Colonel Archibald Gracie, Censor?
Hi, all!
Has anybody ever commented on a glaring little discrepancy between Mrs. Ryerson's affidavit to the US Inquiry and Colonel Gracie's quotation from the same in "The Truth About the 'Titanic'"? I came across it quite by accident and I'm not sure whether or not it's old news.
The passage in question is in the paragraph that starts, "The ropes seemed to stick at one end and the boat tipped..." and what I see is a virtual rewrite by the good colonel, not only of Mrs. Ryerson's words, but of her intent. At first I was inclined to think that Gracie simply found her too verbose and that a little condensation might be in order. But after rereading his Chapter III, in which he went to great length to discredit the "break-in-two theory," I started wondering whether his tinkering might be the result of some editorial motive. In the excerpt below, Mrs. Ryerson mentions not only the break-up, but also the difficulties their lifeboat had in getting organized. You be the judge. (I should say that the rest of Gracie's excerpted text, though occasionally reformatted, holds fairly closely to Mrs. Ryerson's original.)
FIFTEENTH DAY
Friday, May 10
Washington, D.C.
Affidavit: Emily B. Ryerson
First-class passenger, from Philadelphia
"...In a few minutes after several other men not sailors came down the ropes over the davits and dropped into our boat. The order was given to pull away, then they rowed off - the sailors, the women, anyone - but made little progress; there was a confusion of orders; we rowed toward the stern, some one shouted something about a gangway, and no one seemed to know what to do. Barrels and chairs were being thrown overboard. Then suddenly, when we still seemed very near, we saw the ship was sinking rapidly. I was in the bow of the boat with my daughter and turned to see the great ship take a plunge toward the bow, the two forward funnels seemed to lean and then she seemed to break in half as if cut with a knife, and as the bow went under the lights went out; the stern stood up for several minutes, black against the stars, and then that, too, plunged down, and there was no sound for what seemed like hours, and then began the cries for help of people drowning all around us, which seemed to go on forever..."
Colonel Gracie’s edited version:
“Mrs. E. B. Ryerson’s affidavit (Am. Inq., p. 1107):
"...In a few minutes several other men, not sailors, came down the ropes over the davits and dropped into our boat. The order was given to pull away, and then they rowed off. Someone shouted something about a gangway, and no one seemed to know what to do. Barrels and chairs were being thrown overboard. As the bow of the ship went down the lights went out. The stern stood up for several minutes black against the stars and then the boat plunged down. Then began the cries for help of people drowning all around us, which seemed to go on forever..."
I'm a little surprised that Gracie provided a citation to the original document, since it surely invites comparison. But perhaps folks weren't dissecting every syllable so relentlessly back in '12 and '13?
Best wishes!
Roy
