Gareth Russell - The Ship of Dreams

Alien they seemed to be;

No mortal eye could see

The intimate welding of their later history,

Or sign that they were bent

By paths coincident

On being anon two halves of one august event,

Till the Spinner of the Years

Said ‘Now!’ And each one hears,

And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres.

Thomas Hardy, The Convergence of the Twain

(Lines on the loss of the ‘Titanic’) (1912)

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page THE SHIP OF DREAMS The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era Gareth Russell

Copyright

Praise

Dedication

Epigraph

Dramatis Personae

Author’s Note

1. The Lords Act

2. The Sash My Father Wore

3. Southampton

4. A Contest of Sea Giants

5. A Safe Harbour for Ships

6. The Lucky Holdup

7. A Decent Wee Man

8. A Kind of Hieroglyphic World

9. Its Own Appointed Limits Keep

10. Two More Boilers

11. A Thousand Uneasy Sparks of Light

12. Going Up to See the Fun

13. Music in the First-Class Lounge

14. Vox faucibus haesit

15. Be British

16. Over the Top Together

17. The Awful Spectacle

18. Grip Fast

19. Where’s Daddy?

20. Extend Heartfelt Sympathy to All

21. The Spinner of the Years

Picture Section

Footnotes

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgements

About the Author

By the Same Author

About the Publisher

LUCY-NOËLLE-MARTHA LESLIE, Countess of Rothes

NORMAN LESLIE, 19TH EARL OF ROTHES, her husband

MALCOLM, VISCOUNT LESLIE, their eldest son, later 20th Earl of Rothes

THE HONOURABLE JOHN LESLIE, their youngest son

GLADYS CHERRY, the Earl’s cousin and the Countess’s travelling companion

CLEMENTINA and THOMAS DYER-EDWARDES, the Countess’s parents

ROBERTA (‘CISSY’) MAIONI, the Countess’s lady’s maid

THOMAS ANDREWS, Managing Director of the Harland and Wolff shipyard

HELEN ANDREWS, his wife

ELIZABETH ANDREWS, their daughter

WILLIAM, 1ST LORD PIRRIE, Thomas’s uncle, Chairman of Harland and Wolff

IDA STRAUS, a philanthropist

ISIDOR STRAUS, Ida’s husband, a former congressman for New York and co-owner of Macy’s department store

ELLEN BIRD, Ida’s lady’s maid

JOHN FARTHING, Isidor’s valet

JESSE STRAUS CLARENCE STRAUS PERCY STRAUS SARA HESS MINNIE WEIL HERBERT STRAUS VIVIAN SCHEFTEL

Ida and Isidor’s children

JOHN BORLAND THAYER, Second Vice-President of the Pennsylvania Railroad

MARIAN THAYER, his wife

JOHN BORLAND THAYER III (‘JACK’), their eldest child

MARGARET FLEMING, Marian’s lady’s maid

FREDERICK THAYER MARGARET THAYER (LATER TALBOTT) PAULINE THAYER (LATER DOLAN)

The Thayers’ younger children

DOROTHY GIBSON, an actress

PAULINE GIBSON, her mother

GEORGE BATTIER, Dorothy’s husband

JULES BRULATOUR, a movie producer and Dorothy’s lover

LEONARD GIBSON, Dorothy’s stepfather

RHODA ABBOTT, a Salvation Army officer, travelling in Third Class

MADELEINE and COLONEL JOHN JACOB ASTOR IV

ALGERNON BARKWORTH, a landowner from Yorkshire

LAWRENCE BEESLEY, a science teacher, travelling in Second Class, subsequently author of The Loss of the S.S. Titanic

MAJOR ARCHIBALD BUTT, Military Aide to President William Howard Taft

CHARLOTTE DRAKE CARDEZA, a socialite from Pennsylvania

ELEANOR CASSEBEER, returning home to New York

LUCY, LADY DUFF GORDON, a fashion designer

ELIZABETH EUSTIS and MARTHA STEPHENSON, sisters and neighbours of the Thayers

COLONEL ARCHIBALD GRACIE IV, an historian and friend of the Strauses

J. BRUCE ISMAY, Managing Director of the White Star Line

FRANCIS (‘FRANK’) MILLET, a painter, author and sculptor

ALFRED NOURNEY, a car salesman travelling under the pseudonym of a German baron

EMILY and ARTHUR RYERSON, friends of the Thayers, returning home after their son’s death

FREDERIC SEWARD, a New York-based lawyer and a bridge partner of Dorothy Gibson

WILLIAM SLOPER, an American stockbroker, who also played bridge with Dorothy Gibson

ELEANOR and GEORGE WIDENER, prominent members of Philadelphia Society and friends of the Thayers

HAROLD BRIDE, the Titanic ’s Junior Wireless Operator

HARRY ETCHES, a steward in First Class

VIOLET JESSOP, a stewardess in First Class

THOMAS JONES, Able Seaman, put in charge of Lifeboat 8

MARY SLOAN, a stewardess in First Class

ANNIE ROBINSON, a stewardess in First Class

CAPTAIN EDWARD J. SMITH, Commander of the Titanic

CAPTAIN ARTHUR ROSTRON, Commander of the Carpathia

DR FRANCIS (‘FRANK’) MCGEE, the Carpathia ’s Surgeon

DR WILLIAM O’LOUGHLIN, the Titanic ’s Surgeon

HENRY WILDE, the Titanic ’s Chief Officer

WILLIAM MURDOCH, the Titanic ’s First Officer

CHARLES LIGHTOLLER, the Titanic ’s Second Officer

HERBERT PITMAN, the Titanic ’s Third Officer

JOSEPH BOXHALL, the Titanic ’s Fourth Officer

HAROLD LOWE, the Titanic ’s Fifth Officer

JAMES MOODY, the Titanic ’s Sixth Officer

On Sunday 14 April 1912, at about 11.40 p.m., the Titanic , an ocean liner operated by a British shipping company with American owners, struck an iceberg. Two hours and forty minutes later, she sank with a loss of life that was variably estimated at 1,502, 1,503, 1,512, 1,517 and 1,522 but which has recently been established at 1,496.[1] A total of 712 survivors in lifeboats were rescued by another British ship, the Carpathia , between two and six hours after the Titanic disappeared. Two inquiries were held, in each of her homelands, and they reached broadly similar conclusions about what had been done in the past and should be done in the future. In 1985, the wreck of the Titanic was discovered 2½ miles under by an expedition led by American oceanographer Robert Ballard.[2]

These are the bare facts surrounding a ship that is, arguably, the most famous vessel in history. When compared to nearly any other contender for that epithet, the Titanic ’s popular appeal outstrips that of Cleopatra’s barge, the Mayflower , the Lusitania and perhaps even Noah’s Ark. Her name has become a synonym for catastrophe. The story of the largest and most luxurious ship ever built, racing across the Atlantic Ocean in an attempt to break the record for that journey, ignoring numerous ice warnings and then sinking with the loss of thousands, is an entrenched narrative, the belittling of which is surprisingly easy, if one is so inclined. Had she survived her first voyage, the Titanic would have dated like other ocean liners. While she was the largest man-made moving object when she eased off from her Southampton pier in 1912, she would only have held that accolade for the next thirteen months, until the arrival of a German passenger liner with room for a thousand more passengers amid 6,000 more tons.[3] Some of the Titanic ’s second-class passengers preferred the accommodation on the Mauretania .[4] Before she sank, the Titanic was eclipsed in fame by her elder and slightly smaller sister ship, the Olympic , which had captured the attention of the world’s press when she set sail a year earlier.[5] Her passenger quarters, while splendid in many places, were soon surpassed – the march of comfort on the sea lanes did not halt in the spring of 1912.