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Winner of the Titanic Book of the Year Award for 1996.
Gillespie, Vera & John. The Titanic Man. Carlos F. Hurd: Covering the Most Famous of all Shipwrecks, S.S. Titanic. 1st printing. Grover, MO: by the authors. January, 1996. wraps. isbn: 0964947412. scarcity: scarce.
How the world first heard the complete story of the Titanic disaster from reporter Carlos F. Hurd, a passenger on the Carpathia.
When it comes to press coverage of the Titanic disaster, the honors usually go to New York Times managing editor Carr Van Anda and his paper’s domination of the story. So imagine my surprise to read about Carlos Hurd, a reporter who happened to be a passenger on the rescue ship Carpathia. He and his wife were the first in line to personally interview the survivors.
The Gillespie’s have done a tremendous job in placing this reporter’s contributions back into the spotlight. The first half of the book explains Hurd’s attempts to interview the survivors, and the many roadblocks Captain Rostron and the crew of the Carpathia tried to throw in his path to impede him (something I was completely unaware of). Finishing off this first half is Hurd’s digest as printed in The Evening World of April 18, 1912, as well as his much longer, 5,000 word account in The Morning World of April 19, 1912.
The second part of the book contains additional newspaper accounts by Titanic survivors as well as other Carpathia passengers. Included in this section are accounts by survivors Spencer Silverthorne, Elizabeth Allen and Mrs. Edward S. Robert; and accounts by Carpathia passengers Sue Rule and May Birkhead.
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