A Night to Remember

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 1955

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-2

Chapters 3-4

Chapters 5-6

Chapters 7-8

Chapters 9-10

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 5-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 5 Summary: “I Believe She’s Gone, Hardy”

Captain Smith warned Philips and Bride that the Titanic’s power was fading as the water level continued to rise higher and higher within the ship. However, the two Marconi officers struggled to explain to the vessels within range the gravity of their situation. At 1:25am, the Olympic asked if the Titanic was heading in their direction. The Frankfort casually asked for updates, not seeming to grasp the urgency in the lack of time available to Philips and Bride to make conversation. By 1:45am, officers no longer had to persuade passengers to get into the lifeboats; the urgent need to get to safety was palpable. Passengers became unruly, many men trying to crowd the lifeboats and climb aboard without permission. Some had to be forcibly removed and pushed back. Ismay, who throughout the voyage had vacillated between humbly declaring himself a passenger and functioning as president of the White Star Line, bothering Captain Smith and making “suggestions,” saw an opportunity to save himself and quietly snuck into a lifeboat at the last moment before it was lowered.

Jack Thayer stood against the deck railing with a friend, trying to prepare for the Titanic’s inevitable sinking. Benjamin Guggenheim, already world-famous for his wealth and sociopolitical influence, solidified his reputation as the epitome of a gentleman in his stalwart and elegant decision to meet his end with dignity. He returned to his staterooms to change out of his sweater and lifejacket and into a tuxedo. “We’ve dressed in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen,” he said (73). While some were saying their final goodbyes, other couples had decided to stay together and had found places to sit and wait for the inevitable. By the time the water reached the C deck, only two lifeboats were left. Several first-class passengers were left waiting to be loaded into a boat just off B deck. They’d been patient amid wavering directions. Finally, their lifeboat launched at 1:55am. The last boat, collapsible D, was lowered at 2:05am. Some passengers, reasoning that they could swim to and be received by lifeboats they weren’t allowed to board while they were loaded on deck, jumped into the water.

Chapter 6 Summary: “That’s the Way of It at This Kind of Time”

At 2:05am, Captain Smith told Philips and Bride, “Men, you have done your full duty. You can do no more. Abandon your cabin. Now it’s every man for himself. You look out for yourselves. I release you. That’s the way of it at this kind of time” (79). From there, Captain Smith passed the word to each member of the Titanic’s staff that he met, relieving them of their duties and instructing them to do what they could to survive. While many decided to take their chances in the water, most of the crew remained with the ship. At 2:10am, a steward found Thomas Andrews standing alone in the now inclined first-class smoking room. Philips and Bride pressed on, but a few minutes after 2:10am the two were forced to abandon their Marconi machine as water seeped toward their office. Murdoch, Lightoller, and other officers worked to launch the collapsible boats. They floated Boat B off the deck, but it was upside down. Boat A coasted off as the water rose beneath it. At 2:15am, the sea overtook the bridge. Everyone remaining topside progressed backward toward the stern to avoid the onslaught of water.

As the bow was pulled deeper under the water by its own increasing weight, the stern rose higher, tipping upward like the lighter end of a scale. Lightoller nearly drowned when he was sucked against a grate but swam free. Harold Bride grasped onto collapsible B as it was drawn away from the ship. Jack Thayer dove out and away from the deck. Furniture, décor, and tableware tumbled and crashed inside. Passengers struggled to remain upright. Some dove into the sea, while others fell; still others desperately clung to parts of the ship still out of the water, trying to prolong the inevitable. The Titanic’s lights flickered and went out, came back on, and went out again for the final time. One of Titanic’s funnels tipped over, crushing many of the people writhing in the water below. Many believe that John Jacob Astor was among them. Survivors reported the stern of the Titanic sticking straight up out of the water, pausing for a full two minutes before toppling back and then being sucked down in the ship’s final descent. When she’d disappeared entirely, Officer Pitman in lifeboat No. 5 announced, “It is two twenty” (91).

Chapters 5-6 Analysis

In 1912, Titanic cost the White Stare Line £7.5m to build. For purposes of comparison, calculations for inflation place the 21st-century equivalency at $200,000,000. This isn’t to say that the Titanic would cost $200,000,000 to build in the 21st century but that the buying power of £7.5m in 1912 was approximately that figure. While the Titanic was insured, the ship was not only a marvel of modern technology but a testament to the excellence of Harland & Wolff’s craftsmanship. It took three years to complete, and when the Titanic sunk, from a material standpoint she took with her the sum total of the efforts of everyone who exerted themselves to build and outfit her to be the most luxurious liner ever to sail the Atlantic. One of the most compelling aspects that enthusiasts cite when describing what captivates those with an interest in the Titanic is the idea of the pristine condition of the ship when she sank. Few would argue that the material value of the Titanic outweighs the loss of life of her passengers in cultural significance, but as a separate concept, the Titanic represents the loss of a historic artifact that might have had a greater role in world history had she not sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic before completing her first voyage. Her sister ship, the Olympic, served as an ocean liner for 24 years and as a hospital ship during World War I before eventually being scrapped in 1935. Her other sister ship, Britannic, was sunk by a German mine while likewise serving as a hospital ship in WWI.

The circumstances surrounding the Titanic’s sinking, including exactly how and why the events unfolded, particularly from a scientific and maritime archeological angle, have interested hobbyists and researchers ever since word reached the mainland that she’d gone under. In 1985, Robert Ballard located the ship’s wreckage, and from that moment forward submersible investigations of the ship have endeavored to ascertain the physics of how the wreck came apart. A Night to Remember was published 30 years before Ballard’s discovery, and in the decades since, researchers have challenged some of the assertions of those who witnessed the disaster firsthand. The Titanic’s debris field is approximately 15 square miles, including both sections of the ship and smaller items ranging from pieces of furniture to personal articles that remain on the ocean floor. Contemporaries in 1912 challenged firsthand accounts claiming that the Titanic broke apart, but the discovery of the wreckage revealed that what the passengers claimed to have witnessed on the night of April 14 was largely accurate. Some debate concerns exactly how the hull broke apart and the degree to which the stern stood vertical and for how long this happened, but modern simulations have suggested that the account related in these chapters by Walter Lord is largely accurate, especially because he does not attempt to present a technical recreation of the physics associated with the sinking and instead offers an opportunity to appreciate how those who lived the events experienced them. The enduring value of A Night to Remember is its authenticity in standing the test of time; it’s still considered the most accurate account of the sinking of the Titanic not only because of Lord’s extensive research into the disaster but because of the consideration that he includes in the clarifications and the caveats that he includes alongside his narrative. One of the themes of A Night to Remember—Trauma, Action, Memory, Cultural Significance, and Reverberating Consequences—concerns the acknowledgment that the trauma associated with extreme duress, particularly in instances of disasters that result in loss of life or near loss of life, can wreak havoc on a survivor’s memory, not only the ability to process, code, and appreciate what is happening before their eyes during the event but also in the aftermath as they try to recall and make sense of their experiences. The field of trauma research in the 21st century is far ahead of where it stood when Lord wrote A Night to Remember, but the cognizance of trauma as a factor in memory and emotion is present in his writing. Lord doesn’t make any claims as to how these cognitive processes function; instead, he offers those whose recollections seem tainted by emotional wounds the grace of the benefit of the doubt—and deals directly and frankly with those who seized the opportunity to embellish, grandstand, or exaggerate their heroism after the disaster.