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Cape Race, Newfoundland
Kate Royston McSorley
September 1912
Kate stood on the rocky headland with Wolfie waiting patiently at her side. Together they stared out at the vast reaches of the Atlantic Ocean. The mist that so often shrouded the peninsula had been burned away by bright autumn sunlight. The lighthouse was dazzling white against a background of clear blue sky. A pod of whales breached the surface of the shimmering ocean, and a flock of puffins passed noisily overhead.
Kate gazed in wonder at her new home. There was nothing of Pennsylvania in this remote place. Few trees managed to obtain a foothold in the rocky soil, and no farmers plowed the land. The most bountiful harvest lay beyond the horizon, where Newfoundland men fished for cod. A very different harvest was gathered in the quadrangle of sturdy clapboard buildings that contained the Cape Race relay station, where messages from ships were snatched from the air in bursts of Morse code.
Kate glanced up at the tall, skeletal radio towers. Of course, it was impossible to see the radio signals flashing out across the ocean, but she painted them in her imagination as ever widening circles. She imagined the words they carried, important and unimportant, but no longer chaotic. Senator Smith had succeeded in taming the previous wild piracy. Priorities had been established. A small part of the world had been made safer.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the British had conducted their own inquiry into the loss of the great, unsinkable Titanic. Once again the surviving officers and crew had been forced to relive the tragedy and reexamine their own actions. Captain Lord had been relieved of his command. Captain Rostron had been commended for his actions. And Captain Smith had been given the blame.
For Kate, so far away and engrossed in a life she could never have imagined for herself, with a man she loved more and more each day, the results of the inquiry no longer mattered. The last dead body had been plucked from the ocean in July and taken for burial in Halifax. The reporters had returned their attention to presidential politics. Madeleine Astor had given birth to a son. Rumors of war rumbled on the horizon, but Washington and London were both very far away.
Sometimes her thoughts strayed, and she remembered a gray-eyed man who had traveled a long way to find her. She knew what he had wanted to say, and she did not regret that she had stopped him. She didn’t belong in Michigan any more than she belonged in the rebuilt town of Royston. Her place was here, at the windswept edge of the world.
Wolfie turned his head and looked toward the open door of the relay station. Kate followed his brown-eyed gaze and saw Danny, her husband, coming toward her with an eager expression on his face.
She ran to meet him. “Is it the Carpathia?” she asked breathlessly.
“It is,” Danny said. “And it’s Cottam himself.”
Kate glanced back at the great sweep of the horizon. The Carpathia was out there, passing the last headland before she headed out into the empty Atlantic.
Inside the cramped shed, Danny ushered her into a seat and handed her the headphones. “You can do it,” he said. “I know you can. He’s taking it slow just for you.”
Kate clamped the headphones on her head and listened anxiously. She had been studying Morse code for weeks. She could do this. She picked up a pencil and pulled the paper pad toward her. She listened and smiled and began to write.
CARPATHIA TO CAPE RACE. GLAD TO KNOW YOU ARE KEEPING US SAFE. CONGRATULATIONS TO YOUR HUSBAND, AND BEST WISHES TO THE BRIDE. COTTAM, CARPATHIA.
Kate rested her hand lightly on the Morse key and transmitted her reply.
CAPE RACE TO COTTAM, CARPATHIA. MANY THANKS. SAFE VOYAGE. KATE MCSORLEY, CAPE RACE.
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The End
Read on for author’s notes.
The Girl on the Carpathia is a work of fiction based on facts. The U.S. Senate hearings lasted from April 19 to May 25, 1912. Because several of the witnesses were recalled to give additional evidence, and much of the evidence was repetitive, I have taken some of the testimony out of its correct order, and also used some of it testimony in conversations to convey the truth and avoid tedium. Readers may be familiar with some of the names I have included in The Girl on the Carpathia. My cast of characters contains many people who truly existed and were involved in the Titanic sinking and its aftermath. Only a few of my characters are fictional. You may be surprised.
FICTIONAL CHARACTERS
Mr. and Mrs. van Buren
Bridie Conley
The Reverend Mr. Dayton
Captain Gregory Fowler
Myra Grunwald
Richard LaSalle
Kitty and Maeve McCaffrey
Danny McSorley
Kate Royston
Eva Trentham
Wolfie the otterhound
REAL PEOPLE
On the Californian
Ernest Gill
Captain Stanley Lord
James McGregor
On the Carpathia
Radio Officer Harold Cottam
Carlos Hurd
Dr. Arpad Lengyel
Captain Arthur Rostron
Titanic Passengers
Major Archibald Butt
Lucy Christiana, Lady Duff-Gordon
Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon
Archibald Gracie IV
Sir Bruce Ismay
Lucy Noël Martha Leslie, Countess of Rothes
Arthur Peuchen
Emily Ryerson
Charles Stengel
John “Jack” Thayer III
Marian Thayer
Titanic Officers and Crew
Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall
Radio Officer Harold Bride
Frederick Clench
Alfred Crawford
Frank Evans
Frederick Fleet
Second Officer Charles Lightholler
Fifth Officer Harold Lowe
Third Officer Herbert Pitman
In the Senate Hearings
Sheriff Joe Bayliss
Senator Jonathan Bourne
Senator Theodore Burton
Senator Duncan Fletcher
Charles Hilles
William McKinstry
Senator Francis Newlands
Senator George Perkins
Daniel Ransdell
Senator Furnifold Simmons
Nancy “Nana” Smith
Senator William Alden Smith
President William Taft
On the Olympic
Fred Barrett
Captain Haddock
HAROLD COTTAM
Cottam was modest about his role in the disaster and, outside of a few interviews, rarely spoke of it to friends and family, preferring privacy. He turned down an offer to play himself in the 1958 film A Night to Remember. He continued to work as a shipboard wireless operator on various ships until 1922, when he married Elsie Jean Shepperson and took a job as a sales representative of the Mini Max Fire Extinguisher company. He died in 1984
FREDERICK FLEET, the Titanic's lookout, faced severe criticism from his crew mates for revealing the lack of binoculars. After his retirement he sold newspapers on the street corners of Southampton. On January 10, 1965, at seventy-six years of age, he committed suicide by hanging himself.
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J. BRUCE ISMAY returned to England to testify at the British Titanic Inquiry, where he was severely criticized by the British press for not "going down with the ship." He was forced to give up his chairmanship of the White Star Line and retired to live in Ireland. He was seldom seen in public again, and died on October 17, 1937 following the amputation of his leg.
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CHARLES H. LIGHTOLLER, survived three shipwrecks, a fire at sea, and being stranded on a desert island. He served his country with distinction in World War I, but he was always tainted by his association with the Titanic Inquiry and was never given his own command by the White Star Line. In World War II he sailed his personal yacht to Dunkirk and, despite heavy bombing of his unarmed craft, brought home 130 men. He died on December 8, 1952.
CAPTAIN STANLEY LORD was denounced by both the American and British Tribunals and was forced to resign from the Leyland Line. He spent the next fourteen years as a commander for the Nitrate Producers Steam Ship Company and the rest of his life maintaining his innocence. He died on January 25, 1962 and the age of eighty-four.
J. P. MORGAN remained in seclusion in his French chateau throughout the period of the investigation. The Titanic inquiry led directly to a House inquiry into the power held by the nation's leading corporations. Morgan was called as a witness at this hearing and was severely criticized for his use of his financial power. His personal physician attributed the strain of these hearings as a cause of Morgan's death in March of 1913. He was seventy-six years old and worth $100 million.
CAPTAIN ARTHUR ROSTRON was presented with a silver cup and gold medal for his efforts the night Titanic sank. In October 2015 the cup was sold at auction for $200,000. Captain Rostron was also awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the Thanks of Congress, the American Cross of Honor, and a medal from the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society. He served in World War I and died in 1940 at the age of seventy-six.
WILLIAM ALDEN SMITH won reelection to the Senate in 1912. As a result of the Titanic Inquiry, Smith authored a bill regulating the number of lifeboats to be carried by passenger vessels, the hours to be worked by wireless operators, and the discharging of rockets as distress signals. Smith became a ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee and a vigorous opponent of America's entry into World War I. Although he intended to run for the presidency in 1916, his hopes were dashed when Henry Ford won Michigan's nomination. He died in 1932 at the age of seventy-three.
COMPENSATION
In October 1912, the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company (more commonly known as the White Star Line) filed a petition in the Southern District of New York to limit its liability against any claims for loss of life, property, or injury. In this petition, the White Star Line claimed that the collision was due to an "inevitable accident." Over several days in June and July 1915, testimony continued. Negotiations carried on outside of court led to a tentative settlement with nearly all of the claimants in December 1915. The settlement was for a total of $664,000 to be divided among the claimants. "In the Matter of the Petition of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, Limited, for Limitation of its Liability as owner of the steamship TITANIC" (A55-279) is a part of the National Archives holdings in New York City.
CAPE RACE MARINE RADIO STATION went off the air in 1965. After 61 years of continuous operation it had been made obsolete by modern equipment at St. John's and St. Lawrence. A replica station has been constructed and is open to the public.
THE INTERNATIONAL ICE PATROL was established in 1914 by the agreement of 16 nations with shipping interests in the North Atlantic Ocean as a direct result of the Titanic disaster. The patrol locates icebergs in the North Atlantic, follows and predicts their drift, and issues warnings to ships in the vicinity. Reconnaissance is conducted by the U.S. Coast Guard, using planes equipped with radar that can detect icebergs in all but the roughest sea conditions. The Coast Guard exchanges information with the Canadian Ice Services and also receives reports from passing ships. During the patrol season, which normally extends from March through August, the Coast Guard broadcasts twice daily by Inmarsat satellite and by high-frequency radio facsimile, issuing reports on the locations of all known sea ice and icebergs. Approximately 1,000 icebergs are tracked each year.