Titanic Connections

[Shelley Dziedzic]

There must be many similarities, connections and parallels between the two famous disasters. The first that comes to mind is Alfred Vanderbilt who cancelled his Titanic booking only to die on Lusitania three years later. Another association is Lady Duff Gordon who designed dancer/actress Gaby Deslys' 1912-1913 American tour wardrobe and several London production costumes. Charles Frohman was on his way to see Gaby on Lusitania in her London smash hit Rosy Rapture. Got more?

 

[Cliff Mark Barry]

Not sure if i can top that, but i do have a newspaper cutting which states that Dotrothy Dodd missed sailing on the Titanic in 1912 because her application for passage came to late- however she had no problem booking the return journey on the Lusitania 3 yrs later and survive!

Cliff

 

[Randy Bryan Bigham]

Lady Duff Gordon's connection to Lusitania is even more direct than that. She sailed many times on the Lusy and at least once on Mauretania. She much preferred Cunard to White Star. Titanic and Adriatic are the only WSL ships, in her long years of travel, that she ever took.

When returning home from New York after Titanic's sinking she and Cosmo and Franks chose Lusitania. It was on landing at Fishguard (sp?)from the Lusy that they read the first London newspapers containing the controversial accounts of their escape.

Finally, though I think no one believes me, in 1915 Lucile was in New York to open her spring collection and was actually booked on Lusitania's fatal trip. She cancelled by April 28 (the newspapers reported all this), having suffered a serious health crises for which she was hospitalized.

It was a case of one misfortune sparing her an infinitely worse one for had her predicament occured while on board Lusitania, she may have succumbed to her condition and, if not, would almost certainly have not been strong enough to make it up on deck on the afternoon of May 7.

PS) Lucile was well acquainted personally as well as professionally with Charles Frohman whose productions in London and on Broadway she had costumed for quite a few years.

 

[Cliff Mark Barry]

Bandmaster Wallace Hartley was 2nd Vilolinist on the Lusitania until early 1911, he asked fellow musician J W Hemingway to join him, but Hemingway said no! Bandmaster at the time on the Lusitania was Charles Cameron. One year later Hartley died on the Titanic & 4 yrs later Cameron died on the Lusitania- Hemingway who had stayed on the Lusitania survived the disaster

Cliff

 

[Randy Bryan Bigham]

Hey Cliff,

Thanks for these fine bits. Fascinating stuff as usual.

Can you confirm your postal address by e-mail? I'm sending your copy of Victoria magazine with the photo feature/article on Theodate Pope Riddle. (Thanks too for your amusing message of late!)

Randy

 

[Jim Kalafus]

Eloise Smith Daniel and Robert Daniel by coincidence returned from Europe on the same ship as the bulk of the American Lusitania survivors, which for a number of reasons must have been a kidney-stone of an ending for their presumed honeymoon.

 

[Randy Bryan Bigham]

Cliff,

I have just emailed you via the ET forum as I am not finding your private email. I've had trouble with the messaging through ET so I hope you get it. In case not, rest assured that your copy of the magazine, though much delayed (so sorry!), is on its way. And many thanks for your nice note and enclosures which arrived while I was away.

Jim,

I have not forgotten you! Your note was much appreciated as well. I'll write at length later. Meantime, thanks so much for everything.

Best wishes to you both,
Randy

 

[Jim Kalafus]

You are welcome- and thanks for the Caroline Hickson Kennedy/Lucile information..... Another Titanic/Lusitania link which needs to be further looked into.

 

[Michael Bezek]

Here's another, rather eerie coincidence. In a book called TITANICSYCHIC FOREWARNINGS OF A TRAGEDY, Goerge Behe relates the tale of a Mrs. Marshall who witnessed the departure of the Titanic from Southampton. Mrs. Marshall supposedly exclaimed "That ship is going to sink before it reaches America!"-certainly more prophetic words were never spoken! Three years later, Mrs. Marshall and her family were in New York and scheduled to sail on the Lusitania on May 1, 1915. The good lady exclaimed "The Lusitania is going to sink on that voyage!" and prevailed upon her husband to book passage on an earlier trip. Mr. Behe classifies this case as a "probable psychic phenomenon"- and I can only say I would have wanted Mrs. Marshall as my travel agent if I had been around back then!