Titanic Survivors: PTSD

When the Titanic went down, her 712 survivors were affected.  Some were affected more than others, but all were affected.  Here is a list of ways in which survivors showed signs of possible PTSD.

Young 3rd class passenger Frank Goldsmith lost his father the night the Titanic sank.  But he and his mother continued on to Detroit, Michigan in the hopes of fulfilling his father's dreams.  They lived near a baseball stadium and Frank said that whenever the crowds cheered, it reminded him of the screams coming from those poor people drowning and freezing to death in the water.

Stewardess Annie Robinson was noticeably affected by the Titanic disaster.  She later returned to sea and jumped overboard on a foggy night several years afterwards.  Her body was never found.

1st class passenger Emma Bucknell never went to sea ever again.

2nd Officer Herbert Lightoller enjoyed cool baths.  One day, he decided to take a cold bath to cool off after a game of tennis.  The family later found him in a trance and afterwards learned that it was a result of his being in the icy water that night.

1st class passenger Jack Thayer never fully recovered from the Titanic disaster in which he lost his father.  After his mother's death on an anniversary of the Titanic's sinking, his son's death in the Pacific Theatre of WWII, and several nervous breakdowns, he committed suicide.

Quartermaster Robert Hichens was at the wheel when the Titanic struck an iceberg and he was made more famous that night by his "conversation" with Margaret Brown.  He was affected by the Titanic disaster which basically ruined his career.  He had a bad married life, was a heavy drinker, attempted suicide twice, and went to prison for attempted murder.

1st class passenger and White Star Line chairman J. Bruce Ismay never fully recovered from the disaster.  He was already a shy man in his private life, but the disaster made him more withdrawn.  His wife wouldn't even allow the Titanic to mentioned in his presence in later years.

1st class passenger Irene Harris lost her faith in God after the Titanic disappeared and she listened to the cries of the masses of dying people in the water because she was sure her husband was among them.  Her faith returned in later life.

2nd class passenger Ruth Becker told her story to reporters in 1912 and 1913.  After that, she wouldn't speak of it.  She told her students, but never spoke publicly about it until later years at the Titanic Historical Society conventions.  Near the end of her life, she took a cruise, making it the first time she went to sea after the Titanic disaster.  Ruth's mother, Nellie, couldn't even talk about it when the reporters swarmed her for her story.  She told them, "Ask Ruth!" and left Ruth to tell their story.

2nd class passenger Selma Asplund never spoke of the Titanic disaster.  Her daughter, Lillian didn't like to talk about the disaster either.

3rd class passenger Georgette Dean didn't tell her daughter, Millvina, about what happened to them until she was 8 years old.

Saloon Steward Alexander Littlejohn experienced survivor's guilt for being a male that survived.  The affect of such guilt aged him greatly as seen in the photographs below, the one on the left taken just before the Titanic and the one on the right taken a mere 6 months later.  Photo credit:  http://hastingsonlinetimes.co.uk/hastings-life/hastings-people/lucky-lifeboat-13

Lookout Reginald Lee was one of the men in the crow's nest when the iceberg was spotted.  He ended up being one of the first crew members to die after the disaster.  He passed away due to pneumonia, but he reportedly drank very heavily after the disaster and was very likely suffering from PTSD.

5th Officer Lowe took charge of 4 lifeboats which were put together into a flotilla during the sinking.  He later for the most part emptied one of the boats and went back to pull people from the water.  By the time he got there, most had died of hypothermia or drowning.  Of the people he found alive in the water, about half died from exposure.  Throughout the rest of his life, he never spoke of the disaster.  It was something he never discussed with any of his family members and his grandson speculates it was due to PTSD.

1st class passenger Lucile Carter almost never talked about the Titanic disaster even to her family and hated getting in water.

3rd class passenger Anna Turja was haunted by the screams and cries of those in the water until her dying day.  She also never talked about the disaster except every year on April 15th to her children.

3rd class passenger Bridget McDermott rarely spoke of the Titanic afterwards and her family was forbidden from mentioning it to her.

1st class passenger Edith Graham said in an interview that she often had nightmares about the disaster.

1st class passenger Paul Chevre never recovered from the shock of the disaster and is considered to be one of the contributions to his death in 1914.

A Great Loss: Ed Kamuda

These are the Kamudas in a screenshot from the 1997 film. 

Myself and Mr. Kamuda

Ed and Karen Kamuda

It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of one of the greatest Titaniacs ever, Mr. Edward Kamuda.  Mr. Kamuda got interested in the Titanic film after seeing the 1953 film with Barbara Stanwyck and Clifton Webb.  After that, he started collecting Titanic memorabilia and writing to survivors.  He later got together with a few other people with the same interest in the Titanic and founded the Titanic Enthusiast Society.  He also published his first quarterly called the Marconigram.  Eventually, one of the survivors asked what there was about the Titanic to be enthusiastic about, so they changed the name to the Titanic Historical Society.  The Marconigram was changed to the Commutator due to the fact the Marconi company was still in business.  In the process, he collected many rare and valuable artifacts and opened up a museum in Indian Orchard, Massachusetts.  He's hosted numerous conventions of Titaniacs all over the United States and in England and France and inspired many young people to get interested in the Titanic.  He was instrumental in saving a piece of what got him started when he in the early 80s helped save, transport, and restore the large model used in the 1953 film.  In 1997, he and his wife were brought on as an extra on the set of the Cameron film. In September of 2013, I was blessed to go to the THS Convention in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee where I met Ed and his wife, Karen.  Ed was a kind, gentle soul that was someone that you couldn't help liking.  He would joke and laugh with everyone and was very approachable.  On April 13, 2014, midway during the Titanic anniversary week, he passed away.   His legacy is several generations of Titaniacs and more information than we would have without him.  The Titanic community owes him a greater debt than we can ever pay.

Calling the Boats Back

One thing I've investigated recently is the details of Captain Smith calling back the boats.  We have a deleted scene from Cameron’s 1997 film which showed Thomas Andrews and Chief Officer Wilde getting Captain Smith to call the boats and in particular, Boat No. 6 back through his megaphone and a similar scene made it into Cameron’s 2001 documentary, “Ghosts of the Abyss.”  With that in mind, I looked into the matter to see what the facts were. 

First, what or who prompted Captain Smith to call the boats back?  We don’t know the answer exactly, but I suspect it was 1^st Officer Murdoch.  He told the crew in Boat No. 1 to row a little distance from the ship and then come back when called upon.  It is possible that he intended to fill the boats the rest of the way at the beginning from the gangways just like 2^nd officer Lightoller did. 

When he called the boats back is unclear.  Lightoller said he heard Captain Smith call the boats back 2-3 times as he was lowering the port side boats. 

Eugene Daly said that Capt. Smith rushed to the rail and called out, “Bring those boats back, they are only half filled!"

Mrs. Lucien P. Smith (Boat 6) said, “In the meantime Capt. Smith was standing with a megaphone on deck. I approached him and told him I was alone, and asked if my husband might be allowed to go in the boat with me. He ignored me personally, but shouted again through his megaphone, "Women and children first." My husband said, "Never mind, captain, about that; I will see that she gets in the boat."

Major Arthur Peuchen testified about hearing the Capt. Smith's calls to come back at the American Inquiries.

Maj. PEUCHEN.

No, it was dark. At daylight I was rowing very hard - in the morning - and I did not notice. As we rowed, pulled away from the Titanic, there was an officer's call of some kind. We stopped rowing.

Senator SMITH.

A whistle?

Maj. PEUCHEN.

A sort of a whistle. Anyway, the quartermaster told us to stop rowing so he could hear it, and this was a call to come back to the boat. So we all thought we ought to go back to the boat. It was a call. But the quartermaster said, "No, we are not going back to the boat." He said, "It is our lives now, not theirs," and he insisted upon our rowing farther away.

Lightoller said he heard Captain Smith trying to call back the boats 2-3 times through  his megaphone while he was lowering the boats on the port side.  While he couldn't remember specific times, 

Lightoller thought he was trying to get them back to load them through the gangway doors.  Apparently since Murdoch also tried to load the boats through the gangway doors, he could have put Captain Smith up to it or Wilde as shown.  I don't know about Andrews since his whereabouts are unknown at that time.  Boxhall's lifeboat was lowered at about 1:45 and then made its way around to the starboard side in the hopes of getting a few more people through the gangway doors.  It appears that he used his megaphone in several minute intervals around the time Lightoller was loading and launching Boat No. 4 and possibly for the last time a little after that.

Titanic: The Edith Brown Story Review

Last week, I read Titanic: The Edith Brown Story by David Haisman, her son.  It's a short book, but it's packed with a son's love for his mother and a very powerful yet not often told tale.  In the process of writing his book, he and his siblings combined their recollections of what Edith said and what they remember about her.

In addition, David Haisman who was a sailor and lookout on some of the great liners back in the day lent his knowledge and expertise about how ships are run and ought to be run to the story.  We all know the story and different images like the Strauses refusing to leave each other, the band playing on, Benjamin Guggenheim and his valet going down like gentlemen, etc. get told so much that it dulls our senses to how incredible their stories were and how these things actually did happen.  This book made the Titanic and her passengers come to life to me.  We get to view the Titanic from the perspective of a 2nd class passenger.  Something which doesn't happen very often since that class is often ignored or only given minimal mention in books and films.

David writes it well enough to where you get a sense of what it was like during the voyage and sinking.  You also get to see who they actually were as people in their private lives instead of the romanticized stories in many other books and films.  It is also interesting to read about something rarely touched on and that is how the survivors coped after losing their breadwinners and the anchors of their homes and families.  You can really feel for Edith and her mother Elizabeth as they faced this new world without Edith's father Thomas and sympathize with them as they tried to make sense of the world without him.
The book also gives you a rare look at how the survivors did years after the disaster and will hold your attention as David gives you the stories about how they endured and suffered through WWII and the Luftwaffe bombings of Southampton along with sailing through U-Boat infested waters and through personal tragedies throughout her life.  It's a wonderful tribute from a son to his mother and it is an excellent book for anyone who wants to learn more about what it was like to be a survivor.  If anyone is looking for a woman in history that you can follow as a good example of how to live your life and meet new challenges, Edith Brown Haisman is a very good one.

Here are some places where you can buy Titanic: The Edith Brown Story:

http://www.amazon.com/Titanic-The-Edith-Brown-Story/dp/1438961820

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/titanic-david-haisman/1017054021?ean=9781438961828&itm=1&usri=9781438961828&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-GwEz7vxblVU-_-10:1&r=1,%201

John Harper's Last Convert

For many years, a story has been floating around the Titanic and Christian communities.  Supposedly, an unidentified man got up at a church or survivors' reunion 4 years after the sinking of the Titanic and Rev. Harper's death and said that he was a Titanic survivor and John Harper's last convert.  He then went on to talk about how he was swimming in the water when he came near Rev. Harper who was also in the water.  Rev. Harper called out, "Are thou saved?!"  The man replied, "No."  Rev. Harper replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved!"  Then the current brought them apart.  Soon afterwards, the man came near Rev. Harper and Harper called out, "Are you saved?!"  The man said, "Truly I can say I am not."  Rev. Harper said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved!"  Then they drifted away from each other again.  The man added that Rev. Harper was witnessing to others in the water as well.  After that last conversation, the man never saw Rev. Harper again.  The man said that he soon afterwards converted to Christianity.

Ever since I read this story a few years ago, I have wondered about the identity of this man and whether or not the story is true.  Is it possible to identify him?  There were many people that came out later claiming to be Titanic survivors for the publicity and fame.  But this man was different.  He never gave his identity which lead me to be inclined to believe his story since these weren't seeming publicity stunts.  But I won't dismiss the possibility that it was a publicity stunt.

We know of two appearances by this man.  The first one was in Ontario, Canada at a survivors' reunion/church service which I mentioned earlier.  The next was in 1955 in New York in which he basically gave the same story to a church.

According to the account of his first appearance, he was a Scotsman.  I was willing to waver on this qualification, however, because this is obviously a observer's assumption.  The man possibly lived in Canada or the Midwest or Northeastern US.  He spent some time in the water which may mean he was one of the people picked by Boat No. 4 or Boat No. 14.  He likely gave few or no interviews since he doesn't give this story anywhere else and if he had, the press would undoubtedly told the story and mentioned it with the other acts of heroism.  Another thing which narrows down the possibilities considerably is that he would have been alive in 1955.

The fact is, not many of the men that survived the water and were alive in 1955 were in America or Canada when this man gave both of these accounts.  Those that were gave such detailed accounts, that we can rule them out.  The story is told romantically and many Christians have claimed it as an inspiring story of Christian light being shown in the dark, freezing North Atlantic.  Rev. Harper was still a godly man.  His life is still one filled with good examples.  I would not be surprised after reading about his life in Moody Adams' excellent book "Titanic's Last Hero" if Rev. Harper did witness to people in the water.  But I'm afraid we cannot verify the story of Rev. Harper's last convert and it must be treated as a mere legend by those who want to tell the truth.

Sources:

"Titanic's Last Hero" by Moody Adams

http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/plucked-from-the-sea.html

Boat No. 1

This is the first of a series I hope to do in which I describe what went on in each lifeboat during the sinking and after she went down. The subject is fascinating, yet has not been touched on much.

Boat No. 1 is one of the most controversial boats due to many reasons and in doing so, has become infamous in the Titanic story.  To this day, people wonder why a boat that could take 40 people was lowered with 12 occupants.  Maybe even more controversial was why Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon ended up paying the crew in the boat money.

Boat No. 1 was one of 2 boats called "emergency boats."  It had a capacity for 40 and was ready at all times.  It was swinging over the gunwale on the foremost davits and was on the starboard side.

Putting together what exactly happened that night is difficult.  It became clear to me as I read the testimonies of the passengers and crew in the British and American Inquiries that several occupants were scared, saying they were the heroes in trying to convince the others to go pick up those in the water while the others were practically the villains in an effort to save their own reputations from the press who were hungry for villains and scapegoats.  The Duff-Gordons did what they could to salvage their reputations and it appears they tried to convince the others in the boat to testify favorably towards them.  I've tried my best and hopefully what I say will be satisfactory to the evidence and close to what happened that night.

Technical Description:
Boat No. 1 was an Emergency Cutter lifeboat meaning that it was smaller than most of the other lifeboats.  It was 25 feet and 2 inches long, 7 feet and 2 inches wide, and 3 feet deep.  It had a capacity for 40 people and had 4 thwarts.  It was one of two lifeboats hanging in suspension over the water, always ready to be lowered in case of an emergency (man overboard, damage to the ship, etc.).

This famous photograph taken by Father Browne of the Titanic and Captain Smith shows Boat No. 1 hanging in suspension over the side where it was for most of the voyage.  

Source: http://titanicphotographs.com/

At 11:40 P.M., the Titanic struck the iceberg and began sinking.  At 12:15 A.M., Captain E.J. Smith gave the order to prepare the boats for lowering.  1st Officer Murdoch took charge of the Starboard side and began uncovering the boats.  Among those that uncovered and readied Boat No. 1 were Samuel Collins, George Symons, and Charles Hendrickson.   

Boat No. 1 was the third boat launched on the starboard side.  Murdoch and his crew after they launched Boats 7, 5, and 3, went over to Boat No. 1 and began loading it.  Murdoch turned to his crew and asked, "Who is assigned to this boat?"  Lookout George Symons remembered seeing his name on the list of crew assigned to this boat on the Bridge and said, "I am."  Murdoch asked, "Are you a sailor?"  Symons replied, "Yes."  Murdoch told him, "Jump in and see the plug is in."  Symons was the first person to get into the boat and plugged the drainage hole on the bottom of the boat.  Murdoch then asked, "Are there any more sailors?"  Seaman Albert Horswill also remembered seeing his name on the list and said, "I am assigned to this boat."  Murdoch told him, "Jump in."  Then 1st class passengers Sir Cosmo, Lady Duff-Gordon, and their secretary, Laura Francatelli, came up.  Sir Cosmo asked, "May we get in the boat?"  Murdoch replied, "Yes; get in."  After that, 1st class passenger Charles Stengel came up after putting his wife into another lifeboat and asked if he could get in.  Murdoch gave his permission.  Stengel was unsure of getting into the lifeboat and scared he might make the boat tip over or that he might slip.  He rolled into the boat, thinking that it was the safest way to get in.  Murdoch watched Stengel get in and said, "That's the funniest thing I've seen all night!" laughing.  Immediately after Stengel got in, 1st class passenger Abraham Salamon asked to get in and was granted permission.  Then Murdoch asked, "How many sailors are in this boat?"  Symons replied, "Two."  Murdoch turned around and saw that the rest of the crew were uncovering Collapsible C nearby and getting it ready to be launched by the same davits Boat No. 1 was attached to.  Murdoch asked for six more sailors.  Five answered the call and got in.  

They waited for 3-5 minutes in the hopes others would come.  "The Loss Of The SS Titanic: Centennial Reappraisal" points out that people might have avoided that area since 4th Officer Boxhall was nearby firing rockets.  No one came nearby from what they could see and so 1st Officer Murdoch gave the order to lower away.  A rocket was fired just as they began to lower the boat.  As the boat started to go down, Murdoch asked, "Who is in charge of this boat?"  George Symons who was at the rudder, thus making him in charge said, "Symons, the look-out."  Murdoch replied, "Symons, take charge of this boat; make all the people in the boat obey you; make them do what you tell them."  Symons replied, "All right."  As they were on their way down, they got caught in something and began to tip over.  The crew on the Boat Deck stopped lowering and someone was sent down to get the boat loose.  It caused a delay, but eventually the boat was lowered.  When the boat reached the water or almost was to that point, Murdoch called down and gave orders.  Each of the survivors varied in recalling what he said, but the jist of his orders were to row away, but stay nearby and come back if called upon.  Symons said that when the lifeboat was lowered, the water was up to the second row of portholes under the Forecastle Deck.  

Before we continue, it's interesting to note that the survivors in Boat 1 specified where they were sitting.  So, I decided to show you where they were sitting when the boat was lowered in the hopes it will help you to visualize what went on.  Sadly, even this is hard to reconstruct because of inconsistencies.  But I've done my best.  Please forgive the crudity of the drawing.

They rowed away about 100-150 yards and stopped and rested on their oars.  At about 1:20 A.M., Captain Smith used his megaphone and called for the boats to come back.  None of the occupants of Boat No. 1 stated that they heard anything like that, which leads me to believe that they likely didn't hear him as some of the closer boats did.  As the Titanic got lower in the water and those in the boat realized the terrible truth that the Titanic was actually sinking, Symons ordered the rowers to row further away out of fear that they might potentially be sucked down with the ship.  They stopped at about 200-250 yards away and watched the Titanic go down.  One of the people in the boat said that it was broadside to the ship.  Laura Francatelli said that she saw 1st Officer Murdoch shoot himself, though she was too far away and it was too dark for her to be able to see that.  She may have thought the shot-like sounds from the breakup was the officer's suicide the survivors talked about later on the Carpathia.  They heard the explosion-like sounds which were caused by the ship splitting in and steel hull ripping apart and saw her sink.  As the Titanic disappeared, Lady Duff-Gordon leaned over in between her vomiting over the side due to seasickness and told Laura Francatelli, "There's your beautiful nightdress, gone."  Then Robert Pusey said, "Nevermind about your night dress madam, as long as you have your life."  

Following the sinking, the screams and cries of the people left in the freezing water were heard from the distance.  What happened next is not known for sure in Boat No. 1.

According to Charles Hendrickson, he said even yelled, "It is up to us to go back and pick up anyone in the boat."  But the women objected with their fears that the boat might be swamped and Sir Cosmo backed them up by saying, "It is too dangerous to go back.  We might get swamped."

According to George Symons, no one said anything.  They just continued to row.

According to Collins, nothing was said aside from Symons' order to keep rowing.  Eventually, he turned the boat towards the screams.

According to Sir Cosmo, he was too absorbed with his wife's well being and telling her things to comfort her that it never crossed his mind to go back.

According to James Taylor, a man in front of him suggested that they go back.  But Lady Duff-Gordon objected due to the danger of being swamped.  The two gentlemen backed her up by saying, "We shall be swamped if we go back.  It would be too dangerous to go."

According to Albert Horswill, nothing was said about whether or not they would go back.

Charles Stengel never really talked about any conversation aside from mentioning that they couldn't go back because the people were too far away for them to get back in time.

It seems to me based on reading these accounts that there was some covering up, with people attempting to protect their reputations and defend their actions and particularly the Duff-Gordons.  What I find very interesting is that both James Taylor and Charles Hendrickson's accounts match up almost perfectly, including the quote from Sir Cosmo about it being to dangerous to go back due to the fear they may get swamped.  It is my personal belief that Hendrickson and Taylor's versions is what happened, though I leave it up to your judgment since there is no way of confirming exactly what happened and what was said.

According so several people, they were rowing towards the Californian.  Dr. Paul Lee gives an excellent analysis of where the Californian was located in comparison to the Titanic at this link:  http://www.paullee.com/titanic/TitanCalif2.html.

According to the survivors, they rowed away from the Titanic and then once the cries died down, several claimed that they headed for the "lights" (S.S. Californian).  Changing direction and heading towards the Californian could possibly explain why some said they turned around after the cries died down and headed towards those in the water.  While I don't discount the possibility that they were lying to salvage their reputations, their turning around and going in sort of the general direction of the cries towards the Californian could have given them that impression especially since it was so dark and there was no general sense of direction.

They rowed in darkness.  Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon said that Charles Stengel would shout, "Go here!"  "Go there!" and when a splash was heard, he would yell, "Boat ahoy!"  At first, it seems that the passengers and crew tolerated it.  It was possibly because they were too cold, numb, and shocked to do much else.  Finally, Sir Cosmo lost his patience and turned around and asked Stengel to be quiet. At some point during the night, James Taylor who was sitting next to Sir Cosmo got tired of rowing and so he switched places with Charles Hendrickson.  Those that could lit their cigarettes.  Hendrickson mentioned he borrowed a cigarette from Sir Cosmo.

At some point (probably about 3 a.m.), they came alongside Boat No. 13.  Someone in Boat No. 13 asked the people in Boat No. 1, "Are you all right?"  Symons replied, "Yes."  Someone in the other boat said, "All right."  After that, 2 other boats came around.  Symons called out, "Keep as close together as we possibly can!"  Someone in another boat asked, "Is there an officer in your boat?"  Symons replied, "No."  Then the person asked, "Are you all right?"  Symons replied, "Yes."

They continued rowing for the Californian until they saw a green flare (which was lit by 4th Officer Boxhall in Boat No. 2) which indicated another boat.  Dr. Paul Lee talks about the green flare here:  http://www.paullee.com/titanic/mysteryship.html.  George Symons changed course started to head for the boat with the green flare.  They never reached Boxhall because while they were rowing, the rockets from the R.M.S. Carpathia appeared in the night sky.  Symons changed the course again, and they arrived alongside the Carpathia at about 4:45 A.M.

By then, it was broad daylight.  They came alongside the Carpathia's hull and climbed up a rope ladder.  Samuel Collins said he carried a coat of an unidentified man up to the Carpathia from the lifeboat.  I believe it was Abraham Salamon's coat because a later photograph (below) showed him wearing one on the Carpathia.  Eventually, Charles Hendrickson and Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon were the last two on the boat.  Sir Cosmo turned to Hendrickson and said, "Are you the man who was sitting next to me?"  Hendrickson replied, "Yes."  Sir Cosmo said, "If you will get the men's names I will see that they get some money in a few days or give them a cheque shortly."  They left the boat and Hendrickson put the names of the occupants of the boat down on paper and gave the list to Sir Cosmo that day.  The crew of the Carpathia got Boat No. 1 up onto the Boat Deck of the Carpathia where it was stored until it was unloaded in New York.  It was later taken back to Southampton along with many of the other boats from the Titanic and what happened afterwards to them is unknown.  Sir Cosmo paid the crew with coutts, true to his word, and later regretted it.  They were accused of bribing the crew to not go back and ostracized by society for the rest of their lives.  In addition, Sir Cosmo had a photograph taken of the people from Boat 1.  I've taken the liberty to identify each person.

Source:  http://www.williammurdoch.net/mystery02_witness_08_francatelli.html

Boat No. 1 seems to be the most controversial lifeboat out of all the lifeboats.  The fact a boat with the capacity of 40 was lowered with 12 people has caused sadness, thinking of the lives that could have been saved.  The fact they made no attempt to save lives even though they couldn't have if they tried because they were too far away has caused people to wonder and ask why.  The fact so many were attempting to cover their tracks and salvage their reputations during the inquiries makes it nearly impossible to accurately recreate what happened.  But what's clear to me is that these were people living their everyday lives, placed in a situation that nobody expected, and made their decisions based on what little they knew.  It's easy for arm-chair historians and the rest of us to look back and condemn them, but I suspect it would be a whole other issue for us if we like them were in a cold, dark lifeboat alone in the middle of the North Atlantic.  

Sources:

http://titanicinquiry.org/

http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/lifeboat-specifications.html

2012 Time Magazine (Laura Francatelli's account)

On A Sea Of Glass 

The Loss Of The SS Titanic:  Centennial Reappraisal 

A Night To Remember

http://wormstedt.com/Titanic/revised.html

http://www.paullee.com/titanic/index.php

Was Archie Butt Gay?

It has come to my attention that 1st class passenger and Titanic victim Maj. Archibald Butt has been described as gay and more specifically, it's been said that he and Frank Millet were partners.  I can only attribute it to our current fascination with sexuality, something that was not discussed at that time since it was considered improper to do so along with a search to find a gay people in history of influence.  With me having a particular interest in Archie, I took it upon myself to confirm or deny the rumors in an unbiased fashion.

It has been noted that Archie never made any indication that he was gay because he was a self conscious person who would never have put something like that on paper.  While there is some truth to that, I find it interesting that Archie never really included Frank Millet in his personal scrapbooks which he made for his eyes only that included things from the most important people in his life.  One would think his "one true love" would at least be mentioned in some ways.

While this has not been mentioned by proponents of Archie's homosexuality, people are claiming Abraham Lincoln was gay because he slept in the same bed with men.  Archie did sleep with a man for a long time when he was a young journalist.  But it was not uncommon for men to sleep with other men to save money which it was noted by one of them was the reason for their doing so.  It has also been noted that Archie shared his house in Washington D.C. with several men, but again, it was not uncommon for men to live together.

There seems to be no recurring man in Archie's letters which would indicate any interest.  On the flip side, Archie in the letters he wrote almost every day to his mother and then to his sister-in-law show a clear interest in 2-3 women, but most emphatically with Mathilde Townsend, and his letters show that when he fell in love with someone, she would show up over and over in his letters.

Before leaving for Europe on the Berlin in 1912, Archie was asked if he would get married.  Archie replied that he hoped so because his life was miserable.

Francis D. Millet was a homosexual in his younger days.  He lived with a man named Charles Stoddard and letters from Millet to Stoddard reveal that they did have a homosexual relationship which ended with Stoddard leaving Millet.  Eventually, Millet married a woman and had children.  But Millet's profession as an artist meant that he was gone a lot, taking on many projects of national and international significance.  It's possible he had relationships with men while he was away from his wife, but such things are not recorded to my knowledge.

Conclusion:  We don't know and likely will never know if Archie Butt was gay.  He certainly bore certain stereotypical characteristics such as closeness to his mother and some flamboyance, but that does not prove anything.  It is my opinion that he was not gay, just because we don't have any evidence of his well recorded life that would suggest that he was gay.  Unless such evidence arises, he will remain in my view a straight man that was simply unlucky in his relationships with women.  I must point out that he was an amazing man either way.  He rendered invaluable service to two presidents and saved lives by helping women and children into the boats.  A person's sexuality should not change how we view who he was.

Loraine Allison: Titanic Survivor or Victim?

If you have studied the Titanic for a good length of time, you have probably heard the story of the tragedy of the Allison family.  The Allisons were 1^st class passengers from Canada that consisted of a father, Hudson, a mother, Bess, and two children named Loraine (2 years and 10 years old) and Trevor (11 months old).  They also traveled with their household staff including the new nanny, Alice Cleaver.  On the night the Titanic sank, the Allisons were heading for the lifeboats when Alice Cleaver who was holding Trevor got separated from the rest of the family in the crowds and got into a lifeboat.  Hudson, Bess, and Loraine died in the disaster and only Hudson’s body was recovered.  Loraine Allison has since been known as the only child in 1^st class that died in the sinking and many have read their story with their hearts breaking for little Loraine whose life was cut short so early. 

Fast forward to September of 1940.  Trevor Allison had been dead for ten years after being lovingly raised by his uncle and aunt, Alice Cleaver had disappeared into obscurity, and Hudson’s money and estate were now owned by his brother and sister-in-law.  This is when a woman named Helen Loraine Kramer came into the story and overturned what seemed to be a final and sad resolution to the story by saying that she was in fact Helen Loraine Allison, the child that supposedly died on the Titanic.  When she was asked about how she survived, she told everyone that a man named Mr. James Hyde who was really the ship’s chief designer, Thomas Andrews, had survived and was paid off by J. Bruce Ismay, the president of the White Star Line, to abandon his family and live in a cabin in the middle of nowhere so that he wouldn’t talk about design flaws in the Titanic.  According to Loraine, Ismay would visit them from time to time and when she got older, Mr. Hyde told her the story of her true identity by a letter.  In 1922, she had her first son.  In 1929, Loraine married Beecher Ferguson and they had two children.  In November 10, 1934, she married Lawrence Kramer and had two more children.  After Kramer came out with these claims, she dropped back into obscurity but not without doing damage.  She not only began a lie which some still believe, she also reopened the wound caused by the tragic and unexpected deaths of Hudson, Bess, and Loraine on the Titanic.  Kramer may have genuinely believed that she really was Loraine Allison and told her daughter and granddaughter the “truth,” but it is more likely that she was just trying to cash in on the fame and get Hudson Allison’s fortune.   She died in 1992.  In the 1990s with the advent of the internet and forums, some of her descendants came and went with the same claims Kramer made. 

In April 2012, things got heated and turned the heads of many Titaniacs.  Debrina Woods, the granddaughter of Kramer, came forward on many online forums with her claims that her grandmother was telling the truth and that she had (conveniently) found a suitcase on the weekend of the 100^th anniversary of the sinking with mountains of evidence to support her.  According to her sister Deanne, the suitcase has been in the family for 50 years.  Debrina also included that these papers provide this “evidence” she speaks of which would indicate foul play involving Trevor Allison’s death of food poisoning.  When people would question her about DNA evidence (something all the paperwork in the world wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans against), she would give a date when the DNA tests would be completed.  The date given came and went and we waited patiently for the results.  Finally, we began to post and ask about the tests.  She would then talk about how little money she had and how it was pushed to another date.  We patiently would wait again and still no results.  Any attempts to question the validity of her claims were shot down by her, often in a rude manner.  She also began promising a book and screenplay (supposedly with the promise of Julian Fellowes to make the movie).  By January of 2013, most people were fed up with her claims and promises unfulfilled.  She supposedly had a museum look at the documents in May with the promise of updating people on what they said.  Such a thing has never happened. 

Let’s look at the evidence, putting aside the DNA question for now.  First, we must question her story.  When you consider the possibility of her story, how was Thomas Andrews, the ship’s designer and one of the more popular figures on the ship, able to escape the Titanic, stay on the Carpathia for about a week, and get off into huge crowds undetected with Loraine whose family was waiting in that crowd?  Also, how was he able to live without at least one person recognizing him from his photo which was plastered all over the newspapers following the disaster?  That seems highly unlikely.  Furthermore, it is an insult to his name and character to suggest that he should leave his wife and young daughter along with the company his uncle owned and in which he worked since his boyhood out of greed and the wish to please one man.  It is also an insult to the name and character of Ismay (who doesn’t have a good reputation to begin with but in reality was a genuinely nice fellow and more of a hero of the Titanic disaster) that he would suggest such a thing to Andrews. 

Next, we need to look at the story of Loraine Kramer.  There is a birth certificate that says she had a child in 1922, a time when she was 13 years old if she was the real Loraine!  Of course, it is possible to have a child that young, but it very rarely happens.  Especially in 1922!  That same year, she called herself Irene Evangeline Schultz in the census records and said she was 20 years old and born in Russia. Why did she wait until 10 years after Trevor’s death to release her claims and why did she disappear back into obscurity again when things got heated and not talk about it publically for the rest of her life?  She was approached by the Titanic historian Don Lynch while she was still living and she refused to talk about it.  Only to her descendants did she make mention of it. 

It must also be pointed out that there is no evidence of foul play in regards to Trevor Allison’s death.  According to Kramer, the Allisons had Trevor killed to get his money which he was going to inherit 3 years later.  There is absolutely no evidence to support this.  Hudson’s brother (who inherited the fortune after Trevor’s death) was actually wealthier than Hudson and never used his fortune.  Also, the coroner’s suspicions were never raised.  By all accounts, he refused medical help when he got sick and stubbornly continued to refuse medical help when he got worse.  Another thing to point out is why would the Allisons spend money to raise Trevor and not kill him as quickly as possible in a non-suspicious manner if that was their plan?  I’m afraid this accusation doesn’t have a leg to stand on.

Now let’s get to the DNA.  Tracy Oost who volunteered to put to rest whether or not the DNA revealed any link between Kramer and the Allisons started the Allison Identification Project.  On December 9, 2013, Tracy released the results after comparing DNA between the Daniels (Bess Daniels Allison’s) family and samples from Debrina’s sister, Deanne.  They came back negative, proving once and for all that Helen Loraine Kramer was not in fact Helen Loraine Allison.  Debrina’s response was that she had “closer relatives.”  But the fact is that DNA doesn’t lie and it doesn’t matter.  While Debrina might have “closer relatives” to test, the relations they did use was close enough and the matter has been officially settled.  We are 100% positive that Helen Loraine Allison died in the early hours of April 15, 1912 in the cold, icy waters of the North Atlantic in the Titanic disaster.  

Technical World Magazine 1911

In March of 1911, the Technical World Magazine released an article about the Olympic and what she had to offer along with her twin sister Titanic.  I decided to share with you what it said since it describes how people (particularly Americans) viewed the Olympic Class Liners (which Titanic was one of) at that time.  It is interesting and a little chilling to also read about how little they prioritized the amount of people the lifeboats could hold.  Please keep in mind that some (but not all) of the figure and things advertised are wrong or exaggerated. Pretty much all that they advertised about the Olympic, they also advertised for the Titanic at the time.  I have attempted to keep the spelling, punctuation, etc. intact.

OLYMPIC. THE GREATEST OF ALL STEAMSHIPS

BY 

HENRY R. JEVONS

THE OLYMPIC AS SHE WILL APPEAR IN JULY.

Some day next July a skyscraper will come floating up Ambrose Channel, the Narrows and the North River to her berth at the new Chelsea docks in New York.  For they are building sea-going skyscrapers these days and they are doing pretty well at it, considering.  This particular skyscraper, the Olympic, the new White Star Liner, is only eleven stories, to be sure, but measured from the bottom of her keel to the top of her funnels, she lacks only twenty-five feet of coming up to the new proposed building height limit in Chicago.  Since the Olympic's foundation is salt water which is more unstable, if possible, than the quicksands which vex the builders in the Lake Michigan metropolis this must be conceded to be a pretty fair height.  Nor are those funnels to lightly considered in computing the height.  They are very much more important than the ornamental lantern sometimes included in reckoning the height of a building.  Though they do not look very big, so exquisitely is the new liner proportioned, they would make a good many suites and offices if they were arranged for that purpose, for there are four of them, each oval in shape, 24 feet 6 inches in diameter the long way and 19 feet wide.  Placed end to end they would make a tunnel 640 feet long with ample room for two standard gauge railroad trains to stand side by side.  

Everything else about this latest prodigy of marine architecture is on the same stupendous scale.  Unfortunately, descriptive writers of former days exhausted the entire stock of adjectives in describing "leviathans of the deep" that sometimes reached the enormous size of five or six thousand tons, so that now when they are really needed to convey an idea of a craft of forty-five thousand tons there isn't isn't a superlative left that is fit to be seen in print.  The only thing

THE OLYMPIC AS SHE APPEARED IMMEDIATELY AFTER LAUNCHING.

SIDE PLATING AND HYDRAULIC RIVETING ON THE OLYMPIC AND FRAMING AND PLATING ON THE TITANIC.

that can be done is to fall back on comparative statistics, and let it go at that.  As a starter it may be said that the length of the Olympic, 882 feet 6 inches, is 182 feet greater than the height of the Metropolitan tower in New York, the tallest structure on the continent, and four times the height of the Bunker Hill monument; and yet any one who has toiled up the steps to the top of Boston's proudest landmark will feelingly agree that it is not to be sneezed at.  Also, the length of the Olympic and sister ship, the Titanic, launched in February, 1911, is twice the height of St. Peter's in Rome and equals the total drop of the famous Bridal Veil falls in Yosemite Valley.  Placed end to end beside the Brooklyn Bridge these two ships would span the East River and extend over the shore one hundred feet on each side.  In short the Olympic is 97 feet 6 inches longer than the Mauretania and Lusitania, is 92 feet six inches wide over the boat deck.  From the boat deck to the bottom of the keel is 97 feet; from the top of the Captain's house to the bottom of the keel is 105 feet 6 inches, and from the top of the funnels to

the bottom of the keel, 175 feet.  There are eleven steel decks and fifteen watertight bulkheads.

The launching of the Olympic alone cost more than enough to build a fine steamship.  More than six hundred steers died to make her path into the water smooth, for twenty-two tons of tallow were used to grease the ways.  Many a Belfast waterman made a modest little fortune (judged by a Belfast waterman's standard) picking up the floating tallow after the launch.  The tallow, however, was too trivial an item for serious consideration when compared to the rest of the bill.

It cost the Belfast Harbor Board, which draws no share of the Olympic's earnings, $292,000 to get ready for the launching.  Of this sum $146,000 went to deepen the channel to 32 feet.  Opposite the berth a pit of fifty feet deep had to be dredged in the bottom of the harbor to make room for the plunge of the stern before the bow left the ways.  Then Harland and Wolff, the builders, had to spend $48,670 to strengthen Victoria wharf opposite the berth lest the terrific commotion kicked up when the monster struck the water should cause the wharf to collapse.  Still, that was but a beginning.  Three of the largest slips they had were converted into two for the Olympic and Titanic.  Over the berth a double gantry had to be erected 840 feet long, 105 feet wide and 220 feet high and equipped with travelers and cranes capable of lifting from 5 to forty tons.  Besides this there was a floating crane to be provided at great cost to transfer the boilers to the ships after they were afloat.  Part of the works had to be entirely reconstructed, other parts were altered and special equipment provided, making the outlay for the plant for building these biggest ships more than two million dollars.

From the time the keel was laid, December 15, 1908, to October 20, 1910, the date of the launching, a fair sized army was steadily employed on the Olympic.  For weeks before before the launching two thousand five hundred men toiled night and day making preparations 

THE OLYMPIC JUST  BEFORE THE LAUNCHING.

SEVENTEEN NOISELESS RIVETERS AT WORK.

for the great event.  As the weight at the launching was 27 thousand tons, much the largest mass of steel ever put in the water at once, a great deal of careful planning and expert preparation were required to make ready for the sixty-two seconds occupied by the Olympic in making the plunge.  From the time the hydraulic triggers holding the vessel holding the vessel on the ways were released until she was stationary in the water less than two minutes elapsed.  

Since the Olympic represents an investment of $7,500,000 it was necessary that in addition that in addition to being the largest ship the world has ever seen, a distinction she will only retain until the Titanic is placed in service late this fall, when she will be one of the largest two, she should also be the heaviest and strongest.  Five hundred thousand rivets, weighing 270 tons, were used in the construction of the double bottom alone.  The largest rivet was 1/4 inches in diameter.  This double bottom is 5 feet 3 inches deep.  The largest shell plates are 36 feet long and weigh 4 1/2 tons.  The largest beams are 92 feet long.  The after boss arm, a sort of three pronged bracket that tags along to hold up the outer ends of the propellers, weighs 72 1/2 tons.  The rudder, a dainty creation in steel, is 15 feet 3 inches wide with a stock 23 1/2 inches in diameter and weighs a hundred tons, as much as a good sized locomotive.

But speaking of riveting, 3,000,000 rivets weighing in twelve hundred tons, are required to hold the Olympic together.  All the shell plating up to the turn of the bilge and much of the other work was done by power riveters, which in Belfast are very different things from the little hand tool sprouting from the end of a rubber hose, the blood-curdling, nerve destroying r-r-r-r-r-r-r-at-at-at-at-tat of which is so distressingly familiar to American ears.  The Irish riveter is a ponderous affair weighing seven tons which has to be manipulated by means of a traveling crane.  But it does its work so easily and so silently that it was considered quite the thing to invite ladies who visited the works during the building of the Olympic to step up and drive a rivet.

In point, of power the Olympic, though much larger than the Lusitania and Mauretania, drops far behind the swift Cunarders.  For each knot about twenty per hour added to the speed of a steamship the coal consumption increases in an ever-growing ratio that is out of all proportion to the advantage gained.  The luxury of a speed of 25.5 knots an hour comes so high that all other steamship companies have enthusiastically agreed to let the Cunard Company monopolize it.  So it happens that while the Olympic is a third greater in tonnage than the Mauretania her engines will have only fifty thousand horse power, as compared with the Cunarder's seventy thousand horse power, which is only enough to enable her to jog along at twenty-one knots an hour.  Still, a plant of fifty thousand horse power has by no means as yet become what might be called commonplace.

The arrangement of two wing propellers driven by reciprocating engines combined with a center propeller driven by a turbine has been tried out on the White Star Liner Laurentic, plying between Liverpool and Montreal, with such

THE LAUNCHING OF THE OLYMPIC.

gratifying results in economy and in eliminating vibration, that it has been adopted for the Olympic.  It has been alleged by the press agent that this absence of vibration abolishes that terror of the seas, mal de mer; but don't you believe it.  There is but one infallible rule for prevention of sea-sickness, and that is to stick to dry land.  It i much cheaper than crossing the Atlantic, any way.  

But to return to the wing propellers, they are each 23 feet 6 inches in diameter, weigh 38 tons each and are affixed to crank shafts weighing 118 tons each.  These ponderous masses of metal are driven at a speed of 75 revolutions per minute by triple expansion engines with four cylinders, the high pressure cylinder being 54 inches in diameter, the intermediate 84 and the two low pressure 97 inches in diameter, which all have a stroke of 6 feet 3 inches.  Each engine bedplate weighs 195 tons.  

The center propeller, which is only 16 feet 6 inches in diameter, has to run at more than double the speed of the wing propellers, or 165 revolutions per minute.  It is driven by the latest type of Parsons turbine, the rotor of which is 12 feet in diameter and 13 feet 8 inches long.  From the company's standpoint the most attractive feature of this arrangement is not that it abolished sea sickness, as alleged, but that it keeps the coal bill down.  Steam, generated in 20 double ended and 5 single ended Scotch boilers, all 15 feet 9 inches in diameter, the double enders 20 feet and the 11 feet 9 inches long, is delivered to the reciprocating engines at 215 pounds pressure.  The high pressure cylinder get all they can out of the steam, which is then passed on to intermediate cylinders, which go after the elasticity in that steam like a Paris hotel keeper after a tourist’s cash, then dole it out to the low pressure cylinders.  Not

ALL PARTS OF THE VESSEL ARE GIGANTIC

The boilers are 15 feet, 9 inches in diameter and 20 feet in length.

BRINGING THE "AFTER BOSS ARMS" INTO POSITION.

One of the gigantic parts of the Olympic.  Weight 72 1/2 tons.

until every ounce of pressure that a reciprocating engine can get out of it has been extracted from that steam is it allowed to escape to the turbine.  Although by this time the steam is so weak it can hardly struggle on, the turbine has become so wonderfully efficient that it contrives to develop a great deal of power out of this exhaust steam.  When the turbine gets through with it the steam, which by this time isn’t much more effective than hot water goes to the condenser, and from there back to the boilers to begin the weary round all over again.

Still bearing in mind the outlay of $7,500,000, rather than from an inordinate solicitude for prospective passengers, the company has equipped the Olympic with the most elaborate safety appliances that the ingenuity of man has devised.  In this respect the steamship companies are exactly like the railroads.  Every so-called safety appliance has on a railroad today has been adopted for its economic value, the safety secured and thereby being incidental-a sort of by-product, so to speak.  However, when a passenger by sea or land is zealously guarded from harm it is no part of his business to analyze the motives that insure his safety.  If some blundering steamer should run full tilt into the Olympic as the Florida did into the Republic it is safe to predict that the new giant will not only stay afloat long enough to transfer all her passengers, but that her bulk-

THE STEERING QUADRANT OF THE OLYMPIC.

 heads will be found strong enough to withstand the strain of towing to port.  There are the usual doors between watertight compartments all closed at once by a touch on electric button on the bridge, the submarine signaling apparatus that can pick up the tones of a warning bell seventeen miles distant and also tell the direction from which the warning comes, the wireless telegraph that will keep the ship in constant touch with the shore and with other ships and the elaborate fire protection system to be found on all modern liners.  In addition to all these the Olympic has a new wrinkle in the arrangement of the small boats.

To quote from page 156, volume 16 of the Transactions of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, “It is compulsory to provide a full complement of life boats and other life saving appliances together with davits which can be relied upon to lower the boats in a heavy sea without the least chance of mishap . . . Provided a vessel is not afire and can float, even with a big hole in her side she is about the most comfortable and the safest place available in mid-Atlantic.”

The laws of England and the United States do not require a vessel like the Olympic to carry small boats enough to accommodate all the passengers and crew, but even the number she does carry takes up a great deal of room the passengers would rather have devoted to promenades.  By using sixteen sets of Welin double acting quadrant davits, which will swing a boat away from the ship’s side and stay put at any angle in any kind of sea, the Olympic is enabled to stow 32 boats and have most of the deck room too, for each set of davits which has been approved by the conservative British Board of Trade, not only reduces the cost, saves weight and also makes it possible to carry more life boats and still have them readily accessible in case of need.

Since there seems to be no limit to the sums otherwise sane Americans are willing to pay to be ferried across the Atlantic, every facility will be afforded the passenger on the Olympic for getting rid of his money.  On any of the big modern liners one may pay from $112.50 for a single berth in an inside room down in the basement or two thousand dollars for an imperial suite on an upper deck where the passengers who like to stay up all night can congregate under the windows to gabble.  Not many pay the minimum rate in the “high season,” though:  the steamship companies see to that.  One of the big new German steamships quotes a minimum rate of $112.50 per berth but inquiry reveals the fact that

ELECTRIC CRANE EQUIPMENT USED IN CONSTRUCTING THE GIGANTIC TWIN STEAMERS, OLYMPIC AND TITANIC.

DELIVERING ONE OF THE FIFTEEN TON ANCHORS.

there are just three two berth rooms on the ship at that rate.  The rest of the five hundred and twenty first class passengers pay two hundred to six hundred dollars a head.  The distance across the Atlantic is about three times the distance from New York to Chicago.  The total cost of a trip between these two cities, including berth an meals on the fastest and costliest trains is $38.  Three times the distance would amount to $114.  But the average rate on the new liners is about three times that amount.  The rates on the Olympic have not yet been announced, but there is no reason to doubt that they will be ample. 

In return for his money the first class passenger can eat his meals, provided he isn’t too sick to think of victuals, in a main dining room seating six hundred persons, the biggest and most elaborate dining room afloat, or in a smaller dining room.  Between meals he can loiter in sumptuous drawing rooms, the lounge, or smoking rooms, or library, or he can work up an appetite in the gymnasium, or take a plunge in the swimming pool.  If all these attractions pall he may seek relaxation in the ball room, the theater or the skating rink, all of which combined in a single vast area of glass-enclosed deck.

Should there be any danger of his money burning holes in his pockets before he can get to Europe with it, the passenger on the Olympic can find prompt relief at the verandah café, where he can mingle sea-breezes with his liquor; or, if more heroic measures seem called for, he can get rid of his cash in larger wads at the tailor shop or dressmakers’ parlors on board, or he can spend it still faster at the jewelry store.  In fact there is nothing to prevent the passenger from achieving bankruptcy on the outward bound voyage so that he may return on the first homeward bound vessel.  This will save time and simplify the annual hegira.

The Olympic will have accommodations for 2,500 passengers in all.  To run the ship and wait upon this great throng will require a crew of 860 which will be commanded by Captain E.J. Smith, now of the Adriatic.  The new liner will not lack business.  Although sailing dates and rates have not been announced applications for berths have been coming in ever since last fall at a rate which indicates that some intending passengers may have to travel on other ships or submit to the perfectly dreadful and scarcely-to-be-thought of alternative of staying at home.

Top 10 Titanic Books 2013

It's the Christmas season now and I'm sure some of you are looking to expand your Titanic libraries this season.  Others might be looking at doing this some other time.  At any rate, here are the top 10 must-haves for all Titaniacs.  If you wish to purchase any of the recommended books, I would like to request that you go through my Amazon store which you can access on the right side of the top of the blog.  :-)

10.  The Story of the Titanic
This book is a compilation some of the most famous Titanic accounts by Jack Wincour from her survivors which include the books by passengers Lawrence Beesley and Archibald Gracie, the section about the Titanic in 2nd Officer Lightoller's autobiography, and the newspaper interview given by Junior Wireless Operator Harold Bride on the Carpathia.  They are all excellent reads for anyone interested in reading survivirs' accounts and would make a good companion book with George Behe's "On Board the RMS Titanic."

9.  Titanic In Photographs
This is a wonderful book!  Some of you have probably noticed how photographs of the Olympic, Titanic's older and longer living sister, are scattered throughout Titanic books and have been for many years.  This book is different in that it tells the Titanic's story through actual photographs of the Titanic.  There are a few photographs of Olympic's interiors, but they make it clear if they are and are only in there because none exist of some particular spaces on the Titanic like her Grand Staircase.  Other than that, all you see is Titanic and some are wonderful conversation starters.

8.  The Night Lives On
This was basically Walter Lord's updated version of A Night To Remember.  With the success of ANTR, more information and account came to light which enabled Walter Lord to tell the fascinating Titanic story with greater detail and new information.  Don't let that discourage you from reading ANTR, though.  Both of Walter Lord's books are wonderful must-reads.

7.  A Night To Remember
This one book has had more influence on the Titanic community than any other Titanic book in history. Walter Lord in writing the book pioneered the way we look at the Titanic today and plowed through the ice in uncovering more facts about the Titanic.  On top of writing an informative book about what happened, he also wrote it so well that it has you on the edge of your seat as Walter Lord tells the Titanic story in an electrifying way.

6.  Titanic: An Illustrated History
This one book led to the Titanic craze of today because it inspired the 1997 movie.  The book is written by Don Lynch who uses his memories of what the survivors told him and what he knows based on his extensive research.  Beautifully illustrated by the always amazing paintings by Ken Marschall, this book will delight Titaniacs young and old as they are transported back to the "ship of dreams."

5.  Exploring The Deep
This book came out this year and is a wonderful read.  Written by James Cameron, Don Lynch, Ken Marschall, and Parks Stephenson, this book recounts each of Cameron's dives in journal-like fashion.  It also contains wonderful images of the wreck which haven't been published before.  It is an awesome book and I think young Titaniacs might even enjoy it too because of the pictures.

4.  The Loss of the SS Titanic:  Centennial Reappraisal
In reaction to the Titanic disaster, the British and American authorities set up inquiries to find out what went wrong to prevent another disaster like that from happening again.  After the British Inquiries, they released a pamphlet entitled, "The Loss of the SS Titanic" which described the Titanic's physical details and safety features and gave a report on what happened and what went wrong.  Fast forward to almost 100 years after that horrible event took place.  All the survivors have died and through the accounts they left behind, we now know more than they did when they wrote the report.  Leading Titanic expert Samuel Halpern lead a team of some of the most knowledgeable people in the world about the Titanic to retell Titanic's story based on the evidence we have today.  All the major events and mistakes are explained in detail and is guaranteed to change the way you view the Titanic disaster.

3.  On Board The RMS Titanic:  Memories of a Maiden Voyage
Have you ever wanted to learn more without people telling you the same heart-wrenching stories over and over?  Have you ever wanted to learn about what happened from the survivors themselves?  This is the book for you.  This masterpiece by George Behe is a collection of letters written on the Titanic and afterwards on the Carpathia by people who were actually on the Titanic.  You'll find yourself reading these letters for hours as each person tells his/her story with the events still fresh in his/her mind, some with vivid detail.

2.  The Ship Magnificent
I do not own this two volume set yet, but those that do tell me that it is THE Titanic book to own especially if you're interested in her technical aspect.  It tells you everything from the size of her Grand Staircase tiles to the size of each porthole and window.  It is basically a manual for if you ever want to rebuild the Titanic.

1.  On A Sea Of Glass
This book was a collaborative effort by Bill Wormstedt, Tad Fitch, J. Kent Leyton, and George Behe.  It is simply a masterpiece and worth every penny.  It tells the Titanic story in a wonderful way that is clear to understand and if you wish to delve deeper and explore different issues such as the Officer's suicide, what the band's last song was, where was Thomas Andrews in his final moments, etc. there is an amazing appendix that you will find yourself coming back to often.