Titanic: 111 Years

Writer: Geoff Butler

While touring the Maritimes many years ago, in the beautiful city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, I came across this special, emotional, solemn historical site. ‘The Titanic Graves’ site at the Fairview Lawn Cemetery in Halifax. The sinking of the RMS Titanic occurred 111 years ago – April 15^th, 1912.

“The sounds of people drowning are something that I cannot describe to you, and neither can anyone else. It’s the most dreadful sound, and there is a terrible silence that follows it.” Eva Hart, Titanic Survivor.

On April 15, 1912, the RMS Titanic sank at 2:20 am after striking an iceberg at approximately 11:40 pm on April 14th in the North Atlantic Ocean. Four days into her maiden voyage from Southhampton to New York City, the collision occurred. The Titanic was a British luxury passenger liner owned by the White Star Line, carrying 2,208 passengers and crew, of which it is estimated that 1518 lost their lives in the disaster.

It was considered one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters in recorded history, and Halifax played an essential role in this tragedy. In the first hours, the White Star Line thought the damaged Titanic could sail to Halifax, 700 nautical miles away. Trains with reporters, family, relatives, and immigration officials rushed from New York, Boston, Montreal and Toronto to Halifax to greet their loved ones. Although the port of St. John’s, Newfoundland, was closer to the sinking, the city did not have the infrastructure or undertakers. The White Star Line had an agency office in Halifax.

Once everyone understood the tragedy better, the White Star line chartered and dispatched the first of four Canadian ships on April 17th-May 23rd to search for bodies in the area where the disaster occurred. The Canadian ships that set out that day were; Halifax’s CS MacKay-Bennett, the cable ship CS Minia, the Canadian light-house supply ship Montmagny, and the sealing vessel Algerine from St. John’s. It took the boats approximately three-four days to reach the wreck site. The first victims of the wreck were found on April 21st. One of the crewmen aboard the cable ship MacKay-Bennett reported, “Recovered 51 bodies, 46 men, four women and one baby…bodies in good shape but badly bruised by being knocked about in the water.”

The ships travelled to the site with a minister, an undertaker, 100 tonnes of ice, canvas bags, coffins, and all the embalming fluid available in Halifax. The handling of the bodies varied on whether they were first, second or third-class passengers. The first-class bodies were embalmed and placed in coffins. Second and third-class passengers were embalmed and wrapped in canvas. The local curling rink, Mayflower Curling Rink, was turned into a temporary morgue. Horse-drawn hearses transported the victims to the morgue, “some in coffins, some in sacks.” All of the buildings in the city flew their flags at half-mast.

There were 337 bodies recovered from the sinking, of which 119 were buried at sea. 209 bodies were brought back to Halifax. 59 bodies were claimed by their respective families and shipped to their home communities. Finally, 150 victims were laid to rest in 3 cemeteries in Halifax.

121 victims of the RMS Titanic sinking are buried in this cemetery, more than any other cemetery worldwide. White Star Line’s land surveyor FW Christie designed the plot with lines of graves along the slope of the hill, representing the bow of a ship. Most buried are commemorated with small granite gray markers, paid for in 1912 by the White Star Line, with the name and date of death. The White Star Line paid for the upkeep of the graves until 1930, after which a trust fund was established to ensure permanent care. Each marker has April 15th inscribed as the date of death, as it was assumed that no one could have survived the freezing temperatures that day. Each body has a corresponding number on its grave, indicating when they were recovered at sea. Some families paid for more prominent memorials with inscriptions, marking their loved ones.

Unfortunately, 42 victims have never been identified, and their markers contain just the date of death and marker number. Officials in Halifax examined each body, documenting physical appearance, clothing, personal papers, and any other effects found on the victim to ensure identification and return any belongings to the families. An example of one of the bodies recovered is reported as follows:

Sex-Male:

Estimated age-50 Light hair and moustache

Clothing-Blue serge suit, blue handkerchief with A.V., belt with gold fittings,brown boots with red rubber soles, brown flannel shirt, J.J.A. on back of collar.

Effects-Gold watch, cuff links gold and diamond, diamond ring with 3 stones. 285 in English notes, 5 ten-franc pieces and gold pencil and pocketbook.

One of the most well-known markers is for an unidentified child victim, the ‘Unknown Child.’ This is because the body was never claimed, and as such, the child was buried with funds provided by the sailors of the CS MacKay-Bennett, the ship and crew who recovered his body. The child was initially considered Gosta Palsson, Eugene Rice or Eino Viljam Panula. However, the child was later identified in 2007/08 by Canadian researchers at Lakehead University, with forensic DNA testing, to be 19-month-old Sidney Leslie Goodwin, an English child who perished with his entire family of eight in the sinking.

The Fairview Titanic graves also include William Denton Cox, a heroic steward who died while assisting 3rd class passengers to the lifeboats. Violinist John Law Hume, who played in the ship’s band and played his violin until the end, is also buried here. Lawrence Beesley, a witness that morning, spoke about the musicians, “Many brave things were done that night but none more brave than by those few men playing minute after minute as the ships settled quietly lower and lower in the sea…the music they played serving alike as their own immortal requiem and their right to be recorded on the rulls of undying fame.”

In addition, 29 other victims are buried in 2 cemeteries in Halifax, including 19 in the Roman Catholic Mount Olivet Cemetery and 10 in the Jewish Baron de Hirsch Cemetery.

“I still think about the ‘might have beens’ about the Titanic, that’s what stirs me more then anything else. Things that happened that wouldn’t have happened if only one thing had gone better for her. If only, so many if onlys. If only she had enough lifeboats. If only the watertight compartments had been higher. If only she had paid attention to the ice that night. If only the Californian did come. The ‘if only’ kept coming up again and again and that makes the ship more than the experience of studying a disaster. It becomes a haunting experience to me, it’s the haunting experience of ‘if only’.”

-Walter Lord, Titanic historian and author