and greed of the thoughtless.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
A day later, Senator William Alden Smith arrives armed with a resolution, calling for an official investigation into the sinking of the Titanic. Smith is a white-haired political veteran from Michigan, a respected figure in the Senate who has long campaigned for greater safety standards on America's railroads.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
He requests that he be granted subpoena powers, allowing him to question anyone he deems necessary so that he can get to the bottom of what went wrong on Titanic's maiden voyage. His colleagues applaud the idea. And it's clear that some of them have already made their minds up as to the cause of the disaster. Senator James Martin from New Jersey put it bluntly.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
Bissett climbs up the ladder after him and takes him to Carpathia's bridge. Where is Titanic? Captain Rostron asks him. Boxall's face is ashen. Gone, he replies. She sank at 2.20 a.m. There's a moment of stunned silence. Then Rostron asks, were there many left on board? Hundreds and hundreds, Vauxhall replies. Perhaps a thousand, perhaps more. His voice breaks with emotion. My God, sir, he cries.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
Had the race for speed and the desire for greed not controlled the action of the owners and officers of the Titanic, this disaster would doubtless have been averted. Smith's motion is passed without objection. On Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. Navy intercepts a wireless transmission from Carpathia, addressed to the White Star offices in New York. It bears a rather dubious signature. Yamzee.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
That's Ismay, backwards. Most desirable Titanic crew aboard Carpathia should be returned home earliest moment possible. Suggest you hold Cedric, sailing her daylight Friday, unless you see any reason contrary. Propose returning in her myself.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
Jimmy has paid off a couple of quid. They don't give him any compensation. He's paid the end of his wages minus the last day, because to be fair, when you were floating in the water, you didn't do your job. Not paid for the full voyage. That was the world.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
Whatever Ismay's intentions, the optics aren't great. To a cynical eye, it looks like he's trying to get witnesses out of the way before Senator Smith's inquiry gets started.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
I think they wouldn't have been thought of as very useful, but also you don't want them prattling away with New York press. You want them out of the way. And there was a lot of tension with America about their inquiry.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
On Thursday morning, with Carpathia due to dock later in the day, Smith arrives at the White House to see President Taft. Taft has just learned that his good friend, Archibald Butt, died on the Titanic. At Smith's suggestion, the President orders a naval cruiser to escort Carpathia into New York.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
Meanwhile, Ismay, or rather Yamsey, is still badgering the White Star office in Manhattan. Very important you should hold Cedric, he writes on Thursday morning. And then, less than an hour later, strongly urge, detain Cedric. And finally, unless you have good and substantial reason for not holding Cedric… Please arrange do so. Most undesirable crew remain New York so long.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
Ismay's number two in New York, Philip Franklin, replies that he has arranged for a different ship, the Lapland, to take the crew home a few days later. He tells Ismay, we all consider most unwise delay Cedric, considering all circumstances. Franklin follows up with a request for further information on Titanic's sinking.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
Account of actual accident greatly needed for enlightenment, public, and ourselves, he tells the boss. This is most important. And Philip Franklin isn't the only one trying to get the full story of the sinking over wireless. Captain Rostron has ordered his Marconi operator, Cottam, to ignore requests from the New York papers. He is to prioritize passengers' messages instead.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
But Cottam isn't alone in Carpathia's wireless room. Despite his frostbitten foot, Titanic's junior operator, Harold Bride, has been helping out with the mountain of passenger correspondence. And during his time at the Marconi set, Bride receives a tempting offer. Say, old man, Marconi Co. taking good care of you. Keep your mouth shut and hold your story. It is fixed, so you will get big money.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
Thursday morning's newspapers are full of the survivors' imminent arrival. Carpathia here tonight reads the headline of the New York Times. It's followed by some stark calculations of the numbers of dead from first class, second class, and steerage. 172, 189, and 453 respectively, plus 700 crew. The figures speak for themselves. And by now, Bruce Ismay's name has become front page news as well.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
Congress to demand from him an explanation of the awful disaster reads one subhead. Given the number of lifeboats on board Titanic and the increasingly accurate casualty figures, the very fact of Ismay's survival is beginning to look problematic. At 9.30 p.m., Carpathia finally docks in New York.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
Pier 54 is just a mile away from the White Star berths, where they were due to arrive the previous morning. The Titanic survivors have made it onto dry land at last, one day late. Although dry is a relative term here. It's a windswept, rainy evening, with occasional bursts of thunder and lightning. But despite the terrible weather, a huge crowd has gathered to see them disembark.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
They've gone down with her. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is Titanic Ship of Dreams, Part 10.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
Tens of thousands of curious New Yorkers, drawn like moths to a flame. Or rubberneckers, staring in fascination at the scene of an horrific accident. Many of the Titanic's survivors have friends or relatives waiting for them at the pier. Some business colleagues. Harold bride is met by Mr. Marconi himself, and he's brought with him a reporter from the New York times.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
Titanic's junior telegraphist is promised a four figure sum for his story. More than eight times his annual salary. As Titanic survivors disembark, a distinguished visitor comes aboard Carpathia, Senator William Alden Smith. He needs to speak to Bruce Ismay personally, to summon him to testify the following morning, as the first witness of the Titanic inquiry.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
It's the early hours of April the 15th, 1912. The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia is steaming through the night, full speed ahead. Ever since the ship's wireless operator Harold Cottam received Titanic's distress call at 12.25 that morning, Carpathia has been in crisis mode. Captain Arthur Rostron has ordered every last drop of steam to the engines.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
As Senator Smith's inquiry gets underway, the exchange of letters between him and Ismay will grow increasingly acrimonious. I am not unmindful of the fact that you are being detained in this country against your will, Smith tells Ismay. But the horror of the Titanic catastrophe, and its importance to the people of the world, calls for scrupulous investigation.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
I am working day and night to achieve this result, and you should continue to help me, instead of annoying me and delaying my work by your personal importunities. As the head of the White Star Line for over a decade, and now president of the International Mercantile Marine as well, Bruce Ismay isn't used to this kind of treatment.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
On Thursday evening, with Carpathia docked at Pier 54, Titanic survivors begin to disperse. Eva Hart and her mother are greeted by an aunt they've never met, who invites them to come and stay with her while they arrange travel back to England. The Women's Relief Committee provides them both with a complete change of clothes. Oh, they were wonderful to us.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
Uncle Jimmy is sent straight to hospital to recover from the effects of exposure.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
The rich Catholic benefactors in New York said, we hear there are these stout yeoman, Catholic Irish yeoman in the pits of the ship who've gone through this terrible ordeal. We make sure that we'll be there on the dock. And what happened, it's not often reported, is when they arrived finally, there were these limousines waiting to meet the Catholic firemen.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
And they took the firemen, frostbitten, down to Greenwich Village. And so Jimmy convalesced in this hospital down in Greenwich Village.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
The Lebanese survivors, meanwhile, are taken in by the local Jewish sheltering house.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
On Thursday evening, Titanic's first class passengers retire to a variety of top hotels. Molly Brown has a room booked at the Ritz Carlton, though she remains on Carpathia an extra night to help other survivors make their own arrangements. The Duff-Gordons head straight to a suite at the Ritz. A large group of friends has gathered to celebrate their safe arrival.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
We were all very gay and drank champagne, Lucy Duff Gordon will later recall. Among the group that evening is the editor of the Sunday American, who listens to her survival story with interest. The next day, the Duff Gordons open their newspaper to find that they've been royally stitched up as a pair of upper-class fools with no concept of the suffering of their fellow passengers.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
Tim Moulton, author of 101 Things You Thought You Knew About the Titanic But Didn't.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
But that's nothing compared with the treatment Bruce Ismay will receive once the inquiry gets underway later that morning. In the next episode, Ismay takes the stand in New York. Titanic's crew members close ranks, dodging difficult questions from the US senators. And newspaper editors on both sides of the Atlantic continue the search for heroes and villains. That's next time.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
He's doing his best to cross the 50-odd miles separating them from Titanic in record time. The decks of the ship are shaking as the engines are pushed to their limit. Unlike Titanic, Carpathia is a modest single-funneled workhorse. Her top speed, officially at least, is 14 knots, compared to Titanic's 23. But right now, Rostron is squeezing 17 knots out of her.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
You can listen to the next two episodes of Titanic Ship of Dreams right now, without waiting, by subscribing to Noisa Plus. Just hit the link in the episode description to find out more.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
Since Carpathia's wireless operator received Titanic's distress call three and a half hours earlier, They've been storming towards the coordinates given in the message. 41 degrees 44 minutes north, 50 degrees 14 minutes west. Those coordinates are based on a calculation made by Titanic's fourth officer, Bokthor. But it turns out his figures are off.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
This stroke of luck undoubtedly saves many lives. Captain Rostron has been pushing Carpathia's engines to the limit. But even so, he only just arrives in time to rescue the 700 or so men, women, and children in Titanic's lifeboats. Conditions in the North Atlantic are deteriorating fast.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
Some have already been forced to abandon their original lifeboats. My great-uncle Jimmy McGann has spent most of the night on the upturned collapsible B, along with junior telegraphist Harold Bryde and Titanic's second officer, Charles Lightoller. A few hours ago, they were beating away fellow survivors with their oars to prevent the collapsible from capsizing.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
And now with the wind picking up, keeping collapsible be afloat has become even more difficult. My brother, Steven,
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
Come the dawn, the sea starts to roughen. They're getting worried. Lightholler's getting very worried because it's getting lower in the water. And so they all have to stand up in rows and keep the thing trimmed.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
Uncle Jimmy is used to trimming of a different kind, hauling coal around Titanic's lower decks to make sure the weight is distributed evenly. Now it's the weight of human bodies that must be carefully balanced instead.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
Anyone who's seen the landmark film, I think my favorite Titanic film is A Night to Remember, the 50s film. And when I was a child, I used to love it because everybody in Liverpool loved those sea stonemies. But little did I know that there's a very famous Kenneth Moore scene playing lights on and goes, all right, everybody, you know, you've got to all stand up and trim.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
And he's on this collapsible lifeboat, which I didn't yet realize that my great uncle was probably sitting next to it.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
As the weather worsens further, the balancing act becomes all but impossible. Eventually the time comes for the men on Collapsible B to abandon ship again.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
They look like they're sinking. So they ask a different lifeboat, I think it was lifeboat 12, to come up.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
He whistles to try and get one of them to come up so they could transfer some of the men.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
One man is dead of hypothermia. Some people slipped off in the night with hypothermia. Jimmy's still there. And they are the very, very last people saved. They get transferred to lifeboat 12 and then they go up at half past eight in the morning onto the Carpathia.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
The survivors from collapsible B are mostly tough young men. But the last few hours have put them through the wringer. Telegraphist Harold Bride can't even walk. He has frostbite in one foot and a sprained ankle on the other side.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
Blazing through the darkness, he knows he's taking the lives of his passengers in his hands. More than once, Carpathia has had to dodge an approaching iceberg, A deeply religious man, Rostron will later write that the hand of God must be on the helm that night, as his ship zigzags around the bergs. By 3.30 AM, Carpathia is approaching Titanic's last recorded position.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
When it comes to the surviving children, the boarding procedure is even more complicated. Eva Hart was seven years old when Titanic sank. Her mother Esther made it into the lifeboat with her, but her father was left on the ship.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
Eva and her mother got separated during the night when 5th Officer Lowe started moving passengers between lifeboats, attempting to make space for survivors.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
Esther Hart isn't the only mother on Carpathia frantically searching for a missing child. Lebanese migrant Shanina Abisab spent the night in collapsible sea, along with white-style boss Bruce Ismay and an extremely distraught woman who'd lost her son. Dr. Josiane Abisab,
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
By then, they've been bobbing around on the ocean for more than four hours. And it's not just the distraught mother who's in a very bad way.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
10. Safe at Last…
On board, everything is in readiness. Blankets have been laid out in public rooms. Tea, coffee, and hot soup are all on hand, not to mention copious quantities of brandy. The crew have even sourced some heavy-duty restraints, in case any of Titanic's survivors have lost their minds.