This month marks the hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, yet the passage of time has not reduced the drama of, and questions about, that cold spring night in the North Atlantic.
The most familiar controversy has to do with the inadequate number of lifeboats, and the seeming indifference of the passengers. The ship was actually in compliance with the international standard of the time, but the experience of the Titanic convinced steamship lines to increase the number of lifeboats on liners.
Another question is whether there was a cat aboard. There is a children’s book, Kaspar, the Titanic Cat, which seems to be completely fiction, but there may also have been a real cat named Jenny, with kittens, that left the ship before it sailed from Belfast. Apparently, there were two ship’s dogs as well—both survived.
Controversy also remains about Joseph Bruce Ismay, the Chairman of the White Star Line, who leapt into a lifeboat and was saved. This was widely felt at the time to be an act of cowardice, and William Randolph Hearst and others criticized him publicly. Ismay resigned from the company in 1913, and lived thereafter in seclusion.
To this day, there is controversy about which music was played by the ship’s orchestra—all of whom went down with the ship—as the passengers scurried about that night. Was it Nearer My God To Thee? or Autumn? Nobody who could tell us remains…
Walter Lord, in his book, A Night to Remember, suggests that the distress signal sent by the Titanic was the ‘brand new’ SOS, supplanting an older CQD distress signal, but SOS had been in use since the 1890’s, and the Titanic wireless operator apparently used both signals. Lord also discusses David Sarnoff’s role in receiving the distress messages in New York City. This may have been self-promotion by Sarnoff, who later headed RCA; historians now doubt whether he was at the receiving station at all on a Sunday night.
The story of the rediscovery of the wreck of the Titanic is part of its drama. Robert Ballard of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute located the hulk in 1985, after several attempts. After part of the ship was lifted to the surface, and displays of wreck memorabilia travelled the world, questions arose about whether such commercialism was fitting. Most commentators now feel, like Ballard, that the ship should be left alone to decay in the cold ocean.
For us today, the ship is represented by a blockbuster film, based at least partly on fictitious characters, and on news stories of the dramatic recovery and exploration of the hulk. What keeps us interested, though, is the desperate adventure one cold April night of over 2000 people, and speculation about the ship in the years afterward. Here are some titles exploring aspects of the sinking and rediscovery:
Titanic adventure : one woman’s true life voyage down to the legendary ocean liner / by Jennifer Carter and Joel Hirschhorn ; foreword by William F. Buckley, Jr.
Voyagers of the Titanic : passengers, sailors, shipbuilders, aristocrats, and the worlds they came from / Richard Davenport-Hines. New York, William Morrow, c2012.
The other side of the night : the Carpathia, the Californian and the night the Titanic was lost / by Daniel Allen Butler. Drexel Hill, PA, Casemate, 2011
Titanic tragedy : a new look at the lost liner / John Maxtone-Graham New York, W.W. Norton, c2011.
The band that played on : the extraordinary story of the 8 musicians who went down with the Titanic / Steve Turner. Nashville, Tenn., Thomas Nelson, c2011.
Titanic’s last secrets : the further adventures of shadow divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler / Brad Matsen. New York, Twelve, 2008.
Gilded lives, fatal voyage : the Titanic’s first-class passengers and their world / Hugh Brewster. New York: Crown, c2012.
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