A Night to Remember

Illustrations

1. The Titanic on the stocks at Harland & Woolf, Belfast (Harland & Woolf)

2. The Titanic outward bound, 10 April 1912 (Beken of Cowes)

3. The Titanic at Cherbourg on the evening of 10 April. Although heavily retouched, this view suggests how she looked to those coming aboard by tender (author)

4. When the crash came, most of the first-class passengers still up were in the smoking-room. It was apparently never photographed, but this view taken on the Titanic’s sister ship Olympic suggests the elegant setting (The Byron Collection, City of New York Museum)

5. The Café Parisien combined sturdy British wicker with French joie de vivre. It was a favourite with the ship’s younger set, and this night was no exception (Harland & Woolf)

6. Special cabin B-59, furnished in Dutch style. For many passengers in staterooms like this, a steward’s polite knock on the door was the first hint of trouble (Harland & Woolf)

7. The boat deck, looking forward. The boats on the right are Nos. 9, 11 and 13, among the last lowered (author)

8. The after poop deck. Normally third-class space, more and more people crowded here as the bow sank lower. The rail at the extreme left is where Baker Joughin climbed out on to the side of the ship as she nosed down for the final plunge (Brown Brothers)

9. Titanic passengers watch the Queenstown tender come alongside, photographed on 11 April. Three days later the Countess of Rothes handled the tiller of the lifeboat nearest the camera (Underwood & Underwood)

10. As the Titanic sideswiped the iceberg, topside it looked like a close shave. Far below, they knew better—it cut a 300-foot gash (Illustrated London News)

11. About 1.40 a.m. Last rocket going up… well deck almost awash… forecastle head close to the water. Sketched later by steward Leo James Hyland (author)

12. The lights blinked and went out for ever. The forward funnel fell, washing collapsible B clear of the ship (Harper’s Weekly)

13. (overleaf) ‘Hanging vertical’ (Illustrated London News)

14. The iceberg that sank the Titanic? It was photographed near the scene on 15 April by the Chief Steward of the German ship Prinz Adalbert. He took it not because of the Titanic—the news had not yet reached him—but because a great red scar of red paint ran along the iceberg’s base, suggesting a recent collision with some ship (author)

15. Statistics told only one part of the tragedy. Third-class casualties included the entire Sage family of eleven and all five Rice children (Illustrated London News)

16. No matter how valid the circumstances, any male survivor from first class came under severe scrutiny—note the quotes around ‘men’ in the caption of this cartoon from the London Daily Herald (photo John Webb)

17. controversy swirled around Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon, who left the Titanic in boat 1, carrying only twelve people.

Lady Duff Gordon. She and her secretary were the only women in boat 1 (both Illustrated London News)

Fifth Officer Lowe rescued swimmers from the water

The Countess of Rothes handled the tiller of boat 8

Captain Edward Smith, last seen swimming in the debris, holding a child

Thomas Andrews helped many women escape from the ship he built

Baker Charles Joughin was probably the last man off

18. Titanic heroes (Illustrated London News)

19. When the erisis came, the low-paid and hard-worked crew set a matchless example of devotion to duty. The ship’s band, pictured above, played on with ragtime until the water was over their feet; all were lost (Illustrated London News)

20. All day on 15 April, anxious crowds besieged the White Star offices in New York. They were assured that the Titanic was practically unsinkable (Brown Brothers)

21. A one-word telegram told steward Fred Hartnell’s family all they wanted to know (photo John Webb)

22. Southampton crowds scan the lists of lost and saved posted outside the White Star offices. Many of the crew lived here; in one street twenty families were bereaved (Illustrated London News)

23. Memorial pictures, heavily bordered in black, were eagerly bought from street vendors, as were souvenir napkins, postcards, buttons and bits of pottery. Columns of incredibly poor poetry emerged, and at last eight different pieces of commemorative sheet music appeared on the stands (author)