Andrew Wilson - Shadow of the Titanic: The Extraordinary Stories of Those Who Survived

IN the early morning hours of April 15, 1912, the icy waters of the North Atlantic reverberated with the desperate screams of more than 1,500 men, women, and childrenpassengers of the once majestic liner Titanic . Then, as the ship sank to the ocean floor and the passengers slowly died from hypothermia, an even more awful silence settled over the sea. The sights and sounds of that night would haunt each of the vessels 705 survivors for the rest of their days.

Although we think we know the story of Titanic the famously luxurious and supposedly unsinkable ship that struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Britain to Americavery little has been written about what happened to the survivors after the tragedy. How did they cope in the aftermath of this horrific event? How did they come to remember that night, a disaster that has been likened to the destruction of a small town?

Drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished letters, memoirs, and diaries as well as interviews with survivors family members, award-winning journalist and author Andrew Wilson reveals how some used their experience to propel themselves on to fame, while others were so racked with guilt they spent the rest of their lives under the Titanics shadow. Some reputations were destroyed, and some survivors were so psychologically damaged that they took their own lives in the years that followed.

Andrew Wilson brings to life the colorful voices of many of those who lived to tell the tale, from famous survivors like Madeleine Astor (who became a bride, a widow, an heiress, and a mother all within a year), Lady Duff Gordon, and White Star Line chairman J. Bruce Ismay, to lesser known second- and third-class passengers such as the Navratil brotherswho were traveling under assumed names because they were being abducted by their father.

Today, one hundred years after that fateful voyage, Shadow of the Titanic adds an important new dimension to our understanding of this enduringly fascinating story.

Praise for Shadow of the Titanic

Andrew Wilsons eloquent chronicle of the dark side of survival offers fresh information, fascinating insights, and masterful storytelling. A spellbinding voyage into the uncharted depths of the Titanic tragedy.
Deborah Davis, author of Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X

The Titanics passenger list boasted a disproportionate number of colourful characters, and Wilsons detail is dizzyingly impressive. Shadow of the Titanic shows the ships fate as a fount of moral dilemmas.
The Mail on Sunday (UK)

ANDREW WILSON is a journalist who has written for numerous British publications, including the Guardian , the Daily Mail , the Mail on Sunday , the Daily Telegraph , and the Observer . He is the author of the critically acclaimed and Edgar Awardwinning biography Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith . He also wrote Harold Robbins: The Man Who Invented Sex and a novel, The Lying Tongue .

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SHADOW
OF THE
TITANIC

Also by Andrew Wilson

Beautiful Shadow:
A Life of Patricia Highsmith

The Lying Tongue

Harold Robbins:
The Man Who Invented Sex

ATRIA BOOKS
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1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
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Copyright 2011 by Andrew Wilson

Originally published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Atria Books hardcover edition March 2012

ATRIA BOOKS and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wilson, Andrew, 1967
Shadow of the Titanic : the extraordinary stories of those who survived/by Andrew Wilson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1.Titanic (Steamship) 2. Titanic (Steamship)Biography.3. Shipwreck victims
North Atlantic OceanBiography.4. Shipwreck survivalNorth Atlantic Ocean.
5. ShipwrecksNorth Atlantic Ocean. I. Title.
G530.T6W56 2012
910.9163'4dc23

2011049381

ISBN 978-1-4516-7156-8
ISBN 978-1-4516-7158-2 (ebook)

To M. F.

contents

SHADOW
OF THE
TITANIC

INTRODUCTION

T he sound of the screaming was the worst thing, they said. For those who survived the Titanic disasterwhich took place in the dying hours of April 14 and the early morning of April 15, 1912the awful noise of fellow passengers calling out into the dark night was the one thing they could never forget.

Jack Thayer, a seventeen-year-old boy who lost his father in the sinking, compared the wail to the continuous high-pitched hum of locusts one might hear on a midsummer night in the woods near his home in Pennsylvania. Second-class passenger Charlotte Collyer, who was traveling with her husband and daughter, described the noise as being like a gigantic swarm of bees; the bees were men, and they had broken their silence now, she said. Cries more terrible than I had ever heard rang in my ears. Similarly, third-class passenger Frank Goldsmith, who was only nine years old at the time, likened it to the roar of a crowd at a baseball game. He grew up near Tiger Stadium in Detroit, but when he became a father he could not bring himself to take his three sons to a game. It reminded him of the screams of that night, says his son Thomas.

Four days after the sinking of the Titanic, George Rheims, who was traveling in first class, wrote a letter to his wife, Marie, detailing precisely what happened. After rushing to his cabin to save a photograph of his wife, he ran back up on deck where he undressed to his shirt and undershorts. The bow of the liner was already in the water and he knew the ship did not have much time left. Nearly all the lifeboats had left the Titanic any remaining places were reserved for women and children only. Water was pulling the bow of the majestic vessel down with an almighty force, he said, and the stern was gradually rising into the sky. An explosion from the bowels of the ship threw him into a pile of ropes and chairs. His only chance was to try and swim and so after taking a running start he jumped overboard. He thought his fall would never end, but then after what seemed like minutes, he hit the icy water. He was pulled under, but after a long dive finally came to the surface. He swam away from the ship, fearful that the sinking would suck him under. Then he turned to witness the liners final few moments.