Women and Children First (45 page)
There was also questioning of why the survival rate was so poor amongst the third-class passengers: only 16.2 per cent of third-class men survived compared to 32.7 per cent of first-class; more tellingly, less than a third of third-class children survived while all bar one of the first-class children made it to the
Carpathia
. There were tales that the gates allowing third-class passengers access to the boat deck were locked, but no evidence of this has survived. However, there were far fewer stewards per passenger in third class, and the confusing layout of the ship was against them. A combination of these factors led to the high death toll.
Long before the term “post-traumatic stress disorder” had been coined, it is obvious that Titanic survivors suffered from it. At least seven men and one woman committed suicide later in life, a much higher percentage than in the population at large. Many marriages broke down in the aftermath, despite the fact that this was an era when divorce still carried huge stigma. Male survivors were castigated for getting into lifeboats while there were still women on the ship and some found their businesses destroyed when the public no longer patronised them. There were several survivors who simply refused ever to discuss their experiences that night, even with family and friends, and many who never got on a boat again for the rest of their lives.
In this novel, I wanted to explore what it felt like to be on the
Titanic
and to survive. In order to do this, I invented the main characters in my story, but many of their experiences were based on real events.
Reg Parton was inspired by a real-life first-class victualling steward called Reginald Jones. He came from Southampton, was twenty-one years old, and was very handsome. It is reported that a Canadian newlywed on board used to annoy her husband by flirting with him. Sadly, Reginald Jones did not survive.
There was no direct model for Lady Juliette Mason-Parker, but I had in mind a woman called Eloise Smith, who lost her husband on the
Titanic
and married the man who comforted her on the
Carpathia
. She was pregnant at the time of the sinking and gave birth to the son of her first husband, but her second marriage, born out of her shock and despair, didn’t last.
Annie McGeown from Cork is invented, but there was a party on board of fourteen Irish people from County Mayo, of whom only three survived. Most of the Irish passengers on the
Titanic
were émigrés, hoping to better themselves in the land of opportunity, and it was common practice for the man to go ahead and establish himself before sending for his family to join him.
The story of the Graylings and Venetia Hamilton is invented, but there were many passengers travelling under assumed names, for one reason or another, and on a ship of that size there were bound to be stowaways. No one is entirely sure how many people were on board and how many survived, although the figures I have given are the generally accepted estimates.
My description of events during the sinking and on the
Carpathia
are based on the reports of survivors, either at the Inquiries or in the press. The story dominated the headlines for many months afterwards and it continues to fascinate almost a hundred years later. There have been ships that sank with greater loss of life, and other ships that sank on their maiden voyage, but with the
Titanic
, there is a combination of factors which makes it so compelling.
[Radio operator Harold McBride is helped ashore on arrival in New York.]
LC-USZ 62-85392
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
It had been heralded as the safest, most luxurious ship ever built, and some (although not its builders) called it “unsinkable”. It was on its maiden voyage and had many of the world’s richest millionaires on board, along with several contemporary “celebrities”. Those two hours and forty minutes between the collision and the sinking proved a true test of character, as well as a demonstration of the values of the age that would be rejected soon afterwards. But it is in the poignancy of the individual stories that the true fascination lies. What must it have felt like to be there, and to survive? I wrote this novel in an attempt to find out.
First of all, I’d like to thank Jason Hook for commissioning my nonfiction book
Titanic Love Stories
and fanning my obsession with all things to do with the ship. Karel Bata suggested I wrote a novel set on the
Titanic
, and has been patient and helpful throughout the months when I tried ideas on him and forced him at gunpoint to read bits of it.
Wilf Sefton told me about his life working in the galleys of big cruise ships; Joyce McElroy advised on all things Irish; Sarah Palmer gave tips on life management; David Boyle acted as a historical advisor; Anne Nicholson, who reads all my novels at an early stage, made some important points; Sue Reid Sexton told me about the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder; Kirsty Crawford gave brilliant advice when this book was just an outline; Florence Williams (aged seven) gave me permission to use her name; and Karen Sullivan has, as always, been incomparably magnificent as a reader and sounding board.
Among the books I read for research, I particularly recommend Walter Lord’s
A Night to Remember
; John Eaton and Charles Haas’s
Titanic: Triumph and Tragedy
; the collection of pieces by John Wilson Foster (ed.) entitled simply
Titanic
;
The Story of the Titanic as Told by its Survivors
, edited by Jack Winocour; and W.B. Bartlett’s
Titanic: 9 hours to Hell
. Please note that any inadvertent factual errors are mine and not theirs.
My lovely agent, Vivien Green, was enthusiastic about the idea from the start and couldn’t have been more supportive. The team at Avon – my brilliant editor Claire Bord, as well as Caroline Ridding, Claire Power, Becke Parker, Keshini Naidoo, Helen Bolton, Cleo Little, Adrian Hemstalk and Rhian McKay. – have been thoroughly helpful and professional and, among other things, have dragged me kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Because of them I now have a website at
www.gillpaul.com
, where you can contact me if you wish. I’d love to hear from you.
Huge thanks to everyone involved. I’m lucky to know you all.
Gill Paul lives in London, where she runs her own company producing books for publishers and has worked as an editor and researcher for some eminent historians. Her previous novels include
Enticement
and
Compulsion
. She has written several nonfiction books, including
Titanic Love Stories
(2011), about the honeymoon couples on board the doomed ship. During the course of her research, Gill talked to relatives and friends of survivors and became passionately interested in everything to do with the
Titanic
. The main character in
Women and Children First
was inspired by a photograph of a very handsome young man, who was a steward in first class, and who died. Nothing is known of what happened to him, and little is known of his background. Gill invented the character of Reg Parton with his picture in mind.
To find out more about Gill Paul please visit
www.gillpaul.com
, and on Twitter
@GillPaulAUTHOR
.
The facts surrounding the sinking of the
Titanic
are portrayed accurately in this novel, but otherwise it is a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
AVON
A division of HarperCollins
Publishers
77–85 Fulham Palace Road,
London W6 8JB
A Paperback Original 2012
Gill Paul asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-84756-325-5
WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST
. Copyright © Gill Paul 2012. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © FEBRUARY 2012 ISBN: 978-0-00-745330-6
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