CORRECTION

I usually only post a blog once a week, but here it is Monday and I’m doing it again. Reason? I think there’s a Murphy’s (or somebody’s) law that governs situations like this. Perhaps it’s, “If something can go wrong, it will.”

As you know, I wanted to put my memoir THE GREEN BOUGH in Amazon’s Countdown, lowering the price from $2.99 to $.99. And it was to start today, April 27. Didn’t happen. Sorry.

Not just one thing went wrong, and not just one person is to blame, but I am one of the culprits who was too trusting (or too inexperienced) to forsee the problems and avoid them.

Maybe next week it will work as planned, although I will no longer make deadline promises. If you want to buy a digital copy of THE GREEN BOUGH, you should go to its Amazon page and check the price first. Don’t order it until you see Amazon shows the price at $.99.

Thanks for the thought anyway.

Phyllis

COUNTDOWN - THE GREEN BOUGH

Yes, time flies. It was January 14 that I promised a lower price for one of my most popular books. I also said it would be only a few weeks, but here it is almost May, and between then and now, I blogged about several other things. One was my six weeks’ tribute to the memory of the Titanic, which sank on April 15, 1912.

As you may remember from my January blog post, THE GREEN BOUGH is a memoir as told to me by my husband’s Aunt Gladys, who was a schoolteacher in a logging camp in Oregon in 1913. I also got some information about the time and location from the Oregon History Society. The picture on the cover is from a snapshot of her one-room schoolhouse that Gladys’s brother, Fred, took, and the black-and-white photos inside are from her own photo album. Gladys lived to be 101 and knew about my book before she died.

As also mentioned before, the paperback version of THE GREEN BOUGH is my most popular seller at the two or three book fairs and signings I do every year. Readers have also asked for extra copies to send to friends and relatives in other parts of the country or to give as gifts. I think Gladys would have been pleased to know that.

The Countdown begins on Monday, April 27, and lasts for seven days, during which time the digital version of THE GREEN BOUGH will drop from $2.99 to 0.99. This will be a good time to get your copy, follow Gladys’s adventures and learn a little history from a hundred years ago.

AFTERMATH

Today is April 15, 2015, 103 years since Titanic sank. So this will be my last Titanic blog post. At least for this year.

On April 25, 1912, firemen from Titanic’s sister ship, Olympic, refused to work on the ship because of insufficient lifeboats, and they went on strike. The firemen were accused of mutiny, but the magistrates refused to fine or imprison them. When enough usable lifeboats were replaced, the strikers returned and the ship sailed on May 15.

On learning of the Titanic sinking, a U.S. Senator called for an inquiry which was held in New York. Another inquiry was held in London, and the result of those was a reform of the laws governing ocean travel. In addition to enough lifeboats for everyone on board, other safety measures were adopted. More ships were outfitted with double hulls, and watertight compartments had complete bulkheads. Crews were required to be proficient in handling lifeboats, and passengers had to attend a boat drill to learn how to don a life vest and which lifeboat to board. Cruise ships still do that today.

North Atlantic shipping lanes were moved forty miles south during winter if there was any danger of ice, and ice patrols were formed to keep ships out of the path of icebergs. This became our present day Coast Guard.

One of the most important changes in England came about gradually but the Titanic disaster is often cited as the beginning of the end of the worst excesses of the British class system. The lower classes began to insist on respect, changed their attitude and took control of their lives. The U.K. still has a queen, princes and Lords and Ladies, yet immigrants continue to come here because of our declaration, “...that all men are created equal.”

Cameron’s TITANIC is the most accurate, but not perfect. The ship was found before Cameron made his film, so he knew it broke apart before sinking. Yet he shows people sliding down steep decks, not described by survivors, just as there were no locked gates. He also shows the lookouts in the crow’s nest shivering in their heavy coats because the temperature had dropped below freezing. At the same time Jack and Rose are dancing on the deck and she wears a short-sleeved party dress. He also shows all women wearing bright red lipstick, which was unlikely in 1912. I wrote a memoir about my husband’s aunt in 1913 and she assured me only actresses and other “fast women” wore lip-rouge at the time.

Earlier, black and white films got a few things wrong, the worst being 1953's TITANIC, depicting a wealthy man, played by Clifton Webb, buying steerage tickets from an immigrant because there were no more first-class cabins. Not true. Titanic left Southhampton with many empty ones.

When I gave a talk about Titanic at a local library, I answered many questions about the things I discovered during my research. One was about bathtubs. Third-class, or Steerage, on board the ship was much grander than the homes many passengers came from. Titanic had heat, electric lights and running water, which were luxuries to some. There were two bathtubs for the 700, one for men and one for women, and the water was changed between uses. Today that sounds inadequate, but the voyage was to take only seven days and in 1912 many people only bathed once a week, probably in a tub on the kitchen floor. Some people probably didn’t bathe that often, believing it was unhealthy.

I take up a new topic next week, one you’ll like because it involves a new low price on one of my books. See you then.

TITANIC SURVIVORS

More than twice as many people perished in the Titanic sinking compared to those who survived, but it needn’t have been as bad as it was. My research turned up a few things that may have contributed to the death toll.

First, everyone agrees there weren’t enough lifeboats. That was obviously the fault of the White Star Line which should have provided more. However, Titanic actually held more than were required by law. Unfortunately, the law was written before shipping companies built  ever larger vessels to accommodate the surge of immigrants to the new world, as well as the desire of wealthy people to travel back and forth to Europe. Titanic had davits installed for forty-eight lifeboats to be stored on the Boat Deck, but providing that many actual boats was vetoed by J. Bruce Ismay, among others, who felt they would “clutter up the deck” and obscure passengers’ views.

Besides, with the newspapers calling the ship “virtually unsinkable” (The White Star line advertising never said that.), more seemed unnecessary. The sixteen required standard lifeboats, plus the four collapsibles could have saved 1178 lives if they’d all been filled to capacity. But many--especially the earliest ones to be launched from Titanic--were not. For instance, Boat Number One left the ship with twelve people instead of forty.

Why the reluctance of passengers to get into the lifeboats and save themselves? There are several reasons. Due to the sound of the impact and the stopping of the engines, most passengers knew fairly soon that something had happened. Parties had been held that Sunday evening, so many partygoers were still dressed in their finery. They took to the decks to see whatever they could and to discuss the situation with one another. Participants at two tables of Bridge in the smoking room barely looked up from their game.

Some stewards, not wanting people to panic, made light of the problem. Many passengers were told it was merely a drill and they could soon return to their staterooms. The band was encouraged to keep playing (the new ragtime music), and lights blazed all over the ship. Furthermore, it was so cold on deck that many chose to retreat to warm rooms instead of get into a relatively tiny lifeboat which , in the beginning at least, would lower them some sixty-five feet into the icy, black Atlantic.
Since more third class than first class passengers perished, many believed at the time that it was deliberate discrimination. True, it wasn’t easy to get from third class to the boat deck, but that was a requirement of the U.S. Immigration Act of 1907. (see Sparks’s Titanic FAQs for details). Not only were there several ways up, stewards were supposed to help passengers find those routes. However, it was a new ship, many stewards were just as new, and--with the sudden necessity of lowering and manning lifeboats-- those extra duties were easily overlooked.

Even Cameron’s film shows locked gates that kept steerage passengers below. But everything I’ve read disputes that. The London Independent, in an article published April 11, 1998, states that the Public Records Office carries a report that “third class passengers were not prevented from getting to upper decks by locked doors or anything else.”

There are at least two other reasons for third class passengers’ higher death rate. Many immigrants did not speak or understand English. Then, when finally convinced they must abandon the ship, they wanted to carry all their possessions (literally all their worldly goods) with them. Some narrow stairways leading to upper decks couldn’t accommodate the luggage and, in other cases, the material created bottlenecks.

When it became obvious there weren’t enough lifeboats for everyone, the call went out for “women and children first.” Many wealthy men, including John Jacob Astor, watched their wives leave the ship and stood resolutely at the railing assuring them they’d meet up with them “later.” Mrs. Ida Strauss, however, wife of Macy’s department store owner, deliberately stayed behind with her husband.

Those were the scenes--while writing COLD APRIL--that always brought tears to my eyes. I had to ask a man in our critique group to read that chapter aloud, because I couldn’t trust myself to do so without breaking down.. At least one reviewer admitted she shed tears while reading the book.

AFTER THE ICEBERG

Although those on board the Titanic didn’t realize how badly the ship was damaged, was there anything they could have done to prevent the disaster that unfolded? Was it inevitable that over 1500 lives would be lost that night? Just as there were a combination of reasons for striking the iceberg in the first place, several more contributed to the horrendous loss of life.

After Titanic was found some seventy years later, inspections revealed the steel used in ship construction those days did not deform, but fractured. Especially under extremely cold conditions. And the water temperature that night was 28 degrees Fahrenheit.

Furthermore, the sixteen watertight compartments were actually not watertight. The bulkheads dividing them rose only partway up, like partitions separating cubicles in office buildings. Some bulkheads rose to “D” Deck, others to “E” Deck, barely fifteen feet above the waterline. As sea water filled a compartment, it flowed over the top of the bulkhead and entered the next compartment. And so on.

The Captain ordered lifeboats to be lowered, and the Marconi operators sent out the distress signal, CQD. That old Morse code was sent at first, but later they used the “new” code - SOS - which was easier and faster to transmit. The Titanic’s use was the first in history. The Cunard liner, Carpathia, 58 miles away, responded and began its four-hour journey to the site.

In addition, white rockets were fired from the ship at regular intervals between 12:45 and 1:30. No response. During the official inquiry afterward, surviving passengers reported seeing lights from what they assumed was another ship between 11 to 20 miles away and expected it to rescue them, but it never moved.

However, there was a ship, Californian, at about that position, which stopped because of ice. Later, their officers testified they had seen the rockets, but their captain gave no orders to do anything. Years later, there was still controversy about the ship not going to Titanic’s aid.

Before Titanic struck the iceberg, wireless operator Phillips had been catching up on sending messages accumulated while his equipment was down. These were forwarded through the relay station at Cape Race on Newfoundland. Though the officers were also required to (and did) send messages to the bridge, they worked for the Marconi Company, not the ship. Passengers paid to send messages, so those were a priority.

At 11:30 p.m. Phillips was interrupted by the Californian’s wireless operator. “Say, old man, we are surrounded by ice and stopped.”

It was considered rude to interrupt another ship’s messages without asking permission first, and Phillips - who had been working for almost twelve hours straight, much of that time repairing his system, snapped back, “Shut up! Shut up! I’m busy. I am working Cape Race.”

The Californian’s operator shut down his equipment and retired for the night. Did this confrontation have anything to do with the refusal of the ship to come to Titanic’s rescue?

TITANIC STRIKES ICEBERG

Most disasters have more than one cause. If this hadn’t happened, and then that at the same time... Such was the case on the night of April 14, 1912.

Was the ship traveling too fast? Each day it covered more nautical miles than the day before. Speed had not been its original priority. However, rumors hinted J. Bruce Ismay, managing director of the White Star Line, urged Captain Smith to try for a record. Did Ismay do that? Did Smith heed him?

Six Marconigrams from other ships in the area warned of ice. At noon on Sunday, the Titanic received a warning of icebergs. Then, that night, the wireless system went down, and Radioman Phillips spent four hours fixing it. By the time he finished, he was swamped with passengers’ messages. Did that cause him to ignore the iceberg warning messages?

Strangely, there were no binoculars in the crow’s nest, as there should have been. The second officer searched the ship but couldn’t find them.

The night was bitterly cold. Although stars twinkled, there was no moon. Survivors described the sea “as still as plate glass.” No waves splashed up against an iceberg to reveal it. The lookouts saw only a “blue berg,” meaning one which had recently turned over and was dark with sea water.

At 11:40, Lookout Fred Fleet spotted the iceberg. He gave three tugs on the brass bell, picked up the telephone to the bridge, and said, “Iceberg straight ahead.” On the bridge, Officer Murdoch shouted, “Hard a-Starboard,” and Quartermaster Hitchens rang for “Full Steam Astern,” and spun the wheel. Slowly the bow turned to Port and they thought they had missed the iceberg. But its underwater mass scraped along the hull, popping rivets and opening a huge gash in the side of the ship.

THE MOON DID IT

In an article in Time Magazine on March 19, 2012, two physicists from Texas State proposed that on January 4, 1912, the sun and moon lined up with Earth in such a way that their gravity led to unusually high tides. The moon made its closest approach to Earth in 400 years, increasing its gravitational pull. On January 3, the Earth made its closest approach to the sun that year. By April, the physicists theorized, the historically high tides might have caused an old iceberg, grounded near Labrador, to break loose and move into the shipping lanes into the path of the Titanic. Was that the possible reason for the disaster?

TITANIC REMEMBERED - April, 1912

It’s been three years since the world celebrated the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the most famous ship in the world. Having written my novel about it, COLD APRIL, in 2010 and Camel Press having published it a year later, I wrote a series of blog posts about the many interesting things I learned in my research, which never found their way into the book.

The first was an incredible coincidence. In 1898, fourteen years before Titanic made its maiden voyage, a book was published by Morgan Robertson which seemingly predicted the disaster. It was titled “FUTILITY, or The Wreck of the Titan.”

Robertson named his imaginary ship Titan long before the White Star Line named the second of its three massive ships Titanic. But the similarities between the fictional and the real don’t end there. In FUTILITY, the Titan was the largest ship ever built and deemed “unsinkable.” Around midnight on an April night, while sailing between England and New York, it struck an iceberg on its starboard side and, due to insufficient lifeboats, took most of its passengers down with it. Sound familiar? There’s more.

In both cases the ships were made of steel, had three propellers and two masts, and could accommodate 3000 passengers. Many other details were close, if not identical. The Titan was 800 feet long, the Titanic 882. The Titan’s horsepower was 40,000, the Titanic’s 46,000. Titan had nineteen watertight compartments, the Titanic sixteen. Titan carried twenty-four lifeboats, Titanic twenty. There were 3000 people on board the Titan, 2228 on the Titanic.  Titan’s speed on impact with the iceberg was twenty-five knots, Titanic’s twenty-two and a half. However, whereas in the 1898 novel, a mere thirteen people survived, 705 survived Titanic.

I’ve read FUTILITY, and the plot is nothing like any other novel about the Titanic or any film about it. Aside from that, it’s not well written and no doubt sank quickly after publication (pun intended), rendering it all but forgotten by April, 1912.

Who would believe a story in which (1) the largest and strongest ship ever built, (2) deemed unsinkable, (3) on its maiden voyage, (4) carrying some of the world’s wealthiest people, (5) would strike an iceberg and sink in less than three hours?

There are six blog posts in this series. Be sure to read next week’s episode.