Contents at a Glance

Introduction ...... 1 Part I: The : A Century of Legend ...... 7 Chapter 1: Why the Titanic Endures ...... 9 Chapter 2: Building the Ship of Dreams ...... 19 Chapter 3: From Royalty to Rats: Who Sailed on the Titanic ...... 33 Chapter 4: Life Onboard: From Breakfast and Lunch to Steerage and Bunks ...... 55 Part II: Tragedy at Sea: The Titanic Sinks on Its Maiden Voyage ...... 71 Chapter 5: Four Days of Smooth Sailing ...... 73 Chapter 6: The Collision and Sinking ...... 83 Chapter 7: Surviving the ...... 99 Chapter 8: “I Was There”: Firsthand Accounts of the Sinking ...... 121 Chapter 9: How the World Learned about the Titanic’s Loss ...... 149 Chapter 10: Investigating the Titanic’s Demise ...... 163 Part III: Exploring Enduring Titanic Mysteries ...... 187 Chapter 11: Doomed from the Start? Studying What Went Wrong ...... 189 Chapter 12: Lingering Questions about the Titanic’s Final Hours ...... 201 Chapter 13: Foreshadowing the Tragedy? The 1898 Novella The Wreck of the Titan ...... 213 Part IV: The Quest to Recover the Titanic ...... 219 Chapter 14: Looking at Early Attempts to Raise the Titanic ...... 221 Chapter 15: The Quest of the Century: The 1985 Discovery of the Wreck ...... 233 Part V: TheCOPYRIGHTED Titanic in Popular Culture MATERIAL ...... 247 Chapter 16: Salvaging the Titanic and Its Artifacts ...... 249 Chapter 17: Presenting the Titanic Story on Screen and on Stage ...... 265 Part VI: The Part of Tens ...... 275 Chapter 18: Ten Fascinating Titanic Artifacts ...... 277 Chapter 19: Ten Titanic Myths Debunked ...... 285 Chapter 20: Ten Terrifi c Titanic Documentaries ...... 293 Appendix: A Titanic Timeline ...... 301 Index ...... 309

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Introduction ...... 1 About This Book ...... 2 Conventions Used in This Book ...... 2 What You’re Not to Read ...... 3 Foolish Assumptions ...... 3 How This Book Is Organized ...... 4 Part I: The Titanic: A Century of Legend ...... 4 Part II: Tragedy at Sea: The Titanic Sinks on Its Maiden Voyage .....4 Part III: Exploring Enduring Titanic Mysteries...... 4 Part IV: The Quest to Recover the Titanic ...... 5 Part V: The Titanic in Popular Culture ...... 5 Part VI: The Part of Tens ...... 5 Icons Used in This Book ...... 5 Where to Go from Here ...... 6

Part I: The Titanic: A Century of Legend ...... 7

Chapter 1: Why the Titanic Endures ...... 9 Examining Why We Still Care ...... 9 Everyone knows about it ...... 10 The story is irresistible ...... 10 The world took notice ...... 11 The disaster changed sea travel ...... 12 Tempting Fate with the Word “Unsinkable” ...... 12 Considering Social Arrogance and Class Structure ...... 13 Coming to America: The Immigrant Story ...... 14 Discovering the Titanic Wreck in 1985 ...... 15 Watching Titanic, the Movie ...... 16 Chapter 2: Building the Ship of Dreams ...... 19 Deciding to Build the Titanic ...... 19 Competing with the Cunard Line ...... 20 Accommodating wealthy passengers ...... 20 Making more room for steerage passengers ...... 21 Lining up funding for the construction of the ship ...... 21 Building the Ships at Harland and Wolff ...... 22 Taking a Titanic Tour ...... 24 Titanic Milestones: From Launch to Loading ...... 27 Taking a Look at the Olympic, the Titanic’s Sister Ship ...... 29 Refi tting the Olympic ...... 29 Retiring the Olympic ...... 30

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Building a New Titanic ...... 30 Introducing the SS Titan ...... 31 Getting Harland and Wolff onboard ...... 32 Chapter 3: From Royalty to Rats: Who Sailed on the Titanic ...... 33 Riding in Steerage with the Third-Class Passengers ...... 33 What does steerage mean? ...... 34 Looking at steerage accommodations ...... 35 Sharing steerage with rats ...... 36 Meeting the Famous Onboard the Titanic ...... 36 Colonel IV ...... 38 ...... 38 J. Bruce Ismay ...... 38 ...... 39 Isidor and ...... 40 Lucy Noël Martha Leslie, Countess of Rothes ...... 41 Margaret Tobin (Molly) Brown ...... 41 Major Archibald W. Butt ...... 42 ...... 42 Colonel IV ...... 42 ...... 43 Getting to Know the Crew of the Ship of Dreams ...... 44 Edward J. Smith: Captain on the verge of retirement ...... 44 Harold Godfrey Lowe ...... 45 ...... 47 Charles H. Lightoller ...... 47 ...... 48 ...... 49 ...... 50 ...... 50 ...... 52 The 50 bell boys ...... 52 Chapter 4: Life Onboard: From Breakfast and Lunch to Steerage and Bunks ...... 55 Taking the Grand Tour of the Titanic ...... 55 Finding your way around the ship ...... 56 Visiting the suites and cabins ...... 58 Exploring decks and rooms on the Titanic ...... 60 Dining on the Titanic: Food, Glorious Food! ...... 63 Stocking a seagoing hotel ...... 64 Meeting the food preparers and servers ...... 65 Introducing the rest of the victualling crew ...... 66 Dining in fi rst class ...... 67 Dining in second and third class...... 69

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Part II: Tragedy at Sea: The Titanic Sinks on Its Maiden Voyage ...... 71

Chapter 5: Four Days of Smooth Sailing...... 73 Getting an Overview of the Voyage ...... 73 Day 1: The Titanic’s Sailing Day ...... 74 Departing from , ...... 75 Arriving in Cherbourg, ...... 77 Day 2: The Titanic Visits Ireland ...... 77 Days 3 and 4: Smooth Sailing ...... 79 Day 5: An Icy Chill in the Air ...... 81 Chapter 6: The Collision and Sinking ...... 83 Heeding Iceberg Warnings ...... 83 Getting the wireless messages ...... 84 Taking precautions against icebergs ...... 85 Colliding with the Iceberg ...... 87 Assessing the Damage ...... 89 Sending Out Distress Signals ...... 90 Boarding and Launching the Lifeboats ...... 91 Looking at the lifeboat scandal ...... 91 Examining whether the deck crew was prepared...... 92 Launching the lifeboats ...... 92 Sinking into the North Atlantic ...... 94 Waiting in the Lifeboats to Be Rescued ...... 96 Chapter 7: Surviving the Sinking of the Titanic ...... 99 Examining Survival Rates ...... 99 Passenger survival rates ...... 100 Nonpassenger survival rates ...... 101 Seeing Which Ships Aided in the Titanic Rescue and Recovery Efforts ...... 102 Going to the rescue with the Carpathia and her crew ...... 103 Reviewing the role of the Californian ...... 108 Meeting Some Titanic Survivors ...... 110 Hearing the stories of two notorious deck crewmen who survived ...... 111 Becoming famous for surviving ...... 113 Meeting some of the last survivors ...... 114 Considering Titanic survivor suicides ...... 116

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Chapter 8: “I Was There”: Firsthand Accounts of the Sinking ...... 121 Watching the Ship’s Final Moments from a Lifeboat ...... 121 Emily Maria Borie Ryerson: “She seemed to break in half as if cut with a knife” ...... 122 Daisy Minahan: “The cries were horrible” ...... 124 Dorothy Gibson: “A sense of desolation never to be forgotten” .127 Thrown into the Sea: The Barber’s Tale ...... 130 Signaling Distress: A Telegraph Operator’s Rescue ...... 132 Reading the Powerful Accounts of Dr. and Mrs. Dodge ...... 139 Chapter 9: How the World Learned about the Titanic’s Loss ...... 149 Breaking the Story in ...... 150 Exploring How a Rush to Publish Led to Erroneous Stories ...... 152 The Evening Sun reports that all passengers are saved ...... 152 The Christian Science Monitor claims that passengers are safe ...... 153 Fleshing Out the Details of the Disaster ...... 155 Offering the First Scientifi c View of the Tragedy ...... 159 Chapter 10: Investigating the Titanic’s Demise ...... 163 The U.S. Senate Investigation: What Can Be Done Better? ...... 164 Reading the committee’s report ...... 164 Hearing the testimony of ...... 167 Weighing the words of Californian Captain ...... 170 Reading J. Bruce Ismay’s statement to the media ...... 174 The British Commission of Inquiry: Who’s at Fault? ...... 177 Understanding the Board of Trade’s lifeboat laws ...... 178 Taking witness accounts ...... 178 Issuing the fi nal report ...... 179 Hearing actual testimony from the British Commission ...... 179 Pulling No Punches and Laying Blame: Excerpts from a Joseph Conrad Essay ...... 182

Part III: Exploring Enduring Titanic Mysteries ...... 187

Chapter 11: Doomed from the Start? Studying What Went Wrong...... 189 Examining Whether the Watertight Doors Should Have Remained Open ...... 190 Setting up and performing the experiment ...... 190 Seeing the results of the experiment ...... 191 Investigating Whether the Titanic’s Rivets Were Fatally Flawed ...... 192 Considering whether rivets were to blame ...... 192 Understanding why the iron rivets popped ...... 194 Homing in on the slag content ...... 194

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Weighing What’s Known about the Lack of Lifeboats ...... 195 Looking at confl icting reports ...... 195 Reviewing the solid facts ...... 196 Speculating about a Head-On Collision with the Iceberg ...... 198 Questioning Whether Binoculars Could Have Helped ...... 199 Chapter 12: Lingering Questions about the Titanic’s Final Hours ...... 201 Were Shots Fired on the Titanic? ...... 201 Confi rming three instances of shots fi red ...... 202 Hearing from the survivors ...... 202 Did Murdoch Commit Suicide? ...... 204 Reconstructing Murdoch’s fi nal moments ...... 204 Living with the unknown ...... 205 The Riddle of Captain Smith’s Death and Last Words ...... 206 Piecing together details of Smith’s death ...... 207 Uttering six different “last words”? ...... 209 Debating the Band’s Final Song ...... 209 The band’s playlist ...... 210 “Autumn” or “Nearer, My God, To Thee”? ...... 210 Chapter 13: Foreshadowing the Tragedy? The 1898 Novella The Wreck of the Titan ...... 213 Meeting Morgan Robertson ...... 214 Did the Titanic’s Builders Know about the Novella? ...... 214 Foretelling Fact with Fiction ...... 215 The opening paragraph ...... 215 The “unsinkable” moniker ...... 216 A major difference ...... 216 A sad, tragic similarity ...... 216 The collision ...... 217 Comparing the Titan and Titanic Side by Side ...... 217

Part IV: The Quest to Recover the Titanic ...... 219

Chapter 14: Looking at Early Attempts to Raise the Titanic ...... 221 Realizing the Challenges of Raising the Titanic ...... 222 Surveying the First Efforts to Raise the Wreckage ...... 222 The Astor plan of 1912: Blowing up the ship...... 223 The 1913 magnet plan: Using “monster leeches”...... 225 Laying Claim to the Titanic ...... 226 Scouring the ocean fl oor with Jack Grimm ...... 226 Douglas John Faulkner-Woolley: Is he the real owner of the Titanic? ...... 227

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Miscellaneous and Cockamamie Schemes for Raising the Titanic ...... 229 Scooping her up ...... 229 Filling her hull with ping-pong balls ...... 230 Packing her hull full of molten wax ...... 231 Turning the Titanic into an iceberg ...... 231 Filling her with foam ...... 232 Chapter 15: The Quest of the Century: The 1985 Discovery of the Wreck ...... 233 Looking Back on the Titanic Century ...... 234 Following Ballard from First Hopes to First Sighting ...... 234 Starting from the Thresher and Scorpion...... 236 Homing in on the Titanic ...... 237 Dealing with the instant media frenzy...... 238 Plundering artifacts from the debris fi eld ...... 239 Digging up details about the discovery ...... 240 Finding What the Wreck Actually Revealed ...... 242 It did break in two ...... 243 A tear, a puncture, or a dent? ...... 244 The Titanic is disappearing: Rusticles (maybe) have sealed its fate ...... 245 Taking a 3D, High-Def Visit to the Titanic ...... 246

Part V: The Titanic in Popular Culture ...... 247

Chapter 16: Salvaging the Titanic and Its Artifacts ...... 249 Mementos from the Sea: Seeing Which Artifacts Have Been Salvaged ...... 250 Hearing What the Courts Said about the Artifacts ...... 250 Salvaging the Titanic: Serving History or Robbing a Grave? ...... 252 Listening to Titanic survivors and commentators ...... 252 versus George Tulloch: A difference of opinion ...... 254 The Big Piece: Salvaging a Part of the Titanic ...... 254 Raising the necessary capital ...... 255 Following Tulloch’s best-laid plan ...... 255 Glimpsing Artifacts from the Ship ...... 259 Seeking out Titanic exhibitions ...... 259 Taking a stroll through Titanic museums ...... 260 Visiting Titanic memorials ...... 261 Joining Titanic societies ...... 263

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Chapter 17: Presenting the Titanic Story on Screen and on Stage ...... 265 Sailing on the Titanic to Hollywood ...... 265 (1912) ...... 267 A Night to Remember (1958) ...... 267 The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) ...... 269 ’s epic: Titanic (1997) ...... 269 Bringing the Greatest to with Titanic: A New Musical ...... 273

Part VI: The Part of Tens ...... 275

Chapter 18: Ten Fascinating Titanic Artifacts...... 277 The Big Piece ...... 277 Coal ...... 278 A Piece of the Grand Staircase ...... 279 The Deck Chair That Stayed Home ...... 279 Carl Asplund’s “2:19 A.M.” Pocket Watch ...... 280 The Doll’s Head ...... 280 Leather Objects ...... 281 Menus ...... 281 Perfume That Still Has a Scent ...... 282 Handwritten Sheet Music ...... 283 Chapter 19: Ten Titanic Myths Debunked ...... 285 The Titanic Carried a Cryptic, Anti-Catholic Message ...... 285 Is That You, Mummy? ...... 286 A Worker Was Trapped in the Titanic’s Hull ...... 287 Frank Tower Was the Luckiest Man on Earth ...... 288 The Hope Diamond Went Down with the Titanic ...... 288 The “Priceless” Rubaiyat Was Lost ...... 289 The Purser’s Safe Was Loaded with Valuables ...... 289 The Titanic Sank Because of the Champagne Curse ...... 290 The Titanic Vied for the Blue Riband ...... 290 White Star Advertised the Titanic as “Unsinkable” ...... 291 Chapter 20: Ten Terrifi c Titanic Documentaries...... 293 Secrets of the Titanic (1986) ...... 293 Titanic: The Complete Story (1994) ...... 294 Titanic: The Investigation Begins (1996) ...... 294 Titanic: Anatomy of a Disaster (1997) ...... 295

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Titanic: 90 Years Below (2002) ...... 295 Ghosts of (2003) ...... 296 Titanic Tech (2003) ...... 297 Last Mysteries of the Titanic (2005) ...... 298 Titanic’s Achilles Heel (2007) ...... 298 Rebuilding the Titanic (2011) ...... 299 Other Documentaries Worth Watching ...... 299

Appendix: A Titanic Timeline ...... 301

Index ...... 309

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