Titanic Historical Society Commutator 246

THS Commutator No. 246, Summer 3rd Quarter, July to September 2024

10 Songs Inspired by RMS Titanic

We all are familiar that on April 15, 1912, RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic––resulting in many songs were composed about the disaster. The most recently famous is from James Cameron’s 1997 film, “TITANIC,” with its blockbuster theme, Celine Dion singing “My Heart Will Go On.” In 1912 and beyond, songs composed about Titanic––some by artists you may be familiar with––here are 10 tunes about Titanic that don’t have hearts going on.
By Linda Morgan, contributed by Rick Sundin

VINIOLA: The Soap Used in 1st Class Aboard Olympic and Titanic

The Vinolia Company was founded as a perfumers, toilet soap and toilet preparations maker, Blondeau et Cie, which was formed in 1885 by Dr. Eggleston Burrows and James Hills Hartridge, in New Bond Street, London. The brand name Vinolia was adopted for the companies toiletries range, including soap, cream and powder advertised as “suited to sensitive skin conditions.” In 1899 it was incorporated as a public company. In 1900, the company achieved the accolade of being a Royal Warrant holder as soapmakers to Queen
Victoria.
By Jerry N. J. Vondeling

Call to Duty: The Funeral Directors’ Response to the Titanic Disaster The Recovery

Courtesy “The Dodge Magazine.” Thanks to Paul Phaneuf. Page 24 Even after all the frenzy of the movie, “TITANIC,” interest in the subject has shown no signs of abating. Books, seminars videos, souvenirs concerning the sinking abound. With all the old and new information concerning the Titanic it would seem to think every story imaginable has been told. However, this is not true for another story needs to be told and that is the work of the funeral directors of the Maritime Provinces did in caring for the dead. Here is an account of a little known but very noble part of the history of our great profession.
By Todd Van Beck

Carpathia’s Arrival: A Transcendent Calamity

One of the people who met Carpathia when she docked in New York on Thursday, April 18, was Henry Arthur Jones (1851-1929), a popular English playwright of the time. He wrote comedies and plays of social themes, such as the double standard of behavior expected of men and women, a theme that the Titanic disaster evoked. The survivors here seem like dramatis personae [characters in a play or story].
By Henry Arthur Jones, Daily Telegraph, April 20, 1912

Great Uncle George Rosenshine: 1st Class Titanic Passenger and His Postcards Recording His Travels

Since 1911-1912, the packet of 45 postcards written by my great uncle, George Rosenshine (né Rosenschein) to his three nieces (his only sister’s daughters) during an around-the-world trip following retirement from business has survived for all these years due to the sentimental and saving nature of my mother, Viola, who had lived with her Uncle George and her grandmother, Dora, from 1905-1910. (Loaning out a child for companionship to a grandmother––a commonplace practice in large families in that era). Viola cached the
cards among other old family letters and mementoes in a large steamer trunk in the attic of my childhood home (32 Carmen Avenue, Cedarhurst, Long Island, New York) and came into my possession upon her death in 1949.
By Janet Ripin

White Star’s Liverpool Offices: 30 James Street

For almost one hundred years a building on James Street, Liverpool played an important part in the history of merchant shipping and in the story of one particular steamship company. The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company founded in September, 1869, made rapid advances in the competitive world of merchant shipping. The Company’s original offices at nearby 10 Water Street quickly became cramped with the staff managing an ever growing fleet of steamships. Thomas H. Ismay, chairman and managing director of the Line, appointed London architect, Richard Norman Shaw, to design suitable offices on a plot of land already acquired by the Company, at the bottom corner of lower James Street next to the Strand overlooking the River Mersey.
By Paul Louden-Brown

Covers:
Front: Titanic fitting out in Belfast (closeup). Painting by Harley Crossley/Kamuda collection
Back: Berengaria Departure Ocean Dock, Southampton. Olympic is seen on the right. Painting by Harley Crossley