Hi gang! BT here :D Apparently, contrary to my initial belief, AO3 does not house incorrect quotes, but tumblr sure does, so here I am. I am going to reuse the quotes that I'd already posted on AO3, but there will be new ones as well.
Here's a brief introduction to all of the characters who will appear.
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Titanic Officers
E. J. Smith: The Captain of the Titanic, who had a relatively spotless record. Owns a sword. He was on the brink of retiring when he went down with the ship in 1912.
Henry Wilde: Chief Officer. He had recently lost his wife when he was called to join the Titanic's crew last minute- hence, a certain sense of distance from the rest of the crew. Also went down with the ship.
William Murdoch: Scottish First Officer, seen as a bit of a prodigy (he was the only one of the crew who passed all of his certification tests first try). He was the one at the helm when the Titanic struck the iceberg. Went down with the ship.
Charles "Lights" Lightoller: Second Officer, who enjoys causing trouble. Once played a prank by making a recently war stricken town think it was being fired upon. Has a yacht. Went down with the ship, but survived.
Herbert Pitman: Third Officer. Had seasickness. He was first off the ship (they thought seeing an officer on the water would convince passengers to get in the lifeboats). Later had to resign because he was color blind.
Joseph Boxhall: Fourth Officer. Well known for being the navigator, but as it turns out, he was wrong about the Titanic's location. Put up flares during the sinking. When he died, he had his ashes spread over the supposed (incorrect) location of the Titanic.
Harold Lowe: Welsh Fifth Officer, who was going on his first transatlantic trip. Was not woken up until half an hour after they hit the iceberg. Well known for quotes such as "get back or I'll shoot you all like dogs."
James Moody: Sixth Officer, only 24 years old. Semi fluent in Spanish. In the middle of writing a novel. Requested leave to go on vacation but was instead sent to the Titanic. Went down with the ship.
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Wireless Operators
Jack Phillips: Titanic's Senior Wireless Operator. Top of the line operator. Turned 25 while on board. Told the Californian to shut up, but it wasn't that big a deal. May or may not have gone into shock as it was sinking. Went down with the ship.
Harold Bride: Titanic's Junior Wireless Operator. Wears a fedora in at least one photo. Had a fiance while on board, but never ended up marrying her. May or may not have killed a stoker while the ship was sinking. Went down with the ship, but survived.
Harold Cottam: Carpathia's singular Wireless Operator. Friend of Bride, and probably Phillips as well. He wasn't the only one to hear their distress signal, but his ship was the quickest to get to them.
Guglielmo Marconi: The inventor of the wireless telegram, and the boss of all three of the above. Suspected of telling Bride and Cottam to not give people information, but it's hard to say for sure.
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Other Crew
Frederick Fleet: He was the guy who spotted the iceberg first. Was an orphan and had a generally rough life. Very skittish during the inquiries. Committed suicide at 77 years old in the '60s.
Reginald Lee: Did not spot the iceberg first. He was the other lookout on watch when the iceberg was spotted. Had a pretty serious drinking problem. Died from hypothermia complications a bit more than a year after the Titanic sank.
Robert Hichens: Was the man at the wheel when the Titanic hit the berg. Did NOT handle the sinking well. Might have tried to kill a guy. Definitely tried to kill himself. Generally not having a good time.
George Rowe: Had 10 (ten) siblings. Was on duty when the Titanic hit the berg but was not alerted, and didn't realize what was happening until he saw a lifeboat on the water at 12:25 AM. Seems like a pretty sweet guy, but who's to say.
Violet Jessop: Was on the Olympic when she hit the Hawke, was on the Titanic when she sank, and was on the Britannic when she sank. Was frequently sick as a child, but going to the sea fixed her. Was a nurse during WW1. When she was on her third shipwreck, she made sure to bring her toothbrush.
Wallace Hartley: Conductor of the band. There's actually a very good song called "Hartley's Farewell" by Arbor Green that's inspired by him (and his band).
Jock Hume: Played violin in the band. In "The Watch That Ends the Night" (my favorite Titanic book), he spends much of his time improvising music and deciding between two violins that he wants to buy, but none of that probably happened in real life.
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Carpathia Crew
Arthur Rostron: Captain of the Carpathia. Very religious man, highly respected by all. Regularly insisted that it wasn't him who got them to the Titanic, it was God.
Horace Dean: First Officer, pretty good at his job. Good friends with Lightoller, and supposedly was the best man at his wedding, but I've yet to find a reliable source about that.
James Bisset: Second Officer, wrote a decent book "Tramps and Ladies" about ships, and a couple other books that no one talks about. Seems like a pretty nice guy.
Harold Cottam: The singular Wireless Operator. See wireless operators section.
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Others
Thomas Andrews: The designer of a ship. Owns bees. Supposedly, as a kid, he once carried his bees into the kitchen so they wouldn't get cold. Was a really good boss, and actually listened to the crews' feedback on his ships. Went down with his ship.
J. Bruce Ismay: Technical owner of the ship. Was on board for the maiden voyage but insisted he was "just a passenger." He faced a ton of backlash for getting on a lifeboat and became a hermit. Gets a lot of (mostly) undue bashing in fiction.
Senator Smith: Ran the US Inquiry following the disaster, probably as a bid to advance his political career- but if that was the case, it failed miserably. He made a fool of himself. The people he interviewed did a pretty good job of making a fool of him, too, especially Lowe and Lightoller.
Sheriff Bayliss: Helped Sen. Smith with the US Inquiry. Generally seen as unrefined and a brute, but mostly because not a lot of people do actual research on him. Has written some stuff. Became good friends with Lowe.
Margaret Brown: Actually my role model. Traveled on the Titanic alone because she wasn't in a relationship with her husband anymore. Called out Hichens in the lifeboat. Helped out a lot of the third class survivors. Was never called "Molly" in her lifetime.
Daisy Minahan: Had at least ten siblings. Was a first class passenger (and in fact, one of the only first class passengers to board at Queenstown). Really didn't like Lowe (who was in charge of her lifeboat) and tried to run a smear campaign against him, but didn't have much support.
David Blair: Honorary member of the crew (original second officer, got taken off last minute). Once, he (and Lightoller) were on the Oceanic when it ran aground, and as the navigator, Blair got the blame. So maybe it's good he wasn't on the Titanic. Maybe if he had, it would've run aground or something tragic like that.
Sylvia Lightoller: Lights's wife, who is mentioned a total of two, maybe three times in his autobiography (and one of those is in the dedication, where Lightoller says she's the one who convinced him to write it). Really wanted to help out Walter Lord while he was writing his book but got turned down.
Ada Murdoch: Low-key really awesome. Murdoch's wife, who, duh, outlived him by quite a bit- so she lived alone when that was unusual for women. She worked as a seamstress and earned roughly the same wages as a junior officer. One of her only regrets was not having children with her husband.
Ellen Whitehouse: Later became Ellen Lowe- our favorite fifth officer's wife. Nicknamed "Nellie." Was a "good fit" for him, and they had a good marriage, which is nice (and seems to be a trend with these officers). My favorite Titanic researcher, Inger Sheil, says that "one gets an overwhelming impression of sheer confidence about her." She certainly was an active participant in her community (and her marriage!).
Helen Reilly Barbour: Andrews's wife, who had to take care of a two year old girl on her own after the Titanic sank. Also nicknamed "Nellie." Loved him to death (which is to say, loved him until she died), which is saying something, since she did eventually remarry and lived to 85 (dying in 1966, so might've known the Beatles).
Julia Schieffelin: Has a really hard-to-spell maiden name, but later became Julia Ismay, which is easier. Spent much of her time discouraging talk of the Titanic (supposedly). I'm pretty sure she had five kids, even though oceanlinersmagazine said she had four. Probably didn't have a great life because of how closely related her husband was to the disaster, but I'm extrapolating.
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Relationship Tags
Whenever there's only two characters featured in one quote, it'll be tagged with "Character A & Character B," in alphabetical order by last name (regardless of whether it's romantic or platonic- that's up to you to decide)
The group tags will be tagged for any combination of the people included. Group tags in use:
the officers (Wilde, Murdoch, Lightoller, Pitman, Boxhall, Lowe, Moody)
the senior officers (Wilde, Murdoch, Lightoller)
the junior officers (Pitman, Boxhall, Lowe, Moody)
the wireless operators (Phillips, Bride, Cottam, Marconi)
the carpathia crew (Rostron, Dean, Bisset, Cottam)
the big three (Captain Smith, Andrews, Ismay)
the families (Sylvia L, Ada M, Whitehouse, Barbour, Shieffelin)
the crewmen (Fleet, Lee, Hichens, Rowe, Jessop, Hartley, Hume)
Let me know if there's a group tag you think I'm missing!
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And as always, remember that this is for fun, and obviously not supposed to be an actual reflection of the real life people who sadly perished in this tragedy.
One hundred and ten years ago today, at 11:40 PM (ship’s time), an iceberg began inscribing RMS Titanic’s indelible entry in maritime history.
Two hours and forty minutes later, at 02:20 AM (ship’s time) she and +1500 people slid beneath the surface of the North Atlantic and into legend.
Titanic is perhaps the most famous, most recognisable ship in the world, generating an entire industry of non-fiction books, fiction books, cookbooks, documentaries, feature films including Nazi propaganda, miniseries, model kits, conspiracy theories, Monday-morning quarterbacking, 20-20 hindsight, YouTube channels including several episodes of Tasting History starting here...
There’s even a scented candle.
Wow. Stylish. How long before a candle of two towers with wicks in them won’t be tasteless...?
Here’s a post about a particularly daft conspiracy theory, and then about the ship’s musicians and about what they played (or didn’t) as the ship went down...
Here’s a post about another conspiracy theory with IMO the potential to be an interesting TV drama.
Here’s a post about the lookout who spotted the iceberg.
*****
On a happier note, there’s @mylordshesacactus‘s splendidly written story of Captain Arthur Rostron and RMS Carpathia.
I’ve reblogged this post with extra bits and pictures three times now - (1) (2) (3) - and I read the original story each time, because it’s worth reading.
On a night that did so many things wrong, Captain Rostron, his crew, his passengers and his ship did so many things right that if Carpathia had been faster and closer * Titanic might have been no more than a financial disaster in a marine insurer’s ledger, with no fatalities at all.
* Rescue by transfer to other ships was the accepted practice of the day, and a reason why “lifeboats for all” were considered unnecessary. The lifeboats were just a shuttle service.
A complete rescue of Titanic’s ~2,228 passengers & crew by Carpathia, already carrying ~1000 passengers & crew (her full passenger capacity was 2,550) would have meant a very crowded ship until others became available for further transfer.
That would still have been a definite improvement on the real-life alternatives: either in a lifeboat or in −2°C / 28 °F water with a life expectancy of between two and thirty minutes.
The problem - as happened when (under)filling Titanic’s boats - would have been in getting people to make that transfer across dark and freezing open ocean from a warm, well-lit ship many were convinced was “unsinkable”. They’d only have changed their minds when it became an obvious life-or-death choice, and by then it would already be too late to save them all.
Though I bet Captain Rostron would have tried...
*****
It’s only fitting to include how Carpathia ended her career, and @mylordshesacactus wrote what I described as a eulogy.
Dean: I tried to tell my captain he's good looking by saying "watch out, he's a lady-killer," and he got all pouty and said "I don't do that, I don't kill ladies."
“The Unsinkable” Molly Brown, Denver Socialite and Titanic survivor, presenting Captain Arthur Henry Rostron of the Cunard Liner, RMS Carpathia, a loving cup as a token of thanks for his actions on the night of April 14th and early morning hours of April 15th 1912.
