“Au revoir to the Old World”

XIII

“Au revoir to the Old World”

At 11:40 P.M. on April 14, 1912, a quiet Sunday night, Titanic struck an iceberg about 1,000 miles due northeast of New York. The berg had been sited just 37 seconds before the collision. The helmsman had put her “Hard-a-starboard!” and was about to go “Hard-a-port!” on the Watch Officer’s orders when the ship  and the iceberg brushed each other undramatically. By 2:20 A.M. she had slipped beneath the waves and the 1,500 people still aboard faced certain death. Only 700 people lived to tell the tale

By 12:45 A.M. on Monday April 15^th, it was clear that Titanic was doomed to founder. Most passengers only realized this fact when the ship began firing distress rockets

(Top) At about 2:19 A.M. the “unsinkable” Titanic was facing stresses her builders had never imagined and she tore in half between her third and fourth funnels. Recent computer modeling indicates that the stern did not rise as high as has been thought and that the breakup was more sudden and unexpected than previously believed

(Bottom) Although much was made, for public-relations purposes, of the Titanic being unsinkable, it is instructive to note that her older and nearly identical sister Olympic was never touted the same way. In fact, the design of the watertight compartments on both ships left much to be desired. As one compartment filled, the water would slop over into the next compartment aft, pulling Titanic ever lower in the water. She was, for all intents and purposes, an ice cube tray with a lid

Titanic was, in almost every way, the apotheosis of shipbuilding during the great Age of Steamships, an era that ran from about 1885-1915. Titanic's dimensions are still awe-inspiring: She was 882.5 feet long, her beam was 92.5 feet, she weighed 46,328 tons, and at full capacity she could carry 3,547 passengers and crew. She was 175 feet tall from keel to funnel top and much taller if one measured from the masts. She burned 825 tons of coal a day and used 14,000 gallons of fresh water in 29 boilers with 159 furnaces to run at an (estimated) top speed of 25 knots (though in her brief life she was never run full out).

She left Southampton, England, U.K. on April 10, 1912 on her maiden voyage to New York. Approximately 2,344 people were aboard when she sailed, and the number of lives lost is estimated at 1,503, 1,507, and 1,517 (the numbers vary because some passengers left the ship in Cherbourg and Queenstown, some ticketholders missed sailing, and some sailed under pseudonyms or bought extra tickets as blinds). 

The number of survivors, seemingly an easier number to tally, varies from 703 to 705 to 715 for similar reasons. 

The only hard facts about Titanic that everyone agrees upon is that she struck an iceberg at 11:40 P.M. on April 14, 1912 and sank at 2:20 A.M. on April 15, 1912. What happened before, during, and after the sinking has been open to debate now for over 100 years.

Her Third Class was full of immigrants from every continent and nearly every nation. Most fit the stereotype of scrappy and pinch-poor people willing to risk it all in a new land, but some (mostly western European) middle class families with many children travelled Third as a matter of economics. 

Second Class ranged from people of marked affluence to skilled laborers. 

First Class was a virtual "Who's Who" of Anglo-American (and particularly American) Society. Although the richest man in the world and ultimate owner of the Titanic, J.P. Morgan, had to cancel his crossing due to illness, John Jacob Astor the New York real estate tycoon, Benjamin Guggenheim the steel magnate, J.B. Thayer and Charles Hays the railroad owners, Isidor Straus who owned Macys, Washington Roebling who had built the Brooklyn Bridge, J. Bruce Ismay, the President of White Star, and a score of other captains of industry, technologists, artisans, and civic leaders made up Titanic's top tier of passengers.

It was a time of ferment and rapid change. Automobiles were replacing horses and airplanes were becoming common. Telephones were also becoming common. Electricity was in regular use and radio, or at least wireless telegraphy, was part of Titanic's innovations. Poor men still worked for shillings and pence --- Astor's pocket change could have fed an entire family for six months --- but they were aggressively unionizing. Rumblings were heard in the U.S. Congress about an Income Tax and about votes for women. Little of this reached the ears of the men in the First Class Smoking Room, but in large part that was because they intentionally stopped their ears.

Ignoring the unpleasant was part of the Edwardian Era's overall social coping mechanism. Witness the some half-dozen ice warnings the Titanic had received and disregarded all day on Sunday, April 14th.

When the ship struck the iceberg it was only a glancing blow, but it was fatal, far worse than if the ship had hit the floating ice mountain head on. At first, no one could believe she'd sink, but after a time the lifeboats were sent away, chaotically, and half-full. When the ship foundered she sent a jolt through all of Anglo-American culture. In one night, a significant percentage of the business, professional, and social leadership of the world died. 

Questions were quickly asked about the true value of wealth. Religious figures inveighled against Mammon --- of course, mostly to the poor and the message was the usual tripe to rejoice in the gift of your God-given poverty --- but the preachers were right in one respect when they promised that worse was to come. 

Beginning in 1914, an entire generation of young men was butchered in a war fought ostensibly to end all wars.

The barber shop (this was the Olympic's) gave a shave and a haircut --- was it for two bits? --- sold souvenirs, and provided a man with some real necessities --- good pipes and tobaccos. Was there a shipboard blend in 1912?

First Class passengers got to wash their faces and their bums with Vinolia Otto Toilet Soap, which offered "a higher standard of Toilet Luxury and comfort at sea." The soap also tucked them in at night --- or it should have

The Third Class menu had no pretentions: Oatmeal, herring, potatoes, ham and eggs sounds like a typical breakfast special at a favorite neighborhood diner

A Second Class breakfast card: Pass on the "grilled ox kidneys" and the "Yarmouth Bloaters" (whatever they were) but the rest sounds excellent, right down to the grits --- er, boiled hominy. Another reflection of just how many Americans were aboard

(Top) The Last Luncheon in First Class. 

(Bottom)  The Last Dinner on The Titanic: First Class got a ten course gastronomic orgy that probably sent half of them to the bottom as if they had lead weights in their shoes