Speaker 1: Okay. Imagine you're on a sinking ship in the North
Speaker 1: Atlantic on a freezing cold night. You see an opportunity
Speaker 1: to get on a lifeboat to save your life. Problem is,
Speaker 1: you're the guy who runs the company that owns the
Speaker 1: giant boat, your Bruce is May, chairman of the White
Speaker 1: Star Line, and you're on the maiden voyage of the
Speaker 1: doomed RMS Titanic. I'm Patty Steele. Did Is May sneak
Speaker 1: onto a lifeboat to save himself or was he the
Speaker 1: victim of fake news from a vicious press. That's next
Speaker 1: on the back story. We're back with the back story.
Speaker 1: It's a bitterly cold, but crystal clear April night in
Speaker 1: the North Atlantic Sea. The biggest, most luxurious cruise ship
Speaker 1: ever built is on its maiden voyage from the UK
Speaker 1: to New York City. On board some of the wealthiest,
Speaker 1: most powerful people on Earth, along with the ship's designer,
Speaker 1: Thomas Andrews and the chairman of the company that owns
Speaker 1: Titanic White Stars, Bruce is May. Everybody wanted to be
Speaker 1: a part of the RMS Titanic's maiden voyage. It was
Speaker 1: outfitted with crystal chandeliers, spectacular carved woodwork and fantastic food
Speaker 1: and service. No expense was spared. Even the third or
Speaker 1: steerage class accommodations were way beyond anybody's expectations. The ship
Speaker 1: was a work of art, and on top of that,
Speaker 1: it was said to be completely unsinkable. And that's where
Speaker 1: the trouble began. The White Star Line had been sold
Speaker 1: to J. P. Morgan Company, which was looking to make
Speaker 1: a bundle of money off this glamorous ship, as well
Speaker 1: as her sister ships, the Olympic and the Britannic. The
Speaker 1: ships were more luxurious than any passenger ships to date,
Speaker 1: and Titanic was looking to get to New York in
Speaker 1: record time, but a mass of iceberg stopped Titanic dead
Speaker 1: in its tracks. Problem is, in order to keep the
Speaker 1: ship as beautiful, light weight, and fast as possible, they
Speaker 1: had to pay attention to its weight. It was carrying
Speaker 1: two hundred twenty four passengers and crew on this first voyage,
Speaker 1: but the big, wooden, cumbersome lifeboats seemed unnecessary to some
Speaker 1: since they were on board a ship that was unsinkable,
Speaker 1: and the naysayers apparently included Bruce Imy. J P. Morgan
Speaker 1: wanted the ship's maiden voyage to prove it could get
Speaker 1: across the Atlantic in record time. Records show that Bruce
Speaker 1: Imy ordered the number of lifeboats for the more than
Speaker 1: twenty two hundred souls be reduced from forty eight to
Speaker 1: just sixteen, the minimum allowed by the Board of Trade.
Speaker 1: That allowed room on the lifeboats for only about half
Speaker 1: of the people that were on board the ship for
Speaker 1: this trip. Okay, let's go back and get a little
Speaker 1: history about Bruce Ismay himself. His father was the founder
Speaker 1: of the White Star Line. His grandfather on his mother's
Speaker 1: side was a shipowner, and later his mother in law
Speaker 1: was an American who came from a powerful shipping family
Speaker 1: in New York. The Della Planes ships were in the
Speaker 1: family's blood. After his father died in eighteen ninety nine,
Speaker 1: Bruce took over the company and was really successful. Several
Speaker 1: years later, he agreed to sell to the JP Morgan Company,
Speaker 1: although he would still run the company. Problem is, Bruce
Speaker 1: Ismay was dealing with depression even before the Titanic disaster.
Speaker 1: There are various stories about what happened late on the
Speaker 1: night of April fourteenth, nineteen twelve. Some passengers said that
Speaker 1: during the voyage, Ismay had pushed the ship's captain about
Speaker 1: a possible test of speed if time permitted. He was
Speaker 1: anxious to prove that the ship wasn't just luxurious but
Speaker 1: also incredibly fast. When the ship hit the iceberg at
Speaker 1: eleven forty PM, all hell broke loose. There was a
Speaker 1: rush to the lifeboats, but in the panic, many of
Speaker 1: them were launched less than half full. In the end,
Speaker 1: only about seven hundred people survived, with more than fifteen
Speaker 1: hundred dead. So how did Ismay wind up on a
Speaker 1: life when so many people were left behind, including many
Speaker 1: women and children. Some said he slipped in unnoticed. On
Speaker 1: the other hand, in the hearings after the disaster, some
Speaker 1: White Star officials testified that Ismay had worked tirelessly for
Speaker 1: over two hours helping women and children into lifeboats, and
Speaker 1: only jumped into the last lifeboat available when there were
Speaker 1: no women or children left in his part of the ship.
Speaker 1: Ismay later testified that as the ship was finally sinking,
Speaker 1: he turned away he just couldn't watch. His lifeboat was
Speaker 1: picked up four hours later by another ship, the Carpathia,
Speaker 1: and he was taken to the ship's doctor. He had
Speaker 1: a message sent to White Star's New York office, simply saying,
Speaker 1: deeply regret to advise you. Titanic sank this morning after
Speaker 1: collision with Iceberg, resulting in serious loss of life. Further
Speaker 1: particulars later Bruce Ismay. Those on board the Carpathia say
Speaker 1: Ismay didn't leave the cabin for the entire trip to
Speaker 1: New York City. He ate nothing and was on opiates
Speaker 1: the whole time. Another survivor said Ismay was staring straight ahead,
Speaker 1: shaking like a leaf, responding to no one. He said,
Speaker 1: even when I spoke to him, he paid absolutely no attention.
Speaker 1: I have never seen a man so completely wrecked. Problem is,
Speaker 1: Ismay had a terrible relationship with one of the most
Speaker 1: powerful people in the press, William Randolph Hurst. And Hurst
Speaker 1: went after him with no holds barred. All his newspapers
Speaker 1: called Ismay the coward of the Titanic. They blamed him
Speaker 1: for the disaster and then vilified him for slipping into
Speaker 1: a lifeboat. Within a year, Ismay resigned as chairman of
Speaker 1: the company, although he stayed on the board of directors.
Speaker 1: His life was a mess from then on. The depression
Speaker 1: he'd already suffered from intensified while he worked hard to
Speaker 1: do the right thing by the families of the Titanic victims.
Speaker 1: He spent most of his time at his home in
Speaker 1: the Irish countryside. His wife, attempting to help him, refused
Speaker 1: to let anyone, including family members, ever speak about the
Speaker 1: disaster or even mention the name Titanic. Meantime, London's society
Speaker 1: ostracized him and labeled him a coward, and every film
Speaker 1: about Titanic has cast Ismay as a villain, starting with
Speaker 1: the nineteen forty three Nazi propaganda film Titanic on through
Speaker 1: to James Cameron's massive success with the nineteen ninety seven
Speaker 1: film also called Titanic. While the official British inquiry into
Speaker 1: the sinking cleared him, finding he'd done everything he could
Speaker 1: to help others before helping himself, he never got past
Speaker 1: the stigma. His depression deepened and never healed. Bruce Ismay
Speaker 1: spent a lot of his post disaster life at his
Speaker 1: Irish country house, fishing, wandering alone through the little town,
Speaker 1: and going to the movies by himself. Again, his wife
Speaker 1: allowed no one to speak of the Titanic disaster, so
Speaker 1: he was alone with his pain and his memories. At
Speaker 1: a family gathering, before Christmas in nineteen thirty six, a
Speaker 1: few months before his death, one of Ismay's grandsons, who
Speaker 1: recently discovered his grandfather had been involved in maritime shipping,
Speaker 1: of course, knew nothing about the disaster, asked him if
Speaker 1: he'd ever been shipwrecked for the first time in twenty
Speaker 1: five years. Ismay spoke of that tragedy, saying, yes, I
Speaker 1: was once in a ship which was believed to be unsinkable.
Speaker 1: Bruce Ismay died of a massive stroke in October of
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty six. He was seventy four years old. His
Speaker 1: wife died in nineteen sixty three at the age of
Speaker 1: ninety six, and never spoke of the Titanic disaster. What
Speaker 1: do you think? Do you think he had a responsibility
Speaker 1: to simply go down with the ship? Bruce Ismay's granddaughter
Speaker 1: said he was like a corpse. In later years, she
Speaker 1: said his greatest misfortune, or perhaps misjudgment, was that he survived.
Speaker 1: Hope you like the backstory with Patty Steele. Please leave
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Speaker 1: story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty
Speaker 1: Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele.
Speaker 1: The Backstory is a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the
Speaker 1: Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is
Speaker 1: Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes
Speaker 1: every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out to
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Speaker 1: for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele. The pieces
Speaker 1: of history you didn't know you needed to know.