This issue is the final quarter for 2012 and completes a memorable year––a year of 100th anniversary activities commemorating Titanic’s maiden and only voyage. However, for the Titanic Historical Society, the new year, 2013, marks another important milestone in Titanic history. The THS is 50 years old. We hope you will join us to celebrate September 4 through 8, 2013 at THS’s 50th Anniversary Convention. Details are inside and on our website under Events. This journal will also be featuring retrospectives over the next year.

Jack Leslie White’s article, Father Browne’s Camera, reveals that Browne was one of the world’s great camera enthusiasts. While much is known about the photographer, how his iconic Titanic photos came to be taken, little has been written about the camera that captured these cherished and haunting images.

The model for the Women’s Titanic Memorial was a two-foot bronze statue that was on top of the stone of Mrs. Eugene Bowie (Cornelia) Roberts in Holy Trinity Episcopal Churchyard in Bowie, Maryland. The bronze statue was stolen from the Roberts’ stone in November 1974. Her son, Eugene Roberts, would like to find out what happened to it.

Titanic Lives On by Lisa McDougald wrote: In the early 1980s, my mother, learned of our connection with Mary (McDougald) Fortune while corresponding with my great aunts Lillian and Doris Sambrook, and Verla Ballard from Manitoba, Canada. At the time, we thought it a novelty to open the back of Walter Lord’s, A Night To Remember, and see the Mark Fortune family listed as 1st Class passengers.

Olympic’s Conversion to Oil-The steamship Olympic on coal could make twenty trips a year, but the extra knot an hour on oil enabled her to make an extra trip in twelve months. This total takes no account of time saved in bunkering in port, cost of repeated paintings, added life of boilers, renewal of grate bars, coal and ash handling tools and machinery, corrosion of fireplates, wear and tear on coal barge equipment and machinery, and one or two other items, all of which amount to a large sum during a single year.

Training British Sailors for the Mercantile Marine in Titanic’s Era-What was required to become an officer on a large ocean liner in 1912? Where did he go to learn? How did he gain practical experience? Young men who intended to become officers of the mercantile marine were encouraged to join a training ship. For the well-to-do there was the Conway in the Mersey near Liverpool, and the Worcester, which was in the Thames off Greenhithe.

Titanic Somewhere in Time by Anuradha Gupta. Titanic’s passengers and crewmen were just ordinary people who were living their lives to the best of their ability, and it is a little-known fact that some of those passengers had close connections with India as shown in this story. In 1912 India was considered to be a remote area far removed from the Western world.

Oceanic of 1899-When Olympic, the first in her class of ships to be built was announced, it was a big story and generated much publicity––right up to and including her maiden voyage. Advertising was coming into its own and word of mouth was important since competition from other shipping lines was intense. Promotion to this degree was not the first time for White Star––Oceanic (II) had the honor of massive media play as shown in the Illustrated London News in this article. To concentrate on the Olympic class is to lose perspective on White Star’s amazing forerunner and underestimate what a big deal (in today’s vernacular) Oceanic II truly was. And, because she was so beloved, the prospect of another Oceanic (III), her story in a previous issue by Tim Trower, that never became a reality, was to trade on her magic name and reputation. Lots of good reading. (No. 200 will be available to purchase after November 1, 2012)

CONTENTS

FATHER BROWNE’S CAMERA – A FUZZY PICTURE
By Jack Leslie White

WOMEN’S TITANIC MEMORIAL MYSTERY
By Karen Kamuda

TITANIC LIVES ON
By Lisa McDougald

TITANIC SOMEWHERE IN TIME
By Anuradha Gupta

INCIDENTWITH OLYMPIC’S MUSICIANS
New York Sun, July 14, 1912

OCEANIC OF 1899
By Earl Mayo

OLYMPIC’S CONVERSION TO OIL SAVED MONEY
Shipping, August 10, 1920

TRAINING BRITISH SAILORS FOR THE MERCANTILE MARINE IN TITANIC’S ERA
By R. A. Fletcher

PROPOSAL FOR THE TITANIC CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL GARDEN AND WALKWAY

THS’S 50th ANNIVERSARY CONVENTION INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION

SEA POSTE
The Titanic Centennial Memorial Unveiling and Weekend Convention thank yous from Don Murphy and Cal Kitson; seeking information on boards carried by Harland & Wolff employees; wants information on a Titanic postcard; a 38 Colt revolver with Cunard White Star Line;; questions and comments on Patrick Stenson’s article Titanic Meets Iceberg; Titanic kid gloves? Seeking information about pianos on Titanic; question about a presentation plaque on a chime clock by White Star people to an individual retiring.

BOOK NOTES
RMS Queen Mary by Frank Cooper, Suzanne Cooper, et al and Nothing Can Separate Us-The Story of Nan Harper by Tracy M. Leininger. Reviews by Tim Trower.

FRONT COVER An impressive view looking up at the bow at Titanic Pigeon Forge.

BACK COVER The majesty of the Great Smokies is shown in this panorama of high peaks as clouds fill the valley below.