Happy Birthday: Lucy Christiana, Lady Duff-Gordon (née Sutherland; 13 June 1863 – 20 April 1935) was a leading British fashion designer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who worked under the professional name Lucile.

The first British-based designer to achieve international acclaim, Lucy Duff-Gordon was a widely acknowledged innovator in couture styles as well as in fashion industry public relations. In addition to originating the "mannequin parade", a precursor to the modern fashion show, and training the first professional models, she launched slit skirts and low necklines, popularized less restrictive corsets, and promoted alluring and pared-down lingerie.

Opening branches of her London house, Lucile Ltd, in Chicago, New York City, and Paris, her business became the first global couture brand, dressing a trend-setting clientele of royalty, nobility, and stage and film personalities. Duff-Gordon is also remembered as a survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, and as the losing party in the precedent-setting 1917 contract law case of Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, in which Judge Benjamin N. Cardozo wrote the opinion for New York's highest court, the New York Court of Appeals, upholding a contract between Duff-Gordon and her advertising agent that assigned the agent the sole right to market her name. It was the first case of its kind; clothes were labelled and sold at a lowered cost in a cheaper market under an expensive "brand name".

The Titanic episode is one of the most prominent aspects of Lucy Duff-Gordon's life, thanks partly to motion pictures. The films, however, portrayed her without great attention to accuracy. She has been portrayed by Harriette Johns in A Night to Remember (1958); by Rosalind Ayres in James Cameron's epic Titanic (1997); and by Sylvestra Le Touzel in the British miniseries Titanic (2012). She is also a key character in the novel The Dressmaker, by Kate Alcott, which portrays both the sinking of the Titanic and the negative publicity that followed for the Duff-Gordons.

Lucy Duff-Gordon had another close call three years after surviving the Titanic, when she booked passage aboard the final voyage of the RMS Lusitania. It was reported in the press that she cancelled her trip due to illness. The Lusitania was sunk by a German torpedo on 7 May 1915.

Just Finished Reading: The Midnight Watch by David Dyer (FP: 2016) [319pp] 

April 1912. Boston American Reporter John Steadman knew that there would be bodies. When he was called to report on events there were always bodies. His editor relied on his nose for death, for pathos and sympathy to sell newspapers. He was good at it too, reporting on fires, disasters and more common murders from the victim's point of view – even when they could no longer speak for themselves. But this was no common disaster, no common story of death even on a larger scale than he had ever dealt with, even heard of, before. This was a supposedly unsinkable ocean liner with some of the most famous and richest people in the world on board, and many of them were now dead. Titanic had struck an iceberg and foundered. Many hundreds had died. Stories of sacrifice and heroism abounded, each getting more than their fair share of column inches across the globe. But there was one story that seemed to be getting scant attention – the ship that didn’t come. Several aboard Titanic had already stated that they’d seen a ship, close to them, who failed to respond to their distress rockets. It was a ship almost close enough to touch. Steadman had a clue as to which ship that was and had be told that they’d been searching for bodies – bodies of the rich, the famous and the tragic, returning to Boston. Intrigued by the officer’s reaction to press scrutiny, Steadman asked the obvious question: where exactly was Californian the night Titanic sank? Did she see any rockets? Why wouldn’t he let the 2nd officer, the man holding the midnight watch, the officer in charge at the time Titanic sank, answer the simplest of questions? Where were the bodies? Steadman was determined to find out, even if he lost his job doing so. 

I’ve had a bit of an obsession with Titanic for as long as I can remember. That was before I discovered that I might have had distant ancestors on board – inevitably in steerage and (equally inevitably) who died that night. At least they all had my surname. I don’t have any confirmation yet, but I’ll let you know if I do. Anyway, I’m pretty familiar with the story and knew of the Californian question (or rather questions). So, it was interesting looking at those questions – at least in a fictionalised context – from the view of the captain and crew of Californian herself rather than from Titanic. I haven’t read much about either the American or British enquiry following the disaster (something I’m going to have to correct) and a good chunk of the later part of the novel relied on the evidence presented at both – especially from Captain Lord, master of Californian. If his fictional portrait is anywhere near accurate, he was a strange bird. Strange indeed! The main thrust of the novel was the question at the heart of his action, or rather inaction, on that night. Why didn’t Californian go to Titanic’s aid sooner? The novel made it out to be a psychological conundrum – revolving around the personalities of the captain and his 2nd officer and most especially the troubled relationship between the two. It was an interesting ‘take’ but, I thought, rather unsatisfying (which probably leads it at least some credence). Overall, this was a well written look at some of the less well-known aspects of the disaster and I liked the fact that the author had his main character talk to some of the relatives of the survivors in Liverpool and other places to put names and faces to the nameless hundreds who never ate in the First-Class dining room. As with all good novels it left me musing on the history of that fateful night and thinking about reading more about it. Definitely recommended, especially if you have any interest in Titanic and the issues that surrounded her demise.    

[Labels Added: 1, Labels Total: 44] 

 

Just Finished Reading: The Discovery of the Titanic by Dr Robert D Ballard (FP: 1987)

No one would have believed in April 1912 that after the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic that it would ever be seen again. After all when it slipped beneath the waves that fateful night it had 2 miles of water beneath it before striking the muddy bottom. It wasn’t until many decades later that the technology had developed enough to even contemplate a return to the greatest of all shipwrecks.

But even with the technology it was to be no easy feat. First they had the find the wreck itself which proved to be much more difficult than first thought – especially as the last known position given by the stricken liner was guesswork as much as anything else. The first expedition tried and failed in its attempt using sophisticated sonar to map the ocean floor. But Bob Ballard had other ideas – his team would visually survey the ocean floor using the latest in video surveillance drones. The first team (largely French) swept the area and, despite some tantalising contacts, came up empty. The second team, mostly American, extended the area and finally had something to report and on September 1st 1985 announced to the waiting world that they had discovered the last resting place of the world’s greatest maritime legend.

Of course that wasn’t the end of things. After press conferences and TV spots the work behind the scenes went ahead and a second more detailed expedition was planned for the following year. Using state of the art and often completely experimental equipment the new team managed to extensively film, photograph and experience first-hand the majesty of the Titanic which (surprisingly to me at least) was largely intact with gleaming brass work, intact railings and even woodwork looking almost as new as the day she sailed. After a week on site Ballard’s team left some plaques commemorating the sinking and left the site largely undisturbed.

This was yet another of those books that I bought years previously, skimmed the text, looked at the many pictures and put the one side to forget about until recently. Although the technology has dated a great deal – photographs of the ships computers made me snigger – the results of the dives are quite staggering. Many of the photographs taken at the bottom of the ocean are reproduced here and provide a fascinating insight to what happened that night. Ballard had hope to confirm (or deny) the gash down the hull theory but discovered to everyone’s irritation that the front of the ship (now in two pieces) was too deeply buried in mud to answer that all absorbing question one way or another. Also having a much clearer idea of exactly where she sank, and the probable position of other near-by vessels (particularly the Carpathia and the Californian) Ballard was able to speculate on the Californian captain’s denial that he was in easy striking distance of Titanic and could, if he had acted correctly, have saved hundreds of more lives.

Overall this was an interesting book rather than a gripping one – but more than made up for this with its wealth of photographs and the author’s style of writing which was very open and accessible. Definitely recommended for any Titanic fans – or anyone interested in marine archaeology in general and the discovery of wrecked ships in particular.  

Just Finished Reading: Shadow of the Titanic – The Extraordinary Stories of Those Who Survived by Andrew Wilson (FP: 2011)

The first thing that struck me about this often interesting book was that it was obviously written by a journalist rather than a historian. The difference in style between this and the previous Titanic book was rather stark. Shadow of the Titanic is, in a word, far more sensationalist than Titanic Lives and this author focused upon and, I believe, consciously or not heightened the apparent after-effects of the tragic sinking of the great liner.

The author was quite right in his preamble that most books on this most famous ship close with the sinking itself or at best with the recovery of the lifeboats on the 705 survivors by the Carpathia the following morning. Little is mentioned of the two official inquiries in New York and London or what happened to those rescued after they returned to dry land. Although the blurb on the back of the book implies that all 705 survivors’ stories would be told I did think that such a Herculean task in only 350 pages. Such was the case and actually only 20-30 follow ups where attempted. Typically, as you might expect from a non-historian, much of what followed was the low hanging fruit of the lives (by and large) of the rich and shameless with hardly a mention of those from 2nd and especially 3rd class. From then on we were treated to numerous tales of divorce, madness, suicide of those ‘cursed’ by their survival. We have stories of those who believed that something very bad was going to happen to them when they heard the name Titanic for the first time and even one 1st class passenger who had a warning from a psychic she encountered whilst on holiday in Europe. We even have suicides 20 or more years after the event (precluded by divorce and/or death of beloved children) attributed, without as far as I could see a shred of evidence, to the horror experienced by that fateful night. Certainly I am not questioning the fact that surviving the sinking of the Titanic was a traumatic event in the lives of over 700 men, women and children. Many survivors never spoke of the incident again during their lives and never wrote about it. Others wrote newspaper articles, books and even starred in some of the early films recreating their own experiences on board ship. Others, it seemed, simply left the Carpathia never to be heard of again. How interesting would it be to find out what happened to those people rather than the spoiled teenage wife of an Astor?

My overall impression of this book was, unlike the ‘dizzyingly impressive’ comment from the Mail on Sunday (coincidently a paper that the author also writes for) was disappointing. It certainly had a good idea to follow and apparently filled an obvious gap in the Titanic narrative. Unfortunately it didn’t have the depth, heft or scholarship to follow this idea through to a decent conclusion. Oddly what I found most interesting about this book, which to be honest was by no means a total loss, was when the author moved beyond the survivor stories to what happened to the Titanic story itself as the years and decades went by – the stories that circulated at the time, the imposters who tried to claim compensation for losses or who made ‘scenes’ grieving for people they did not know, the misidentified infant who only found out she was a Titanic survivor decades later, the survivors who related their stories to Walter Lord and who assisted him in the production of the movie ‘A Night to Remember’, and the bizarre legal wrangle over a kimono that may, or may not, have been worn that night. Each of these stories could have made an interesting book in themselves but had been brought up as flotsam at the end of the book almost as an afterthought.

Taken with a few good pinches of salt this is a reasonable telling of ‘what happened next’ in the Titanic saga. If you do still feel like reading it (after my hatchet job above) you’ll pick up a lot of interesting side stories that might be possible to follow up elsewhere just don’t expect to be all that enlightened.

Just Finished Reading: Titanic Lives – Migrants and Millionaires, Conmen and Crew by Richard Davenport-Hines (FP: 2012)

In April 1912 the greatest ship ever built sailed on her maiden voyage confident of a great future ahead of her. Days later she lay in pieces on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean taking over 1500 people with her to the bottom – including some of the greatest names of the age. Shocked into disbelief the Edwardian world would not see death on this scale until the killing fields of the Western Front a mere two years away. The sinking of the apparently ‘unsinkable’ Titanic caused a deep psychic wound on both sides of the Atlantic and caused many to question man’s domination of nature and his hubris in challenging nature on its own terms. The death of so many seemed to indicate that humanity had finally gone too far.

This is the story of that great ship (and her two sisters Olympic and Britannic) from concept and design, to construction in Belfast and finally her destruction in mid-Atlantic. But it is far more about those who sailed on her. Refreshingly it did not dwell exclusively (or even extensively) on the super-rich ‘jet-setters’ of their age who crossed and crisscrossed the Atlantic on a regular basis for business or pleasure. It also had much to say for the migrants from all over Europe hopeful and confident of a life in the New World free from prejudice, political and religious oppression. Confident also in making a better life for themselves and for their villages back in the old country to which they sent some of their hard won dollars. The Titanic was, more than anything else a microcosm of early 20th Century society with its mix of sharp class distinctions and of the new rich who broke through previously unbreakable barriers which left them with millions in the bank but a deep insecurity about their social position.

It was also an age all too recently transitioned from sail to steam and one supremely confident in its material and technological capabilities. Each year bigger, faster and more luxurious liners crossed the Atlantic with seeming impunity. Disdaining the fitting of enough lifeboats for all – which not only ruined the elegant lines of the ship itself but seemed superfluous as the ship itself was one huge lifeboat – it did seem for a while that no limits existed (or should be allowed to exist) in the design of the new behemoths. Until, that is, the fateful night when the Titanic met and side-swiped an iceberg she saw far too late to avoid. With six compartments holed and watertight bulkheads that only went up so far (to save money and weight) the ships doom was inevitable. Knowing that a large number of passengers and crew would inevitably die unless rescuers appeared swiftly only made the situation more poignant. Women and children first often seemed to mean women a children only with boats being lowered into the water two thirds or sometimes half full despite their being men (and boys) available to fill them. Oddly it was the 2nd Class men who suffered most losses seemingly living up to the expectations of their betters.

The radically divergent tales of the two nearest ships – the Carpathia who rushed to Titanic’s aid in vain to the Californian who (apparently) ignored Titanic’s distress signals from much closer – are well known though fairly lightly covered here. Tales of the survivors surprised me more than a little. Subdued by their ordeal and, no doubt by the publicity that followed, many slipped into depression and a rather surprising number ended their own lives apparently unable to cope with the aftermath of the greatest maritime disaster to date.

Even for a story so well-known and so often written about this book gripped and captivated from the first page to the last. I learnt so much from this book – not only about the ship and her crew but the society that her voyage was embedded in – that I was, at times quite overwhelmed by it all. On an emotional level it was also quite a journey. In relating the lives of many passengers and crew you began to know them as people rather than statistics and became overjoyed when you learnt of their survival or equally devastated to learn that they, their spouse or children did not survive the incident. One final thing was the knowledge that two passengers who had my rather unusual surname both perished in those freezing Atlantic waters never to reach their hoped for destinations in the New World. Where they actual relatives – I don’t know. I did a tiny bit of research which seemed on the face of things to indicate not, but who knows? That’d be quite a claim to fame.

If you’re interested in the Titanic tragedy or the pre-war period then this is definitely the book for you. This is very well written social history at its best and I can highly recommend it. This is also the first of three books on the subject. Next up is survivor tales followed by the search for, and incredible discovery, of the wreck itself. Watch this space.

My Favourite Movies: A Night to Remember (1958)

After completing an excellent book on the sinking of the Titanic I felt the urge to re-watch this classic British movie. Based largely on the classic book by Walter Lord and advised by some of the survivors this tells a pretty accurate account of what happened on that fateful night in 1912.

Of course being the kind of movie it was I can easily lay the blame of liking it so much at the feet of my father who introduced me to it and to one of his (and later my) favourite actors – Kenneth More who played 2nd Officer Lightoller. The story is, of course, about the ship, its maiden voyage across the Atlantic towards New York, the iceberg (dead ahead!), the inevitable foundering and great loss of life (not equalled for 70 years). The shock that reverberated across the world matched the hubris – so it’s said – of man claiming his conquest of nature by building an ‘unsinkable’ ship. Such a claim is made throughout the film though (I believe) was barely mentioned in real life before the voyage itself.

For those who have seen the updated 1997 James Cameron version this is, in my opinion at least, much better and manages to get a good story across without the DiCaprio/Winslet love story. It’s a tale of rich and poor thrown together (kind of) in a tragedy much bigger than all of them. The First Class passengers are aloof – indeed at times seemingly oblivious to the fact that most of them are going to die – the Second Class try to behave like their betters and the Third Class (incorrectly called ‘Steerage’ in the movie) party and then panic like the cannon fodder they’ll become in just two short years. I did find it interesting that the lifeboats shown in the film are all pretty full (of women and children mainly) whilst in real life many of them where only 2/3 full or even less. There’s also an interesting scene where More/Lightoller stops a 13 year old boy getting into a lifeboat and then relenting. In real life the boy was shamed into staying on board, despite their being room, and told to ‘behave like a man’ subsequently dying like one. Maybe that kind of reality was too much for 1950’s audiences and would have tarnished both the reputation of the British merchant marine and the international star that was Kenneth More.

Even after seeing this movie many times over the years it still managed to bring a lump to my throat when the captain of the Carpathia – the hero of the hour played by Anthony Bushell (pictured above on the left) – first heard Titanic’s distress call (one of the earliest examples of SOS) and rushed to her aid at top speed despite the ever present danger of ice. Then, of course, was the villain of the piece (no, not the iceberg) the captain of the Californian who apparently ignored all signals from the Titanic despite the fact that she was only 10 or so miles away and could’ve probably saved everyone on board if he’d been paying attention. Apparently Lightoller hated him until his dying day and vilified him at every opportunity.

The slow death of the great ship is handled brilliantly from the shock of impact to the chief designers sad shaking of his head when he calmly reports that she will sink in 90 minutes. Captain Smith, again played superbly by Laurence Naismith, looked suitably shocked and then stoic as he considered the fact that without enough lifeboats and with the Carpathia four hours away at top speed that over 1,000 people are going to die on his watch. Overall this is still a powerfully emotional film – despite the lack of emotion on screen for most of the time. I think that’s one of the things that increases the impact. These people are finding their situation hard to credit (one reason why so many stayed on board – they simply couldn’t believe that it would sink) and yet giving up their loved ones knowing in their heart of hearts that they’re going to die. It’s very affective and effective. If you haven’t seen this classic of the British cinema I recommend that you do especially if you have an interest in the actually event – oh, and look out for original footage of both the Titanic and the Carpathia.      

Just Finished Reading: A Night to Remember by Walter Lord (FP: 1956)

I have long been fascinated by the tragedy of the Titanic. Part of it is, of course, that it’s such a great ‘story’ which is why so much has been written about it and why the mystique still resonates more than 100 years after the event. Part of it is, at least for me, the feeling that its sinking was arguably the beginning of the end of the Western world’s belief that progress was eternal and that, if we put our minds to it, we could conquer anything – especially the natural world. Maybe we could have recovered our Victorian optimism after the event if only the failure highlighted by its demise had not been underlined by the horrors of trench warfare just two short years later and the loss of a whole generation of young men on the killing fields of Europe. What makes the story a little more personal for me was that I discovered that two of the steerage passengers who embarked in Ireland at the start of a new life in America both had my surname and that they both died like so many others of their class. Whether or not they were any blood relation to me I have no idea. My surname is not exactly unusual in Southern Ireland so there’s a fair possibility that there was in fact no family relationship at all but I have neither confirmed nor denied it – yet.

The book itself is hailed (rightly in my opinion) as probably the classic on the subject. Numerous books had been written on and around these events in the years after the event but few it seemed caught the public’s imagination in quite the same way. For one thing the narrative is breathlessly told in just 169 pages starting with the sighting of the fateful iceberg and ending with the last lifeboat being picked up by the Carpathia around 6 hours later. As you can imagine the feel of the book is intense - indeed the whole narrative gripped me from beginning to end like a taught thriller. Despite knowing the overall story fairly well I found myself agonising over the lives of those involved and the decisions they made which either resulting in them living or dying on that fateful night. The very real sense of being there with the passengers and crew was conveyed by a mixture of meticulous detail (which was sometimes just a little too much) and the knowledge that the conversations attributed to the people described actually happened – though the author was confident enough in his skill to let the reader know when different people ‘remembered’ incidents and conversation differently as might be expected with the passage of decades before they were interviewed about the traumatic events of that night. I suppose what added an extra something was that I had recently watched the movie of the same name which (at the time unbeknownst to me) was based on this book. I watched it subsequently and managed to pick out snippets of conversation and some of the action that actually happened as the ship slowly sank into the freezing Atlantic.

What thrilled me in the film and thrilled me even more in this book was the tale of the Carpathia whose captain threw all caution to the wind and raced towards the last know position of the Titanic at full speed, at night, with icebergs known to be in the area. Unfortunately the Carpathia was over 50 miles away and had no way of getting to the Titanic before she sank with such a huge loss of life. Much closer, or so it seemed, was the Californian which might have been less than 12 miles away but apparently did nothing. Its captain was vilified and long denied that he was as close as some people believed him to be. He was definitely the villain of the piece and some people have criticised Lord for pointing the finger so solidly at him.

This is a great work of historical writing which will honestly thrill anyone who knows the story of the Titanic. Its style and delivery are practically faultless and for the few days it took me to read this short book I almost felt that I was standing shoulder to shoulder with the men and women on the boat deck awaiting the next lifeboat to be lowered into the icy water. A brilliant work and highly recommended. Just don’t ruin it by watching the James Cameron version afterwards!    

Just Finished Reading: How to Survive the Titanic or The Sinking of J Bruce Ismay by Frances Wilson

I guess that there are a number of Titanic related books coming out at the moment because the 100^th anniversary is due soon – in about 10 weeks actually. This one caught my eye mainly because my local bookshop was selling it for half price. That’s still a hefty price (being in hardback) but I thought it’d probably be worth it. I was right.

I’ve been interested in the Titanic disaster for some time. I mean who wouldn’t be, it’s just such a great story on the human level, the technological level and the cultural level (and not forgetting the mystery level too). This absolutely fascinating book concentrated on the human, the personal, level focused through the lens of one man – J Bruce Ismay. He was, at the time of the tragedy, the owner of the White Star line who managed the Titanic and her sister ship. He was also one of the few survivors who, apparently, calmly stepped into a lifeboat and never looked back. After returning to England he became a social outcast who was shunned by high society as being tantamount to a coward who should, as did the captain, the chief engineer and a great many of the crew, have gone down with the ship. Of course, as the author makes clear, he didn’t do anything wrong. According to his own testimony, and those of others, he left on one of the last boats and there was no one else in that area at that time. At the same time a famous American polo player stepped into the boat with him and disappeared from history – after being divorced by his wife for abandoning her on the Titanic itself (she survived by getting into a boat of the opposite side – with no help from her husband). The problem with Ismay, unfortunately, was that his disposition didn’t lend itself to sympathy (little of which was available in that age if men survived and women and children died in their place). Ismay had a distant seeming personality and often failed to understand the emotions of others. Because of this he came across as being indifferent to the suffering of others as well as being arrogant in his attitude to both the American and British enquiry. Worst of all, despite no accusation actually being made, he was accused of influencing the route the ship took, the speed at which it travelled (and the speed at which it subsequently hit the infamous iceberg) and the fact that it tried to limp away to arrive at New York under its own power, which was something I was completely unaware of.

Without giving too much away this was an excellent addition to the growing number of books on one of the defining incidents of the early 20^th century. Not only does the central figure of Ismay give the whole book a focus, a backbone if you will, it allows an examination not only of Edwardian attitudes to the disaster, and Ismay’s apparently shocking behaviour, but also uncovers a series of fascinating sub-stories surrounding that fateful April night in mid-Atlantic. I found the whole thing fascinating and found myself reluctant to put it down at the end of the day. I’d certainly recommend it to anyone with an even passing interest in the subject.

[As an aside I remember reading some years ago a list of the survivors and was surprised (and pleased) to discover two people with my surname on it. However, on searching an on-line database recently I discovered that both young people – aged 21 and 23 – did not in fact survive. I can’t help wondering if they were related to me. My fathers name is not exactly common (though it is apparently far more common in his native Ireland) so you never know. Maybe I should try to find out? I wonder what else it might turn up?]