On A Sea of Glass

Currently reading this detailed and comprehensive 2012 account of the life and death of the Titanic… In contrast to so many other Titanic reports, where the first few days of the voyage are merely a preamble before the disaster, Tad Fitch and his co-authors have furnished the book with so much fascinating detail about ship’s business and its passengers, that one wishes the Atlantic crossing had been longer. This is a Titanic presented with all its imperfections – behind the grand opulence of the first class spaces, there was unfinished décor and incomplete fixtures and fittings throughout the ship, and a malfunctioning heating system that had passengers shivering in their beds. There’s a wealth of compelling detail about some of the 2,240 souls on board the ship, from industrial magnates returning from holidays in Europe and Africa, newly weds on their honeymoon, and Irish and European emigrants seeking opportunity and adventure in the New World. There were disgruntled passengers, like the mother and daughter who complained incessantly to the stewards about their genuinely cramped 2nd class accommodation, and there was the poor woman who slipped on a wet staircase on her first day and broke her arm. There were seasick passengers that never made it to the dining hall, and travelers whose nerves could not be calmed by the flat sea and the oft repeated assurances that the ship was “unsinkable”.

At the point in the book where I am, the eve of the disaster, the fate of these people has yet to be determined. One crew member mentioned in the book, and I find myself frequently thinking about him, is one John Coffey, a 23 year old Irish engineer who accompanied the ship from Southampton to Cobh, and there jumped ship for reasons unclear – perhaps he had some premonition of disaster (as did many on board the ship, after Titanic almost collided with another ship as she left Southampton) or perhaps he simply wanted to get home to Cobh and stay there. But what of that extraordinary moment when he first heard about the disaster ? One could scarcely imagine having that much luck…