Page 67 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Jan-Feb 2018, Vol 27, No 1

Ghosts Of Titanic’s Crew 67

Ghosts of Titanic’s crew

haunt Southampton 105

years on

newsinfo.inquirer.net

SOUTHAMPTON, United Kingdom —
Nowhere suffered as much from the sinking of
the Titanic as Southampton and a century after
the disaster the city wants to tell the forgotten
story of its 549 residents who died.
A job aboard the mighty liner was a
dream come true for the men of this port on
England’s south coast in 1912, offering three
square meals a day and lodgings for the night at
a time of severe hardship.
Three-quarters of Titanic’s crew came
from the city, many toiling as stokers in the
ship’s engine rooms or as stewards tending to
the needs of passengers.
When Titanic set off from Southampton
docks on her fateful maiden voyage to New
York on April 10, 1912, the people of the city
cheered it off full of pride. from the water by a rescue ship and the watch, made worldwide.
The contrast could not have been greater which now takes pride of place in the new
five days later when the liner hit an iceberg and museum, was found in his pocket. 3. New research says an optical illusion
sank in the North Atlantic, plunging The extent of the disaster is poignantly prevented the ship from receiving help.
Southampton into mourning and leaving many illustrated by a floor map in SeaCity, plastered
of the victims’ families in poverty. with red spots to indicate the houses where a 4. Researchers completed a map of the wreck
“Southampton’s Titanic story is very crew member was lost. The dots come thick and site in 2012, using over 100,000 photos taken by
special because most of the crew came from fast in the working-class areas near the docks. underwater robots.
Southampton and that story hasn’t really been “Lots of people working as stokers and
told anywhere else before,” said Maria in the boiler rooms were from Southampton and 5. $95,000: The expected auction price for the
Newbery, curator of SeaCity, a new maritime in the days before social security, if you lost the Titanic's final lunch menu.
museum that focuses on the liner’s crew. main breadwinner in the family, you were in
The first news of the sinking was posted trouble,” curator Newbery explained. 6. $2 million: How much it will cost to preserve
in the window of a local newspaper just hours The city pulled together to raise money the historic Belfast dock where the Titanic was
after the disaster, but no one believed it at first. for the bereaved families and in the months after built.
When the awful truth began to dawn, “a the disaster, every concert and church fete was
great hush descended,” Charles Morgan, who turned into a Titanic fundraiser. 7. Even today, major ships still get "iced" by
was nine at the time, recalls in the city’s As the centenary of the disaster ocean bergs.
archives. approaches, Southampton is acting as a magnet
“I don’t think that there was hardly a for the descendants of those who perished. 8. Titanic’s appeal keeps growing, even 105
single street in Southampton that hadn’t lost Jane Goodwin, 38, had a special reason years after the tragedy. []
someone on that ship.” to visit the city – her grandmother Cecilia’s first
Photographs at the time show anxious husband Frederick James Banfield sailed on
relatives gathering around the names of the dead Titanic to join his brother in Michigan where
posted outside the offices of the Titanic’s they were planning to work in mining.
owners, the White Star Line, where a small “I have seen copies of the letters that he
black plaque on the now-shabby building marks sent her from the Titanic, which are so sad. He
the spot. was obviously very much in love with her,” the
Of 724 members of Titanic’s crew with shop worker from Salcombe in southwest
an address in Southampton, just 175 survived, England told AFP.
according to figures given by the museum. “He was doing so well at such a young
One survivor was Alexander Littlejohn, age, only 28 years old, and he was going on this
a first-class steward, who was ordered to row magnificent ship for a new life abroad,” said
one of the lifeboats which were mostly filled Jane’s husband Richard.
with women and children. “He had been on the Olympic and in his
His grandson Philip, who gives lectures letter he was comparing the Titanic to these
about the disaster, told Agence France-Presse: other great ships and he was saying she would
“He was just 40 but the shock of it have to be there to appreciate how big this ship
turned his hair white within months. really was.”
“He never talked about the sinking,
which I find is absolutely typical of Titanic 13 Things You Didn’t
survivors. He had mouths to feed so he went on
to work on 30 voyages on Titanic’s sister ship, Know About the Titanic
the Olympic.”
One of those less fortunate, Sidney 1. A full moon may have caused the fatal iceberg
Sedunary, a steward, had been carrying a pocket to cross paths with the ship.
watch which stopped at 1:50 a.m. about half an
hour before the Titanic sank. 2. Nearly five Titanics could be built with the
A few days later, his body was hauled money James Cameron's Titanic movie has