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Titanic

Titanic News for the New Year

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Lee, Sue. “‘They Called Him the Coward of the Titanic but I Can Tell You the Real Story.’” Liverpool Echo, December 30, 2025. https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/they-called-him-coward-titanic-33110286.

It was other people’s reactions to his surname which later set him off on a quest for the truth about what really happened the night the magnificent ocean liner sank on her maiden voyage with the loss of 1,500 passengers and crew. “I used to meet people, on a business or social level, introduce myself and they’d often ask me: ‘Are you related to the coward of the Titanic?’ ” That’s how he’s been portrayed down the years in films and books – as a villain – but I wanted to know the truth,” says Cliff, who has written a book on his ancestor. “I don’t think he was a hero but he was no coward either. During my own research I found he was responsible for actually saving lives as he patrolled the boat deck boats, both starboard and port sides, encouraging women and children to get into the lifeboats.

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Davies, Hannah J. “Titanic Sinks Tonight Review – It’s Like You’re Reliving That Terrifying Night.” The Guardian, December 28, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/dec/28/titanic-sinks-tonight-review-its-like-youre-reliving-that-terrifying-night.

Titanic Sinks Tonight is a part-documentary, part-drama series playing across four nights, its episodes constructed from letters and diaries written by those on board, as well as interviews the survivors would give in the decades after. On the strength of the two episodes released for review, there’s no denying that it sates our appetite for Titanic-themed content. However, in centring the words and memories of those who lived through the terror of that night, it restores much-needed agency to those people. It also does well to bring a sense of reality to events that can sometimes feel unreal on account of their ubiquity, and that uncanny valley of Titanic-themed media. Central to its success is the presence of experts such as historian Suzannah Lipscomb and former Royal Navy admiral Lord West, to sharpen the corners of the story that Hollywood has sanded down.

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Lloyd, Howard. “The Man From Cornwall Who Was at Titanic’s Wheel When Disaster Struck.” Cornwall Live, December 22, 2025. https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/man-cornwall-who-titanics-wheel-10719329.

When Robert Hichens, the quartermaster, took over the helm of RMS Titanic at 10pm on 14 April 1912, he had no inkling that in a few hours, he would be at the heart of one of the most catastrophic maritime disasters in history. Less than two hours into his shift, the 29 year old found himself wrestling with the wheel of the colossal ocean liner as it desperately tried to evade an iceberg in the icy North Atlantic. Hichens’ legacy has been marred by controversy. Post the sinking, he faced accusations ranging from steering in the wrong direction to avoid the iceberg, to being intoxicated in his lifeboat. He also declined to return to the site of the sinking to search for survivors – despite his lifeboat only being half-full – and later served time in prison for attempted murder.

Suggested Reading

[Titanic News Channel is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.]

Behe, G. (2012). On board RMS Titanic: Memories of the Maiden Voyage. The History Press.

Ballard, Robert D. Exploring the Titanic. Reprint. Madison Press Books, 2014.

Ballard, Robert D., and Rick Archbold. The Discovery of the Titanic. New York, N.Y.?: Warner Books, 1987.

Ballard, Robert D., Lost Liners: From the Titanic to the Andrea Doria the Ocean Floor Reveals Its Greatest Lost Ships(Hyperion, 1998).

Brewster, H. (2013). Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic’s First-Class Passengers and Their World. National Geographic Books.

Eaton John P. & Haas Charles, TITANIC TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY, SECOND EDITION, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, New York, 1995 First American Edition

Fitch, Tad, J. Kent Layton, and Bill Wormstedt. On a Sea of Glass: The Life & Loss of the RMS Titanic. Reprint. Amberley Publishing, 2015.

Lord, Walter, A NIGHT TO REMEMBER, Holt Rinehart and Winston, New York, New York, 1955. Multiple revisions and reprints, notably Illustrated editions (1976,1977,1978 etc.)

Lord, Walter, THE NIGHT LIVES ON, Willian Morrow and Company, New York, New York, 1986 (First Edition)

Lynch, Don & Marshall Ken, TITANIC AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY, Madison Press Books, Toronto, Ontario Canada, 1992

Marshall, L. (2019). Sinking of the Titanic: The Greatest Disaster At Sea – Special Edition with Additional Photographs. Independently Published.

Rossignol, K. (2012). Titanic 1912: The Original News Reporting of the Sinking of the Titanic. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.

Wilson, A. (2012). Shadow of the Titanic: The Extraordinary Stories of Those Who Survived. Simon and Schuster.

Titanic

SATURDAY TITANIC NEWS: HITCHENS GRAVE HAS A HEADSTONE;EXPLORERS LOOK AT “ASIA TITANIC”

Robert Hichens from Merchant Seaman Records, Circa 1919 or earlier
Public Doman-Wikimedia

New Memorial To Titanic Helmsman Buried In Unmarked Grave (Belfast Telegraph, 19 Dec 2019)

The family of the helmsman of the Titanic, whose final resting place was a mystery for decades, have now marked his grave with a headstone in Aberdeen. Mr Hichens was buried in an unmarked grave with another sailor – Dutch seaman David Lamb – in Trinity Cemetery, meaning for years his family did not know where he had been laid to rest. The memorial was erected in a ceremony attended by three other relatives as well as Titanic enthusiasts. “It’s amazing, it is just fantastic. There were loads of people there.”

Underwater Survey of Asia Titanic Shows Wreck That Took 4,300(GeekWire, 19 Dec 2019)

The scene of the worst peacetime maritime disaster in history — known as “Asia’s Titanic” — has been surveyed by the Research Vessel (R/V) Petrel, the exploration ship owned and operated by the late Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc. R/V Petrel worked in partnership with the National Museum of the Philippines to examine the site of the M/V Doña Paz and M/T Vector in Tablas Strait in April. The passenger ferry and oil tanker collided on Dec. 20, 1987, killing an estimated 4,386 people. Only 24 people were reported to have survived.

Well you do not see this every day. A cruise ship coming into port got an unexpected squall that caused it to collide with another ship already docked. There were only minor injuries to some passengers but the damage was extensive as the video indicates. It appears the captain did his best to minimize the collision by reversing the engines. Although the damage to both ships did not affect structural integrity, it means significant repairs have to be done to fix the damage on both ships.

Happy Saturday everyone. Here is a nice tune to get you into a festive mood.

https://youtu.be/tnEbRaFaqfg

Titanic

Recent Titanic News

Catching up on Titanic news so I will be posting updates during the week.

Postcard of the Titanic found in a book donated to Books for Amnesty, 103 Gloucester Rd, Bristol UK
Source: Bristol Post
Date: 20/07/2016
Photographer: Michael Lloyd/Freelance
Reporter: Lewis Pennock
Copyright: Local World

1. Meet the man whose great-granddad sank the Titanic (The Herald, 21 Jan 2017)

“Many descendants of people onboard the ship travelled from far and wide to see the exhibits, which also included a range of items from the Titanic’s sister ships including the Olympic and Britannic. Among them was Simon Medhurst, whose great-grandfather, Robert Hichens, was at the helm of the vessel when it hit the iceberg.The 48-year-old, who travelled down from his home in Chelmsford, said it’s important for people to remember.”

2. Interactive Titanic museum being planned for Niagara Falls, Ont. (Global News,20 Jan 2017)
“A group in Niagara Falls, Ont., has conditionally purchased land that would house the museum and is moving ahead with plans to launch an exhibit dubbed “Experience Titanic.” David Van Velzen, who’s spearheading the project, says the museum will differ from many similar efforts around the world by focusing on an interactive audience experience. Van Velzen says the museum will feature rooms that replicate those on the doomed ocean liner that sank in 1912, and will aim to recreate the experience of striking the iceberg that brought the “unsinkable ship” down. He also says the exhibit will try to educate guests about the various Canadian connections to the ship.”

3. A tragedy of Titanic proportions off the Donegal coast (Derry Journal, 21 Jan 2017)
“She (Laurentic) was on her way to Nova Scotia with German prisoners and 43 tonnes of gold to pay for munitions for the War effort. She was a former White Star Liner, the same as the Titanic, but she was commandeered by the Royal Navy because she was a fast ship and could outrun submarines. The ship struck two mines at the mouth of Lough Swilly and went down very quick. It was minus 13 degrees, it was bitter cold and it was a moonless night and the only light they could see was the light of Fanad Lighthouse. “All or most of the sailors got off and the captain was the last to get off. Even the prisoners were rescued and taken off and they all got into lifeboats, but because of the night that it was, many of them died of exposure, froze to death. It’s the worst place to have a sinking there’s no beaches.”

4. The story behind Saudi Titanic (Saudi Gazette, 21 Jan 2017)
“The wreckage of the ship, dubbed by some Saudis as the ‘Saudi Titanic,’ is one of the main tourist attractions in Hakal province, Sada Tabuk reported. ‘Georgios G’ was built in England after the end of the Second World War, and in 1958 was launched as a cargo liner owned by several individuals and companies. The vessel was owned by a Greek company during its doomed trip, when it got stranded on corals off the Saudi coast in 1978 carrying a cargo of flour. The ship, caught on the corals of the coast, was stuck due to the narrow route available to navigate. The steep, mountain edge rising from the sea made the passage through the valley difficult to maneuver through.”