Titanic Quotes

[Robert Falange]

I’d like to propose a little activity for your entertainment and enjoyment which may arouse your curiosity and (especially in the case of our less experienced members) encourage you to go and have a look at some of the sources which are often quoted by our “veterans” during the discussions and debates which we enjoy on this board:

My suggestion is that we put up a series of quotations concerning the Titanic and invite readers to identify both the speaker and the source — something along the lines of “Spoken by Captain Bloggs, as the vessel left Southampton, and quoted in Ethel Cringeworthy’s “Titanic Rules the Waves” (1923, page4)” — that sort of thing!!!

Posters might want to leave a blank (*****) if they feel that the full quote would be too easy, or perhaps as an extra teaser, which respondents can then seek to identify.

So here goes, in anticipation of your cooperation: Let me make the first contribution and ask you to identify this quote?

“I heard Mr. Lightoller speak to Mr. ***** and tell him to speak through the telephone to the crow's-nest to keep a sharp look-out for small ice and growlers until daylight and pass the word along to the look-out man.”

Who said this, in what source, and whose name is omitted?


Any takers??

bob

 

[Robert Falange]

...and whilst you're pondering that one, have you seen this site, where there are a whole load of quotes?

http://www.thetitanicstop.com/quotes.html

bob

 

[Alex McLean]

Did the name belong to Sixth Officer James Moody?

 

[Robert Falange]

Quite right, Alex!! Thanks for having a go.

The problem now is to work out who would have been in a position to witness the exchange.

One clue: All the information need to solve this is found on this website.


bob

 

[Dave Gittins]

It was Robert Hichens in the British inquiry.

One of my favourites is Hichens's wonderful understatement. "All went along very well until 20 minutes to 12." Things sure went downhill after that!

On my own site I have another selection of quotes, some of them possibly not authentic, but they appeal to my warped sense of humour.

http://users.senet.com.au/~gittins/quotes.html

Another good one is from Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon. Excusing his lack of action in the lifeboat, he said, "We had had a rather serious evening, you know."

 

[Michael H. Standart]

The one I like was where Lightoller responded to a very long, very windy question from a U.S. Senator regarding the effects and the results of the accident from the first to the last, to which Lights simply responded "The result was she sank."

Nothing like getting to the point!

 

[Erik Wood]

That's Lights for you.

 

[Robert Falange]

Yes, Dave is right. The quotation given at the top of the thread — which I’d like to call “Teaser One” — is from Quartermaster Hichens testimony to the British Inquiry (Day 3, Question 927). The link is:

http://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq/BOTInq03Hichens01.html


Here is Teaser Two:

“Just then one of the crew looked up and saw me looking over. “Any ladies on your deck?” he said. “No,” I replied. “Then you had better jump.” I sat on the edge of the deck with my feet over, threw the dressing gown (which I had carried on my arm all the time) into the boat, dropped, and fell in the boat near the stern.”

Who wrote or said this, and in what source?

bob

 

[Don Tweed]

"One cannot avoid strange thoughts as to the destiny of the very material that expressed all this wealth and luxury-the silver plate, the beautiful china, the hot house flowers, the Jacobean panelings, the Louis XV suites, the tapestries, the brocades, the rare polished woods and inlays, the clothes from Paris, the diamonds and the gold- all within the space of an hour or two converted into an indescribable mess and mush of lumps and fibres under the stupendous pressure at the ocean bed...And strange it is to think that among the many lovely works of man crushed out of recognition by that mighty two-mile pressure, the only practically indestructible things are the diamonds, the last expression in material of human wealth; and that they will lie there for ever, valuable no more, beautiful no more, harmful no more."

Love that quote!!!

-Don

 

[Robert Falange]

....and if Don doesn't mind, I'd like to call that "Teaser Three". Thanks, Don!

So, two puzzles (Numbers 2 and 3) are currently unidentified. How long will it take our ET sleuths to track them down?

bob

 

[Dave Gittins]

Let's keep this thread alive! Number 2 is pretty easy and I'll leave it to others. Number 3 is one of those rotten things that I've seen somewhere but can't recall where.

Meanwhile, here's one of my own,

"Writers who had never heard of ******* ***** to that hour wrote of him as they would hardly write of Nelson."

Who wrote this pointed comment and whose name fills the gap?

 

[Michael Shetina]

Lawrence Beesley wrote #2 in his account.

 

[Robert Falange]

Thanks for the correct identification of #2, Michael. The reference for that, as you say, is Lawrence Beesley's "The Loss of the S.S Titanic". There are various editions, the quote coming from Chapter Three (3 paragraphs before the end of the chapter).

Teasers #3 and #4 have got me beat at present - I'm enjoying trying to locate them - thanks, gentlemen!


bob

 

[Dave Gittins]

I can only guess at Don's quotation. Is it from Filson Young? It suggests his flowery style.

 

[Kyrila Scully]

My favorite quote is when Senator Smith asked (correct me, I'm probably wrong) Officer Lowe what an iceberg was made of and he replied "Ice, sir."

 

[Kyrila Scully]

Dave and Robert, thank you for those web links. BTW, what is the source of the Capt. Smith quote about the Adriatic? It's the first quote on your list, Dave.

 

[Don Tweed]

Yes Dave!!!
Filson Young. Very good.
I have committed that to memory and never tire of its rolling beauty.

-Don

 

[Dave Gittins]

Kyrilla, I got the quote indirectly from The Night Lives On. I think it was originally in The New York Times or perhaps another New York paper.

Don, I've never read Filson Young, though I'd like to. I think your quote must be in some other book that I've seen.

 

[Kyrila Scully]

Thanks, Dave. You led me right to it.

Kyrila

 

[JHPravatiner]

Kyrila,
One of my favorite quotes too. Yep, it was Senator Smith asking Lowe about an iceberg's composition and Lowe's answer was the simple, "Ice, I suppose, sir." Also fond of Lightoller's "The result was that she sank."