Favorite Passenger Quotes?

Itsstillthinking

Itsstillthinking

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Just was wondering what everyone's favorite quote was from passengers or crew or related people? Mine would be cheating a little but this quote has been special to me ever since i saw Death Of Dream for the first time. Its from Jack Thayer from his notes shortly before his death in WW2

""There was peace and the world had an even tenor to it's way. Nothing was revealed in the morning the trend of which was not known the night before. It seems to me that the disaster about to occur was the event that not only made the world rub it's eyes and awake but woke it with a start keeping it moving at a rapidly accelerating pace ever since with less and less peace, satisfaction and happiness. To my mind the world of today awoke April 15th, 1912."
-Jack B. Thayer, Titanic Survivor"
 
Is there any truth in the quote that a steward or porter told a nervous passenger Sylvia Caldwell "Madam, God himself could not sink this ship?"
 
I could not find the source to that quote, but survivor Eva Hart said in a TV interview that her mother was very nervous and refused to leave her cabin. Eva said her father went to see the captain and took Eva with him. She said the captain gave her father some words of encouragement and said - "She's a wonderful ship. God himself could not sink her."

She was elderly when she gave the interview, so it is unknown if her memory of that meeting was accurate. e.g. They could have simply met an officer or a steward and Eva's father told her that was the captain of this great big ship. Then again maybe it really was Captain Smith.


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Smith did daily inspections of the ship and was very friendly with passengers (thats why so many people sailed with him) so its possible he met him
 
Here is the interview. At 2.00 she mentions her father's meeting with Captain Smith.


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"Will you believe it now?" - said by a third-class passenger who threw a lump of ice at the feet of Steward Henry Etches.

"It was not very parliamentary." - Bruce Ismay on Fifth Officer Lowe's language.

"It was rather like a stupid picnic where you don't know anybody and wonder how soon you can get away from such a boresome place." - First-class passenger Henry Harper on the crowds gathering on the boat deck after the collision.
 
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"I saw that ship sink, I never closed my eyes. I didn't sleep at all. I saw it, I heard it, and nobody could possibly forget it. I can remember the colours, the sounds, everything. The worst thing I can remember are the screams. It seemed as if once everybody had gone, drowned, finished, the whole world was standing still. There was nothing, just this deathly, terrible silence in the dark night with the stars overhead." -- Eva Hart

I like a quote by an unidentified American passenger too -- "Take my life preserver, madam. If I go down, please pray for me."
 
"Just run along the deck and see if any ice has come aboard. I'd like some for this."
-Somebody who either never learned how to drink whiskey straight, didn't know what bourbon was, or both.
 
Well, Senator Smith didn't know either, so I don't blame him for not knowing what an iceberg is.
 
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I wish I had put on my corset before I left the Titanic - my back is killing me.

Survivor Nora Keane to Edwina Troutt, on board Carpathia.

Priorities!!
 
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Having a fondness for the clergy who boarded the Titanic, I will admit to being very fond of the words of absolution (Ego te absolvo &c.), which by survivor accounts were the last recorded words of Fr. Thomas Byles, who was reported giving absolutions and blessings to those soon to die.

Then there's that remark by Francis Browne, SJ, in reference to being ordered off the ship at Queenstown by his superior: "It was the only time holy obedience ever saved a man's life."

N.B. The actual telegram to the future Fr. Browne (GET OFF THAT SHIP: PROVINCIAL) was used by a certain site I will not name as spurious evidence of a Jesuit plot to have Titanic sunk on purpose. One wonders how they explain why a Jesuit meeting with the alleged co-conspirator captain to ensure the plan was executed would take so many pictures of the ship whose destruction he was arranging, and was considering making the journey to NYC.
 
“You are such a sensible boy I know that you require no advice from me, but as an old hand who has come through the mill myself I would just like to say how important it is for you to endeavour to give your employers full[39] confidence in you from the start. This can best be gained:

“(1) By punctuality and close attention to your work at all times—but don’t allow your health to suffer through overwork.

“(2) Always carry out instructions given by those above you, whether you agree with them or not—and try to get instructions in writing if you are not sure of your man.

“(3) Always treat those above you with respect, no matter whether they are fools or know less than yourself.

“(4) Never give information unless you are perfectly sure, better to say you are not sure, but will look the matter up.

“(5) Never be anxious to show how quick you are by being the first out of the shop when the horn blows. It is better on these occasions to be a bit slow.


Said by Thomas Andrews Jr to a young relative then beginning work as an engineer in 1905. It are the rules I life by in matter of fact.
 
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