Barczewski, Stephanie. The Titanic, A Night Remembered. 1st printing. London & New York: Hambledon & London, Ltd. April, 2004. hardcover. isbn: 1852854340. scarcity: fairly common.
The title of this book purposefully echoes Walter Lord’s classic work, A Night to Remember. Nothing wrong with that. Unlike Lord’s book though, Barczewski’s book is not primarily about the events the night Titanic sank. Her focus is on the weeks and months that followed the disaster, and how events were perceived by the public and in the press in Great Britain and the United States.
She then uses the foundation of those 1912 perceptions to examine how the story of Titanic is viewed in today’s world, ten years after the wreck was found and six years after James Cameron’s movie changed the Titanic community forever. It is a sign of just how powerful modern media has become that the author draws on the public’s opinions of the movie over and over again to explain the modern day popular outlook of what Titanic is all about.
What interests the author in particular is the concepts of heroes and villains, and how differing attitudes on each side of the Atlantic relegated who would be pigeonholed into these roles. This book is thus primarily a social commentary dealing with the popular myths surrounding the disaster. From an amateur historian’s point of view, it is fascinating to observe how inconsistent modern day authors can be, catching and correcting some myths, yet perpetuating others as fact.
The first chapter is a 46 page summary of Titanic’s maiden voyage. It covers the essentials of the events with clarity and with only a minor number of errors. Mostly the mistakes are of little consequence, like claiming Titanic was the first ship with a pool (Olympic had one first), and that the Grand Staircase was four decks high (actually it was six). One of the myths she repeats as fact is the popular story that Carpathia, nominally a fourteen knot ship, made seventeen knots on her race to rescue the Titanic’s survivors. It has by now been credibly proven that this never happened. Obviously, none of these are critical flaws, and the opening chapter is a solid overview of the maiden voyage, disaster and immediate aftermath, including even the role played by ships out of Halifax in recovering the bodies of many of the victims.
In the second chapter she looks at the two inquiries and compares and contrasts the attitudes of both. She also looks at the differences in how the tragedy was perceived in the two nations, showing that the Americans mostly looked with honor upon the nobility of the first class men (most of whom were American), while taking a darker view of the British officers and crew of the ship. The British, contrariwise, mostly upheld the bravery and professionalism of the British crew above everything else.
Certainly in broad brush strokes, this analogy is not unreasonable, but it does neglect some significant evidence to the contrary. The United States government regulations concerning steerage, which required third class passengers to be segregated from the rest of the ship is barely mentioned. This forced separation confined third class to their portions of the ship by locked gates and other impediments, which directly resulted in restricting third class passengers from reaching the all important boat deck; the only avenue for salvation. The most direct result of the serious death toll in steerage was a direct result of American regulations, not British. The author almost completely ignores this critical element of the story from the American point of view, although in the her defense, this information didn’t receive very much coverage in 1912 either.
On the other side of the ocean, although it is true that most British news outlets followed the patriotic tone she describes, there were notable exceptions that the author does not mention. There were a minor, but vocal number of news groups that forcibly castigated the British system, and applauded American spunk; notably John Bull and the Review of Reviews, amongst others. Again, this important contrary element of the British response is mostly ignored. The result in each case is that the author does give a somewhat lopsided view of how the disaster was perceived on either side of the Atlantic.
Chapter three, entitled "Heroes and Villains", is where the author really gets into the meat of her story as she tries to define what attributes made up a Titanic hero. In brief, the focus was on doing your duty, behaving manly, and a nobile self sacrifice that demanded thinking of others before themselves. Men like wireless operator Jack Phillips, band master Wallace Hartley and Harland & Wolff managing director Thomas Andrews are introduced as sterling examples. In the UK the heroes tended to be men, but in the U.S. women could be seen as heroes as well. Ida Strauss’ actions are given brief mention, though Margaret Brown is offered as the primary example of the latter.
This chapter also covers the plight of men who survived by making it into the lifeboats. Many of them had to defend their actions before a public who felt that they betrayed their manly responsibilities. The two men aboard whose actions most illustrate this perceived lack of manhood were J. Bruce Ismay and Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon. The stories of both individuals are covered in detail and mostly quite accurately. The one big myth the author perpetuates is that after the disaster, Ismay retired and lived a life of bitter seclusion. It has been shown by various historians that this just did not happen. Certainly Ismay retired from the White Star Line, but the author fails to mention that this retirement was already planned before Titanic ever set sail. Far from dropping out of society, Ismay continued as board of director for several organizations that covered issues that remained important to him. In reality, he was quite active until his illness near the end of his life.
After this introductory chapter on heroes and villains, there are chapters devoted to each of the following men, Jack Phillips, Wallace Hartley, Thomas Andrews, Edward J. Smith, and William McMaster Murdoch. Each of these chapters includes a nice biographical summary of each man’s life, a discussion of their actions during the sinking, and the public perception of how they met their fate, viewed both from the 1912 perspective and from a modern day view as well. Additionally there is some fascinating discussions on the various memorials that were erected to each of these men, including how they came about, and their prominence at the time and today.
The book finishes with three chapters, one each about the three towns most affected by the disaster, Belfast, Southampton and Queenstown (now Cobh). These chapters also include the stories of some of the various memorials erected in each city, and how well they were received and cared for over the decades. The chapter on Belfast covers the Catholic/Protestant angle of the story in great detail, a part of the story usually ignored in most Titanic books. The chapter on Southampton includes an excellent historical overview of the evolution of this important seafaring town. The chapter on Queenstown is the shortest and weakest of the three, with just basic details about its history and connection to Titanic. The coverage of these towns seemed credible to me from my American perspective, although an Irish friend of mine was deeply offended by what he perceived to be the author’s attack of a memorial that Irish enthusiasts put up in Cobh/Queenstown as "commercialism".
Appendixes include who made it into which lifeboats, plus commentaries by Joseph Conrad and George Bernard Shaw. Wrapping up the text is an index and almost 30 pages of footnotes including sources. I am always impressed with an author who takes the time and effort to diligently identify sources, as Barczewski does.
So is this book for you? If you are looking for historical details about what happened to Titanic and why, then probably not. But if the social ramifications that followed the disaster are of interest, particularly as they relate to the concepts of heroes and villains, this book covers that aspect of the story with greater clarity than any other title has before.
Publisher's Press Release:
‘What continues to compel our interest in the Titanic story, is that it is at its heart a story that reminds us of our limitations.’
Stephanie Barczewski.
Why does the story of the Titanic continue to fascinate us nearly 100 years after the event? And why do we in Britain feel such ownership of the tragedy?
Published on April 15th 2004, the 92nd anniversary of the tragedy, Titanic A Night Remembered, is the first substantial account of the local impact of the event and an investigation of the struggle between the US and Britain for ownership of this story.
Certainly, there are universal elements.‘It is a story of how much human ingenuity can achieve and how easily that same ingenuity can fail in a brief, random encounter with the forces of nature. It is a story of how different human beings react differently to dire peril…in which the closest bonds that human beings can form were put to the test as people were forced to make impossible choices.’
But equally it is a story of local interest, particularly in the three towns most closely involved with the ship: Belfast, where the ship was built; Southampton – where most of the crew came from and Queenstown, in Eire, the ship’s last port of call. Titanic: A Night Remembered is the first book to explore the shattering impact of the tragedy on the people of these towns.
Stephanie Barczewski also examines the struggle between Britain and America for ownership of the Titanic story, a struggle highlighted most recently by James Cameron’s film. She dissects the myths that have built up about the contrast between English and American cultural values highlighted by the tragedy. Her scholarly and readable account explores the human experience of the collision and the ripples that it sent across the world and down the years.
Stephanie Barczewski is Professor of History at Clemson University, South Carolina.
