Harland Duzen's post about one of his
Titanic 'obsessions' as being the identity of the couple in the Cabin _78, the door of which was knocked on repeatedly but in vain by steward Henry Samuel Etches sometime after the collision reminded me that this was also one of my favourite
Titanic topics and one into which I have tried to do some digging. It is commonly believed that the Cabin was C-78 but it could just easily - in fact I believe more likely - was B-78. In his statement at the American Inquiry, Etches appears to have referred to that canon as "78" without a letter prefix.
Cabin C-78 was allocated to the Minahan family - Dr William Minahan, his wife Lillian Minahan and sister Daisy Minahan. All accounts agree on this fact, including
the Cave List.
Cabin B-78 is more confusing. According to ET and some other accounts, it was allocated to a middle-aged couple Mr William Spencer and his wife Marie Eugenie Spencer. BUT,
the Cave List has the Spencers in Cabin B-76 and no one in Cabin B-78 and so there is the possibility that Cabin B-78 was, in fact,
officially unoccupied.
IMO, one of the important clues here could be the
time at which Etches knocked on that cabin door and got no response. Going by his statements at the American Hearing, Cabin _78, irrespective of whether it was 'B' or 'C', was NOT officially allocated to him. Look at this:
Senator SMITH.
What about Mr. Guggenheim and his secretary, and others?
Mr. ETCHES.
They were in their room. I took the lifebelts out. The lifebelts in this cabin were in the wardrobe, in a small rack, and the cabin was only occupied by two. There were three lifebelts there, and I took the three out and put one on Mr. Guggenheim. He apparently had only gone to his room, for he answered the first knock. He said: "This will hurt." I said, "You have plenty of time, put on some clothes and I will be back in a few minutes."
Senator SMITH.
Did you get back there?
Mr. ETCHES.
Yes, sir.
Senator SMITH.
Was he there?
Mr. ETCHES.
Yes; he followed me along. I then found No. 78 cabin door shut, and I banged with both hands on the door loudly, and a voice answered, "What is it"? Then a lady's voice said, "Tell me what the trouble is." I said, "It is necessary that you should open the door, and I will explain everything, but please put the lifebelts on or bring them in the corridor." They said, "I want to know what is the matter." I said, "Kindly open the door," and I still kept banging. I passed along, and I found one cabin was empty, and then I came to another cabin and a lady and a gentleman stood at the door. They were swinging a lifebelt in their hands.
If you look at statements made by Etches earlier in the same session, it strongly suggests that he saw to the Carters and Harrisons before going to Guggenheim's cabin, which was B-82 (B-84?). Then he spent some time assisting Guggenheim and his valet to put on the life jackets etc, then left them to attend to do other things and then came back, presumably to find Guggenheim and his valet ready. Then Guggenheim "followed Etches along" to _78 before the latter knocked on that cabin's door; this strongly suggests that it must have been Cabin B-78. Otherwise, why would Guggenheim and his valet, now ready with lifebelts on, follow their steward
down to
C-deck level when the obvious place was to go
up towards the boat deck?
Now let us look at the previously mentioned occupants of those cabins in question:
Of the Spencer couple, Marie Eugenie survived on Lifeboat #6, which was launched between 01:05 and 01:10 am, while William Spencer remained on board and was lost in the sinking. But to get to the boat deck on time and get Eugenie her place on #6, the Spencers must have got ready and left their cabin sometime between 00:30 and 00:45, maybe even earlier. That, and the fact that they were a respectable middle-aged couple
of those times suggests that they were not the couple who refused to open the door to Etches. By inference therefore, the
Spencers must have occupied Cabin B-76, as per the Cave List.
Of the Minahans, it seems certain that they shared Cabin C-78, as per all accounts including the Cave List. As per the "Guggenheim connection" above, IMO it seems unlikely that C-78 was the locked cabin which Etches knocked on. Furthermore, if Mr Minahan shared that cabin with his wife and sister, there would have been no reason for one of them not to open the door.
For the record, Lillian and Daisy Minahan were saved on board Lifeboat #14, launched around 01:25 am. William Minahan remained on board and was lost in the sinking.
I sometimes wonder whether the similar first names of the two men - William Spencer and William Minahan - caused some confusion.
To summarise therefore, IMO the Spencer couple occupied Cabin B-76 and the Minahan trio Cabin C-78. Therefore, Cabin B-78, officially unallocated, must have been the one the door of which Etches knocked on; it was not opened but according to him there were a man and a woman inside. The question remains as to their identity.
