Tribute to Titanic

This week we commemorate the 100 years of the Titanic tragedy. On Monday 14 April 1912, at 11:45 PM, in the middle of a starry and moonless night, the "R.M.S. Titanic" struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic near Canada and sank at 41°46' N, and 50°14' West.

Thanks to wireless, 745 passengers were saved but 1595 persons died in this tragedy among them some of the most prominent persons in the world.

If we all know this sad story, one does not often speak about two other anecdotes described below.

A belgian singer inspired Titanic

Do you know that "Titanic" from James Cameron (1997) was inspired by the story of a belgian singer named Berthe Mayné ?

Berthe Antonine Mayné is born on 21 July 1887 at Ixelles, in Brussels. She descends from the working class and had six brothers and sisters. At 24 she decided to become a singer.

During the winter of 1911, while she was performing in Métropole Café in Brussels, Berthe met a young Montreal hockey player, Quigg Baxter. The two became lovers.

Quigg is the hier or a very rich canadian family. He persuaded her to return to Montreal with him aboard Titanic.

On 10 April 1912, Berthe and Quigg board on "R.M.S Titanic" at Cherbourg. Berthe's ticket is number 17482. Quigg paid it 4350$, or actualized 36000€. For discretion, Quigg installed Berthe in her own first class cabin, #C90, under the pseudonym of "Mrs de Villiers." It is only once onboard that Quigg revealed her existence to his family.

The night of the disaster, Baxter rushed Berthe into lifeboat 6 with his mother and sister. Berthe slipped a long woollen overcoat over her nightdress. When Quigg wanted her to go in the boat without him, she balked. She wanted to back to her cabin to get some jewellery, but Maggie Brown, a Denver socialite,  talked her out of it. Hopefully that she didn't go back because 3 hours later Titanic sank. We presume that her jewels are always somewhere onboard Titanic by 3810 meter depth.
Quigg's last words to his family and girlfriend were : "Au revoir bon espoir vous autres" (Goodbye, keep your spirits up everyone).
So it is thanks to her fiancee that Berthe survived but she never saw him again.

After the sinking, Berthe stayed in Montreal with the Baxter family for several months. Then she returned to Europe and resumed her career as a singer in Paris. She never married.

Eventually she retired to a comfortable house in Berchem-Ste-Agathe, a suburb of Brussels. In old age she tried to persuade her nephew that she had been on Titanic with a young Canadian millionaire, but no one believed her.

After she died on 11 October 1962, the truth of the story was found in personal clippings, letters and photographs discovered in a shoebox among her personal belongings.

Distress signals

At that time, there were several distress codes : CQD, SOS and other QRRR used since World War I, plus the famous "Mayday" of aviators. Visually, navy had also the possibility to send rockets of all colors.

In 1905, the Morse code "SOS" (that does not mean Save Our Souls) was adopted by German ships for signifying distress while the British marine, working with Marconi operators, wanted to keep CQD (General Call Disaster that some translated by Come Quick Disaster) as a distress signal.
It was first decided to use SOE, but the small "E" dot can easily be lost in QRM and one suggested to replace it with an S, as in repeating three time the small dot the operators had much more chance to arrest the attention of anyone hearing it, hence SOS, that  was adopted at the Berlin Radiotelegraphic Convention in 1906 as the official international standard for distress calls.

But Marconi operators were slow to conform, and until 1907 Marconi companies continued to work with the "CQD", associating it if necessary to SOS.

Onboard Titanic, after have strocken the iceberg, captain Smith came in informing morse operators Phillips and Bride that the ship had hit an iceberg, and to prepare a distress call.

On 15 April 2012, at 12:15 AM the captain returned at the radio room and told the operators to send the message. Phillips sent in his spark gap transmitter : "CQD Titanic 41.46 N 50.24 W" when Bride interrupted him : "Send S.O.S. ! It's the new call and it may be your last chance to send it". But faithful to Marconi's rules, Phillips continue sending CQD. A bit later the Cunar Liner "Carpathia", MPA, heard a CQD saying : "Come at once. We have struck a berg. It's a CQD OM. Position 41.46 N 50.14 W". The Capathia will take 4 hours to reach the zone.

After have exchanged many wireless communications with other ships,  at 2:15 AM or so, Phillips sent another message : "SOS SOS CQD CQD Titanic. We are sinking fast. Passengers are being put into boats. Titanic".

We know the end of this tragedy that is till today considered as the most dramatic event in the history of all civilian maritime transportation.

For more information

To read : Titanic: The Canadian Story

To see : TITANIC Belfast.