OxfordshireLimited Edition

incorporating Oxfordshire Homes & Interiors

April 2012

How our countywas touched by the TitanictragedyThe stories of survivorsand those who died

Anniversary oxfordtimes.co.uk

8 Oxfordshire Limited Edition April 2012

Some people have a fascination forthe Titanic disaster that borderson unhealthy obsession, while forothers it has formed the basis of ahealthy trade.

Even in 1912, Dorothy Gibson, a bit partactress who had survived the sinking, rushed toput her experiences on film. Sadly, her actingability and the artistic merit of Saved from theTitanic are unknown — the film is lost, but hercommercial timing cannot be faulted.

Even as the survivors came to terms with thehorror of their experience, journalists werehiring boats to rendezvous at sea with therescue ship, cheque books at the ready.

The Carpathia’s resolute Captain ArthurRostron rebuffed them, but he was powerlessonce the ship docked in New York. Fadednewsreels survive in which crew survivorsdonned lifebelts and re-enacted the rescue.

According to the cruelly businesslike customof the period, a seaman’s already meagre salaryceased the moment his ship was lost, so it isunsurprising that many were tempted to selltheir stories.

The Titanic has proved commercially buoyantever since and in this centenary year thenumber of books, films, plays and exhibitionscommemorating the event has increasedexponentially.

Titanic has passed into the vernacular. Inconveying the futility of an action we talk ofmoving the deckchairs on the Titanic; wherethere is unseen risk we warn of themetaphorical iceberg ahead.

But while the sinking has had an impact incultural and linguistic terms, these abstractconcepts separate us from the real event. Whatis it about the Titanic story that continues tofascinate us and in turn attract publishers andfilmmakers?

Rivet-counting enthusiasts aside, it isdoubtful that many would claim an emotionalconnection to the ship itself, notwithstandingher austere beauty, although perhaps anexception might be found in Belfast whereships have been launched at the Queen’s Islandyard of Harland & Wolff since 1861.

Having previously neglected its industrialheritage, in recent years Belfast has found, inthe construction of the Titanic, an odd sense ofcivic pride. It may be paradoxical that a citywith 150 years of shipbuilding achievementchooses to celebrate a ship whose demise was,in part, hastened by flaws in her design and thematerial from which she was created. But weshould not be fooled into thinking thatsentimental heart has triumphed overcommercial head.

The new ‘Titanic Quarter’ development hasregenerated wasteland left behind by thedecimation of the shipyard. The place wherehull 401 was turned, through the labour ofthousands, from scattered sheets of steel intothe pride of the White Star fleet is now hometo smart new office blocks, apartments and aTitanic museum.

In 1912, the Titanic was arguably the mostluxurious ship in the world, but while suchsubjective matters will fuel debate amongsthistorians, the sheer facts of her existence areunquestionably impressive:

Length: 88 ft, nine inches; Beam: 92ft; Grosstonnage: 46,328 tons; Propulsion: Threepropellers; Engines: two triple-expansionreciprocating steam engines, one low-pressureParsons turbine; 25 double-ended and four

single-ended Scotch-type boilers; 159 coalburning furnaces; Top speed : 23 knots.

These are merely cold facts until it is realisedthat to lift and trim the coal to fire the furnacesto generate the steam to power the engines todrive the propellers to push the ship at up to23 knots took the labour of 322 firemen, 120trimmers and well over100 engineers,electricians and other engine room staff.

Each of them had a story to tell, but very fewof them lived to tell it.

The technical triumph and the humantragedy are key elements a story that, if we areto believe the legend, cut deep into the socialand cultural gristle of a complacent world onthe brink of a world war.

The social impact of the sinking may beexaggerated, but those who examine the topicoften find in the Titanic a conveniently timedsymbol for the end of a mythical ‘gilded age’.

What is certain is that as the Titanic sailedfrom Southampton on April 10, 1912 shecarried with her a fascinating cross-section of

As the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disasterapproaches, Philip Hind explores why the

sinking has etched itself into our consciousness and how Oxfordshire was

touched by the tragedy

society ‘from millionaire to poor man’s son’. In her design and operation also the Titanic

embodied the ingrained social norms of thetime. In crude terms: the rich on the top decknear the lifeboats and the poor on the lowerdecks barred — in some cases quite literally — from gaining access to the boats. Barred onshipboard as in life ashore from opportunityand a future.

Four days later, on a cold dark night with aflat calm sea, an entirely unexpected eventthrew together these neatly segregated groups.A minority were subjected to four hoursshivering uncomfortably in small boats, but themajority were fated to swim and die together ina freezing sea.

For more information about the the Titanic’spassengers and crew, visit the website:www.encyclopedia-titanica.org Philip Hind is an Oxford based filmmaker, writerand web editor. Visit the website:www.philiphind.com

The legend

oxfordtimes.co.uk Anniversary

April 2012 Oxfordshire Limited Edition 9

sails on

There is nothing particularly unusual about Lime Walk

(residents may disagree); nor is there anything particularlyunusual about the small piece of Titanic history that canbe found there.

A modest brass plaque in All Saints Church is typical ofhundreds around the country and around the world. Its sharpedges, lovingly polished, have faded and the ornate letteringhas gained a muted patina with the passage of time, but theinscription would lead any reader to want to know more aboutthe talented young cellist whose untimely death prompted thisunderstated but elegant tribute.

TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN MEMORY OF

JOHN WESLEY WOODWARDBANDSMAN ON THE S.S. TITANIC

WHO WITH HIS COMRADESNOBLY PERFORMED HIS DUTY TO THE LAST

WHEN THE SHIP SANKAFTER COLLISION WITH AN ICEBERG

ON APRIL 15 1912.BORN SEPT 11, 1879.

"NEARER MY GOD TO THEE."

John Woodward had been born in West Bromwich, but thefamily moved to East Oxford after his brother Thomas became atenor with Magdalen College choir.

It takes some effort to picture the young man trundling hiscello along the Cowley Road. His mother later moved to

‘Nearer my God to thee’

JohnWesley

Woodward

Photograph:Steve Turner

Continued on page 11

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James Arthur Paintin was born in ThamesSt, St Aldates in 1882, one of ten children.He was baptised at Holy Trinity Church, St Ebbes where he later served as a

choirboy. He married Alice Bunce at thesame church on November 8, 1911.

Arthur had been in service with a prominentfamily in North Oxford before joining theWhite Star Line.

Eventually he worked his way up tobecoming personal steward or ‘Tiger’ to theline’s commodore, the charismatic CaptainEdward John Smith. But he hinted, in a letterwritten to his mother and posted from theTitanic at Queenstown, that his position did not

Windmill Road, Headington, hence theconnection with All Saints Church.

John Wesley Woodward had alreadynarrowly avoided death at sea. He wassitting with colleagues in their cabin onthe Titanic’s sister ship Olympic whenshe was rammed by a Royal Navy cruiserin 1911; the musician’s quarters wereadjacent to the point at which theHawke’s bow tore into the liner’s hull.

The ship’s orchestra have enteredTitanic folklore by famously havingplayed hymns as the ship went down.

The actual truth is unknown, but thestory of unflinching heroism in the faceof disaster suited the prevailing moodof the time, and was one factor in thedecision by the church and communityto erect this plaque in his honour.

From page 9

The Oxford ‘Tiger’

AmyStanley

Amy Stanley was an Oxfordshire girlfrom an Oxfordshire family. Herfather came from Nether Worton andher mother from Deddington. Amy

was born in 1888 and baptised in Barford StMichael Church.

The family then moved to Wolvercote and asAmy grew up she helped in the family grocerybusiness. She later worked as a dressmaker inOxford before going into domestic service inWallingford.

In April 1912, Amy prepared to move toNew Haven, Connecticut to become achildren's maid. She bought a third class ticketthrough Thomas Cook & Son. She would havemade the journey earlier but a coal strikecaused the cancellation of numerous sailingsthat spring.

Amy survived the sinking and completed thejourney to New York on board the rescue shipCarpathia. The following reassuring telegramwas dictated on board but the wireless operatordid not have time to send it:

To: Mrs Stanley, Wolvercote, Oxford.‘Saved Carpathia. Amy’.After her arrival Amy wrote to her parents:“I have had a terrible experience, one that I shall

never forget as long as I live. “I was writing a postcard the night that the boat

struck the iceberg. I got out of bed and asked the steward what was

the matter. He ordered all the women back to bed,but I did not go.

Then I saw two fellows who assisted us over therailings into the lifeboat.

“We were rowing for several hours. I seemed tohave extra strength that night to keep up my nerves,for I even made them laugh when I told them we hadescaped vaccination, for we were all to have beenvaccinated that day.

“Oh! the widows the Titanic has made! Don't youthink I have been lucky throughout?

Amy was given $200 by the American RedCross and she went on to New Haven to start

exempt him from the generally poor wages andliving conditions endured by the crew:

“Bai jove what a fine ship this is, much better thanthe Olympic as far as passengers are concerned, butmy room is nothing near so nice, no daylight, electriclight on all day, but I suppose it's no use grumbling. Ihope to make up a bit for last voyage I saved nothingto think of.”

He also refers in passing to the Hawkecollision which was very much in people’sminds at the time:

“I . . . am very sorry I could not get to Oxford, forwe have now commenced the quick voyages all thesummer (bar accidents). I say that because theOlympic's bad luck seems to have followed us...

As the Titanic left Southampton the suctionfrom the huge ship passing though the narrowchannel caused lines on nearby ships to strain.

Arthur wrote: “The 'New York's' ropes snappedlike a piece of cotton and she drifted against us.There was great excitement for some time, but I don'tthink there was any damage done bar one or twopeople knocked over by the ropes.”

Many on board viewed the incident withforeboding and referred to it in letters home.

Arthur had intended to leave the MerchantNavy in 1912. He and Alice wanted to buy asmall hotel in Oxford. It is a tragic irony thatTitanic may even have been planned as his lastvoyage.

Alice Paintin had been visiting her family inOxford at the time of the disaster and rushedback to Southampton in the hope of gainingnews from the White Star offices, only todiscover that her husband of only five monthswas dead.

In July of the same year, while still inmourning, Alice gave birth to their son. Shenamed him Arthur James Paintin.

her new life. She married in 1918 and died inRhode Island in 1955.

As the Titanic sank the pressure caused herhull to split in two. As the cabins were tornapart the personal belongings of passengersbegan to fall to the seabed.

Today this impromptu museum of everydayobjects lies dispersed around the shatteredremnants of the Titanic herself.

Since the discovery of the wreck in 1985salvage expeditions have plucked some of theseitems from the Atlantic silt.

One item that was recovered was an elegantwoman’s bracelet with a name made pickedout in small jewels.

The name was Amy.Was it hers? Probably not, but as with all

things Titanic, it makes a good story.

Above, Amy Stanley

Photograph: TIS Archives (permission given)

Right, James Arthur Paintin

Photograph: Beryl Morron (Paintin’s niece)(permission given)