18
Ruth Dodge

"Dr. Dodge's Wife Tells Story of Titanic Wreck"

Originally published in The Bulletin, April 30, 1912; available at The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco (Web site)

"The most terrible part of the experience was that awful crying after the ship went down. We were a mile away, but we heard it—oh, how we heard it. It seemed to last about an hour, although it may have been only a short time, for some say a man could not have lived in that water over fifteen minutes. At last it died down."

By its very definition, the Gilded Age was one of great wealth, at least in terms of appearances, if not quality of character. The word "gilded" means "rich and superior in quality." Another meaning is "deceptively pleasing." Both definitions describe Gilded Age society.

For those fortunate members of the upper class, the Gilded Age was a time of glorious parties, lavish lifestyles, and carefree spending. Little thought was given to life outside their ornate (highly decorated) architecture and breathtaking interiors.

But much as it is today, great wealth was unevenly distributed in that era. The "haves" were few; the "have-nots" were many. Inspired architecture of the wealthy greatly contrasted with the rundown tenement housing of the poor. Expansive lawns became extinct, to be replaced with dirty sidewalks and littered alleys. None of the latest fashion in colorful silks clothed poor women. They were considered lucky if the soles of their shoes had not been replaced with cardboard.

Although the Progressive Era ushered in many needed social reforms, the issue of class distinction remained virtually unconsidered. The wealthy were used to ignoring the poor; the poor were accustomed to being ignored. The attitude of many citizens of wealth was that they enjoyed their riches because God felt they deserved them. The lower classes were considered lazy or savage. To the privileged few, the poor got what they deserved. Out of a sense of necessity, those who lived in poverty gave up the hope of something better. To wish for more—more food, more money, more living space—only brought disappointment.

So on the surface, society looked grand. But to the perceptive eye, it was obvious that for every privileged life there existed many, many dark and difficult lives. Two opposing lifestyles were led side by side.

The Titanic was symbolic of everything the Gilded Age stood for. The pride of the White Star Line, the Titanic was the largest ship built to date. Like all companies, the White Star Line was always looking for ways to outperform the competition. The main competition at the time was Cunard, the company that manufactured the doomed Lusitania (sunk by the Germans in 1917) and the Mauritania. Both ships were impressive in terms of speed. Their engines were state of the art, the finest produced at that time. White Star Line's president, J. Bruce Ismay (1862–1937), was confident, however, that he could produce a vessel that would be bigger, heavier, and more luxurious than any ship anyone had ever seen.

And so came the Titanic. At 883 feet (269.1 meters, or 1/6 mile) long, 92 feet (28 meters) wide, and 104 feet (31.7 meters) tall, it put all other sailing vessels to shame. It boasted 46,328 tons (42,019.5 metric tons) of steel and was said to be "practically unsinkable" by Ismay. After the sinking of the ship, everyone would forget the "practically" part of his claim and label Ismay a greedy scoundrel and a liar.

The Titanic cost $7.5 million to build (the equivalent of around $400 million today). Passengers who could afford a first-class passage enjoyed use of the on-deck heated swimming pool (the first of its kind), four electric elevators, and a fully equipped gymnasium. They could eat in the elegant dining hall (seating capacity of 554), or pay extra to enjoy their food served on fine china and glassware in a more private setting. At any time of day, these passengers could borrow books from the magnificent library, then stroll to one of the decks to read while basking in the sun. Those in need of a haircut visited one of two barbershops. Life was good on the Titanic. For some.

Beneath the grandeur of first and even second class was the steerage section of the ship. Steerage was in stark contrast to the opulence (luxury) of the top floors. No dining rooms or dancing for these passengers: They slept in small, windowless rooms the size of closets, in beds made up with rough, inferior-quality sheets and blankets. Compared with the $4,350 one-way ticket for a first-class parlor passage, the $40 steerage passage got its buyers little else than transportation across the ocean.

Many passengers in third class were women and children. Unlike most of the White Star Line crew who worked in third class, these passengers spoke languages other than English. Communication between the two groups was strained at best. Unlike their first- and second-class shipmates, those in third class were not given the required lifeboat drill. It would prove to be a costly omission.

The Titanic set out on its maiden (first) voyage on April 10, 1912. It departed from Southampton, England, for a six-day voyage to New York. Through the years, the number of people onboard the Titanic has been disputed. It is generally accepted that on the day the ship hit the iceberg, 329 passengers were in first class, 285 were in second class, and 710 were in third class. There were 899 crew members onboard as well.

On the evening of April 14, 1912, the captain and crew received more than one warning of ice in the area. Despite those warnings, the Titanic forged ahead. At 11:40 pm, the ship hit an iceberg. It was about 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. The ship that had taken three years to build took fewer than three hours to sink. Of the more than 2,000 people onboard, only 705 survived.

Things to remember while reading
"Dr. Dodge's Wife Tells Story of
Titanic Wreck":

• The woman interviewed in the newspaper story, Ruth Dodge, and her husband, Dr. Washington Dodge, hailed from the San Francisco area. Dr. Dodge was a prominent banker; he and his wife were active in their community and generally well liked. This was the second marriage for both of them; each had a child from their previous marriages. Together, they had one son, Washington Dodge Jr., who accompanied them onboard the Titanic.
• When Ruth Dodge says the order was given for all women to gather on the port (left) side of the vessel, she actually means all upper-class women who held first-class tickets. Those women booked in third class are still in the steerage of the ship, many behind locked gates and doors.
• During the Progressive Era, actors, musicians, and athletes were not regarded as highly as they are today. Instead, the wealthy and the aristocrats (upper-class) of society fascinated the public and the media. The combined wealth of those celebrities onboard the Titanic was over $500 million.
• The Titanic had enough room for forty-eight lifeboats to be kept onboard. Management was concerned that the appearance of too many boats would affect the beauty of the ship. Only twenty lifeboats were made available to passengers and crew.
• The "awful crying" Ruth Dodge recalls came primarily from the third-class passengers. Although there were more third-class passengers than there were first- and second-class, only 25 percent of third-class passengers were saved. This compares with 53 percent of first- and second-class passengers saved.

"Dr. Dodge's Wife Tells
Story of Titanic Wreck"

Was it cold? You can imagine how cold it was when I tell you that we passed fifty-six miles of icebergs after we got on the Carpathia. The baby had nothing on but his pajamas and a life preserver.

I think it is foolish to speak of the heroism displayed. There was none that I witnessed. It was merely a matter of waiting your turn for a lifeboat, and there was no keen anxiety to enter the boats because everybody had such confidence in that wretched ship. The officers told us that they had wireless communication with seven vessels, which were on the way to relieve us, and the men believed themselves as safe onboard as in the boats. It seemed the vaguest possibility that the ship might sink before one of the seven vessels arrived.

Of course, I left the Titanic before it began to settle into the water. The steerage passengers had not come on deck. In fact, there were few on the deck from which we left and more men than women.

TOOK SECOND BOAT.

It happened this way. There seems to have been an order issued that all women should congregate on the port side of the vessel. The vessel was injured on the starboard side, and even when I left the ship there was a slight list to starboard. We did not hear this order. I was in my stateroom, had retired again after the accident when the doctor came saying he had met our steward and had been told toget into a life preserver. I slipped on my fur coat over my night robe and preserver, put on my shoes without stockings; I did not stop to button them.

We had made a practice of sitting on the starboard side of the deck, the gymnasium was there, and naturally when we went above we turned to starboard. They were lowering boats. I entered the second boat with my baby. This boat had an officer in command, and enough officers to man the oars. Several women entered with me and as we commenced to lower the boat the women's husbands jumped in with them. I called to the doctor to come, but he refused because there were still a few women on deck. Every woman in that second boat with the exception of myself, had her husband with her.

BOATS HALF FILLED.

I supposed all the women were congregated on the port side because it would naturally be the highest side, and the safest because [it would be] the last to go down. We had no idea then that there would not be enough boats to go around. In fact, the first boats were only half filled.

There must have been some confusion in orders, else I do not see why some of the women were not sent from port to starboard to enter those boats being lowered there. My husband got into the thirteenth boat. At that time there were no women on the starboard side. There was not one women [sic] in the boat he entered, and no member of the crew.

[White Star Line president] Bruce Ismay entered the fifteenth boat from starboard. It was being lowered at the same time, and the doctor says he remembers this because there was some fear that the boats might swing into each other as they were lowered down the side of the vessel.

CRYING OF THE DOOMED.

The most terrible part of the experience was that awful crying after the ship went down. We were a mile away, but we heard it—oh, how we heard it. It seemed to last about an hour, although it may have been only a short time, for some say a man could not have lived in that water over fifteen minutes. At last it died down.

Our officer and the members of the crew wanted to go back and pick up those whom they could, but the women in the boat would not left [sic] them. They told them if they attempted to turn back their husbands would take the oars from them, and the other men outnumbered the crew. I told them I could not see how they could forbid turning back in the face of those awful cries. I will remember it until I die, as it is. I told them: "How do I know, you have your husbands with you, but my husband may be one of those who are crying."

They argued that if we got back where the people were struggling, some of the steerage passengers, crazed with fear and the cold, might capsize the boat struggling to get it, or might force the officers to overload so we would all go down.

WOMEN HYSTERICAL.

After the crying died down, two or three of the women became hysterical—about what I don't know; they were missing none of their people. I was trying to keep baby from realization of what was happening, but when these women shrieked he would begin crying and asking, "Where's papa?"

The Unsinkable Molly Brown

Margaret Tobin was born on July 18, 1867, in Hannibal, Missouri. Born into a family of Irish immigrants, young Margaret moved to the mining town of Leadville, Colorado, while still in her teens. There, she worked in a general store. Margaret Tobin married James Joseph Brown in 1886. The couple moved to a nearby town, where the new Mrs. Brown opened a soup kitchen (a place that serves free soup to the needy).

Around the same time, Brown became active in women's rights, especially the right to vote. When her husband became wealthy working for a mining company, the Browns moved to Denver. There, they quickly joined the ranks of high society. Brown helped establish the Denver Woman's Club, a national network designed to help improve living conditions for women and children. She is also credited with playing a key role in the development of the first juvenile court. Prior to her efforts, children accused of crimes were held accountable and tried in the adult court system. The social reformist attended Denver's Carnegie Institute in 1901 to study literature and language.

In 1912, Brown and her daughter Helen were on vacation in Europe when they received word that Brown's grandson was very sick. Brown cut her trip short and booked passage back to America on the luxurious Titanic. Brown joined a number of other members of high society on that tragic voyage. Her first-class stateroom cost $4,350 for the 6-day trip.

Brown was reading in her room when the Titanic struck an iceberg just before midnight on April 14, 1912. The collision hurled her out of bed, so she picked herself up and joined several gentlemen standing in the hall. At that point, no one thought anything serious had happened, but they all knew something was not quite right.

By the time the passengers and crew realized the grave danger they were in, Brown was resolved not to let fear get the best of her. She had been traveling across the ocean for years; she was not concerned for her safety. Instead, Brown helped fellow passengers off the Titanic and into life-boats. Even at that point, she believed the ship was unsinkable. Soon she was ordered into a lifeboat and told to row. She and another woman rowed the lifeboat away from the sinking Titanic. As the screams of children and the barking of dogs faded, the sounds of the exploding boilers filled the air. Brown watched in horror as the hissing ship disappeared into the murky water.

When Brown finally docked in New York, reporters surrounded her and asked why she thought she survived. Her response was, "Typical Brown luck. We're unsinkable." Upon returning to Denver, Brown found herself a hero. For her efforts that night on the Titanic, she was awarded the French Legion of Honour in 1932.

And though she had never been called Molly in her lifetime, she became famous as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" thanks to a 1960s musical by the same name.

"Finally I did what everyone thinks a strange thing. I changed lifeboats in midocean. We overtook the first boat. It was hardly half filled. They offered to take any of us aboard, and to get away from the hysteria of the others. I changed.

ON THE CARPATHIA.

The most pathetic thing was the scene on board the Carpathia during the rescue. As each boat drew up the survivors would peer over, straining to see the face of someone they had left behind. They were the young brides—everybody on board, of course, had known they were brides, and they had watched them laughing and promenading with their husbands.

The moans of anxiety and disappointment as each boat failed to bring up those that they were looking for were awful and finally that awful despair which fell over everyone when we knew there were no more boats to pick up.

Still they would not give up hope. "Are you missing anyone?" the passengers would ask each other, never "Have you lost anyone?"

KINDNESS OF PASSENGERS.

Too much cannot be said of the kindness of the Carpathia's passengers. They gave up staterooms, they took the very clothing off their bodies for us. I left the Carpathia wearing garments given me by a women whose name I do not know and will never know.

She exhibited the bloomer trousers she had cut for Baby Dodge from a blanket given her by a sailor.

I am sorry that I knew the names of so few passengers. There were two men aboard particularly, who every day used to come on the sun deck to play with the baby, and we often fell into conversation. Those men were not among the survivors. I do wish I had known their names that I might tell their wives some of the beautiful things they had said to me of their home life, casually, in these conversation[s].

What happened next …

Although the captain and crew knew the Titanic had hit an iceberg, passengers were at first unaware of any real danger. The noise and the sudden jolt woke those who had been asleep. Those still awake knew something had happened but had no idea how serious their situation was.

The exact size of the iceberg that sunk the Titanic will never be known for certain. Newspapers reported it as being 50 to 100 feet (15.2 to 30.5 meters) high and 200 to 400 feet (61 to 121.9 meters) long. The chief steward of another ship photographed the suspected iceberg on April 15, 1912. This man had not yet heard of the disaster. He was intrigued by the smear of red paint he noticed along the base of the iceberg. So he snapped a photo.

The Titanic crew member on lookout saw the iceberg before the collision. He rang the warning bell three times. He phoned the bridge with the warning, but by then it was too late. Thirty-seven seconds later, the Titanic hit the iceberg. Distress signals were immediately sent to other ships in the area to let them know the Titanic needed help. The Carpathia was nearest, but even so, was 58 miles (93 kilometers) away.

At 12:25 am, the order was given to get women and children into the lifeboats. Twenty minutes later, the first boat was lowered into the water. Even though it could seat 65 people, only 19 of the seats were filled. This underusage happened with all but two of the lifeboats (in each of those two, capacity was overflowing with seventy passengers) and would be a source of criticism in the investigation that followed.

Those unfortunate passengers riding in steerage were all but forgotten. In the mass confusion above deck, no one is sure if orders were ever given to evacuate passengers from the lower decks. Some of the gates to the upper deck were locked. Some passengers who did manage to reach an open gate for escape were turned back by crew members. Other crew allowed only women and children from third class to ascend the stairs to rescue.

By the time third-class passengers were able to get to the upper decks, most of the lifeboats were either rowing toward the Carpathia or had already made it to the rescue ship. It would later be revealed that, had the lifeboats been filled to capacity, another 473 passengers could have made their way to safety. All the women and children lost in the disaster could have been saved.

At 2:20 am on April 15, 1912, the Titanic disappeared beneath the sea. By May, 328 corpses were recovered. In all, 705 passengers died in the sinking of the Titanic. Of first-class passengers, 60 percent survived. Forty-four percent of second-class passengers survived, as did 25 percent of third-class. Twenty-four percent of the crew survived. (Although official reports of these numbers vary one or two percent, depending on the source and the time of the report, these figures are generally accepted as accurate.)

An investigation was conducted by British officials from May 2 to July 3, 1912. Crew members and survivors testified during the inquiry. Accounts of what happened that fateful night varied greatly, as they tend to do when mass confusion sets in. Some eyewitnesses reported that crew members were out to save themselves at the expense of passengers' lives. Some insisted that certain crew members actually shot some passengers during the chaos, either to keep order or to get themselves a spot on the lifeboats.

Whatever may have happened that night, the first International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea was called in London, England, in 1913. Rules and regulations were established. Every ship would be required to have enough lifeboat space for each passenger onboard. A law now required lifeboat drills for all passengers during each voyage. Ships also would need to maintain a 24-hour radio watch. Another direct result of the tragedy was the formation of the International Ice Patrol. This organization would warn ships of icebergs in the North Atlantic shipping lanes.

The sinking of the Titanic forever left its mark on Washington Dodge. He was found dead of a suicidal gunshot wound to the head in 1919. Some modern experts believe he suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (a condition in which one suffers from anxiety and stress brought on by a tragic event), while others believe he felt stigmatized as a coward, having survived the disaster while many women and children died. Still others who knew him claim his health was not good even as he sailed the ship.

Ruth Dodge lived a full life and died of natural causes in July 1950. She was seventy-two years old. Washington Dodge Jr. suffered from exposure to the cold weather the night of the sinking, but recovered. He died of a heart attack in 1974 at the age of sixty-two.

The wreck of the Titanic was discovered on September 1, 1985, by Robert Ballard (1942–), a member of a joint U.S.-France expedition. An oceanographer and marine biologist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Ballard found the ship lying in two pieces on the ocean floor about 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) down and 2,000 feet (609.6 meters) apart. At one time, scientists had believed that the ship must have sustained one long gash that ripped through the hull. They now learned that the collision produced many thin gashes and ruptured the seams of the hull plates.

Almost immediately, a debate began over who owned the wreck and what should be done with it. Ballard and many Americans did not believe the remains of the Titanic should be disturbed. They considered the wreckage—and the artifacts (objects) inside, such as coffee cups, mirrors, and jewelry—a memorial to the people who had died. But the French wanted to excavate the ship and everything that went with it. The French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (IFREMER, from the French translation) determined the salvation of the ship was not only possible but worth the $200 million such an undertaking would cost.

The remains of the Titanic were salvaged over a fifty-four-day period. The French institute agreed to perform the excavation on the condition that the artifacts and ship never be sold at private auction but instead be put on display for the public. Many artifacts are on display in the Maritime Museum in Southampton, England, the city from which the fateful voyage embarked.

The Making of a Blockbuster

American director James Cameron was certain the public's fascination with the 1912 tragedy of the Titanic was still strong enough that they would pay to see a movie about it in 1997. He hired Leonardo DiCaprio (1974–) and Kate Winslet (1975–) to play the main characters.

DiCaprio plays Jack Dawson, a nineteen-yearold orphan who won his passage on the Titanic in a poker game. Onboard, he meets the wealthy and beautiful Rose DeWitt Bukater (played by Winslet). Rose is engaged to a man whose fortune was made in steel, but she falls in love with Jack. It would have been a forbidden love even had Rose not been engaged to be married. Jack was a poor man who never knew where he would find his next meal. Women of Rose's class were not supposed to speak to men like Jack, let alone fall in love with them. Jack returns Rose's love. When the ship sinks, he gives his life so that Rose can survive. In typical movie symbolism, the "bad" guy is punished while the "good" guy is rewarded.

The film was scheduled to be released in July 1997. When Cameron announced his epic was not yet finished, the studios panicked. The film had already become the most expensive movie ever made at a reported $200 million. When he finally finished filming, Titanic was over three hours long. Hollywood doubted anyone would sit through it.

The movie opened on December 19, 1997. That first weekend saw only $28 million in ticket sales. By New Year's Day, however, the movie had brought in $100 million and was the talk of the nation. For almost four months, the film held the number one spot at the box office. It became the highest grossing film of all time with more than $1.8 billion in ticket sales throughout the world. It continues to hold that record in 2006.

It won eleven Academy Awards in March 1998, including Best Picture of 1997. Cameron won the Best Director award.

The film has been criticized for its historical inaccuracies. Historians claim Jack and Rose would never have had the chance to meet, much less get to know one another. Classes were kept completely segregated (separated) from one another except during church services on Sunday. Other critics contend that the film portrayed the British crew members as unethical while American members were heroic. Still others claim that third-class passengers were not fenced in below decks. However, other accounts report that doors and gates were locked in steerage, prohibiting those passengers from getting to the lifeboats.

Did you know …

• A first-class ticket for a parlor suite on the Titanic cost $4,350. That translates to $50,000 today.
• The Titanic took three years to build. That is about how long it took to make the 1997 movie of the same name.
• The Titanic was the largest sailing vessel when it took to the sea in April. But that record was broken just five weeks later with the launch of Hamburg-America's Imperator in May 1912.
• On its maiden (and only) voyage, the Titanic used 14,000 gallons of drinking water each day.
• There was just one black family onboard the Titanic. The parents and two daughters were initially to leave England on another boat. But that ship's policy forbid children in the dining room. Not wanting to be separated from their children, the parents exchanged their tickets for second-class passage on the Titanic. The father did not survive.
• The last American survivor from the Titanic incident, Lillian Gertrud Asplund, died on May 7, 2006. She was ninety-nine years old.

Consider the following …

• Ruth Dodge speaks first of heroism and then mentions that those in the lifeboats did not want to return to the Titanic because third-class passengers might be crazed from the cold and fear. What standards did people use to decide a person's value and worth?
• Why do people remain fascinated with the sinking of the Titanic ?
• Imagine being a third-class passenger in steerage when you realize the ship is sinking. You find a way out but are met by a steward who refuses to let you pass. You cannot speak English. What would you do?

For More Information

BOOKS

Ballard, Robert, and Michael Sweeney. Return to Titanic: A New Look at the World's Most Famous Lost Ship. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2004.

Brewster, Hugh. 882½ Amazing Answers to Your Questions About the Titanic. New York: Scholastic Paperbacks, 1998.

White, Ellen Emerson. Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady, R.M.S. Titanic, 1912. New York: Scholastic, 1998.

WEB SITES

"Dr. Dodge's Wife Tells Story of Titanic Wreck." The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco.http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist5/dodge3.html (accessed on August 16, 2006).

"The Grave of the Titanic." Gulf of Maine Research Institute.http://octopus.gma.org/space1/titanic.html (accessed on August 15, 2006).

The Molly Brown House Museum.http://mollybrown.org/ (accessed on August 15, 2006).

Molly Brown's Resources for Students.http://mollybrown.org/forstudents/index.asp (accessed on August 15, 2006).

"Titanic." Encyclopaedia Britannica.http://search.eb.com/titanic/01_01.html (accessed on August 15, 2006).

"Titanic: The Exhibition." Museum of Science and Industry.http://www.msichicago.org/scrapbook/scrapbook_exhibits/titanic1/titanic_artifacts.html (accessed on August 15, 2006).

Titanic Historical Society.http://www.titanichistoricalsociety.org (accessed on August 15, 2006).

Steerage:

Lowest deck of a ship.

Congregate:

Lowest deck of a ship.

Port:

Lowest deck of a ship.

Starboard:

Lowest deck of a ship.

List:

Lowest deck of a ship.

Retired:

Lowest deck of a ship.

Commenced:

Lowest deck of a ship.

Promenading:

Lowest deck of a ship.

Bloomer:

Lowest deck of a ship.