h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have been meaning to post this for several days, perhaps I have waited for the anniversary hour. I have long believed the last tune from Titanic was indeed "Autumn".

However "Autumn" is a hymn in both the American Episcopal and Church of England Hymnal.
I only recall hearing it once preformed by a church choir, when I was in my teens. Aware at the time of the controversy about Titanic's last tune I was struck by the similarity of melody.

Judge for yourself;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1BWqsLybjc

With all due deference to Colonel Gracie, when the band played the last tune the last of the boats were gone and there was little reason not to express the gravity of the situation that must have been obviously apparent to all still aboard.

F S

Hey, thanks for the link.

I'm thinking we'll never know. Part of the discussion involved which tune they would have used if they'd played 'Nearer My God to Thee', which has different tunes in the UK and US. The main problem is, survivors remembered it differently.

Yesterday, we were listening to Eva Hart, a very outspoken survivor. The lady was a magistrate in the UK. She was 7 when Titanic went down. She was very insistent that she heard 'Nearer My God to Thee'. (She also claimed to have seen the Californian pass by, and that it was closer than it claimed.)

Even with a vivid event like that, memory can be malleable, so I guess we'll never know for sure.

One thing I found out: newspaper accounts right after the event were wildly inaccurate. I swear they made half of it up.

I agree - there are so many contradictions, even between books written by historians today, especially with regards to the numbers of passengers and survivors, it is hard to know what is the truth.

I've heard a few arguments that it probably was the final hymn. Wallace Hartley's father, Albion Hartley, was the choirmaster at Bethel Independent Methodist Chapel, where he introduced the hymn 'Nearer, My God, to Thee' to the congregation as it was his favourite (but the British, not American version). The other things is that 'Nearer, My God, to Thee' was sung by the doomed crew and passengers of the SS Valencia as it sank off Canada in 1906. The press may have simply recycled this story for the Titanic but it was known at the time among ocean liner musicians that this was an appropriate hymn to play/sing as a ship sank. However a friend of Hartley who also worked for White Star reportedly had discussed this with Hartley who had said that under those circumstances, he would play that hymn, especially as it had family connotations for him.

But what is the truth? I don't think we'll ever know.

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