One of the issues that I have been interested in and tried to do research based on available information combined with educated speculation is the fate of the Allison family from Montreal, Canada. As we all know Hudson and
Bess Allison both died in the tragedy and took their poor little 3-year-old daughter
Loraine Allison with them. I tried to make some sense of why they were unable to save themselves based on statements from surviving members of their entourage and other survivors who reported seeing them on the boat deck that fateful night. In trying to piece together what could have happened,
I confess that I have had to make some conjectures but IMO while there is no solid evidence for these, none of them are outlandish. I also had a rethink of some of my own earlier views on the related sequence of events.
Right at the start
I want to apologize for the long post. Of the various threads already there on ET about the Allisons, I felt that this one was the best place for it because the title is a major key in the sequence of events as I believe them.
Although the actual collision occurred at 11:40 pm on Sunday 14th April 1912, it took some time for most of the
passengers to become aware of the seriousness of the situation. This would be particularly true for most
First Class passengers in the upper decks and their servants, including
Sarah Daniels and
Alice Cleaver, who were berthed on
C-deck, the same
level as their employers.
Depending on which of the several rather inconsistent statements made by Sarah Daniels one chooses to believe, after the collision she is supposed to have gone out to explore what was wrong, realized the ship was in danger, returned to warn Alice Cleaver (with whom she very likely shared cabin C-22) and then went to C-26 to warn Hudson & Bess Allison. Again depending on which statement one accepts, Daniels did that once or twice; in the latter scenario, she was rebuffed at the first attempt by a sleepy Hudson Allison who refused to believe that anything was wrong. Sarah Daniels reportedly tried again after dressing warmly herself, this time to be angrily dismissed by Hudson for needlessly disturbing them. After that, Daniels went to the boat deck where she was "persuaded" to get into Lifeboat #8, the first port boat to be launched at 01:00 am. She was the first of the Allison entourage to be rescued.
I find Sarah Daniels' account of Hudson Allison's reaction to the report that the
Titanic could be in danger very hard to believe. He was a responsible family man, a devout Methodist travelling with his wife and 2 small children; hardly the sort of a man who would dismiss a warning from anyone - let alone his wife's maid - without checking and making sure. Also, if Sarah Daniels had done all that she claimed that she did, I doubt if she could have made it to Lifeboat #8 on time. Her credibility is further reduced when one reads the fanciful and error-ridden letter that she wrote to the
Chicago Daily Tribune only 2 days after arriving in New York. (Link courtesy of ET). Although not attested to the effect, it is generally believed that Sarah Daniels wrote that letter.
She would not leave her husband and went down with Titanic.
Alice Cleaver's account on the other hand seems far more plausible. According to her, after realizing that there was something seriously wrong,
she went to C-26 and with some difficulty managed to wake up Hudson Allison and persuade him to go and check outside; in this she could have been supported by the nervously inclined Bess Allison. After Hudson had left to find out what was wrong, a steward popped in to advise the two women to dress themselves and the children warmly and to go the boat deck as per the Captain's orders. That made Bess even more anxious to the point of hysteria but she complied with the advice, perhaps with Cleaver's help. According to the nurse, she then picked-up baby Trevor Allison, who was specifically her responsibility and told Bess to take care of Loraine before going out.
There she met Hudson Allison (the topic of the OP in this thread), returning from his exploration with the realization of the very real danger that the ship was in. According to Cleaver, she told Hudson about the same thing as she had told Bess a few minutes earlier and then continued on her way with Trevor in her arms.
Judging by the timeline of related events before and after, Alice Cleaver's interactions with the Allisons would have taken place just before 01:00 am. It seems that the Allison couple did realize that they had to leave by what the steward had told Bess and Alice earlier and what Hudson had learned from his exploration. Either way, they appear to have dressed hurriedly and made for the port side of the boat deck, only some 10 minutes or so behind Sarah Daniels. Hudson Allison probably knew already that men were not being allowed into lifeboats (on the port side) and so bundled his reluctant and still somewhat uncomprehending wife and daughter into Lifeboat #6, as witnessed by
Major Peuchen and
Colonel Gracie. Hudson himself either stood back with the other men or, more likely, left the scene deciding to try his luck on the starboard side.
The issue here is that if Alice Cleaver left C-26 around 1 am with baby Trevor Allison, the question arises why they could only board Lifeboat #11 that was lowered at 01:32 am, just over half-an-hour later. Surely, a young woman carrying a baby would have been prioritized on any boat? I suspect that answer is that after leaving Hudson Allison in the corridor, Alice briefly went back to C-22, the cabin she had shared with Sarah Daniels. But the maid had already left and even then was in Lifeboat #8 that was being lowered. Uncertain whether their colleagues
George Swane &
Mildred Brown in Second Class on
F-deck were aware of the situation, it is highly likely that Alice Cleaver went there with little Trevor in tow. Swane, the chauffeur, might have already been alerted but according to one of her roommates,
Selina Cook, Mildred Brown was a very heavy sleeper and on the night in question they had considerable difficulty in waking her up and convincing her that the ship was in danger. Selina Cook said that at one point George Swane came into their cabin to warn them but his movements after that are unclear. In any case, all that would have delayed Alice Cleaver and Trevor Allison and so the fact that they could get onto the boat deck only in time to make into Lifeboat #11 is understandable.
The fact that Mildred Brown was with them and rescued on the same lifeboat makes this conjecture very likely.
Therefore, there is evidence (Peuchen, Gracie, possibly others) that Bess and Loraine Allison were actually sitting in Lifeboat #6 but got out and back onto the deck of the Titanic just before the boat was lowered. What caused Bess to take that action? IMO,
not to look for baby Trevor, whom Bess knew was safe with Alice Cleaver. Moreover, Bess would have never even gone near a lifeboat if she had thought that Trevor was still somewhere on the ship. I believe that while sitting in Lifeboat #6 Bess realized that no men were being allowed even if there was room (true, on the port side) and got out to look for her
husband Hudson who must have left the scene by then. Since Lifeboat #6 was lowered at 01:10 am, it would have been around that time when Bess and Loraine got out of it in the last second.
Next step would be to try and imagine what Bess (and Loraine) Allison did after getting out of #6. Bess would have frantically started searching for her husband Hudson, not an easy task on such a large ship with the boat deck relatively dark, increasingly crowded and noisy. My guess (and only that) would be that Bess first searched up and down on the same side that she was on – Port; there is the possibility that Hudson Allison at the time was on the starboard side (with George Swane?), where all the forward boats except
Collapsible C had been already lowered. If Hudson had gone there after he left his wife and daughter safely inside Lifeboat #6, he and perhaps Swane could easily have found places on one of the aft starboard lifeboats where men were being allowed if there was room. Therefore, for some time after she got out of #6, Bess Allison might not have found her husband.
But we know that Hudson Allison did not get into any lifeboat himself and was lost. If he had gone to the starboard side as I assume, the question arises WHY he was not saved. One possibility is that after finding that there were still 4 more aft lifeboats on the starboard side where men could be allowed, Hudson decided to make sure that his reluctant and anxious wife had actually remained with their daughter in Lifeboat # 6 where he had left them before trying to find a place for himself. He could soon have learned that they had actually got off it at the last moment and so he would have frantically started searching for them even as they were searching for
him. The question is how long it took for them to find each other on the crowded and darkened deck? It could have been quite some time, especially if one or both of them when down to
A-deck where Lifeboat #4 had been lowered on port side forward or where first the partially loaded Lifeboat #13 and then #15 were lowered on the starboard aft side. Depending on which lifeboat she was saved in, it could have been during one of those excursions by Bess and Loraine Allison that
Winnie Troutt saw them.
So, I think that it is safe to assume that by the time the Allisons found each other, most of the lifeboats had already been launched. There could still have been a few left, like #10, #4,
Collapsible C and Collapsible D, but I expect between Bess’ hysterical refusal to board any lifeboat without her husband and Hudson’s own uncertain dithering, they missed out altogether. That is all the more likely if, towards the end they had remained mainly on the port side forward where Lightoller was not allowing any men into either #4 or Collapsible D.
In summary therefore, after it became apparent that the
Titanic was in fact in danger,
IMO Sarah Daniels mainly looked after herself without really checking about her employers or colleagues. Alice Cleaver on the other hand, took charge of Trevor Allison – her designated responsibility – with full knowledge of the baby’s parents and then proceeded to warn her colleagues on the
F-deck. Although reluctant at first, Hudson, Bess and their daughter Loraine Allison got to the boat deck with plenty of time and Hudson then saw his wife and daughter safely on board Lifeboat #6 before leaving them to try for a place himself. But between Bess’ reluctance to leave her husband behind, Hudson’s failure to assess the situation correctly etc made the couple waste time searching for each other till it was too late.
www.findagrave.com
