George Rheims wrote of having barely escaped tangled ropes in a letter to his wife, Apr. 19, 1912, L/P file, pp. 232–234; annotation by James Cameron on ropes left on decks by exact reproduction of the Titanic’s lifeboats, Aug. 2001, p. 233.
Alfred White’s last actions in the engine room, and his escape via the fourth smokestack, were detailed in a letter to Rev. M. Langley (brother-in-law of William Parr), June 21, 1912. The letter was forwarded to Bill MacQuitty and Walter Lord by family member Frank Johnston, Nov. 20, 1956. Notes about additional family recollections were provided by MacQuitty in 1990, L/P file, pp. 182–186.
Thomas Patrick Dillon reported that the clocks in the engine room had not yet been reset and were off by about fifteen minutes (and perhaps more, up to half an hour): British Inquiry, May 9, 1912, p. 99. Consequently, when White specifies 1 a.m., he, like Dillon, means at least 1:15. When White states that the ship began lurching down at “twenty of two,” he is almost certainly talking about the plunge that began with the boiler room number 4 collapse, between 2:00 and 2:10 a.m. (and closer to the latter). One of the enduring engine-room enigmas of the night was the steam source for electrical power late into the sinking: Parks Stephenson, “Titanic Wreck Observations, 2005,” http://www.mconigraph.com, 2006, p. 5.
Charles Joughin, after his rescue work was finished, followed the doctor’s orders for facing the last minutes (“drink heavily”) and stepped into history as a medical enigma: He first contacted Lord by letter, Nov. 2, 1955, L/P file, pp. 425–427, 429. Lord reported on his conversations with Joughin on Sept. 13, 1993, L/P file, pp. 31–32, 38.
Joughin told the examiners that during the forty to forty-five minutes leading up to the breakup, he saw a leak and heard cracking in a region between the third and fourth smokestacks: British Inquiry, May 10, 1912, pp. 145, 148. Joughin clarified that he first heard a loud cracking sound a few minutes after he had been to his room and discovered a leak about 1:30 a.m. Joughin also clarified that the breakup of the ship and the rush of people toward the stern occurred after 2 a.m. Thomas Patrick Dillon described his escape from the severed stern for the British Inquiry, May 9, 1912, pp. 98–101.
The story of Howard Irwin and Henry Sutehall’s journey: Matt Tulloch, personal communication, June 14, 1995, L/P file, pp. 670–678; Barbara Shuttle, personal communications, 2004–2010; and Dave Shuttle and Barbara Shuttle, “Pearl and Howard: Recovered Artifacts Recall a Story of Tragic Love,” Voyage 31, Winter 2000, pp. 151–154.
George Kemish’s escape: letter to Walter Lord, June 19, 1955, L/P file, pp. 554, 560. Kemish reached boat 9, commanded by James McGough, as noted by Colonel Archibald Gracie in Jack Winocour, ed., The Story of the Titanic as Told by Its Survivors (New York: Dover, 1960), 248. An important contribution of the Kemish letter is that it sheds light on the kidnapping of Howard Irwin. Martha Stephenson’s recollections were recorded in a letter to Gracie in 1912, reproduced in Winocour, p. 209.
In boat 14, the crew lied about the source of the screams, as recalled by Madeline Mellinger: Toronto Star, Apr. 15, 1974, L/P file, p. 578.
Observations from boat 16 were recorded by Violet Jessop and Lily Futrelle, Lord annotations of Jessop memoir, 1999, L/P file, pp. 709, 711.
Arthur Bright testified that he witnessed lights in portholes after the stern broke away: American Inquiry, Apr. 27, 1912, pp. 833, 837, 840–841. Thomas Ranger and George Cavell reported the same phenomenon to the British Inquiry, May 9, 1912, pp. 104–105, 107. In boat 10, Edward Buley also noted the impossible persistence of portside lights: American Inquiry, Apr. 25, 1912, pp. 610, 612. Buley, who would disappear into history as a casualty of World War I, became the chief antagonist of Masabumi Hosono: Buley, American Inquiry, Apr. 25, 1912, p. 613; Hosono, “Letter Rectifies Decades of Shame,” Arizona Star, Dec. 21, 1997 (courtesy of Carl J. White); M. Findlay, “A Matter of Honor,” Voyage 27, Winter 1998, p. 124.
Frank Evans saw the breakup of the Titanic from Hosono’s boat and described it in detaiclass="underline" American Inquiry, Apr. 26, 1912, p. 753.
19. A CREVICE IN TIME
Events aboard the Keldysh immediately after 9/11: Charles Pellegrino, e-mail to Arthur C. Clarke, Sept. 13, 2001; Pellegrino, written log, Expedition Titanic XIII, Sept. 11–13, 2001, pp. 146, 178; communications shack log and video log for these dates (pp. 103–105); James Cameron, Ghosts of the Abyss (DVD).
On the origin of a study in column collapse, down-blast, volcano physics, and a decision to enter ground zero at the expedition’s end: Charles Pellegrino, in Haraldur Sigurddson, American Vesuvius, Towers Productions, History Channel, 2006. Nomenclature scale for explosive events developed by Charles Scheffield and others: Charles Pellegrino, Ghosts of Vesuvius (New York: HarperCollins, 2004), 62–63.
The figure of twelve thousand pounds per square inch, within the regions of the central World Trade Center column collapses, was determined by metallurgical studies of damage to the barrels of service guns worn by police officers killed in the towers. Forces ranged both above and below this number, depending on such variables as radius from the core of the column collapse, shielding effects, and even shock cocooning. This was a force approximately equivalent to twice the force pressing in on the hulls of the Mirs at the Titanic’s depth.
Aboard the Keldysh, John-David Cameron warned against entering the toxic plumes of the World Trade Center: Cameron, personal communication and shared experiences with Lew Abernathy, Expedition Titanic XIII, Sept. 2001. “Remember Dr. O’Loughlin” and a lesson in not following the ship’s surgeon’s advice: Pellegrino, letters to Arthur C. Clarke, in written log, Expedition Titanic XIII, Sept. 13, 16, 2001, pp. 175, 180.
Aboard the Keldysh, a drawing was faxed from P.S. 26 in Queens: Pellegrino, written log, Expedition Titanic XIII, Sept. 20, 2001, p. 220.
Discovery of the number 1 cargo hatch cover, further study of the stern section, and implications for World Trade Center down-blast studies: Charles Pellegrino and James Cameron, field notes and written log, Expedition Titanic XIII, Sept. 21, 2001, pp. 226–228; Roy Cullimore, Charles Pellegrino, and Lori Johnston, “RMS Titanic and the Emergence of New Concepts on the Consortial Nature of Microbial Events,” Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 173 (2002): 132–134; Ken Marschall and Charles Pellegrino, written log, Expedition Titanic XIII, debris field map and stern section.
While at sea, preparing for a comparative study of volcano physics at the World Trade Center, we received from the navy fresh comparative material from the wreck of the Ehime Maru: written log, Expedition Titanic XIII, Sept. 2001, dive 7 frontmatter. The next day, Jim Cameron opened the production meeting with a surprise—sending me back again to the Titanic: Pellegrino, written log, Expedition Titanic XIII, Sept. 22, 2001, pp. 265–266.