S R E T

S The Caldwells on the A

S on sailing day. I D E M I T I R A M

The Caldwells in Siam prior to their voyage toward home on the Titanic .

A RARE TITANIC FAMILY JULIE HEDGEPETH WILLIAMS SHARES AN EXTRACT FROM HER BOOK, A RARE TITANIC FAMILY , DETAILING THE ESCAPE OF HER GREAT-UNCLE ALBERT CALDWELL AND HIS FAMILY FROM THE ILL-FATED WHITE STAR LINER IN 1912

The following extract is from A Rare Sylvia and Albert were heading back the sea. Sylvia, however, was Titanic Family: The Caldwells’ Story home after Sylvia’s health failed. In skeptical, and when they boarded of Survival , published by NewSouth London, the Caldwells managed to the Titanic , she asked a deck hand, Books. The author, Julie Hedgepeth get cancelled tickets on the Titanic “Is this ship really unsinkable?” Williams, heard the story of the Titanic — they thought the large size of the He answered with the most famous firsthand from her great-uncle, Albert ship would be good for Sylvia, as she — and most erroneous — line ever Caldwell, who survived the tragic suffered from seasickness. On the spoken about the Titanic , “Yes, lady. 1912 shipwreck along with his wife, boat train from London to the Titanic , God himself could not sink this ship.” Sylvia, and infant son, Alden. Albert the Caldwells were surprised to hear Albert had a camera and went all and Sylvia, idealistic young American everyone describe the Titanic as un - over the ship taking pictures, includ - missionaries, had taught in a Presby - sinkable. As their fellow passengers ing the engine room. There, he saw terian boys’ school in Siam (now explained, the captain could push stokers shoveling coal into the Titanic ’s called Thailand) for two years. Alden an electric button in his office and furnaces, which in turn, generated had been born in Bangkok. drop watertight doors, thus turning the steam that kept the steamship

8 History Magazine October/November 2014 moving. Albert thought he’d take a picture of the stokers, when he had a better idea — he’d pose with a shovel and let the stokers take his picture. He asked the stokers if they’d do this, and they egged him on, exchanging names in the process. It was this encounter that later saved Albert’s life. On the night of the sinking, the Caldwells were not convinced the ship was in danger. Albert had gone back to their cabin to get another blanket for the baby, and in so doing, he had stepped through a watertight door that was still open. He believed (wrongly) that the captain could close every watertight door with the touch of a button, so he was convinced the cap - tain didn’t feel the collision with the iceberg was dire enough to close the watertight doors. Albert felt the call for women and children to load the lifeboats was nothing more than a precaution.

lbert Francis Caldwell, twenty-six, shifted his baby son to one side and peered over the steep side of the ship into… noth - ing. He could see the vertical hull as it slithered into empty darkness, but he couldn’t even make out the water below. It 208 pages was utterly black, void — and, well, puzzling. With baby Published by NewSouth Books (2012) Alden squirming against the cold night air, Albert wondered why they A ISBN-10: 1588382826 would be putting women and children off in the lifeboats? ISBN-13: 978-1588382825

Albert tested the ship beneath his seasick. And the baby? Their pre - was still battling. The thought of feet, one of those things you do cious Alden was small enough to putting the baby on a lifeboat in unconsciously every time you step need constant attention, and at this bitter cold without his coat on deck, but this time he thought this sleepy hour of the night, they when his seasick mother couldn’t of it. It was, as his unconscious hadn’t been able to find the key to really hang onto him — well, it feet always read it, solid. It wasn’t their trunk — and Alden’s warm was preposterous. listing. Clearly the ship could things were locked in the trunk. It was obvious to Albert what not be in any danger. If it were Thus the baby was wrapped in a they needed to do. He had made sinking, he’d have tripped over a steamer rug. It was warm enough, his decision. He would not put his sloping floor. He’d have heard but it was not his own little coat. wife and child off on the lifeboat. the rush of water or the screams Sylvia couldn’t even hold the baby They would stay on the Titanic . of panic — all those things you properly, owing to the illness she In the two and a half short years imagine would be evident on a of his married life and career, sinking ship. Not one was hap - Albert Francis Caldwell had worn pening. Clearly, he thought a various hats — husband, mission - little crossly, this was a case of ary, teacher, father. On this unfor - overcautious behavior that could givingly bitter April night in the result in raw tragedy. Put women North Atlantic Ocean, he was and children off in an open boat looking at the situation entirely as into an ocean blacker than coal? a good husband and father, pro - What a stupid idea! tecting his wife and child. What Albert’s thoughts flew to his he didn’t realize, as he shivered to wife, Sylvia Mae Harbaugh a decision in the darkness, was Caldwell, twenty-eight, and to the that the hat he needed to be wear - little son in his arms, Alden, who ing that night was his missionary had turned ten months old just one. Because at the moment of four days before — no, five days, that fatal decision, what the as surely it was now after mid - Caldwell family needed more than night. Sylvia was getting over a a husband or a daddy was a dire illness and was prone to nau - guardian angel — a sweaty, grimy sea. If she got into an open boat Alden Caldwell at age 11 months, one guardian angel covered in coal in the Atlantic, she’d become month after the Titanic . dust.

October/November 2014 History Magazine 9 S Back in Illinois, William and James Crimmins, or William stokers worked, and he could R

E Fannie Caldwell were worrying Major, looked firmly at him and picture the hold that they said was T

S about their son and daughter-in- addressed him by name. “Mr. now filling with water. A

S law and the grandchild they had Caldwell!” It was one of the stok - Albert was trying to balance the I

D never met. They knew, no doubt, ers he had met the day he had dire picture the stokers painted

E that Sylvia was struggling with her taken the photographs at the great against the sturdy deck beneath M

I health and that she suffered from ship’s furnaces. The stoker ap - him. Albert apparently protested T

I seasickness. That evening, as they proached, clearly giving Albert an to one of the stokers that the R

A were getting ready for bed, order. “If you value your life, get Titanic was so much safer than a

M William and Fannie got down on off this ship,” he said. “I’ve been lifeboat. It was “so big, and so their knees for their regular below, and this ship is going to strongly constructed” that he evening devotions and prayed for sink. The ocean is pouring in didn’t believe she would sink. the safe return of their son and his much faster than the pump can Surely she would float for hours, family. Albert was not wearing his keep up.” The other stokers sec - even days. The stoker doggedly of - missionary hat on the night of onded him by adding, “This boat’s fered an alternative, “Get your the sinking, and so, he always gonna sink. There’s water rushing family off the boat. If it is still thought, it was his parents’ in the hold below.” here in the morning, you can get prayers that caused what hap - These were startling warnings. back on.” Suddenly that made pened next. The deck was still solid beneath sense to Albert. Many years later, As Sylvia and Albert were wa - their feet. The Titanic was still he would look back on that mo - vering over whether to put Sylvia unsinkable. The watertight doors ment and say, “I don’t know why I and Alden into a lifeboat, a were still open in nonchalant believed him.” Then he’d pause cluster of stokers appeared at the tribute to the lack of danger — at and add, “I’ll always be thankful deck where the Caldwells now least, Albert thought they were. for praying parents.” were. Sweaty, covered in black But there was the unmistakable The stoker pointed out Lifeboat grime, some of them wet with sea - and worrisome truth that women 13 right at hand. He sprinted to water, the men looked like they and children were indeed off in the gangway door had been toiling in hell. But for the lifeboats. And crewmen who the Caldwells, one of these men ought to know the was surely their guardian angel, truth were sent, as Albert saw it later, by his insisting that parents’ anxious prayers. they get off. Albert was surprised when one Albert had of the stokers, perhaps Frederick been below Barrett, George Beauchamp, where these

Postcard Albert Caldwell bought and mailed from New York a week after the Titanic disaster, before the Caldwells arrived home.

10 History Magazine October/November 2014 and saw that the boat still had room. He called to the men above who were lowering the boat to hold it. Sylvia and Albert reacted instinctively — the lifeboat had stopped specifically for them, so they dropped all their questions and hurried to it. “And the stok - ers, about a dozen of ’em, a few other men passengers, my wife, and myself got in boat number 13,” Albert summarized years later, thus adding Siam to the worldwide sprinkling of nations represented on Lifeboat 13. As Albert told it a few days after the shipwreck to a reporter who accosted the family en route home to Illinois, “Lifeboat no. 13 was about to be lowered and Mrs. Caldwell was put into it. She was the last woman left in the group, and I was about to lower the baby down to her when she said, ‘Can’t my husband come, too?’ There being ample room, I was put into the boat with the baby, and then some other men followed.” This account and others like it were important in Albert’s story of survival. So many people, for years to come, would hold male survivors in contempt. But ac - counts of Albert’s rescue all depicted him being invited or en - couraged by the crew to get onto Lifeboat 13. A page from Sylvia Caldwell’s book, Women of the Titanic Disaster. Of course, some news stories embellished the scene. A colorful he reached over with it some one come aboard with the baby?” The account was printed in the New pushed him and he landed at his Herald said, “Some one behind York Sun , enhanced by the re - wife’s feet inside, two other men him shouted ‘Sure!’ and he was porter’s imagination. According on top of him.” The competing shoved into the boat beside his to this story, the Titanic ’s lights New York Herald tried to one-up wife, a couple of other men jump - went out as the Caldwells made the rival Sun by saying (wrongly) ing in on top of him.” ready to leave their cabin, and that the Caldwells were thrown The Washington Post featured they had to feel their way by hear - from their beds from the “fearful an imaginative scene, worthy of ing “shouts and sounds of run - shock” of the collision, and Sylvia, the cover of any modern romance ning. The deck all was chaos. He in the darkness and confusion novel. In that account, Sylvia [Albert] remembers that Mrs. that ensued was “suddenly taken was “one of the prettiest girls in Caldwell got into a lifeboat and he and placed into one of the Colorado” and was “said to have stood by with the baby, crowded lifeboats.” Luckily Albert was been the last woman to leave the away by a swirl of humanity. somehow able to follow and was sinking Titanic .” She was indeed ‘Can’t he put the baby in the trying to hand Alden to her, when pretty, but she wasn’t the last boat?’ his wife shrieked and when she called out, “Can’t my husband woman off, only the last on

October/November 2014 History Magazine 11 S Lifeboat 13. However, it made for a dramatic story, show - R

E cased by a theatrical sub-headline: “Mrs. A. F. Caldwell T

S Carried by Husband From Titanic.” Albert was holding A

S the baby along with his wife in the fanciful story. Albert’s I

D romantic gesture, the newspaper said, saved his life because

E it won him a spot in the lifeboat. In fact, the newspaper’s M

I headline set forth the myth that Albert and all male sur - T

I vivors would fight the rest of their lives by suggesting that R

A men were not normally allowed off the ship. The headline

M blared dramatically, “WIFE AS HIS PASSPORT.” Although Albert was safely now in the lifeboat, “safe” was no one’s adjective of choice at the moment. As Sylvia told it, “It seemed that fate toyed with our lives all thru that awful night, a succession of narrow escapes from death coming in rapid sequences.” The lifeboat jerked down to - ward the water at uneven angles, tipping forward and then backward. Sylvia said dramatically that they had to hold onto the sides of the boat to keep from being pitched out. Then they had to contend with water pouring from the Titanic ’s condenser pumps, gushing in a forceful stream three or four feet in diameter right in the path of Lifeboat 13. Everyone began screaming to the crew to stop lowering , Sylvia with Walter Lord’s famous history of the Titanic , A Night to Remember.

Albert Caldwell riding through Richmond with actress Debbie Reynolds as an advertising gimmick for the movie "Unsinkable Molly Brown", in 1964.

12 History Magazine October/November 2014 men lowering the boats to stop, Julie Hedgepeth Williams knew Albert Caldwell well. Albert but 15 kept coming. No one could and Sylvia Caldwell divorced in 1930, and in 1936, Albert hear them over the roar of the married Williams’ great aunt. water. Fifteen “would have “It’s ironic that I was never related to Sylvia,” Williams admitted, crushed us and all would have “because today, I dress as Sylvia and perform a one-woman been lost,” Sylvia said, recalling show about the Titanic from her point of view. I’m surprised how the terror of seeing the bottom of much more I’ve learned about the Titanic, looking through 15 coming far too close. People Sylvia’s eyes.” reached up with their hands on For example, the Caldwells and others couldn’t open a door the bottom of 15 in a futile ges - to a staircase leading to the lifeboats, so most of the party ture to stop it as others tried fran - climbed a crew ladder to get to the right deck. Sylvia was ill tically to release 13 by the jammed and too weak to climb, but an officer called to her to climb up. mechanism. At first the crewmen When she announced lowering 15 were “heedless of our she could not, he shrieks and terror,” as Albert put arranged for her to be it. But then, thankfully, “The men pulled up on a rope above realized what was happen - ladder. Moments later, ing, and they held the boat over as the Caldwells ap- our heads,” he recalled. proached Lifeboat 13, For the second time that night, a an officer – almost stoker played guardian angel to the certainly the same one Caldwell family — and this time, – ordered Albert onto to everyone on Lifeboat 13. Stoker the lifeboat to hold Frederick Barrett and an able sea - Alden. By then, the man, Robert Hopkins, took out officer was aware that knives — Sylvia thought one of the Sylvia was suffering knives was handed down from 15 from weakness and — and sawed away at the ropes that Albert was needed that still stubbornly bound 13 to to carry the baby. the Titanic . Barrett had to tread The officer was prob- ably James Moody. across several women in the boat “I’m glad to find out, to get to the ropes, but in the mo - through Sylvia’s eyes, ment of crisis, no one complained. Julie Hedgepeth Williams as Sylvia Caldwell. At last, 13 was set free. Relieved, what a hero that officer Courtesy Julie Hedgepeth Williams was,” Williams said. Sylvia noted that the boat “slid away in the nick of time, another perilous escape.” Hm and they frantically tried to locate not work as expected. As Albert the oars to push the boat away described it many years later, All Images Courtesy Newsouth Books from the ship. The oars were “When we got down to the water, lashed tightly to the lifeboat’s side we couldn’t get loose from the See the ad for Julie's book with twine — and people were block and tackle. There was a on our back cover. sitting on them besides — so the lever at the center of the boat that task was none too easy. The cas - was supposed to pull to loosen the JULIE HEDGEPETH cading water created a freezing block and tackle, but it was all WILLIAMS grew up hearing a spray. By the time Lifeboat 13 gummed up with paint.” struck the Atlantic, at least some Meanwhile, Lifeboat 15 was firsthand account of the Titanic of the passengers were quite wet. being lowered, and Lifeboat 13 from her great-uncle, Albert Given the nearly unbearable tem - was directly beneath it, having Caldwell. She teaches part-time perature, it was a miracle, Sylvia been pushed under it in the at Samford University and thought, that the Caldwells didn’t frenzied effort to avoid the roar - spends the other half of her time so much as catch cold. ing water from the condenser writing books and speaking, And then the confounded me - pumps. This was quite alarming. especially about the Titanic . chanical parts of the lifeboat did Everyone on 13 was yelling for the

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