Bruce Ismay

I know everyone likes to scapegoat him as being a coward for surviving the Titanic, BUT I feel him being alive was critical for the testimony hearings. Having someone from the head of White Star itself would be more beneficial than having him dead

Mmm. I'm torn on Ismay. I don't think it's wrong for him to want to live, and no one can begrudge him that.

I think the reason the contemporary and modern reaction to Ismay surving is so visceral for several reasons.

1) Ismay was not an ordinary passenger. He was the acting director of the White Star line, and was acting in an official capacity while the ship was sinking through certain actions such as when he relieved women of their duties (he even forced several female crew members into the boats, saying 'you are just women, not crew, now'). Is he crew, or passenger? He seemed to have wanted it both ways.

2) Multiple eyewitness accounts make it credible that the circumstances surrounding loading this lifeboat were not peaceful, orderly or calm. Ismay repeatedly insisted that there were 'no passengers left to fill the boat' (yet by multiple accounts, certainly there were) and that it was not chaotic (despite reports from multiple people of gunshots, needing to form human link chains so they could get women and children onto the boat, and so on). He seemed to want to downplay his choice by amending the circumstances--"It didn't matter that I got on because there weren't passengers aren't and it was so calm!"

3) The unfairness of it. If the 14 year old bellboys were deemed "adult crew/adult men" and couldn't get onto a lifeboat, why should Ismay be allowed a spot so easily?

It didn't help that Ismay's behavior and decisions after the sinking didn't endear him to the victims' families or eyes of the public.

Let's see how wiling you are to die just for your honor

I feel compelled to post that last week I went to a museum and saw the actual violin Wallace Hartley played as the ship went down. Eerie as hell.

According to Jack Thayer and others who knew him, he was a nervous wreck during the testimonies and the weeks following the sinking. A cynic could say it was for show, but I really think the sinking fucked him up for a while.

Oh, I'm sure it fucked him up for life. He had to be put on opiates while on the Carpathia. His wife said that he refused to talk about anything related to the sinking until his death.

An apt quote from a biography about him

>J. Bruce Ismay died on the night of 14-15 April 1912, and died again in his bedroom twenty-five years later. He was mired in the moment of his jump; his life was defined by a decision he made in an instant. Other survivors of the Titanic were able, in varying degrees, to pick themselves up and move on, but Ismay was not. His was now a posthumous existence.

The terrible attacks from the American press against him started immediately and continued for years. It is a shame that he wasn't able to carve out a space like other male survivors--Lawrence Beesley wasn't really criticized for surviving, and in fact praised for all the work he did campaigning for ship safety regulations and preserving the history of the event. Archibald Gracie didn't survive long but was praised for his research, then again he survived on the overturned lifeboat so there wasn't the same stigma as getting into one. And so on.

pic related

Interesting quote. I've just starting getting into the testimony transcripts, but since there's weeks of them I'm treading carefully.

I've been a fan of the ship since I saw the film as a kid. I was moreso interesting in the architecture of the ship, than the social and tragedy aspects. However over the past few months I've been studying more into the pre-1912 maritime history as well as the post-sinking aftermath.

Was this recovered from the water or the wreck?

It was recovered with Hartley's body. He had his violin case with the violin inside strapped to him.