The tragedy of RMS TITANIC has exerted an extraordinary fascination for over a century, and doubtless will do so for generations to come. This novel would not have been thought of had it not been for Ron Hancock, manager of the Southampton Pilots’ Office, who very kindly showed me the DockMaster’s Log Book for 1912.
That large, leather-bound book logged ships inward on the left-hand page and outward on the right, under columns headed Date, Time, Ship, Captain, etc
The entries for March and April were quite extraordinary. My husband and I were shown the entry for April 10th, noon – the time Titanic sailed from Southampton – the destination New York, and the Captain’s name, Smith. That entry alone was enough to cause a shiver, knowing what was to come.
But then the pages were turned back, and the elegant copperplate handwriting recorded Captain Smith as having arrived in Southampton on March 30th at 06:00 from New York, aboard the White Star ship Olympic.
Five days later, Captain Smith’s name appeared again. This time the log recorded him coming into Southampton at 01:15 on April 4th, from Belfast – aboard Titanic. Six days after that he was sailing for New York.
My husband and I stared at the book, checked times and dates again. We worked out the journey he must have made. Arriving from New York aboard Olympic, he docked in the early hours in Southampton, no doubt took a train to London, another to Liverpool, and then an overnight ferry to Belfast – with a new ship to take out on sea-trials and then bring back to Southampton. And this after a winter spent crossing the North Atlantic.
Those brief entries were like alarm beacons. Personal experience is part of any response, and I had enough experience of life at sea to appreciate at once just how hard that must have been. As my husband – another sea-captain – shook his head, appalled by the pressure those entries conveyed, I wondered how many other people would understand.
Needing to express it, I wrote a short story. But the amount of research necessary for that, resulted in other aspects surfacing. Once I’d taken the Hawke/Olympic incident into account, events aboard Titanic began to loom very large indeed.
I had been about to start work on a novel set in a completely different era, but it had to take a back seat. My family wanted to know more about Captain Smith – and so did I.
The Master’s Tale is based upon Captain Edward John Smith’s life and career. But it is also a novel, containing all the imagined dramas that novels require. The newspaperman William T Stead was an intriguing man, with interests in spiritualism and thought transference, although whether he conducted a séance aboard Titanic is purely my speculation. Those interested in facts will appreciate that Harry Jones and Thomas Jones were both known to Edward Smith, although whether they were related, again is speculation on my part. With regard to other liberties taken, I hope both the Captain’s devotees and detractors will forgive me, and appreciate that for the novelist, all the characters become real.
I would like to think that Mrs Lucinda Carver was rescued along with all the other ladies in Boat 4. Her name, however, together with that of the Enderby sisters and Mrs Adelaide Burgoyne, was not found on Titanic’s passenger list.