Senan Molony

Member since December 1998

Articles, Stories and Pictures

TITANIC : TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY
The third edition of the seminal reference book on the Titanic...

LIFEBOATS EXTINGUISHED THEIR LIGHTS!
Lifeboats from the Titanic extinguished their lights in order not to become attractive beacons for swimmers after the sinking....

HOW TO SURVIVE THE TITANIC. OR THE SINKING OF J. BRUCE ISMAY
Ismay as Ecce Homo...

NIGHT AND A TITAN
What did Titanic look like at night?...

THE BAND THAT PLAYED ON
Senan Molony reviews Steve Turner's new book about the musicians aboard the Titanic The Band that Played On...

VIOLET'S BARREN WHITE STAR WEDDING
The story of Titanic survivor Violet Jessop's short-lived marriage revealed for the first time....

ROSTRON'S MONSTER
Sir Arthur Henry Rostron was a lifelong believer in the existence of sea serpents and other forms of cryptozoology......

THE HART OF THE MATTER
FIREMAN Hart stands on the deck of the Titanic, knowing he has no entitlement to a lifeboat place, and prepares to dieÂ…...

GROVES' INAPPROPRIATE JOKE
The maturity of Charles Victor Groves, third officer of the ss Californian, is called sharply into question by a recollection of his Captai...

CAPTAIN LORD 1961 INTERVIEWS TRANSCRIPT
Transcript of a recorded conversation between Leslie Harrison and Captain Stanley Lord, held at 13 Kirkway, Wallasey, [Lord’s Merseyside home] in February 1961 [6-8.30pm], and a further discussion recorded on 19 August 1961....

STANLEY LORD IN CONVERSATION WITH LESLIE HARRISON
Extracts from a conversation between Captain Stanley Lord and Leslie Harrison, held on 19 August 1961....

MASTER AND COMMANDER
Titanic's Surviving Master-at-Arms Revealed...

ROSTRON'S LOST REPORT
Titanic survivors could have been marooned in the Azores! Captain Rostron of the Carpathia considered landing them in the mid-Atlantic island chain for their treatment and onward travel – while he would contin...

WHEN DID TITANIC TRY FOR HELP?
When did the Titanic transmit her distress signal?...

WHO TALKED TO TITANIC?
Marconi chart offers insight into Titanic interlocutors...

LAST LAP OF THE LARGEST
APRIL tenth, 1912 – A day tinged with sadness for the RMS Olympic. She put in to New York for the last time as the Ship of Superlatives, or so she thought. The next White Star Line leviathan to dock here wou...

THE TURN OF A CARD
HERE is the Two of Hearts… signed by three survivors of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. This picture appeared in the New York Sun on Sunday April 21, 1912. It seems richly symbolic of the hand dealt by fate th...

THREE GRACES, SHANGHAI
The Three Graces on the Bund in Shanghai, China, were modelled on the originals on the waterfront in Liverpool by wealthy Western businessmen and developers who began to commercialise China from the late 1880s onwards. The m...

MOUNT TEMPLE TEMP'S MEMORIES
THE replacement Fourth Officer of the Mount Temple on her homeward voyage in April 1912 was a m...

ERNEST GILL IN AUSTRALIA
Judiciously, Ernest Gill journeyed to Australia. The former Californian crewman, a profiteer from the Titanic disaster, plied his seafaring trade Down Under in years thereafter. A do...

THE INFORMATIVE 'MORNING NEWS'
TWO years after the Titanic, and Captain Lord of the Californian was still pleading his case. There follows a freshly resurrected article – important for the historical record – published ...

THOMAS WHITELEY CONVALESCING IN NEW YORK
Thomas Whiteley at St Vincent's Hospital in New York...

THOMAS WHITELEY : THREE WARNINGS WERE GIVEN TO THE OFFICER ON THE BRIDGE
Thomas Whiteley, Tells of Hearing Men Who Were in Crows Nest Express Indignation Because Mr. Murdock, the First Officer, Repeatedly Refused to Act on Their Report of Danger. ...

STEWARD'S PREMONITION : THOMAS WHITELEY
Mr. Thomas Whiteley, a steward on the Titanic, who was saved. He states that the two men in the crow's nest, who were rescued, were very indignant, and said that their warnings concerning the presence of an iceberg ...

THOMAS WHITELEY : ANOTHER TITANIC CASE
In Mr Justice Darling's court yesterday Mr [W. Norman] Raeburn on behalf of the defendants in Whiteley v. Oceanic Steam Navigation Company (Limited), asked that a date should be fixed for the hearing. He said that the plaintiff, who was a ...

MCGOUGH THE KILLER
TWO killers roamed the RMS Titanic on her maiden voyage… Not the stuff of lurid pulp adventure, instead actual fact. The two wrongdoers were a fireman and an able bodied seaman. Stoker William Mintra...

MCGOUGH THE KEY?
THERE’S a Titanic seaman named McGough who is claimed to be a human key to understanding the sequence of lifeboat departures. He’s said to have helped lower lifeboat No. 14 – but to have departed in lifeboat No. 9 on the opposit...

ERNEST GILL

GEORGE FRANCIS MCGOUGH

NORA FLEMING PHOTOGRAPH
Photograph of Irish steerage passenger Nora Fleming, one of 14 third class passengers from the village of Addergoole, Co Mayo, who boarded the Titanic at Queenstown. It was Nora's 22nd birthday on the night the vessel struck ...

THE RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX
WHAT goes on four legs, then two legs, then three? The Riddle of the Sphinx, from Greek mythology, denotes the eternal voyage of man… from crawling on all fours, to walking proudly erect, to finally ending up hunched over a...

PRONUNCIATION OF "ROTHES"
DEBRETT’S PEERAGE, 1915 ROTHES, EARL OF (Leslie) [Title pronounced “Roth-ez.”] Norman Evelyn Leslie, 19th Earl and a Represen...

HARRY ELKINS WIDENER MEMORIAL
Wall plaque at the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library at Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts. Harry Elkins Widener A Graduate Of This University Born January 3, 1885 Died At Sea April 15, 1912 ...

HARRY ELKINS WIDENER LIBRARY
Exterior, Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts. Endowed by his mother Eleanor, and opened in 1915....

12.45AM - A TIME TO GO!
WHAT time did the first lifeboat depart the Titanic? Many will immediately offer: ‘12.45am.’ But thi...

DICKINSON H. BISHOP

JOSEPH BOXHALL CARTOON

ICE: CLEAR AND ABSENT DANGER
This is an argument hewn from ice… a substance that offers solidity and occasional clarity. But it is also an argument about the absence of ice – meaning nothing less than clear water, with all the plain sailing that implies....

CAPTAIN LORD AND OFFICERS OF THE ANGLO-SAXON

STANLEY LORD AT THE WHEEL

CAPTAIN LORD WITH OFFICERS OF A LATER COMMAND.
Captain Stanley Lord (centre) of the Californian pictured with officers of a later command....

CAPTAIN STANLEY LORD AND HIS WIFE IN THEIR CAR
Stanley Lord at the wheel of a car accompanied by his wife Mabel...

LORD SURROUNDED BY GRINNING PASSENGERS
Captain Stanley Lord surrounded by grinning passengers, c. 1909...

CAPTAIN LORD'S CHART COMPASS

CAPTAIN STANLEY LORD

CAPTAIN LORD IN SUMMER WHITES ABOARD A LEYLAND LINER

FIELD ICE PHOTOGRAPHED ON THE MORNING OF APRIL 15, 1912,
Ice seen in the general vicinity of the Titanic sinking. Photographed by Dr Marloth, ship's surgeon aboard the NDL Frankfurt....

HONOUR & GLORY: CROWING TIME!
What did Titanic's famous grand staircase clock symbolise?...

THE UNKNOWN ADULT
COUNTERFOIL number 30887 lay on the wooden surface. Money joined it for a few minutes, and then money took wing and parted from the ticket. A moment later the ticket itself was taken up. One of the opening scenes of the ...
Biographies

Ellen Corr
3rd Class Passenger

Frank Dwan
3rd Class Passenger

William McCarthy
Deck Crew

George Francis 'Paddy' McGough
Deck Crew

Violet Constance Jessop
Victualling Crew

Thomas Arthur Whiteley
Victualling Crew

John Kennedy
3rd Class Passenger

Margaret Mannion
3rd Class Passenger

Neal McNamee
3rd Class Passenger

Eileen McNamee
3rd Class Passenger

Daniel J. Moran
3rd Class Passenger

Thomas Rowan Morrow
3rd Class Passenger

Hannah Riordan
3rd Class Passenger

Henry Joseph Bailey
Deck Crew

Robert Hichens
Deck Crew

William Arthur Lucas
Deck Crew

William Clifford Weller
Deck Crew

James Crimmins
Engineering Crew

Joseph Dawson
Engineering Crew

Charles Edward Andrews
Victualling Crew

Hugh Walter McElroy
Victualling Crew

Senan Molony

Senan Molony

Articles, Stories and Pictures

Biographies