Dr McCoy and Chief Engineer
Nordstrom. - Morality Tales need only
cursory research Jim Walker, Murder on the Titanic (1998) |
![]() Cover of my copy of the book |
Morality and Inconsistencies Murder on the Titanic by Jim Walker seems to be another of those books rushed through to publication in the wake of Cameron's film (1998), another murder mystery set on the famous and ill-fated Titanic. Not only the publication date but also some astounding inconsistencies indicate that the book's publication was overly hasty. Some of the inconsistencies are so glaring one can hardly believe there was an editorial process. Benjamin Guggenheim's valet is at one point described as a blond and blue-eyed poster-boy for the German nation and then as having black hair, a black handlebar moustache, and eyes like black coal. At some point Morgan Fairfield, the story's hero, participates in dangling one of the villains, an Irish steerage passenger named O'Connor, over the side of the ship. Only an hour or so later in the story, when they meet in again, the two act as if they had never met before. Reading the introduction, however, reveals the actual aim of the story. What the author really cares about and wants to convey to his audience is neither the story of the Titanic nor the thrill and suspense of a murder mystery, but a morality play on the need of man to put his faith in god, the Christian God that is. Not a surprising sentiment in a man who is a senior pastor with the Evangelical Free Church and has written books such as Husbands who won't Lead and Wives who won't Follow. And I doubt the latter is a praise of rebel women. |
This is not the first nor will it
be the last time the story of the Titanic
is used to symbolise the hubris of mankind and
the consequence of an inevitable disastrous
downfall. In fact, there is hardly any retelling
of the tale that does not, at least in passing,
make a reference to this. Somebody is bound to
say 'God himself could not sink this ship' or
words to this effect. Given the fact that the TItanic
was praised by the press as unsinkable and as
she did sink this is hardly surprising. The name
of the ship and its origins, the Titans who
rebelled against the gods and were severely
punished for it, can easily be used to see it as
epitomizing this hubris. In Murder on the Titanic the consequences of thinking to high of mankind's achievements is spelled out expressly. (Fictional) Reverend James Rosscup reports having overheard somebody state that 'Not even God could sink this ship', which, according to him is bad, because 'It's a dangerous thing to tempt God.' (As an aside, what kind of childish, vengeful god would kill hundreds of people to punish one man for his boastful language?) |
Since the moral of the story is to
instil in the readers the urge to life their
lives according to Christian values, it is not
surprising that the author did not try very hard
to describe the journey of the Titanic
as authentically as possible. No doubt, Mr
Walker has done some research on the subject,
but of a rather fragmented and cursory nature.
The book contains quite a number of correct
details from the stoker climbing the fourth
(dummy) funnel, giving several people quite a
fright when his head appeared on top of the
funnel in Queenstown to details of Lightoller's
previous career. |
Historic Errors and Fictional
Characters However, reading up these facts seems to have no other reason than to add some authenticity to the book and not stem from the desire to actually find out the historical facts. There are so many gross and needless mistakes in the story that it cannot be excused by arguing that it would have been too difficult to find out the facts. These mistakes start from smallish ones, e.g., that women are described as having bobbed hair (in 1912!) to errors that may be explained by carelessness, when for example the colour of the hair and the eyes of a woman in a photograph are described (again in 1912!). But the book contains some really big mistakes, too. The most glaring mistake is the reason behind the plot to blow a hole in the Titanic and sink her. (Just as happened in Sherlock Holmes and the Titanic Tragedy and in Titanic. Adventure out of Time.) This act of terrorism is allegedly planned by the IRA. The problem is: the IRA as a paramilitary organisation did not exist in 1912. It was established only after the Easter Rising of 1916. When Paidrig Pearse used the phrase 'Irish Republican Army' he was referring to the participants of the Easter Rising not a secret organisation. The British Officer he talked to had not heard the phrase before. Moreover, while there is a continuous tradition of 'physical force' politics in Irish History, 1912 was a very quiet time. In fact, it seemed possible to achieve the goal of Irish Independence by constitutional means and in 1914 Home Rule had almost been achieved. (It was fiercely attacked by the Unionists in Ireland and the Tories and put on hold by World War One.) |
The author seems to have had just
the patience to check out details of the ship's
voyage and the events surrounding the collision
with the iceberg. He seems to have thought it to
suffice to find the names of a few of the
officers (and in Lightoller's case make a note
of some of his more picturesque aspects of his
past), so it is not surprising to find the
officers on or off duty at all the wrong hours
and their duties (as usual) consisting more of
dealing with passengers than actually running
the ship. (It is even mentioned that there is an
officer making sure steerage passengers do not
trespass into second or first class areas, but
one can assume that as many actual passengers,
the hero of the story mistakes a steward for an
officer.) Until Moody and Wilde make an appearance very late in the story, there are only three officers present, Murdoch, Lightoller and Boxhall. Walker has also assigned them particular characteristics, Mr Ambitious (I cannot help but wonder whether this has no deeper reason than Lightoller calling him an 'ambitious fellow' in A Night to Remember), Mr Bewildered, and Mr Right. Mr Walker has taken quite a shine to Boxhall who is the only officer who acts correctly. It is therefore hardly a surprise that Mr Walker did not bother to find out what the name of either the ship's surgeons or that of the Chief Engineer was. Both, or rather all three, names are really not difficult to find out. Nevertheless, instead of William O'Laughlin, the senior surgeon and Edward Simpson, the junior surgeon, there is a Dr McCoy, whose first name we never learn. The Chief Engineer in this novel is called Nordstrom not Bell. Interestingly, much later in the story, we encounter a man who introduces himself as 'Eric Nordstrom, a stoker'. Are we to believe that there are two men called Nordstrom on board, when in reality there was not a single one of this name aboard? Or is this another case of a book that would have needed much more vigorous proof-reading? |
It is true that the author
stresses in the introduction that this is a
fictional story, but I just cannot see the
reason why he could not have used the real
people's names if you feel the need to include
them. After all neither Dr McCoy nor Chief
Engineer Nordstrom are involved in a crime or
depicted as particularly useless in the story.
If I find it hard to
understand this needless change of
names, what really flabbergasts me is
that Mr Walker has the nerve to claim
in the introduction's list of
characters that Kitty Webb was a
historical character and the mistress
of Benjamin Guggenheim. Guggenheim's
mistress was called Madame Léontine
Pauline Aubart who was a singer from
Paris. Guggenheim did not pull her out
of a chorus line in New York. Nor did
they share a cabin, as Guggenheim and
Kitty Webb do in the novel.
Since it is implied that
Kitty Webb murdered or engineered the
murder of her former lover Hunter
Kennedy one could assume that the
author did not want to accuse a
historical person of murder, though
why he should then insist she was a
historical character is a mystery.
Additionally, he has no compunction to
claim that J. Bruce Ismay had killed a
young woman (Hunter Kennedy's sister)
in a drink-driving accident.
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Theories In addition to his aim to further
Christian values, the author also 'takes the
opportunity to advance several theories that
spotlight the events that led to the sinking,
at least one of which may have prevented the
great loss of life,' as he states in the
introduction. One of these theories, that the
Titanic would not have sunk if she had
hit the iceberg head on, is only mentioned in
passing. Apart from the fact that a head on
collision would have instantly killed several
hundred people, a fact not mentioned in the
novel, it is far from certain whether this
manoeuvre would have saved the ship. It is
also worth noting that the manoeuvre was
almost succesful. If the iceberg had been
spotted only a couple of second earlier the
Titanic would have been damaged but not
fatally. Hitting an obstacle head on is also
simply bad practice. [quote]
The second theory,
presumably the one the author
considers would have prevented the
great loss of life, is that if the
watertight doors had been opened the
ship would have flooded evenly and
would have stayed afloat longer.
Again, it is nonsense that flooding
the ship deliberately would have
slowed the sinking. Additionally, this
course of action would have meant the
almost immediate loss of power and
therefore light, a fact that is
mentioned but dismissed as unimportant
in the book. However, it would have
been near impossible to load and lower
the lifeboats in pitch darkness. Chaos
and panic would have been the
immediate result of a black-out. Even
worse, the wireless would have been
able to send only extremely weak
distress calls.
What is particularly
irritating is that this course of
action is advocated by Jack Kelly, an
Irish steerage passenger. The fact
that Kelly, a builder of small wooden
fishing vessels, should know better
how to stop a ship the size of the Titanic
sinking than Thomas Andrews and the
ship-yard's guarantee group or anybody
else who had experience with designing
and running large ships is an arrogant
and insulting assumption.
The author is at great pains to depict a ship riven with incompetence (with the notable exception of 4th Officer Boxhall), and while mistakes were made it is the kind of armchair driving that is really annoying. Particularly coming from a man who does not know a great deal about the events or how a ship like the Titanic was run. |
Facts are Overrated There are too many instances
that illustrates this to list here. To name
but one, when casting off in Southampton,
Boxhall is described as being at the ship's
wheel and giving orders. Boxhall would not
be at the wheel, that's the place of a
quartermaster, as junior officer he would
not be giving orders (except in emergencies,
e.g. if all the senior officers had died or
were busy elsewhere), and most importantly,
at this point a pilot would be in command of
the ship.
Mr Walker also makes a great
deal about the fact that 'nobody knows how
to handle a ship of this size', which is
obviously complete nonsense, since the Titanic's
elder sister Olympic had been in
service for a year at the time and the
Captain as well as Chief Officer Wilde and
First Officer Murdoch had made the Atlantic
crossing on her several times, which is the
reason why they were put in command of the Titanic.
To sum up, the novel is
so full of inaccuracies and mistakes
that the presence of two fictional
crew members, Dr McCoy and Chief
Engineer Nordstrom, hardly warrant a
comment. It seems that the author
was so keen to write his morality
play and the publishers to get it
out as quickly as possible that not
only the glaring inconsistencies,
factual errors but the mistakes in
the plot were not noticed or
ignored.
It could be argued that
the historical details hardly matter
in a story of this kind and that it
is fiction after all. In that case,
if the historical events are
unimportant, I would advise to set
the story on a fictional ship
altogether. But then, Murder on
the Romantic would hardly sell
as good as a story set on the Titanic.
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