The Titanic Commutator Issue 255

THS Commutator No. 255, Fall 4th Quarter, October to December 2026

Contents

Titanic Graphology Readings by Monica Harding O’Hara

In 1989 the late Monica Harding O’Hara, an English graphologist, published the book “Hands Off the Titanic and the Californian),” a study of some of the personalities involved in the sinking of the Titanic based upon handwriting analysis. At the time I corresponded with her and we thought it would be interesting to get her take on several other people who had been on the ship, including some little-known victims.

The Five Deaths of Titanic’s Captain By Robert DeSandro

What happened to Smith in the final minutes before the Titanic sank in 1912 and shortly thereafter depends on which version of whatever story you believe is the most plausible. There’s no shortage of eyewitnesses and sworn statements to guide you.

Ice Cold Germanic! Ice Cold Germanic! Contemporary newspaper reports

Living on the coast facing the North Atlantic it is common to see fishing boats laden with ice during very cold winters or if you watch the popular television program “The Deadliest Catch” about crab fishing in the Bering Sea, you have seen it. Although seemingly beautiful to the lay person, the covering is deadly since its weight can easily capsize and sink vessel.

As soon as it begins coating the ship’s crewmen will be busy chipping it away as quickly as possible. Severe icing is what happened to White Star’s Germanic in February 1899.

Steamship Olympic Makes New Record Reaching 27.81 Knots for Several Hours Vintage Vignettes

Sham Titanic Newsreels Trigger Theater Mayhem By Robert DeSandro

Titanic was thought to be “unsinkable.” How could it create such carnage and plummet to the frigid ocean bottom on its very first voyage??? In the minds of most everyone, the notion was unthinkable! In less than two weeks, the nascent newsreel industry made up for the absence of actual footage of Titanic’s demise by shooting fake, but somewhat plausible, disaster scenes in studios, gathering dated video of look-alike ships, and showing pictures of floating icebergs and actual people who were on the doomed vessel.

A Providential Move––A Titanic Booking Changed to Mauretania From a letter to Edward Kamuda from Richard Wheeler via Pat Dunbar in 1995

We are safe.
My Dear Ones so far, but O, what a terrible accident we have escaped. We have just received news by wireless from Cape Cod of the ramming of the great “Titanic.” steamer of the White Star Line by an iceberg on Monday morning at 2 o’clock, the sinking of the ship inside of 2 hours with only 800 saved – mostly women and children and about 1250 gone down to a watery grave

Covers:
Front: Sampling of handwriting for analysis
Back: Harley Crossley’s rendition of Cunards’s QE2 being towed