The Titanic

All in the Ship Together

Titanic was a very fancy ship, and she had several fancy passengers. John Jacob Astor IV was a wealthy businessman who was traveling with his eighteen-year-old wife, Madeleine, who was pregnant with her first child. Isidor and Ida Straus were traveling as well. Isidor was a co-owner of Macy’s department store.

Many people in second-class and third-class were emigrating from Europe and coming to the United States or Canada to make a better life. Michel Navratil was fleeing France, after kidnapping his young sons, Michel Jr. and Edmond, from their mother. He boarded under the false name Hoffman. Anna Sofia Sjöblom and her friends were leaving Finland to visit her father in Olympia, Washington. They had actually purchased tickets on Adriatic, but due to a coal shortage, Adriatic couldn’t sail and Sjöblom and her friends were transferred to Titanic. Unfortunately, Sjöblom had terrible seasickness, and never left her bed.

Eva Hart was in second-class, and she loved exploring the ship. She’d play every day with a little dog who was also traveling on board. Her playmate, six-year-old Nina Harper, would play with Eva and a large teddy bear Eva’s father got her. Eight-year-old Marjorie Collyer was in third-class with her parents. They were moving from Hampshire, England, to Idaho, in the hopes that the Idaho climate would help Marjorie’s mother’s tuberculosis.

Over nine hundred workers worked on Titanic. There were sailors, stewards, engineers, firemen, cooks, waiters, bellboys, pot scrubbers, laundry workers, musicians, postal clerks, a butcher, and elevator operators. Frederick Hopkins, a plate steward, and William Watson, a bellboy, were the youngest workers, at fourteen years old. For most of the workers, this voyage on Titanic would be their last.

Captain E.J. Smith was in charge of the ship and crew. Smith had been with White Star Line as a captain since 1897, and he had achieved the rank of commodore, a naval rank higher than captain, in 1904. He had sailed over two million miles. Titanic’s maiden voyage would be his last trip before he retired. His expertise even saved Titanic from bumping into another ship, New York, as she pulled out of Southampton Harbor.

First Officer William Murdoch worked under Captain Smith on Olympic prior, and it was his job to assist Captain Smith at steering and navigating. Mudroch was descended from a line of Scottish seafarers, and he had been sailing since he was thirteen years old.

Murdoch, Smith, and other officers spent most of their time on the upper front deck of the ship, called the bridge. But other crew members spent their time in the bowels of the ship shoveling large amounts of coal into the furnaces. The boiler rooms could get as hot as 120 degrees Fahrenheit. The firemen worked only in undershirts and shorts due to the heat. They were called the “black gang” because the coal dust and smoke would turn their skin black. Twenty-eight-year-old Frederick Barrett was one of the lead stokers. He was from Liverpool, England, and he was used to the hard work required to work on a ship like Titanic.

Titanic was a floating town with people from all parts of society on board. And, unintentionally, their fates were all intertwined together.

Samantha’s Log: Hoping for a Better Life

Samantha, Jenny, and Bridget read in the papers that many of the second- and third-class passengers on Titanic were from Ireland. This makes Samantha’s sisters very sad. They all remember how when they immigrated to America from Ireland, people thought the girls were dirty and had diseases, simply because they were from Ireland.

Samantha learned that many immigrants live in cold, crowded rooms in run-down buildings because that’s all they can afford. Many children work to support their family instead of going to school, and people don’t always want to hire adults because they’re from another country. Before meeting Nellie and her sisters, Samantha didn’t realize how much prejudice surrounded her everywhere.