Eyewitness accounts of people trapped in the Titanic’s stern: Gus Cohen, as recollected from personal communication, as noted by Walter Lord, Sept. 13, 1993, p. 4, L/P file, p. 33. Alfred White had also reported seeing people deep inside the ship, gathered in prayer: communication from family members to Walter Lord and Bill MacQuitty, 1955–1956, L/P file, p. 184; pre-expedition Titanic VIII conference, 1996, L/P file, pp. 687–688. On the growth of rusticles at and around the stern: glacier-like flows from rusticle sources are especially prominent in black-and-white Argo photos of a broken-away crane near aft port side of the stern debris, 1986.
On bioconcretions, the 1996 soup-tureen discovery, and the breakthrough study of the Titanic’s rusticle reef with Roy Cullimore: Charles Pellegrino, written and video logs, Expedition Titanic VIII, 1996; written log, pp. 1, 4B, 5, 12, 13, 16, 90; William Garske, “How Did the Titanic Really Sink?” Voyage 25, 1997, pp. 39–46. The gold-covered band remnant was found surrounding a mammalian bone consistent with the base of a human finger. More specifically, the copper-gold band appeared to have grown outward from the base of the third bone from the tip of a finger, called the proximal phalanx. The base of this bone was mostly missing at the break point in the concretion. The expansion of disintegrating copper from the bone into anoxic mud had continued backward and hardened over the base of the next bone—the bone actually found in the tureen concretion—which was the forepart of the palm itself, called a metacarpal.
On the equipment sent to probe the Titanic during Expedition Titanic VIII: Charles Pellegrino, video log, Expedition Titanic VIII, Aug. 1996. Discussion of bilateral bow damage under sediment: Charles Pellegrino, Roy Cullimore, William Garske, and Bill Lange. Debris field map: Paul Henry Nargeolet, George Tulloch, Roy Cullimore, Ken Marschall, and Charles Pellegrino, by aid of Argo footage enhanced by B. Lange, WHOI, 1997. The Georgia sheriff comment is credited to Bill Engfer, personal communication, 1997.
The high-resolution sonar results were first described by William Garske, “How Did the Titanic Really Sink?” Voyage 25, 1997, pp. 29–31. Paul Henry Nargeolet and Paul Matthias’s results from the port side, indicating that most of the bow section damage seen had resulted from the deep-ocean crash, was discussed in B. Martzen, Titanic’s Last Secrets (New York: Twelve, 2008), 36. On the biological pathways of iron and water through rusticles: Roy Cullimore and Lori Johnston, “Titanic: The Biological Odyssey,” Voyage 32, 2000, p. 174.
The fate of the Rice family aboard the Titanic: Eugene Rice, personal communication, 2002, and by Don Lynch, letters to author, 2002. Rice participated in framing the dirty bomb protocol for the New York fire department: R. Meo, My Turn on the Front Lines (Victoria, BC: Trafford, 2009), 436–437.
Bertha Mulvihil was an eyewitness to the loss of the Rice and Goodwin families and published her account in Providence Daily Journal, Apr. 20, 1912, L/P file, p. 709. Rosa Abbott witnessed and experienced what happened to the Sages and other third-class families on the stern: Abbott was a case study by Walter Lord, 1987, personal communication; Abbott, letter to Emily Goldsmith, Mar. 1, 1914, L/P file, p. 457; Judith Geller, Titanic: Women and Children First (New York: W. W. Norton, 1988), 141–145.
On the discovery of Howard Irwin’s steamer trunk: Barbara Shuttle, letter to author and notes, Sept. 10, 2004, L/P file, p. 103; Barbara Shuttle and Dave Shuttle, The Musician’s Trunk (unpublished).
The Titanic became one of the very first shipwrecks to yield readable paper after nearly a century. The presence of additional intact paper in the Titanic’s mail room was indicated by the robot Robin: George Tulloch, video log, Expedition Titanic V, 1993. This discovery supported the conclusions of a Walter Lord and Charles Pellegrino study pinpointing locations and possible fates of letters written during the voyage, identifying places where robot probes should seek out survivable paper, April 10, 1991, L/P file, pp. 60–63.
“It’s amazing how close we [might] have been to losing the story forever”: Barbara Shuttle, letter to author, Nov. 20, 2009, p. 1. On the reducing environment inside Howard Irwin’s trunk: Charles Pellegrino and Matt Tulloch, IP-3 Laboratory photos and video, France, 1995, L/P file, pp. 670–678. Pearl Shuttle’s career as a musician from Hamilton, Ontario, and her doomed love were described in David Shuttle and Barbara Shuttle, “Pearl and Howard,” Voyage 31, Winter 2000, pp. 151–154, and by Barbara Shuttle, personal communication, 2000–2011.
22. TERMINAL VELOCITY
Dive 10, the discoveries made, the number 1 cargo hatch accident, and the Big Lew Abernathy law: Charles Pellegrino, written log and video log, Expedition Titanic XIII, Sept. 22, 2001, pp. 267a, 271, 274–275, 276, 278–280, 369.
23. LAYING THE MUSIC TO REST
The distress call from the Titanic reporting “engine room” flooding: Captain Arthur Rostron, British Inquiry, June 21, 1912, p. 741. The last signal from the Titanic, reported by the Virginian, was always a puzzle. Walter Lord and I wondered for a long time what two V’s meant, until a possible solution was inspired by the film A Clockwork Orange: three dots and a dash, transmitted twice, was the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, representing death knocking at the door—twice. The last curious signal was first cited in Walter Lord, A Night to Remember (New York: Holt, 1955), 92. The monitoring of the Titanic’s dying electric spark was detailed by J. H. Moore of the Mount Temple, American Inquiry, Apr. 27, 1912, pp. 776–777, and in “Digest of Marconigram Messages,” American Inquiry, p. 1138.
Celiney Yasbeck’s boat was among those that came upon the horrifying and mysterious wreck of the floating stairway: Marjorie Newell, personal communication, recorded 1991, L/P file, p. 131. The rescue of the overturned boat B, under Lightoller’s command, is detailed in several major firsthand accounts: survivor F. Clench, American Inquiry, Apr. 25, 1912, p. 639; Walter Lord, boat 4 discussion notes with author, Sept. 10, 1991, L/P file, p. 90; Jack Thayer letter to Colonel Archibald Gracie, in Jack Winocour, ed., The Story of the Titanic as Told by Its Survivors (New York: Dover, 1960), 222; Charles Lightoller, in Winocour, 301–302.
Madeline Mellinger and her mother, in boat 12, were present for the rescue of boat B. Madeline, in a letter to Lord, Oct. 1955, described the rescue and the saving of Lightoller himself. Walter Lord, personal communication, Sept. 10, 1991, described how Madeline came into possession of Lightoller’s whistle. He also described the rift that later developed over the whistle. L/P file, pp. 89–90, 578–579, 602, 603–613.