BOOK REVIEW
TITANIC and Liverpool
Alan Scarth
Liverpool: Liverpool University Press & National Museums Liverpool, 2009
240pp. £ 9.95
ISBN 978-184631-222-9 limp
Reviewed by Larry Robbins
TITANIC’s relationship to Belfast, where she was built, and Southampton whence she sailed on her only voyage are well known. So why a book on TITANIC and Liverpool?
Alan Scarth, in this finely researched book, provides the answer. The back cover of the book states “If you had been astern of TITANIC on that that fateful night in 1912, the last word to flash before your eyes as the great ship plunged beneath the waves would have been ‘Liverpool’ “. TITANIC was built for the White Star Line which was headquartered in a splendid building in the city whose design was based on that of the London police headquarters, New Scotland Yard. Liverpool was the home port of the company’s magnificent passenger liners though TITANIC never visited what was then England’s pre-eminent port.
Scarth provides a concise history of the White Star Line and its relationship to Liverpool and of the subsequent move of the transatlantic mail/passenger operations to Southampton which he describes as “ bold and pragmatic”. The White Star Line had been losing ground to competitors Cunard since 1904, so company President and Managing Director, Bruce Ismay, ordered two liners of “unprecedented size and luxury” to compete on the Southampton to New York route.
TITANIC was ordered from the Belfast shipyard of Harland and Wolff in 1907. Scarth discusses the rationale behind the design and order of the ship whose keel was laid on 22 March 1909. A considerable proportion of the materials and fittings used in TITANIC and her sister OLYMPIC were provided by Liverpool firms. Items ranging from the ship’s telegraph to rope work, navigation charts to galley equipment were sourced or manufactured in Liverpool.
Two chapters of the book provide an interesting insight into the 114 crewmembers (of a complement of 892) who were from Liverpool or had a strong association with the city. Many were key officers and crew of the ship. Although the chapters contain lists of these people these chapters are more than simply a bland recital of names. There are numerous personal histories.
Only only a few passengers on that fateful voyage hailed from a Liverpool but Scarth suggests that this was not unusual, for a number of reasons. Only 17 of the 954 passengers had a Liverpool connection. One was J Bruce Ismay himself. As is well- known, Ismay survived the sinking although his valet and personal secretary perished.
The book is not about the wreck of TITANIC per se, but three chapters are devoted to the outward voyage, the sinking and its immediate aftermath. Ismay’s appearances at the various inquiries into the disaster are well covered. The news was received with shock in Liverpool. Telegrams bounced around and expressions of sympathy were received at the company’s office. The personnel manifests were held in Southampton and it was some time before personal information was available in Liverpool. Ismay was vilified in the American Press, largely suggests Scarth, because of newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst’s long-held dislike for Ismay. “The [disaster] almost ruined our lives” said Ismay’s wife. Ismay retired from the company in 1913.
In the final chapter Scarth looks at the “long shadow” cast by the sinking, including the effects upon the survivors, the company and others such as Captain Lord of MV CALIFORNIAN who was castigated by a British inquiry for failing to adequately assist TITANIC. The wreckage was discovered in 1985. The ship’s position appeared to support Lord’s estimate of his position but a resultant review of the inquiry a few years later failed to totally reverse the initial findings.
Scarth has drawn extensively upon the archives of the company and papers, archives and artefacts held in the extensive collection of the Merseyside Maritime Museum. Much of this material has not previously been published. The book is extensively illustrated, contains various personnel lists and a detailed index.
Although “Southampton suffered far more than any other British port” as a result of the disaster and many other ports throughout the world played major roles, Scarth suggests - and in the reviewer’s view proves - that the “port of Liverpool was central to the TITANIC story from beginning to end.” It is no idle boast that “Titanic and Liverpool will be required reading for anyone interested in Titanic and also for anyone hoping to understand Liverpool’s role as the great processing port of Europe and gateway to the US and Canada.”
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