Friday, March 7, 2008

Titanic Tidbit: Our Coterie

As I write this story, I find myself constantly wishing I were in some sort of writers' group, a small gathering of peers with whom I can share advice and ideas. The concept isn't new; in fact, there was such a group aboard Titanic, a group that survivor Archibald Gracie affectionately called "Our Coterie."

Our Coterie was composed of seven first-class passengers, all of them writers in one respect or another. After meeting aboard the ship, they gathered every evening of the voyage in one of Titanic's cafés to discuss not only their own work, but various works of literature popular in Europe and America at the time.

The members of Our Coterie were:
  • Helen Churchill Candee, 53
  • Edward Austin Kent, 58
  • Hugh Woolner, 45
  • Col. Archibald Gracie IV, 53
  • Edward Pomeroy Colley, 37
  • James Clinch Smith, 56
  • Mauritz Björnström-Steffansson, 28
They were an interesting and diverse group, to be sure. Of the seven, Candee and Gracie were the only published authors. Candee was an acclaimed author on interior design, and Gracie on American history. It is said that Gracie was a shameless self-promoter, and relentlessly tried to convince many passengers to read his latest book, The Truth About Chickamauga.

As the only female member of Our Coterie, wealthy divorcée Helen Candee was endlessly doted on by her male companions, and there have long been rumors of Kent and Woolner vying for her affection. After Titanic struck the iceberg, both men rushed to find Helen. Woolner reached her first, and he was escorting Helen up the stairs when they ran into Kent. Fearing for Kent's life, Helen handed him a treasured cameo of her mother, making him promise to return it after they were rescued. Indeed, her cameo was returned to her—it was found tucked safely in Kent's vest pocket when his body was recovered two weeks later.

Colley and Smith also lost their lives in the disaster. Their bodies were never recovered.

Woolner and Björnström-Steffansson were the last people into the last lifeboat, Collapsible D. As it was lowered past the promenade, the two took a flying leap and tumbled head-first into the boat just before it touched the water.

Gracie spent hours perched atop the overturned Collapsible B with about 30 other men. He barely survived, nearly succumbing to hypothermia during the night. He immediately went to work writing a book about his survival after the sinking, and was in the process of proofing the manuscript when he died in December 1912, just eight months after the disaster. He had never recovered from the trauma of that night. His final book, Titanic: A Survivor's Story, is still in print today.

1 comment:

Annalisa said...

Is Gracie's cause of death known or noted? It's quite striking that he survived the sinking and hypothermia, only to die less than a year later. Two of my great-uncles fought in World War II but then died of complications just a few years later.

Patrick, let's have a two-person Coterie! We can do it!