I wrote:
> “Captain Smith certainly did his best to foster the
>'unsinkable' mythos long before the commencement of Titanic's maiden
>voyage; his enthusiasm for the invincibility of both Olympic and Titanic
>was both long-term and was expressed numerous times without any
>qualification.”
Dave Gittins replied:
>Primary sources, please! ..... I’ve seen somewhere some comments he
>is supposed to have made about Titanic being able to float if cut into
>two pieces. You probably know the source. I think it’s post sinking.
Hi, Dave!
Yes, the media accounts themselves were post-sinking, but the quoted conversations with Captain Smith were (of course) pre-sinking.
>Show me proof that---
>1. Captain Smith frequently spoke of the Olympic ships as “unsinkable”.
Certainly. The Erie (Pa.) Dispatch of April 17, 1912 interviewed a gent who had recently crossed with Captain Smith on board the Olympic; Smith was quoted as having said: "Anyhow, the Olympic is unsinkable, and Titanic will be the same when she is put in commission. Why, either of these vessels could be cut in halves and each half would remain afloat almost indefinitely. The non-sinkable vessel has been reached in these two wonderful craft. I venture to add that even if the engines and boilers of these vessels were to fall through their bottoms, the vessels would remain afloat."
The Washington Post of April 18, 1912 contained an interview with Mr. & Mrs. W.P Willie, with whom Captain Smith dined the evening before he left New York to take command of the Titanic. According to Mr. Willie, Smith "said he shared with the designers of the vessel (Titanic) the utmost confidence in her seagoing abilities, and (added) that it was impossible for her to sink."
In 1944 survivor Elmer Taylor wrote an account of his life that described a conversation that Captain Smith had during the Titanic's maiden voyage. Taylor wrote: "We were close enough to hear Captain Smith tell his party the ship could be cut crosswise in three places and each piece would float. That remark confirmed my belief in the safety of the ship."
(The above three accounts are just the ones that I've run across during my *own* research; several friends have uncovered similar quotes by Captain Smith, but I'll leave it to them to share their research info here if they wish to do so.)
>2 His remarks were widely publicised in the popular press before the
>sinking.
To the best of my knowledge this didn't happen. However, there are unmistakable signs that a widespread *oral* tradition of unsinkability existed prior to the disaster, and it wasn't until *after* the disaster that the oral tradition began to find its way into print.
One excellent way for an oral tradition of Olympic/Titanic unsinkability to take root would have been for a prominent person like Captain Smith to boast about that unsinkability to White Star's passengers (many of whom regularly patronized the Line and could be counted upon to share such information with friends) as well to non-nautical friends on shore. The interviews that I've just quoted show that Captain Smith made boasts about unsinkability to *both* groups of people. (Moreover, these were just a few conversations that happened to be shared with the press after the disaster; how many similar conversations with other people were not publicized in this way?) If other White Star officers and crewmen were as enthusiastic about Olympic/Titanic as was Captain Smith (and why shouldn't they be?), the Olympic/Titanic 'unsinkable' myth would have been pretty widespread before the Titanic's maiden voyage. Indeed, we know that such a myth was widespread simply because a number of passengers (e.g. Benjamin Hart, Richard Rouse, Archibald Butt) reassured friends and relatives about the Titanic's unsinkability long before they even went to Southampton to board the vessel. It was this oral tradition of unsinkability that was largely responsible for the confidence that Titanic's passengers felt in their ship even though she was in the process of sinking beneath their feet.
We can never know if Captain Smith truly *believed* the 'unsinkable' myth himself, but the fact remains that he actively *promoted* that myth to other people. What better way for such a myth to gradually gain acceptance among the seagoing public than for the Commodore of the White Star Line to promote that myth himself? Although the 'unsinkable' myth was definitely *played up* by the media after April 15, 1912, it seems pretty clear that a preexisting oral myth was already firmly in place well *before* that date.
Take care, Dave. (By the way, I really enjoy your website.) And many thanks to Dean Manning for his own contributions to the discussion. Interesting!
All my best,
George
