Officer Suicides & Related Issues

[Tad G. Fitch]

Stanley, I would have to check, but I am relatively certain that the library story originated in the New York papers. There are several shorter or edited versions of the "library suicide" story that appeared on April 19, 1912, in the New York, Chicago, and Cleveland papers, and others. I have never seen anything to indicate that this story originated prior to the Carpathia's arrival in New York, or prior to that date.

One thing to keep in mind is that even if there were such earlier accounts, there are private letters written onboard the Carpathia prior to its arrival in New York which mention stories of a suicide. Of course, if you have anything to indicate that some of the stories originated in the press prior to the Carpathia's arrival, I think we all would definitely be interested in seeing it.

From what Bill and myself have been able to find during our research, there were several witnesses who appear credible who claimed to have witnessed a suicide, there was rumors circulating onboard the Carpathia about it, and then when the yellow press got a hold of it, they took it and ran with it, resulting in some of the more absurd claims. Unfortunately, this has caused much confusion and controversy ever since then, and has obscured whatever grain of truth there is to the stories.

All my best,
Tad

 

[Bill Wormstedt]

Thanks for the sympathy, folks. Yes, it was sudden, yes it was a shock. But, as my daughter, and Barb's sister both said after it happened, now she's at peace.

I want to echo Tad's statement - we would very much appreciate any and all information on this.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

I wonder if it'll ever be possible to really sort any of this out. Rumours have a way of improving in the telling, especially on a ship. (Which I know from direct experience!) Throw the yellow journalists into the mix and you have a stew where it's difficult to impossible to tell the real meat from the spicy additives thrown into the pot. Even worse, anybody in a position to know the real deal have long since made their own journey into The Great Beyond. That makes it rather diffucult to question any of them, so about the only real hope here is if something like a personal journal or diary turns up somewhere.

 

[Stanley C Jenkins]

Details about the loss of the Titanic seem to have appeared in two waves, starting on 15 April 1912 when a great deal of false information was generated by malicious hoaxers. There was, thereafter, a "news black-out" which lasted until Friday 19 April when, having worked through the previous night, US papers published the first genuine survivors' stories.

These sequence of these events was as follows:

15 April - False news reports circulated.

18 April (evening) - Carpathia arrives with survivors and interviews take place.

19 April - US papers print first genuine news.

20 April - After a 24 hour delay, UK papers publish their first genuine news reports.

I believe that the Reuters suicide-in-the-library was part of the wave of false news and, if this is indeed the case, it must have been one of the first "suicide" stories to appear. The fact that this story was quoted in an essentially local British paper such as The Witney Gazette on Saturday 20 April has little bearing on the date of the story, because the Gazette was a one-man paper that is most unlikely to have run its single press on Friday night. The story was already "old" news, which the proprietor must have discovered in a daily paper. If anyone has a run of The Daily Express between 15 April and 20 April I would suggest that the precise date of this story will probably be revealed.

 

[Stanley C Jenkins]

Earlier in this thread I had posed a question regarding the time lapse that would have ocurred before news of the sinking started to appear in British provincial papers, this question having been prompted by an item that appeared in The Witney Gazette on 20 April 1912 concerning the supposed suicide of Captain Smith and the First Engineer. Briefly, I suggested that in view of the time lapse that must have taken place, this report may have predated the arrival of the Carpathia at New York on the evening of Thursday 18 April 1912. As this question appeared to have important ramifications concerning the officer suicides, I wanted to know the source of the "news". Well, having had another look at The Gazette, it appears that the story emanated from Reuters news agency early on the morning of Friday 19 April, the report being preceded by the following introduction:

"The latest news of the terrible disaster is published this (Friday) morning by the Daily Telegraph who, at 4.00 am, received the following telegram".

There follows a garbled news item which includes the notorious suicide-in-the-library story. Ironically, the Gazette - an unimportant, low-circulation publication - had already printed a very full and surprisingly accurate report in its main Titanic news feature. The suicide story was NOT part of this sober report, but it had obviously been added at the very last minute on the back page as what purported to be the "latest news" from New York.

If anyone is interested in receiving the full text of the "suicide" report I would be happy to e-mail it to them.

 

[Inger Sheil]

Perhaps you might consider sending it on to Bill, Stanley, if it's not already on his site? Or uploading it here on ET? I had intended to follow up in this thread with a suggestion that the story went out on the wires, possibly via Reuters, late on the 18th or on the 19th, as this is how many of these stories were circulated. The Smith suicide-in-the-library was reported on both sides of the Atlantic, so this was the most likely source.

Have you had a chance to read the rebuttal from Rostron that was published in, I believe, more than one source at the time? Bill has the full text of one newspaper account reporting it on his site. In it, Rostron says categorically that he has interviewed Titanic crewmen who denied emphatically that Smith committed suicide (they give an alternative version of his death that, although unsupported by a named eyewitness, makes rather more sense to me).

 

[Stanley C Jenkins]

I have obtained the full text of The Witney Gazette's "latest news" item, which appeared on its back page on Saturday 20 April 1912 as a supplement to the paper's main Titanic story, which had been carefully compiled from earlier reports, and appeared inside the paper. As I have experienced considerable problems when attempting to post longer items, I will include the full text of the article as a separate item.

It will be obvious to anybody with knowledge of the Titanic primary sources that the report, which was received via Reuters at 4.00 am on Friday 19 April, is a garbled and erroneous account, which mixes up parts of the Committee of Survivors' statement with some of the false news which was circulating in New York prior to the arrival of the Carpathia on the evening of 18 April. Nevertheless, the following item seems to me to be of considerable interest, insofar as the Reuters telegram referred to may be the origin of the notorious "officer suicide" stories.

 

[Stanley C Jenkins]

The Witney Gazette, Saturday 20 April 1912

"THE TITANIC - CAPTAIN'S SUICIDE ON THE BRIDGE The latest news of the terrible disaster is published this (Friday) morning by The Daily Telegraph who, at 4.00 am, received the following telegram, containing a statement issued by a Committee of the Survivors.

We, the undersigned surviving passengers of the Titanic, in order to forestall any sensational and exaggerated statements, deem it our duty to give to the press a statement of the facts which have come to our knowledge, and which we believe to be true.

On Sunday April 14th, at about 11.40 on a cold, starlit night, the ship struck an iceberg. Rockets were fired at intervals. Captain Smith shot himself on the bridge. The Chief Engineer likewise committed suicide. Three Italians were shot to death in the struggle for the lifeboats. The passengers, who were first told of the captain's end, were told that two attempts were necessary in ending his life. His brother officers wrestled the revolver from his hand in the library, but he broke away to the bridge and shot himself through the mouth.

The ship struck an iceberg, which had been reported to the bridge by the look-out, but not early enough to avoid collision. Steps were taken to ascertain the damage, and save the passengers and the ship. Orders were given to put on lifebelts. The boats were lowered, and the usual distress signals were sent out by wireless telegraphy, and rockets were fired at intervals - Reuters NEW YORK, Thursday night.

Mrs Andrews, an elderly lady interviewed by the press representatives, said the crash occurred at 11.35 pm on Sunday night. The women and children got off in the lifeboats at 12.45 am. The Titanic sank at 2.00 am, and the Carpathia picked up the boats at 8.30 am. Many women were insane. We did not know, she continued, until daybreak, whether we would be rescued. We were in the open boat for eight hours, and the suffering of all was indescribable".

 

[Inger Sheil]

Thanks for posting that, Stanley - as far as I can recall, it tallies with most of the versions I've seen, coming as they do from a common source. It's interesting in that it differs from the Washington Times version by not naming Gretchen Longley (or anyone else specifically) as the source. I'm skeptical of Longley being the originator of the tale. At most she might have repeated shipboard gossip, but it's possible her name was appended to the story by the reporter in error or to give it a little filip. Does anyone have any other accounts that appeared in the American newspapers, or is this detail unique to the Washington Times?

 

[Stanley C Jenkins]

The Witney Gazette report incorporates three distinct pieces of information. Most of it is from the Committee of Survivors' statement, which was written by Samuel Goldenberg (and others), and published in The Times on 20th April (in late editions on 19th April). The suicide-in-the-library story is covered in five sentences, which have been disingenuously inserted into the otherwise entirely factual Survivors' Statement - thereby contributing an element of spurious veracity. The final paragraph, which I take it was not part of the 4.00 am Reuters telegram, seems to have been taken from an interview with Kornelia Andrews.

 

[Stanley C Jenkins]

The arrival in Plymouth of the surviving crew members aboard the Red Star liner Lapland gave rise to another crop of survivors' stories, many of which filtered through to provincial papers. On 4 May 1912 The Witney Gazette published some of these stories, with particular reference to Captain Smith:-

"Captain Smith was on the bridge practically to the last. He was seen swimming in the water after the ship went down with a child in his arms, which he vainly attempted to rescue. He afterwards disappeared."

Having, in effect, retracted its earlier suggestion that Captain Smith had shot himself, the paper quoted a survivor's claim that, "after working assiduously at getting the women and children into the lifeboats", First Officer Murdoch had shot himself. However, in addition to publishing these unsubstantiated rumours, the paper also printed a wealth of information from the enquiries.

It strikes me that these local newspapers must be a largely un-tapped source for information about the Titanic - In particular, the Plymouth papers would be worth checking for further survivors' stories.

 

[Inger Sheil]

I've looked into newspapers covering Plymouth during the course of my research, Stanley, and have the receipts for reams of copying to prove it. There was a good deal of interesting material, including more references to an officer suicide - as I mentioned in one of my posts in this thread. Often, however, the crew who spoke to the papers did not give their names, so it is difficult to assess their claims (e.g. whether they were in a position to witness what they claim to have seen).

Among them is this story from the Western Daily Mercury, which claims a crewman stated the following:

quote:

One of the crew told our representative that Mr. Murdoch, the first officer, who was in charge of the ship when the collision occurred, played a hero’s part. He it was who personally superintended the lowering of practically every boat that was put into the water. He moved from one boat to another urging and cheering the men at their task. When the end came, and as the last boat was handled, the water rose above his knees, and it was obvious that the boat could not survive.

“Mr Murdoch calmly pulled out his revolver and blew out his brains.”

 

[Michael H. Standart]

>>It strikes me that these local newspapers must be a largely un-tapped source for information about the Titanic...<<

Of just as likely, misinformation. I'm not so sure that the British media was quite as bad as the fellows on my side of the pond, but that doesn't mean that survivors...real and fake...couldn't be creative in the tales they told. I'd be leery of any newspaper account.

 

[Stanley C Jenkins]

The crew member who described Captain Smith swimming in the water with a baby was fireman Harry Senior. He was not mentioned by name in The Witney Gazette report but he is mentioned in other newspapers. One version suggests that he also attempted to rescue a baby, but it died before he could reach a boat.

 

[Taylor Marino]

I just finished a huge school assingment on Titanic. And yes it is true. Murdoch(First Officer) was thought to kill himself. His last words were "Gentlemen, each man for himself, goodbye," He gave a military salute then put a bullet in his head. I think I will post an Article on Murdoch on this site.

Taylor