Recently I read Walter Lord's classic "A Night to Remember" published in 1950s and so far undisputedly best account of what actually happened on that fatal voyage - it was a thrilling (and chilling) read, however since its been a century now, lots of new literature connected with "Titanic" came along and this is one that caught my attention. As title suggest, "Voyagers of Titanic" takes just a slightly different approach and instead of following, prelude, disaster and aftermath, it focuses primarily on people who were there - in a way, it also explains the atmosphere of the world back than, strict class divisions and social distinctions where first and second class of passengers were completely isolated from the poorest, third class. What comes as infuriating and eye opening is the treatment of so called "lower classes" who simply happened to have been mainly immigrants in search of new beginning - privileged passengers socialized amongst themselves only and occasionally just for the sport, would dive into third class to gape at unlucky, poor people like they are in zoo. (Of course, third class could definitely not respond with the same hobby and simply waltz trough the luxurious first class just for fun of it).
At the time of "Titanic" disaster media focused exclusively on the death of rich & famous and how gentlemen gave their spots in life boats to women and children.
The majority of third class immigrants were completely ignored, like they were not important and in a way this shows the whole social atmosphere of the times: the world bowed to the wealthy and only talked about them. It took a lot of time and changes and now today we see things differently, we wonder what about all those silent voices of Swedes, Italians, Armenians and Finnish unfortunate people (often the whole families who took relatives and cousins along) that history forgot and media ignored? Painstakingly and with great care, almost like archaeologist unearthing story that has been hidden for too long, author Richard Davenport-Hines goes trough every single passenger trough the first, second and third class, explaining whey did they came from, where were they going and what happened not only trough the sinking but even aftermath. Sure, we all know about rich & famous, but what about the rest of the crowd - here is where Davenport-Hines connect the dots, telling the story of the whole society trough lives of unfortunate victims and survivors. Did you know that surprisingly large amount of "Titanic" survivors never recovered from feeling of guilt because they survived and several of them committed suicide?
Some interesting parts of the book:
“A wonderfully quick trip,” wrote Edith Wharton after crossing first class on a liner from New York to Cherbourg with over a thousand other souls: “Literally not a human being on board with whom to exchange a word.”
"Money made the difference. Contrast the contents of the pockets of two Titanic corpses recovered from the ocean: John Jacob Astor IV (“Colonel Jack”), the richest man on board, had $4,000 in sodden notes in his pockets; but the jacket of Vassilios Katavelas, a nineteen-year-old Greek farmworker, had more meager treasures: a pocket mirror, a comb, a purse containing ten cents, and a train ticket to Milwaukee."
It is still unbelievably poignant and fascinating story, but today we might see it from different perspective - nowadays we actually care for the third class passengers and unlike majority of public back than, we are not blinded by wealth and entitlements, we do care for the fates of all those unfortunate people who just happened to be on "Titanic" because other ships were on strike. Since I work in a cruise industry, everything connected with "Titanic" have strong effect on me (yes, I read this book while sailing around Halifax where "Titanic" victims were buried - and even visited the cemetery) but not just from some morbid curiosity, its because life boats, drills, captain's announcements and life at sea are my reality. My roommate actually survived sinking of Italian "Costa" ship (and is back on the ships, I think for me that would be enough). I still love Walter Lord's classic but Davenport-Hines in his way might be the last word on the subject. It is very detailed and extremely well researched book.
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