Frances Wilson - How to Survive the Titanic

For sharing their knowledge of the Titanic and archives of Titanic materials, thanks are due to the experts: John Wilson Foster, Paul Lee and George Behe, whose guidance prevented me from hitting many an iceberg. Louise Patten gave me vital information and a very good tea. I am forever in debt to Conrad’s brilliant biographer and editor, John Stape, for the constant flow of reading material sent to me and many fine conversations. For discussing the manuscript at various stages I am grateful — once again — to Pauline Matarasso, and also to Ophelia Field, Paul Keegan and David Miller. Anne Chisholm lent me valuable materials, and Candia McWilliam led me towards others. Also of great help were Alex Towli, Michael McCaughan, Lee Kendall, Ada Wordsworth, Anthony Wilson, Mark Bostridge and Neil Rennie.

Copyright photographic material is reproduced by permission of the following: The Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, English Heritage, Mary Evans Picture Library, Getty Images, the Cheape Family, Angus Cheape, Robert Maguire, Don Lynch, the Titanic

Historical Society and the Bettmann Archive. I am grateful to Derek Mahon and The Gallery Press for permission to reproduce After the Titanic’ from New Collected Poems (2011).

Finally, thank you to my agent, Sarah Chalfant at the Wylie Agency, and for the hard work of the wonderful team at Bloomsbury — Kate Holland, Catherine Best, Alexa von Hirschberg, Anna Simpson and especially my editor, Michael Fishwick.

The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.

Page numbers in boldrefer to illustrations.

A Floating City (Verne) 66

A History of the World in 1/2 Chapters

(Barnes) 37

A Night to Remember (film) 23, 37, 227–8, 280

A Night to Remember (Lord) 7, 25, 260, 280

A Room with a View (Forster) 205

A Voyage Closed and Done

(Matarasso) 91

Abrahim, Mary 12

Academy 179

Adcote, Shrewsbury 83

Aden 175

Adriatic 44, 66, 163, 203–4, 206–7

‘After the Titanic’ (Mahon) 259

Albert Hall, London, ‘One Hundred Years Ago’ ball 257–8

Alden, William 179–80

Ali Lam 13

Almayer’s Folly (Conrad) 195

American Line 94

Amerika 116, 130

Andrews, Thomas 32

Arnold, Thomas 75

Around the World in Eighty Days (Verne) 65

Arthur, Alexander 76

Asiatic Steamship Company 266

Asquith, Margot 235

Assaf, Mariana 12

Astor, John Jacob 109, 111–12, 131, 160, 163

Astor, Madeleine 210

Astor, William Waldorf 109

Atlantic 66, 68, 215

Atlantic, first steam crossing 64–5

Atlantic Transport 94

Baclini, Eugenie 12

Baclini, Helene 12

Baclini, Latifa 12

Baclini, Marie 12

Badman, Emily 8, 12

Ballin, Albert 97

Baltic 3, 42, 56, 66, 162, 242, 245–6, 246, 248, 256, 262, 265

Barnes, Julian 37

Beech Lawn, Liverpool 71, 81, 82

Beesley, Lawrence

adrift 27, 36

arrival in New York 57

comparison with Conrad’s writing 37

escape from Titanic 33

on ice warning 56

on Ismay’s escape 272

letter to The Times 33–4

The Loss of the SS Titanic: Its Story and Its Lessons 32–7

on movement of Titanic after collision 152

on sinking of Titanic 15, 17

on speed of Titanic 153

Behr, Karl H. 24, 54, 265

Belfast 35, 64

Belgic 66

Bell, Joseph 32, 250

Bennett, Arnold 179

Bernard Shaw, George 21, 286

Betts, George 264–6

Bigham, John Charles 232

Birkenhead, HMS 73, 234

Birkenhead drill, the 73

Blackwood’s 176, 177, 277, 285

Blue Riband, the 96

Board of Trade Life-Saving Appliances Committee 69

Bobrowska, Ewa 191

Bobrowski, Thaddeus 192, 193

Boer War 68, 93, 215

Boston Globe 86–7

Boston Herald 34

Bottomley, Horatio 19–20

Boulton, William 214

Bourne, Senator 156

Boxhall, Joseph 141, 153, 237

Bradford and District Trades and Labour Council 233

Bride, Harold 134–6, 247

Britannia 65

Britannic 86

British Board of Trade 11, 186

British Board of Trade inquiry accounts of Ismay’s departure 5

audience 229, 254–5

concluding remarks 255–6

cost 233

focus 234–5

and the ice warning 241–4

Ismay follows proceedings 211

Ismay on 255

Ismay’s testimony 38, 237–44, 238,249–55

Lightoller on 233

Lightoller’s testimony 235–7

members 231, 232–3

opens 229–32

report 213, 256–7

and the Yamsi messages 234–5

British Seafarers’ Union 233

Broughton Hall, Liverpool 82

Brown, Edward 6

Brown, Molly 27

Bruce, Luke 63

Brunel, Isambard Kingdom 64

Bryce, James 136–8

Burke’s Peerage 69

Burma 246

Butler, Dr Montagu 74

Butt, Archie 111, 200–2, 205

Californian 29, 30, 159, 246, 275

Cameron, James 23

Canadian Dominion Steamship Company 215

Cardeza, Charlotte Drake Martinez 5–6, 265

Cardeza, Thomas 5–6

Carlisle 61–2

Carlisle, Alexander 119, 251–2

Carpathia

arrival in New York 57–60

Ismay aboard 30–2, 37–41, 46–7, 51–4, 124–5, 145–7, 152, 203

movements of ix

passengers 29

receives distress call 28, 124, 246

rescue preparations 28

rescues survivors 28–32

roll call of survivors 29–30

survivors aboard 45–6, 54–7

thanksgiving and remembrance service 45

wireless 48–9, 134, 246

Carter, Lucille 7, 8, 208

Carter, William E. 7–8, 9, 12, 140, 160, 200, 208, 223

Cavendish, Tyrell William 79

Cedric 51–3, 58, 141, 145, 147

Celtic 66, 86

‘Certain Aspects of the Admirable Inquiry into the Loss of the Titanic (Conrad) 187–9, 277

Chadwick, Admiral F. E. 49

Chance (Conrad) 183–4, 185, 255, 276

Chang Chip 13

Charles Jackson 62–3

Cheape, Brigadier General Ronald 106, 273

Cherbourg 113

Chesterton, G. K. 232, 286

Christian Science Journal 38, 156

Christian Science Sentinel 33

Chronicle 47

Churchill, Winston 40

Collyer, Charlotte 14, 16

compensation claims 263–6

Conan Doyle, Arthur 286

Congo, the 194

Conrad, Joseph, see also Lord Jim (Conrad)

aims 182

Almayer’s Folly 195

appearance 195

arrival in England 193–4

background 180, 191–2

Beesley uses as model 37

birth 191

on Captain Marlow 182–3

Chance 183–4, 185, 255, 276

completes Lord Jim 177

first novel 195

Galsworthy on 195

Heart of Darkness 176, 181–2

and Ismay 184, 274–7 ‘Karain: A Memory’ 14, 277–9

and language 180–1

letter to Ted Sanderson 167–8

The Mirror of the Sea 39–40, 193, 195–6

as Modern Romantic 190

The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’ 182

‘Ocean Travel’ 184–5

opinion of Lord Mersey 233

An Outcast of the Islands 196

response to Titanic affair 167, 184– 90

seafaring career 192–6 ‘The Secret Sharer’ 220–2

and speed 190