A Rare Titanic Family

S R E T S The Caldwells on the A S Titanic 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.

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