A short Titanic Tuesday post

I know, it's been forever since I've blogged. It's no secret I'm not very good at keeping up with this, so I apologize again.

Last weekend, we took a short vacation to visit some family up in the Blue Ridge mountains, and along the way made a stop to see the traveling Titanic Exhibit. This is probably the 4th or 5th time I’ve been to one of them, but it never gets old for me, even though I’m no longer using the excuse of book research to attend them. The exhibitions are always changing around the artifacts, so every time there’s something new on display. This one was a little smaller than others I’ve seen, but still interesting. Unlike some I’ve been to, there was no tour guide, so you wandered the exhibit rooms at your own speed.

The reason I’m writing about it is because at the end, I had a moment of life imitating art that I had to share. Those of you who have read Destined will get the significance. When you enter the exhibit,  you are given a “boarding pass” with information about a passenger that sailed on the Titanic. At the end, you can match your name up with the list of survivors & victims to find out if your person lived. A little morbid, but it’s a nice way to make the exhibit more interactive and personal, because you can’t help to want to root for your passenger to survive. My family got all First Class passengers (boarding at Cherbourg), so we were hopeful. My passenger was Leila Meyer, who was traveling to New York with her husband, banker Edgar Meyer, to attend the funeral of her father, Andrew Saks. Yes, that Saks: founder of Saks Department Stores. Despite that claim to fame, I hadn’t heard of her before this, so I didn’t know what her fate would be. I also didn’t know the other two passengers we were given, Helen Ostby and Emil Brandeis. If only our passengers were in Second Class, I might have known them better!

Leila Meyer survived, but her husband did not. Their two-year-old daughter had not been traveling with them, so she was safe at home. Between the inheritance from Leila’s father’s estate ($100,000 plus) and nearly twice that from her husband’s, she was pretty much set financially. She remarried and died at the age of 71, never speaking publicly about the disaster.

Helen Ostby was traveling with her father on a research trip for his jewelry business. They’d been in Europe and North Africa, and were returning home to Rhode Island. She survived and spoke later about the voyage, recalling the luxury of the ship and lack of panic as everyone went up on deck after striking the iceberg. They all went up on deck to the boats right away, but her father returned to his cabin to get warmer clothes. Helen never saw him again. Also of interest is her account of the sinking, which made no mention of the ship breaking in two:

There had been no panic. But at the very end, we could see and hear that the people on board were realizing there was no place to go. As the ship began to stand on end, we heard a big rumbling, rattling noise as if everything was being torn from its moorings inside the ship. All of a sudden that stopped, and she stood on end very quietly for a minute, then went down like an arrow.

We thought that, being a First Class passenger, Emil Brandeis had a better chance at survival, but unfortunately, he did not make it. Brandeis was the son of Jonas Brandeis, founder of the Brandeis Department Store, and was returning home early from a vacation to visit family in Europe. There is no mention of why he changed his plans: perhaps in order to sail on the famous new luxury liner?

As we were studying the list, I overheard a couple next to us talking to one of the exhibit employees. He was stationed there to answer questions and help people find their passengers, and had just asked them if they were having trouble with theirs. I couldn’t resist eavesdropping, partly to see if I would recognize the names, and partly to check up on the employee’s knowledge. One had a member of the Allison family, and he immediately launched into the story of how nearly the entire family perished because they stayed on board to search for their infant son, Trevor, unaware that their nurse, Alice Cleaver, had already gotten him onto a lifeboat. It’s one of the sadder stories in First Class, as their young daughter, Loraine, was the only child in First or Second Class that was not saved. I have to give the exhibit employee credit for knowing his stuff, but what caught my attention most was the passenger in question. For those who have read Destined, you might recognize that the Allison family was used there as well, in a very similar situation to mine. It was a little creepy, to be honest. Of all the passengers those people could have had, what were the chances they’d have one of the Allisons?

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Titanic Tuesday: Myths & Legends

The Titanic has always been a subject of interest for people, even before the movie in 1997 brought it back to the forefront of public attention. And now, with the 100th anniversary of the disaster approaching, I imagine it’s going to be popping up everywhere again. Books, movies, documentaries, you name it. I’m excited, because I can never get enough Titanic (though I doubt I will be seeing the 3D re-release of the film, despite it being my favorite movie. 3D gives me a headache, and it’s been my experience that movies converted into 3D after the fact aren’t very effective. I prefer to watch it in its original format. I don’t need the iceberg coming out of my screen at me, or Rose’s hand reaching out towards me during the cargo hold scene – and you know they won’t be able to resist doing that.).

But with all the renewed interest and publicity, many long-standing myths and legends are bound to pop up again. “Facts” that get told over and over despite being untrue, passed along because people hear it often enough, they assume it’s reality. After all, we no longer have any first-hand witnesses living to set us straight, and even if we did, not all of them were always 100% reliable. Eyewitness testimony is hardly infallible, after all. Some people insisted to their dying day that the ship went down intact, and we know that’s not the case now that the wreck has been found. Others have conflicting stories about gunshots, officer suicides, where Captain Smith was, and how/if the third class was trapped belowdecks. For most of these, we’ll never really know the truth, because unlike Apolline in Destined (shameless self-promotion shout-out!), we can’t go back and see it for ourselves.

There are, however, many facts about the ship we do know, and myths that have been busted, yet still linger on. So I thought I’d take the opportunity in today’s Titanic Tuesdays post to point some of them out.

• There was not a mummy in the cargo hold. I’m not sure where that myth started, but it pops up now and then, even today. Researchers have never found proof that such a thing existed on the ship. Some believe the story came about because one of the passengers, William T. Stead, told his dinner companions about the mummy, which was on display in London at the time, and after the disaster, memories became jumbled and his story about the mummy turned into a story that it was on board the ship (and due to a curse, the cause of the disaster).
• The Titanic was not the first ship to use S.O.S. as a distress call. While it is true that S.O.S. was relatively new at the time (up until then, the standard distress call was C.Q.D.), the signal was used first by Germans in 1905, then adopted as a the new worldwide standard in 1908. It took time to catch on, which is why most ships took a while to switch over from the CQD they were used to.
• The officers (or White Star Line) were not trying to make a speed record on Titanic’s maiden voyage. Her maximum speed, with all boilers lit, was only 21 knots, and there were already faster ships out there. However, all of her boilers were never lit, and she was following a longer, more southerly route in order to (irony alert) avoid icebergs. Also, if they had tried to get into port on Tuesday night, rather than Wednesday, as many rumors stated, it would have been a huge inconvenience to everyone on board. Just imagine the uproar from the elite in First Class at being brought to shore the night before they had made arrangements to be picked up or transferred to trains (not to mention all the hotel reservations starting on Wednesday)!
• J. Bruce Ismay, managing director of the White Star Line, was not quite the villain many believe. His biggest crime was surviving. He did not sneak onto a boat to save himself. He helped load the boats along with the other officers, and according to witnesses, entered a half-filled boat as it was being lowered only after being ordered to. It makes you think, really: many other men survived without being vilified for it, and many who perished tried to get on boats with little regard to the others around them. It’s a shame that Ismay had to live out the rest of his life under such a cloud when he did not really do anything wrong by getting on that boat. If it truly was already being lowered, the seat he took would have remained empty had he not boarded. If he had stayed on the ship, he would have died, but no one else would have survived in his place. Sadly, if he had stayed on board, he would probably be considered a hero today, right up there with Captain Smith and Thomas Andrews.
• Another common story about Ismay is that he was pressuring Captain Smith to go faster (again, the speed record myth). We’ll never know for sure if this was true, though some passengers claimed to have overheard him talking to the Captain about picking up speed. Still, Smith was too experienced a sailor to take direction from a businessman like Ismay. He would not have altered his course or speed just to please him.
• The Titanic was not felled by a 300-foot-long gash in her hull. While the damaged portion of the hull is still buried in sand, it has been determined that such a large gash is not likely. Instead, scientists say that the sinking was caused by the steel plates buckling under the force of the iceberg as it scraped along the side of the ship, popping off rivets as it went. Some believe the quality of the steel used in making the rivets was sub-par, and therefore caused them to fail. As the rivets popped off, seams were opened and water rushed in.
• No one ever claimed the Titanic was unsinkable. While the ship was described as “practically unsinkable” by Shipbuilder magazine, no one ever declared it as such. It was true that she was built so that she would be very difficult to sink, but as fate would have it, the iceberg struck in just the right way to remind everyone that something that large and heavy can, in fact, sink. Had Titanic hit the berg head-on, it is very possible she would have limped away damaged, but still seaworthy. The watertight compartments were designed so that the ship would stay afloat if any two were filled, and even if the four forward compartments were filled. Unfortunately, sideswiping the berg meant six compartments filled, sending more water into the ship than she could handle. And as anyone who has seen the movie knows, the bulkheads separating the watertight compartments only reached up to E Deck. Once the ship started going down at the bow, water flowed over the tops of the bulkheads and began filling more compartments. The compartment in the front of the ship, however, reached higher, and therefore might have kept water from flowing back into the ship had it been the only section of the hull compromised.

I was going to continue this with film-specific inaccuracies, but rather than get too long, I’ll leave that for another week.

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Titanic Tuesday: When hobbies collide

In addition to my obsession with all things Titanic, I am somewhat of an amateur genealogist. It’s something I discovered a couple of years ago (thanks to the NBC show, Who Do You Think You Are?, which I highly recommend), and got pretty addicted for a while. This past weekend, my mother (who was also bitten by the genealogy bug) brought something to my attention: we might have had an ancestor of the Titanic.

As it turns out, the man in question (John Coffey) is most likely not related to us, or at least not directly. But his story is an interesting one, and I thought it would be a good post topic. As we’re coming up to the centennial next month, I’m aiming to be more regular with these posts, so now is as good a time as any to get back into it.

Coffey is a name on my mother’s side of the family, and we’ve been able to trace our tree all the way back to an Edward Coffey, who came over to the US from Ireland in the 1600s. So while we do have some John Coffeys in our family tree, they were all born in the United States long before 1912, meaning the John Coffey on the Titanic would only be a very distant cousin, if he were even part of our family at all. Still, it’s a nifty connection, and the closest I’ve come so far to tracing my roots to the ship.

John Coffey was born in Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland, in 1889. When he was 23, he was living in England after working on Titanic’s sister ship, the RMS Olympic. He then signed on to the Titanic as a fireman (or stoker) in Southampton, but did not remain on board for the full voyage. Instead, he snuck off the ship at Queenstown with the mail. Since the Queenstown dock was too small for the ship, Titanic docked offshore and smaller boats, or tenders, ferried passengers and mail on and off. RMS, after all, stands for Royal Mail Ship, and there was quite a bit of mail to be brought to shore. Coffey claimed to have hidden under the bags of mail on the final tender leaving the ship, and was soon reunited with his family. Most believe this was his reason for deserting the ship: to get a free trip back home. But after the tragedy, he often claimed that he slipped off due to a “bad feeling” about the ship’s fate.

Not much more seems to be known about him (that I can find online, at least), other than he supposedly signed on to the Mauretania after the Titanic sank, and that he eventually passed away in 1957. I did find an old forum comment at Ancestry.com from someone claiming to be his great grandson, but he didn’t offer any information publicly.

Another Irish passenger that has more information available, and connects more directly to my own book, is Eugene Daly. Daly was 29 years old when he boarded the Titanic in Queenstown, and was most known later for playing “Erin’s Lament” on his uilleann pipes (similar to bagpipes) while the ship left port. A third class passenger, he sat out on the bow and played, a somber farewell to his homeland. According to the Encyclopedia Titanica, his pipes went down with the ship, and he later filed a claim for them for $50. A set of pipes was salvaged from the wreck many years later that might have been his, but no one is certain.

Daly survived the sinking. He helped two women into a lifeboat (his cousin and her roommate) and boarded with them, only to be pulled out by an officer. (This from a letter he wrote to his sister) He later jumped overboard and swam to the overturned collapsible. He clung to it all night, as it was too crowded to get on, and later claimed he only survived due to the thick coat he wore. He was mentioned in many articles afterwards, testified in the hearings, and was one of the survivors to claim an officer shot two male passengers who were trying to board a lifeboat, then shot himself. There is a nice article written about him by his daughter here, if anyone is interested: http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/eugene-daly-his-daughter.html

According to his daughter, he and his wife sailed back to Ireland in 1921 to tend to his sick mother, and the voyage had him in a panic. He vowed never to sail across the Atlantic again, and they remained in Ireland until the early 1960s, after the death of his wife. At this point, he was able to fly back to the US to live with his daughter, and therefore avoided having to get on another ship. Daly passed away in New York in 1965.

I have read accounts of many survivors who refused to get on another ship again, or who found themselves too nervous or panicked the next time they tried. I can’t really blame them for it. I’m not sure I’d be too keen of sailing again if I’d been there, either!

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Titanic Tuesdays; L’Amour de la Mer

I have been woefully lax in updating my blog lately. Frankly, I’ve been lax in most things related to writing. Work is busier, and I recently began planning a vacation, which seems to have overrun my brain. I’m treating myself to a week-long trip to Paris in May for the birthday. It’ll be my third trip there, but my first time traveling overseas by myself. Should be an adventure! Now that I’ve settled on and booked an apartment, I can take a step away and focus on other things for a little while. First order of business: dust off the blog.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, here’s a story I found that’s rather intriguing. A couple of Second Class passengers named Henry & Kate Marshall boarded at Southampton, only Marshall was not their real name. They were, in reality, Henry Morley and Kate Phillips, and were not married but rather eloping to the United States. Morley, nearly 40 years old, was already married, and had left his wife and daughter for his much younger mistress,19-year-old Kate, whom he met while she was working in one of his confectioner’s shops. He was a wealthy man, and gifted her with a beautiful sapphire necklace (sound familiar?) on board the ship. I have only found one photo of it online, and suspect there is copyright involved, so rather than post it here, I’ll link to it instead: L’Amour de la Mer (Love of the Sea).

As with most TItanic stories, this one ends in tragedy. Henry Morley was not allowed on the lifeboat with his mistress, and died in the sinking. Not long after that, Kate discovered she was pregnant. She gave birth to a daughter, Ellen, on January 11, 1913. Some like to say Ellen was conceived on board the ship, because it’s more romantic that way, but there’s no way to know for sure. It’s just as likely she was already a few weeks pregnant when the Titanic set sail. Some even say that her child might have been conceived after the sinking, but I find that less likely. Kate was a grief-stricken young woman, alone in an unfamiliar country in the early 1900s. When would she have the opportunity to start another love affair? She always insisted her child was Morley’s, and gave Ellen’s birth date and the fact that first pregnancies are said to stretch longer than 9 months (most people I know had their first children after their due dates), it stands to reason that Morley is the most likely paternal candidate.

The tragedy continues: according to Ellen herself, Kate Phillips never quite recovered from what happened to her. She was distant, abusive and self-destructive, and ended her life in a mental institution. Some reports say that Kate sold the sapphire necklace when she fell on hard times, while others say before she died, Kate gave the necklace (as well as the purse and cabin keys she had on her when put in the lifeboat) to Ellen. Ellen’s own granddaughter confirmed part of this, saying that she personally saw the cabin keys, but said that the necklace went down with the ship and was later recovered with other artifacts. It has popped up from time to time as part of Titanic artifact exhibitions.

Ellen’s paternity was never proven. Some say there was a DNA test done, but the results were never publicized. Ellen’s granddaughter as well as a member of Morley’s family have both said that DNA was never done, however, because the Morley family did not agree to it. So unless someone has kept some of Ellen’s hair, it may never be known for sure if she was the result of her mother’s Titanic elopement or not.

Some more links that might be of interest on this story:

Ellen’s story, in her own words: http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/ellen_phillips_story.html
Kate’s biography, along with some photos: http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/kate-phillips.html
The ET thread where both Ellen’s and Morley’s family weigh in: http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/discus/messages/5811/99997.html?1137698196
Another ET thread where Ellen’s granddaughter pops in: http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/discus/messages/5811/54465.html?1089621227
One more ET thread that discusses the DNA rumors further: http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/discus/messages/5811/50812.html?1190633087

And then it got stranger. While searching the forums for other posts on the subject, I found a topic from someone else claiming to be descended from Morley. What makes it so strange? They claim he was in Papua New Guinea in 1913-1914, where he married and had 5 children. A year or two after he supposedly died on the Titanic. Hm. Makes for a good story, at least: http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/discus/messages/5667/92353.html?1154695187

This blog started out as a romantic tale, but somehow it descended into weirdness. Still, it’s mysterious and intriguing (and the tale of Henry and Kate is still a romantic one, if you ignore the adultery), like many of the other mysteries that came out of the disaster. It’s no wonder I’ve been so fascinated by the ship for so long. I kind of wish I knew about Henry and Kate while I was still writing DESTINED. I could have given them a cameo. ;)

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Titanic Tuesdays: Artifact auction

I’ve been somewhat slack on my Titanic Tuesdays posts, and I apologize for that. The holidays were crazy busy, both personally and at work, so I fell behind on most writing-related things. I’m hoping to get back in the swing soon. Since I haven’t yet had time to come up with a fully-researched topic this week, I’m going to talk quickly about a news item that came to my attention last week: Thousands of artifacts salvaged from the wreck are going up for auction.

This worries me. The artifacts are fascinating, and seeing them in person is truly awe-inspiring. I’ve seen many of these myself at exhibitions, so I’m praying that whoever buys them will continue to exhibit them to the public in a responsible and respectful manner. It looks like the auction winner will have to be vetted in some way to gain approval to purchase the lot, so I’m cautiously optimistic. It would be awful if they let some rich tycoon buy them and then hoard them away in a personal collection somewhere.

In regards to the artifacts themselves, I’ve always had mixed feelings. On the one hand, there’s something about seeing these items in person that really brings the story of the Titanic to life. It sparks the imagination, makes the people who lost their lives more real. On the other hand, it’s always bothered me that these expeditions are going down, landing on the wreck (which has seriously damaged the decks) and taking things from the ship to haul back out of the sea and put on display. How is that any different than stealing treasures from one of the pyramids? It isn’t, not really, except most pyramids only have one body inside. The Titanic is the grave of over 1500 people.

I’m less bothered by artifacts retrieved from the debris field, though I’m not sure why. Obviously, bodies fell there as well, as evidenced by the photos of leather boots (such as the one on the cover of DESTINED). Maybe it’s because those expeditions aren’t doing any harm to the ship itself? I don’t know. I guess I’m a little bit of a hypocrite all the way around, as I’ve attended many of the artifact exhibitions over the years and done my fair share of “ooh”ing and “ahhh”ing over everything. I may not completely approve of their means, but once the items are on dry land, I can’t resist looking at them. I’m just too fascinated by the ship to look away.

This one in particular, which is part of the lot going up for auction (along with the Big Piece, I believe), is something that has always stuck with me more than any other piece. I’m not really sure why. Maybe it’s because there’s a name on it? There’s a mystery surrounding it, as no one has been able to deduce for certain who it belonged to. Some believe it was Amy Jacobsohn, a 2nd Class passenger, while others believe it was Amy Stanley’s, despite her sailing in Third Class. Some say the bracelet was found in a leather bag that contained items from the 2nd Class Purser’s safe, while others say it was found with other steerage items in the debris field. If you read through some of the message board threads about the bracelet (such as the one on the Encyclopedia Titanica boards here), it’s hard to say who’s right. One person insists they saw an account from Amy Stanley herself that it was hers, yet later her own great granddaughter posts to say this isn’t true. For all we know, it belonged to none of them, and was being brought back to America as a gift for a loved one back home. If I had to speculate, I’d say Amy Jacobsohn makes the most sense. I just can’t imagine a Third Class passenger being able to afford a diamond bracelet.

Pretty, isn’t it? I’m oddly attached to this bracelet, so I hope whoever wins the auction has just as much respect for the items as the rest of us Titanic buffs do. It would be a crime if they faded into obscurity in a dusty storage shed somewhere.

If you’d like to see photos of other pieces in the auction, The Guardian has a slideshow up here.

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Titanic Tuesdays: Message in a Bottle

Those of you who have read Destined may recognize the following name, but if you haven’t read it yet, it won’t spoil anything. Jeremiah Burke is mentioned towards the end of the book, and his story given briefly. But because he interests me so much, I wanted to expand on it a little.

Jeremiah Burke (age 19) and his cousin, Nora Hegarty (age 18), from County Cork, Ireland, sailed on the Titanic in third class from Queenstown (now known as Cobh). Jeremiah was traveling to the United States to join two of his sisters who were already living there, while Nora was on her way to join a convent. They nearly avoided the tragedy, however, because their initial intent was to sail on another ship. According to his grandniece, Brid O’Flynn McSwiney, in an article from the Cork News, Jeremiah went to buy their tickets a month in advance, with the intent to sail on an earlier ship. But he knew the girl at the ticket counter, and she advised him to wait a few weeks for the Titanic. (An alternate account says Jeremiah’s mother bought the tickets.) Sadly, both he and Nora perished in the sinking. Their families waited for weeks afterwards for news, but never received any, and neither body was recovered (or at least, never identified).

Before heading off for the ship, Jeremiah’s mother gave him a holy water bottle filled with Lourdes water. In those days, this sort of thing was an important gift, something that would be treasured. Yet a year later, an off-duty Royal Irish Constabulary officer was walking his dog along the river near Cork Harbour, and spotted a bottle on the shore. It was an empty holy water bottle, and inside was the following note:

13/4/1912 from Titanic, Goodbye all: Burke of Glanmire, Co. Queenstown

Given the date, the message and the fact that the bottle was not something he would have tossed overboard on a whim, most came to the conclusion that Jeremiah wrote the message as the ship was sinking, put it in the bottle and threw it in the water. How it made it back to not only Ireland, but very near to where the Burke family lived, will always be a mystery. According to Brid, “Over the years people have suggested that he could have thrown it out at Cobh. He could have, but it’s unlikely that if your mother gave you a holy water bottle, you would fling it out there. The note was in blue pencil and in very distinctive handwriting. The bottle was something that his Mother had given him as a special memento - going to Lourdes at the time was huge thing - so it wouldn’t have been thrown away as a flippant action.” In a sad twist to the story, Jeremiah’s mother died shortly after the note was found.

An interesting note: in the same article, Brid mentions that while her grandfather (William, Jeremiah’s brother) never returned to Cobh (Queenstown), he would often visit a Titanic survivor, Eugene Daly, who remembered meeting Jeremiah on the tender that ferried them on board the ship. Eugene is also featured briefly in Destined: he is the third class man Apolline sees out on the stern of the ship, playing an Irish tune (“Erin’s Lament”) on his pipes as the ship leaves port at Queenstown.

You can see photos of Jeremiah and the his note in this article at thejournal.ie. Until recently, the bottle was in the possession of Nora Hegarty’s family while the letter was with Jeremiah’s, but it looks like the Burkes donated the letter to the Cobh Heritage Centre a few months ago.

There’s one more thing I can’t resist noting: if anyone watched the Curiosity special on the Discovery Channel a few months back entitled “What Sank Titanic?”, there is a brief allusion to this story at the end. Unfortunately, the special wasn’t quite as factual as I’d have liked, and among the errors and fictionalizations, Jeremiah’s note was attributed to a greaser from England named Frank Goree. In the documentary, Goree climbed up the ship’s dummy 4th funnel, finished off a bottle of liquor, then wrote the note, stuffed it in and chucked the bottle into the water. It made for a more dramatic picture, I’m sure, but since I knew the true story of that note, I can’t deny it bugged me a little that they gave Jeremiah’s story to someone else. They also got the time of the sinking wrong (they said she sunk at 2:02, not 2:20), which is hardly a minor detail! That said, it is a very interesting and enjoyable special, as long as you don’t expect 100% accuracy from it. Heck, even the James Cameron movie wasn’t 100% accurate (and neither is Destined for that matter. We all take small liberties when trying to entertain.). If you’d like to watch it, and have an hour and a half to spare, it’s on YouTube in HD.

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Titanic Tuesdays: Dining on board

As promised, Titanic Tuesdays are back. At least, until I get busy and/or lazy and forget again. But I promise I’m going to try to avoid that happening too much.

This week’s TT is about eating. Anyone who has taken a cruise knows that one of the biggest parts of the experience is the food. Today, there is food everywhere on a cruise ship, at any hour you might want it. Formal restaurants, pizza shops, casual cafeterias, ice cream stands … if you’re hungry, chances are pretty good that somewhere on the ship, food is available, and with the exception of a super-fancy restaurant or two, it’s all included in your ticket for no extra charge.

In 1912, cruise ships were a little simpler than they are today, but dining was still a big part of the experience on the Titanic. There were three big meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner, and if you were in First Class, there was also an a la carte restaurant where you could choose from a broader menu (but had to pay extra). The a la carte restaurant was run similar to the RItz (very fancy!), and was open from 8am to 11pm, allowing First Class passengers to dine just about any time the mood hit.There were also two cafes on A Deck, called the Verandah Café (or Verandah and Palm Court, as there was one of each side of the ship, just aft of the First Class Smoking Room), where passengers could have light refreshments. In addition to these, there was something new on the ship: the Café Parisien (pictured). This café was adjacent to the a la carte restaurant, and diners here could choose from the same menu, yet this area had a French sidewalk café feel with wicker furniture and large picture windows, allowing them to look out at the sea while they dined: something that hadn’t been done before on a British ship. If the weather was right, the windows could be opened to allow for al fresco dining.

If you were in Second or Third Class, your dining options were limited to your dining saloon. Meals were served at specific times, so if you didn’t eat them, you were out of luck until the next meal. I believe it was possible to have food sent to your room during mealtimes, however, but I can’t remember now where I read that. The Second Class meals were prepared in the same kitchen as First Class, and from all accounts, while not quite as lavish, the food was good enough to rate First Class on just about any other ship. Good dishes, nice linens, fresh flowers on the tables—everything you’d expect from a high-class restaurant.

We don’t know all the menus that were served on board the Titanic’s maiden voyage, but a few did manage to survive.

April 11th, Second Class Breakfast

• Rolled Oats
• Boiled Hominy
• Fresh Fish
• Yarmouth Bloaters (a type of herring, slated and smoked)
• Grilled Ox Kidneys and Bacon
• American Dry Hash au Gratin
• Grilled Sausage
• Mashed Potatoes
• Grilled Ham & Fried Eggs
• Fried Potatoes
• Vienna & Graham Rolls
• Soda Scones
• Buckwheat Cakes
• Maple Syrup
• Conserve
• Marmalade
• Tea and Coffee
• Watercress

April 12, Second Class Luncheon

HOT ITEMS

• Pea Soup
• Spaghetti au Gratin
• Corned Beef
• Vegetable dumplings
• Roast Mutton
• Baked Jacket Potatoes

COLD ITEMS

• Roast Mutton
• Roast Beef
• Sausage
• Ox Tongue
• Pickles
• Salad
• Tapioca Pudding
• Apple Tart
• Fresh Fruit
• Cheese
• Biscuits
• Coffee

April 14, Second Class Dinner

"On the night of the wreck our dinner tables were a picture! The huge bunches of grapes which topped the fruit baskets on every table were thrilling. The menus were wonderfully varied and tempting. I stayed at table from soup to nuts."
- Kate Buss, Second Class passenger

First Course, Soup: Consumme with Tapioca

Second Course, Main Dishes:

• Baked Haddock with Sharp Sauce
• Curried Chicken & Rice
• Spring Lamb with Mint Sauce
• Roast Turkey with Cranberry Sauce

Second Course, Side Dishes:

• Turnip Sauce
• Green Peas
• Boiled Rice
• Boiled and Roast Potatoes

Third Course, Dessert:

• Plum Pudding with Sweet Sauce
• Wine Jelly
• Coconut Sandwich
• American Ice Cream
• Assorted Nuts
• Fresh Fruit
• Cheese
• Biscuits

After Dinner: Coffee

As a picky eater, I can’t say I’d enjoy all of these menus. If time travel were possible, and I found myself in Apolline’s place, I’d be eating a lot of potatoes, cheese, fruit and breads. And ice cream, of course. Note here the menu specifies that it’s “American” ice cream. According to Last Dinner on the Titanic, at that time there were two popular ways of making ice cream. The French method used eggs, making it “richer and smoother” than the American method (popularized by Dolly Madison in the early 1800s) that used no eggs. The American version was most likely lighter and more preferable after such a large meal.

Great. Now I’m craving ice cream.

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Titanic Tuesdays: Her Final Resting Place

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween! I’m currently munching on leftover Kit-Kats (we only had a handful of trick-or-treaters, which means more candy for me!) while I blog this. Mmm, Kit-Kats.

A conversation I had (if you can call a series of blog comments and tweets a conversation?) with a book blogger last week got me thinking about the genesis of my Titanic obsession. (Darcus of Starcrossed Reviews, who,, I might add, gave Destined a fantastic review, if you haven’t already seen it.) In one of these comments, she mentioned that she had become obsessed in middle school, which happened to be the age I got really interested in the ship. I‘m still trying to ignore the fact that, for her, I suspect middle school still fell within this century. How is it possible that I’m interacting with other adults online who were born when I was in high school? I do not feel old enough to be able to say those words, yet there they are.

Anyway, I always say my obsession started when news of the wreck’s discovery was found, but counting back now, I’m not sure that’s true. I would have been 9 years old in 1985, and while I know my interest was piqued with the news, I don’t think it was until 7th grade that I really got into it. We had to do oral reports that year, and while I don’t remember if we had any specific theme assigned, I know that I chose to do my report on the Titanic. I was already interested at the time, but it wasn’t until I started doing research for the paper that I got truly fascinated. I still have this one, vivid memory of jumping on the bed in our guest room while trying to memorize the report. Don’t ask me why I was jumping on the bed: maybe I thought all the bouncing would help the facts stick in my brain? I was kind of a weird kid sometimes.

(Naturally, now that I’m writing all of this out, I’m starting to doubt my own memory. While I know I did a report on Titanic at some point, I also did one on the Exxon oil spill, and now I’m unsure which report was the jumping-on-the-bed one. *sigh* Getting older sucks.)

Whichever grade it was, my obsession was born with that report, and ever since then I have devoured everything I see about the ship. And when it was announced in the late 1990s that a movie was being made about it, I was ecstatic. Then it got delayed, and delayed again, and critics weren’t being particularly nice about it, and I started to worry that it wouldn’t live up to my rather high expectations. I think it’s safe to say I wasn’t disappointed. *g* Like most people at that time, my obsession was renewed, and a few years later I got the idea to try my hand at writing a fictional account of the ship, told from the point of view of a 21st century woman sent back in time. And that’s how Destined was born.

Now, on to my actual blog post on the impetus of my obsession: the discovery of the wreck.

Since this isn’t a school report, I’m not going to go into all the details of how Robert Ballard found the wreck site. Most of us have already heard them, anyway. Long story short: while searching the Atlantic for sunken nuclear subs (a trip financed by the US Navy, and a detail he only recently disclosed), he and his team were also keeping an eye out for the Titanic, knowing that they were in the same general area of her last known coordinates. Ballard had been long obsessed with finding the wreck, so even though that particular research trip wasn’t financed for that purpose, he was always looking for it. And on September 1, 1985, he found it.

Underwater photography wasn’t nearly as good then as it is now, so the sonar being used only sent back grainy black-and-white shots similar to the images you see on a pregnancy ultrasound. (Maybe it’s just me, but I can rarely make out the baby in those things. Remember Rachel in that episode of Friends where she thinks she’s a bad mom because she can’t see her own baby on the sonogram? If I ever had kids, that would be me.) While scanning the ocean floor, someone spotted something in the sand, debris that didn’t look natural. They followed it, until something bigger popped up on the screen: a ship’s boiler. And thus, the Titanic was found after 73 years. It was early morning, around 1:00am or so. By 2:00am, amidst all the cheering and dancing and champagne-toasting, one of the men caught sight of the clock and said “you know, she sinks in 20 minutes.”At that point, the celebrating stopped as everyone realized they were 20 minutes away from the exact time the Titanic sank those 73 years ago. It was a sobering realization: they were (quite literally) dancing on the grave of 1500 people. Ballard invited everyone who wanted to join him at the stern of the research ship, and at 2:20am, they held an impromptu memorial 2 1/2 miles above the ship’s wreckage.

Maybe I’m just a sap, but whenever I hear that story, I get a little misty. There’s something incredibly powerful about the image of the ship resting, surprisingly intact, on the sea floor. Sure, it’s in two pieces, there are holes everywhere (some due to the elements and some due to damage caused by human submersibles landing on her decks and bumping into her) and many parts are missing completely, but still the sight of her is almost … majestic. How can you see that iconic shot of the bow and not feel something?

[photo credit: NOAA/IFE/URI]

Most organic material has long been eaten away by bacteria and other deep-sea organisms, leaving only the steel and some wood behind. Bodies are long-gone, but we can still see where some fell due to metal jewelry and leather shoes. The boots I used on the cover of Destined are from one such shot of the debris field, one that struck me more than any other image I’ve seen. I stumbled across it when I was looking for images of the ship to use for my cover, at that point aiming for 1912 shots of the ship as she set sail. But every design I came up with using those shots felt wrong somehow. Then I saw the shot here, and knew, in an instant, that I’d found my cover. It matched so perfectly with a scene I’d written (if you’ve read the book, you know which I mean, and if you haven’t, I won’t spoil anything by saying more), it was almost like I’d written it to fit the photo, rather than finding the photo later. Serendipity, I suppose. The more I look at those boots, the more haunting they become. They didn’t just fall there on their own: someone was wearing them, someone who had just lost their life. There may not be any human remains today—even the bones are gone—but all those pairs of shoes leave no doubt the massive debris field surrounding the shipwreck is a graveyard. It’s a humbling sight. (You can see a larger version of the boots picture at the NOAA site. The part that always grabs my attention is the round object—a coin?— just below the boot on the right.)

[photo credit: NOAA/IFE/URI]

I know it’s futile to hope this but, while I’m as hungry for more Titanic information as the next fan, I really wish the salvaging expeditions would end. I have no problem with the scientific explorations that go down there and look without touching, but the people that dive to dig up artifacts for the purpose of selling or even just displaying in museums are speeding up the destruction of the ship. She lasted over 70 years in relatively decent condition, and now, after we’ve been plundering her for the past 26, she’s falling apart. Significant changes have been noted: for example, the crow’s nest, seen on the 1985 still attached to the main mast, is completely gone. The plaque left on the bow by Ballard’s team in 1985 has even disappeared, presumably looted by illegal salvagers. Who does that?

Sorry, I didn’t mean for this to turn into a rant against artifact salvaging, but as you can see, I’m passionate about the ship. It’s fascinated me for most of my life, and after all the research I did to write Destined, I find I have an even deeper appreciation for the thousands of lives lost nearly 100 years ago.

Good luck to everyone starting NaNoWriMo today! I’m skipping it this year in order to finish editing my next novel, but I’ve enjoyed participating a few times in the past. Destined was my first foray into NaNoWriMo, as a matter of fact, way back in 2001! See, there I go, making myself feel old again.

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Titanic Tuesdays: William Harbeck

Every now and then in these Titanic Tuesdays posts, I'd like to highlight a particular passenger I included in Destined. Most were only used as background characters: a name mentioned here or there, but not much else. But one of the main secondary characters I used was William H. Harbeck. He was an acquaintance of Noelle's roommate, Henriette Yrois, though their relationship was somewhat of a mystery. In order to stay as true as possible to the real person, I carried that mystery over into Destined, choosing not to define them as romantically involved.

Some of this will be a spoiler for the book, but I will clearly mark where the spoilery section begins, so you can stop reading if you have not yet read Destined and wish to avoid learning William's fate.

When I was looking for a roommate for Noelle, I wanted to be sure I chose someone that would be interesting as well as have no direct living relatives today. Since I cannot know what a person in 1912 was really like, chances are pretty good my version of them won't be very accurate. The last thing I want is to inadvertently offend someone's descendants, so to be safe, I looked for people that wouldn't have any immediate family left. In Henriette's case, there is so little known about her, I really can't be sure she has no one living now: I can only make educated assumptions that she does not. As for William, more is known about him, and I was able to peek into his family tree. Genealogy is an interest of mine, and I enjoy researching people’s ancestry.

William H. Harbeck was born somewhere between 1865 and 1868 in Ohio. I was never able to find his official birth record, so can only go by census records and his death certificate. On the 1880 census, his age is listed as 14 (making him born around 1866). He was on two censuses in 1900, one in Ohio with his family, where his birth is given as Sept. 1863 (I believe incorrectly, as this is also his wife's birth month/date) and one in Colorado, where he was working for a newspaper and living alone, where his birth is given as December 1866. He is again on two censuses in 1910: one in Ohio, where his age is listed as 45 (birth year around 1865), and another in Seattle where he's listed as 42 (born 1868), living with his wife, Kate (whose recorded age is 9 years too young). We know that William lived in Seattle in the early part of the 1900s, because he had a film studio there, and some sources have said Kate moved with him. It's possible that he had two homes around that time: one in Seattle for his business, and one in Ohio with his family. Kate may have moved back and forth, as their adult sons are only listed on the Ohio census (where Kate is also listed, this time with the correct age). Both his death certificate and tombstone give his birth year as 1868. It’s a mystery, but as age questions go, I’ve seen stranger: one of my own ancestors was born in 1819, yet was always recorded as born in 1830 on census records when his wife (who was born in 1836) was alive. Once she had passed away, his birth year goes back to 1819. All I can figure is he lied to his wife about his true age, as she was most likely the one answering the census taker’s questions.

What I was able to find about William's early life is very little. His father was John S. Harbeck, born May 19, 1836 in New York, the son of John S Harbeck and Jane Shaw. William's mother was Margaret Milligan, daughter of William Milligan and Rebecca Beckford. She was born around 1842 in Ohio. The Harbecks moved from New York to Ohio sometime between 1840 and 1850. As far as I have found, William was an only child. His mother, Margaret, died December 4, 1885 in Toledo. His father, John, was a Private in the Civil War, and remarried around 1890 to a woman named Ida. John & Ida moved to Long Beach, California, where John died in 1959 and Ida in 1950. I can only assume the Harbecks are of German descent, but as far back as I've been able to go in their ancestry, they have all been born in the US. There is another branch of Harbecks living at that time in New York, also named John & William: those Harbecks were wealthy men, successful stockbrokers who owned a chain of stores and manufactured staves (not sure what that is, but our John Harbeck in Ohio was a "stave sealer" on one census. A stove, maybe?). I was not able to determine if the wealthy NY Harbecks were related to those in Ohio.

William Harbeck married Catherine (Kate) Stetter on February 16, 1886 in Lucas, Ohio. Kate was the daughter of German parents, George Stetter (1838-1911) and Catherine Braun (1841-1915). Together they had two sons, John Samuel, born April 27, 1887, and Stanley, born February 23, 1892.

William started out in publishing, moving out to Anaconda, Colorado to be the editor for their local newspaper sometime in the 1890s. (Around this time, the wealthy NY Harbecks had a summer home in Colorado. More evidence they were related?) Sometime between 1900 and 1910, he moved to Seattle and started his filmmaking business, and in 1906, he was supposedly the first cinematographer to film the aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake. He then went to work in Yellowstone Park, filming various scenery for a series of films put out by the Selig Company entitled Scenes in Yellowstone Park: the Land of Geysers. He did more filming in the West, in Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Colorado, filming, in his words "mainly railroad scenery." He then went to Mexico to do more railroad filming, and in May 1907, set off for British Colombia to film the Canadian Pacific Railway. By 1909 he had become the CPR's official photographer. One film he shot in Victoria, BC in 1907, Victoria and Vancouver Street and Harbour Scenes, is available to watch online here: http://web.uvic.ca/lancenrd/AViewofVictoria/vic_video/the_ride.php. It’s kind of fascinating. He also filmed a light comedy feature called The Ship’s Husband, about a pair of couple who accidentally swap partners while on one of the CPR’s ferries. (How does one accidentally swap spouses, anyway?)

In 1910 he was becoming well-known as a filmmaker, and was invited to London to screen his films. (Fun fact: he sailed on the Lusitania, another later-doomed ocean liner.) He returned to Europe a few more times, made some contacts there, did more filming in Canada, and eventually finished up his contract with the CPR in 1911. At that point he went to Alaska to film, and around this time Meyer Guggenheim and J.P. Morgan bought up claims for large tracts of land in the territory. While this film was meant to be a scenic tourist film, it apparently raised some political issues as well. In 1912, he was advertising his next project as "Watch for Harbeck's latest motion pictures exposing the Guggenheim interests in Alaska and the Controller Bay grab. Films that will worry Congress and startle the whole United States and probably change the present political map."

As we now know, Benjamin Guggenheim (Meyer's son), was one of the passengers on the Titanic, and went down with the ship. One wonders if the two men ever met up on board. Given Harbeck's apparent criticism of the Guggenheim family business practices, this could have made for some awkward encounters. It was probably for the best that the two men were travelling in different classes. (Another fun fact: the White Star Line was owned by J.P. Morgan, who was supposed to be on her maiden voyage as well, but canceled when he became ill.)

William returned to Europe in early 1912, where he spent a few months traveling around, filming in London, Brussels, Paris and Berlin. On April 1st, he wrote to Kate back home to tell her he would be returning to the US on the Titanic, and would be staying at a hotel in New York City. Some say he was contracted by the White Star Line to film the Titanic's maiden voyage, but no one seems to know for sure. His wife claimed he had filmed the departure at Southampton and was to film scenes on board throughout the voyage, then be taken off the ship in New Jersey and brought to the dock in New York ahead of the ship to film her arrival.

SPOILERS AFTER TIHS PART

Of course, any film William shot while on board went down with his equipment. The last communication he seems to have sent was a letter mailed from the ship, dated April 10th, to Will Day, one of his business partners back in the United States. The letter discussed some equipment he left behind for him and was signed: "Best wishes from Mrs. Harbeck and Yours Truly." Of course, Mrs. Harbeck (Kate) was at home in Toledo at this time, but passing along good wishes from her even if she wasn't with him wouldn't be unusual. The unusual part came when a trade journal reported his arrival in Britain in March 1912 with: "Mr. W.H. Harbeck (accompanied by his wife), motion picture photographer to Canadian Pacific Railroad, arrived from America last week." The same journal repeated this again when he returned to New York on the Titanic. It looks like he was travelling with a mistress who was posing as his wife. Henriette Yrois?

William and Henriette bought their tickets individually, but the ticket numbers were consecutive, suggesting they were purchased at the same time.  "Last place of abode" for both was given as London. As I said in my research notes, Lawrence Beesley mentioned seeing them together often in the library, as well as watching William (with "his wife") eagerly filming the Titanic's near-collision with the New York as it pulled away from the Southampton dock. More evidence of their traveling together: when William's body was found, among his possessions was a "lady's bag" (more on that below).

After the sinking, another drama unfolded as an unknown woman from Seattle calling herself "Mrs. Brownie Harbeck" tried to claim William's personal effects from Halifax. A series of letters from both her, Kate and his son, John, are available online for any who wish to read them. (At the Nova Scotia Virtual RMS Titanic Archives) One of the letters from "Brownie" was written on stationery from Harbeck's film company, and identifies the purse found with William’s body as Henriette’s. Apparently, he had a business partner there named Katherine George, and some think the letters may be from her and that she was another mistress. But as with the rest of the Harbeck mysteries, no one really knows.

William's real wife, Kate, never remarried, and passed away in Toledo on May 18, 1940, at the age of 76. Their two sons also never married. John Samuel Harbeck died in Toledo on May 21, 1917 at the age of 30, from pericarditis (inflammation in the sac surrounding the heart). His death certificate notes his occupation as journalism (followed in Dad's footsteps?). Their other son, Stanley, died at age 55 on July 22, 1947. He was also single, and died of cirrhosis of the liver. His death certificate notes his occupation as retired, while on his WWII draft card, he’s noted as unemployed and is living with his aunt, Emma Stetter (Kate's sister who also never married).

Well, that’s my accounting of William Harbeck and his family. I keep meaning to make these posts shorter, but that never seems to work out. I can’t seem to help myself: I’m long-winded.

 

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Most research for this taken from The Titanic and Silent Cinema as well as genealogy research on Ancestry.com and Family Search.

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Titanic Tuesdays: Edwardian Fashion

 

Time for my second Titanic Tuesday post. I’m not sure how long I’ll keep these up: I’m bound to run out of interesting topics at some point. But as long as I have something to talk about, I’ll try to keep it a weekly feature.

Fashion in 1912 was vastly different than what we’re familiar with today. It’s fascinating to see just how much has changed in only 100 years, both in dress itself and etiquette. After researching it for Destined, I can say that, while the dresses back then were pretty, I’m very glad I live in the 21st century!

Sailing on a ship like the Titanic was a big deal, and everyone brought their A game when it came to their wardrobe. Many of the wealthier passengers were returning from Paris, where the latest fashions of the season had recently been unveiled. It’s safe to assume much shopping transpired while there, and the voyage was doubling as a kind of fashion show for many to show off their newest purchases. Moreso in the First Class, of course, but in Destined I chose to give Noelle a fashionable wardrobe as well. She was, after all, French, and her roommate was a French model, so between the two of them they would have been fairly well-dressed, even if their clothing wasn’t the most expensive or cutting-edge.

Etiquette of the time required that clothing was changed often: a new outfit for every meal or other major occasion. Most passengers would have worn at least 3 outfits a day. Breakfast attire for women was more casual, usually a tea gown that was made of loose-fitting chiffon, long sleeves and a low neck. And, most importantly, it often had no waist and didn’t require a corset. Dresses were always long: the sight of a lady’s ankle in 1912 was considered shocking. Later in the day, dresses became more fitted, with narrow, sometimes high (empire) waists, narrow skirt (called a hobble skirt) and high, round bust. Some hobble skirts were so tight at the ankles that the wearer would have to take shorter steps than normal in order to walk. Why this was considered such high fashion is still beyond me. Fabric used most often was linen, wool and silk, with silk or taffeta underskirts, and dresses were often accented with beading, ribbon or embroidery.

Common accessories included large hats (sometimes adorned with dyed feathers), long gloves, silk stockings and parasols. Jewelry was also worn, but diamonds were considered vulgar on young women. Hair was nearly always worn up, held in place with long, sharp pins, often under a large hat. Once a young woman was mature enough to be marriageable, she wore her hair up at all times. Wearing it down, unless you were still a young girl, was the sign of a promiscuous woman, and was not done. (I deviated from this once for Apolline, but as a 21st century woman, she didn’t know any better.)

For the men, dress was a little simpler. They wore suits that varied in formality depending on the occasion. Like women, morning dress was more casual, but was still a full suit with lounge coat, matching vest and tie. Bowler hats were worn if going outdoors. For dinner, tuxedos with white ties were worn.

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Titanic Tuesdays: Second Class

I was thinking this weekend that I need to come up with some sort of regular blog thing that will keep people not only interested in my blog, but maybe gain new reader interest in Destined. I’ve been getting some really good feedback on the “Research Notes” section at the end of the book, where I go into more detail about the historical figures featured in the story, so I thought why not make it a weekly blog feature as well?

So, I introduce: Titanic Tuesdays!

Unless I note it in the subject line, there will be no spoilers in these posts, so those who haven’t yet read Destined won’t have to worry about it being ruined. (Aside from the major and obvious spoiler that the ship sinks. I think everyone pretty much knows that part by now, right?) So while I might choose to highlight a particular passenger that gets mentioned in the book, I will be careful not to spoil their ultimate fate, and won’t include anything about the fictional characters unless it’s a passing mention that won’t tell anything important. I hate to be spoiled myself, so I’m going to be extra careful not to do so here.

One of the aspects of Destined that I feel is unique to most Titanic-set novels is that I chose to put my characters, for the most part, in Second Class. I’ve always been fascinated with this often-ignored section of the ship. So much attention is put on the rich and glamorous First Class, and the less-fortune Third Class. Even the 1997 movie only showed the First and Third classes. I’ll admit, they’re more dramatic, but what of the Second Class? These were the people who today might be considered the middle class: regular people who are neither rich nor poor. But they were still people, with lives and personalities and stories of their own. I wanted to tell some of those stories.

It’s mentioned in many a book about the ship that the Second Class areas of Titanic were nearly equal in luxury and appointments to the First Class areas of many other ships. The cost of a Second Class ticket for Titanic averaged about £13 per person. In today’s currency, that would be about £1158.05, or $1814.20!  And while that seems shocking at first, think about how much a transatlantic cruise would cost today. For a mid-range cabin, you’d probably pay about the same, though I suspect today’s ocean liners have better amenities. ;)

In 1912, however, the amenities of the Titanic, in all classes, were second to none. The White Star Line pulled out all the stops. Still, the Second Class held relatively little space on the grand ship. Their cabins took up a small section of D, E and F decks (with a section of G Deck set aside as optional 2nd or 3rd class). They had dedicated promenade space at the end of the Boat Deck and B Deck (First Class had all of A Deck to themselves) and a covered/enclosed promenade space near the end of C Deck. They had a library/lounge, smoking room (used by the men only), dining room and a barber shop. You can get an idea from the photo below how the ship was divided up, class-wise. First Class got the majority of the space (in fact, on decks B-D, their area extended even farther forward). You might also notice how the very front of the ship is designated to officers and crew. That famous “king of the world” scene? Wouldn’t have happened. Passengers weren’t allowed on the forecastle deck, or even the front-most portion of the Boat Deck. Those areas were officers only. But sometimes dramatic license needs to be taken. Heck, I did it myself in Destined, when I let some of my characters go up to the Officers’ Promenade on the Boat Deck. The beauty of fiction, folks. I tried to be as historically accurate as possible, but there are times when breaking those rules a little makes for a more interesting story.

Life in Second Class was still pretty good, despite having such a small area to call their own. The few common areas they had were nicely-appointed and, as mentioned before, on par with the First Class rooms on other ships. On B Deck, they had a Smoking Room where the men would gather after dinner for drinks and cards and other manly pursuits. It was very masculine, with oak paneling on the walls and oak furniture upholstered with dark green Moroccan leather. The floors were tiled in patterned linoleum.

Since the Smoking Room was a "men only" area, that left only the Library/Lounge for the women, located just below it on C Deck. Both men and women congregated here daily to relax, write letters, play cards and watch the 2nd class children play on the covered promenade outside the windows. This large room was lighter than the Smoking Room, paneled in sycamore with mahogany furniture. The chairs were upholstered in a (possibly green) tapestry, the floors were were covered in a rich Wilton (possibly brown) carpet, green silk curtains framed the windows, and there was a large, glass-fronted bookcase at one end of the room containing what was described as an impressive collection of books.

The other major area for Second Class passengers was the dining room. It spanned the entire width of the ship near the aft end of D Deck. Furniture was mahogany, with long tables and swivel chairs upholstered in red leather, both bolted to the floor in case of bad weather. Walls were paneled in carved oak, the floor was tiled in patterned linoleum, and there was a sideboard at one end with a piano. On Sunday, April 14th, church services were held here in the morning, and after dinner, passengers gathered around the piano for a hymn sing. Second Class meals were prepared in the same kitchens (galleys) that prepared those for the First Class, and reports are that they ate nearly as well.

While First Class had 3 elevators at their disposal, Second Class only had one (Third Class had none), so the stairs were most likely their main method of access. Railings were light oak, carpet was red, and each landing held some seating for those who wished to rest. There were two sets of these staircases. The forward stairs, in the front portion of the Second Class section of the ship, ran from the Boat Deck down to F Deck, and had the elevator between the two flights. The aft stairs, set at the back end of the Second Class section of the ship, didn't start until B Deck and went down to G Deck.

Outdoor space for the Second Class was plentiful, more than they would have had on other ships. In addition to the Boat Deck and B Deck promenades, they also had a covered/enclosed space outside the library on C Deck. If the weather was good, passengers would gather out on these promenades and chat, play games, or people watch. They could have drinks brought out to them here as well, since their class didn't have a café. (Delivery could also be made to the library if they so chose.)

The cabins in Second Class ranged in luxury, some being almost as nice as First Class, others being nearly as stripped down as Third. But most seem to fall into the range of the cabin I assigned Noelle and Henriette. The photo to the left, most likely taken on her sister ship, Olympic, is the closest to what I imagine cabin E-103 would be. Like the library, furniture was mahogany. Each room had a fold-down wash basin with running water: both fresh and salt. Floors were usually tiled in linoleum, and each had an electric bell to ring the steward and heaters for cold nights. Cabin walls were enameled in white, and many of the surviving passengers would note that they could still smell the fresh paint. Below is an illustration of what a Second Class cabin might look like, taken from a postcard of the time. Just take out the lady and her little girl and put Noelle in her place, and you have the opening scene of Chapter 3. :)

There are some lovely, detailed deck plans on the Discovery Channel website by Bruce Beveridge, that were an invaluable resource to me when I was editing the book. The segment below is a close-up of the section of E Deck where Noelle's cabin is located. It gives a good idea of how her particular room (E-103) would have been laid out, and gives an idea of where some other things are located: the stairs, the ladies bathrooms, the room where the musicians stayed, etc. Also notice cabins E-100 and E-101, across the hall. One of these was where Edwina Troutt, Susan Webber and Nora Keane stayed. Most accounts say their cabin was E-101, but there is a story told that when Edwina was trying to hurry her roommates along in getting dressed, she got frustrated when Nora was taking too much time trying to puton her corset. In one version of the story, it is said that she grabbed the corset and threw it down the narrow passageway leading to their porthole. Other accounts say she threw it out the door. If the porthole version is correct, then their room would have to have been either E-103 or E-100, not E-101.

That’s about it for the Second Class portion of Titanic. Some of these areas figure more prominently in Destined than others, and while I do try to describe them in the book, it’s never the same as seeing an actual photo. Most of the images used here are photos taken on the Olympic, since very few photographs were taken of the Titanic. The two ships were nearly identical, however, so they can be considered relatively accurate. My various research sources can be found on my online bibliography. Some photos can also be credited to the Ulser Folk & Transport Museum.

As usual, I seem to have gotten a little long-winded. I promise to try to keep future Titanic Tuesdays more concise. :)

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