Westerly Sun Column | Remembering the Titanic 111 Years Later

This Saturday, April 15, will mark 111 years since the tragic sinking of the RMS Titanic. Though well over a century has passed, the story of the “unsinkable” ship continues to fascinate people of all ages. Because of the interest, there’s no shortage of books and movies detailing the disaster — including the feature film “Titanic,” which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

I was a teenager in the late ’90s, so of course I watched young Leonardo DiCaprio fawn over Kate Winslet, but, to be honest, dramatizations of disasters aren’t really my thing. Personally, I think a huge reason why the fate of the Titanic continues to captivate the public is because of the raw, real-life stories of the passengers — both those who survived, and the 1,500-plus who lost their lives. Aboard the ship were people of all ages and social classes, from emigrants seeking a new and better life in America, to John Jacob Astor IV, one of the richest men in the entire world. I think we’re so fascinated because we can see ourselves, and our loves ones, in these stories.

There’s no one way to deal with grief and trauma, and many of the survivors of the Titanic (understandably) refused to talk about it publicly. Others, like Archibald Gracie, went on to publish their accounts of the disaster, giving us more reliable, first-hand accounts of what happened. Gracie’s memoir, “The Truth About the Titanic,” was originally published in 1913, and has gone through numerous printings since. It’s now available through our consortium under the title “Titanic: A Survivor’s Story,” and also includes the recollections of another survivor, Jack Thayer.

Then there’s “Titanic: The Last Night of a Small Town” (2012), by historian John Welshman. In it, Welshman documents the eyewitness accounts of 12 survivors. He also tells the story of what happened to them in the years after. Publisher’s Weekly praised Welshman for writing “with sensitivity that forgoes melodrama in favor of honest emotions“ and for “humaniz[ing] one of the most oft-dramatized disasters of the 20th century.” A similar title is “Shadow of the Titanic” by Andrew Wilson, a well-researched collection of stories and recollections from many of the 705 survivors.

By complete happenstance, a regular patron of the library saw our display of Titanic-related books as I was in the middle of writing this column and informed me that one of the survivors lived right here in Westerly. Though he didn’t (to the best of my knowledge) appear in the titles that I mentioned, I know many of you reading have memories of Marshall Drew, a Westerly resident who was only 8 years old when the Titanic went down. Drew gave numerous interviews over the years, detailing his memories of that night in April, some of which I found in our America’s News database. By all accounts, he lived to be a wonderful artist, teacher, and friend. He passed on June 6, 1986, as one of the last living survivors of the Titanic.

by Cassie Skobrak, Adult Services Librarian