The Band That Played On Quotes

“Passenger ships continued crossing the Atlantic during the early part of the war in the belief that they were of no strategic value to the enemy. That view changed on May 7, 1915, when a German U-boat sank the Lusitania off the Irish coast, with the loss of 1,198 lives, an action that helped drag America into the war. The Arabic, the ship that had brought Wallace Hartley’s body back from Boston, was torpedoed in August 1915. The great liners were repainted in dull grays or with dazzle camouflage and put to military use. The Olympic became a troop ship, as did the Megantic. The Mauretania at first carried troops during the campaign in Gallipoli, and then became a floating hospital. The Oruba was scuttled in Greece to create a breakwater, the Carmania became an Armed Merchant Cruiser fitted with eight 4.7-inch guns, and a U-boat sank the Carpathia off the east coast of Ireland in July 1918.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“If they had not died on April 15, 1912, almost all the musicians would have had to fight in France and perhaps half of them wouldn’t have returned. When Roger Bricoux didn’t respond to the French call-up in 1914, he was registered as a deserter even though he had been dead for two years. At the age of thirty-six, Frederick Nixon Black of C. W. & F. N. Black found himself in the British army, first with the Royal Defence Corps in Hereford, and then after the war, with the Manchester Regiment handling German prisoners. Theo Brailey, had he lived, would have been called back to the Lancashire Fusiliers.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“During the next two years, the immensity of the Titanic tragedy would be pored over in many books, magazines, and newspaper specials, but in the summer of 1914 came the start of the First World War and deaths on a previously unimaginable scale. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, more than twenty thousand British troops were killed—the equivalent of thirteen Titanic disasters. By the end of the conflict, almost six million soldiers fighting against Germany had lost their lives. The war helped push the Titanic to the back of people’s minds as words such as tragedy and disaster took on new and deeper meanings. 15”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“It was a perfect media package—ordinariness to connect them with the common reader, bravery to act as an inspiration, and a piece of music that could become a signature tune for the whole event. Whenever there was a funeral, a memorial service, or a fund-raising event, “Nearer, My God, to Thee” would be played and the story of the band’s final stand automatically brought to mind.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“His moral character and his personal assurance that death was not the end must have stirred his bandsmen, all of whom had at least grown up in the church. The choice of “Nearer, My God, to Thee” was almost certainly due to Hartley’s familiarity with the hymn and love for its message, something he had already confirmed to friends. Would the band have behaved in the same way under a dissolute and immoral leader or would someone not raised on the music of the church have chosen a hymn to restore calm amidst tragedy?”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“There was an element of truth to this, but it overlooked the vital role played by Wallace Hartley as bandmaster. Although it’s not known whether the band played voluntarily or under orders, the men were under Hartley’s command and his influence set the tone. He left behind no written confession of faith, but all the indications are that the faith of his childhood had continued into adulthood.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“This was why the band emerged as such heroes. Not only had they behaved dutifully and without apparent concern for their own safety, but they also offered the hope that not all of the younger male generation were venial, lazy, proud, irreligious, inconsiderate, self-indulgent, weak-willed, and timorous. The example of the band suggested that the doom mongers may have got it wrong because, unlike soldiers, they hadn’t trained to face danger and had come straight to the deck from the heart of early-twentieth-century splendor and luxury. If eight random men could display such strength of character in unison on the spur of the moment, the chances were that any other eight men randomly selected would react in the same way.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“Rather than seeing the disaster as a retribution for general moral decline, most Christian commentators and preachers of the time saw it either as a reminder of our insignificance when confronted with the power of nature or of our need to prioritize care for individuals over opulence, gluttony, and pride.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“The case came to court on November 1 at Liverpool County Court, where Judge Thomas concluded that since the musicians were not signed to the ship’s articles they were not legally crew members. Therefore, they were not employees of White Star. They were employees of C. W. & F. N. Black, but they couldn’t successfully sue the Blacks because there was no evidence of negligence on their part. Thomas declared: “The ship owners did not treat the bandsmen as members of the crew. Their duties on board were in the nature of supplying a luxury, and their engagement was not directly by the owners. In these circumstances it would be a wrong application of the word ‘seaman’ to say they came within the act.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“The only policy covering the musicians was one the Blacks and White Star took out jointly from the recently established (1907) Legal Insurance Company, but it soon transpired that the insurers were quibbling over the scope of the word dependent. Wives and children were obviously dependents, but could working fathers, such as Andrew Hume and Ronald Brailey, honestly describe themselves as such? This meant that neither of the two main parties—White Star and the Black brothers—was making immediate contributions to the families. Outraged by this, three of the fathers—Leon Bricoux, Andrew Hume, and Ronald Brailey—mounted a legal case against C. W. & F. N. Black in June 1912, arguing that as workers who had lost their lives while carrying out their duties and through no fault of their own, their sons should be covered by the strictures of the Workmen’s Compensation Act. There had never been any suggestion that they’d brought about their fate through negligence or misbehavior.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“The full implications of the new hiring arrangements instituted by the Blacks were now being felt. No longer employees of the shipping line, the musicians were not covered by insurance taken out for employees, nor were they covered by the Workmen’s Compensation Act (1906), which generally gave a worker “a right against his employer to a certain compensation on the mere occurrence of an accident where the common law gives the right only for negligence of the employer.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“The other notable dissenter was playwright George Bernard Shaw, who wittily and acerbically expressed his view that the whole Titanic story had been created in the press to fit a rigid formula, which he called “an explosion of outrageous romantic lying.” The band playing on deck was, according to Shaw, part of the preordained story. He didn’t deny that it happened but offered a different interpretation of events. Possibly, he suggested, the music produced complacency rather than courage and therefore was in part responsible for the high death toll. What he referred to as “the romantic demand” was that “Everybody must face death without a tremor, and the band, according to the Birkenhead precedent,3 must play ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“This sort of talk was too much for the novelist Joseph Conrad, who believed that newspapers had framed the whole disaster in sentimental terms that had then been adopted by public and clergy alike. He didn’t think there was anything “heroic” about dying involuntarily because of the greed and incompetence of others. He also didn’t think that the decency of many of those drowned was anything special. It’s what he would have expected of any group from any section of society when confronted with peril.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“In seven days they found 306 bodies, far more than they had anticipated, and 116 of these were buried at sea because of lack of identification. All of the bodies were numbered, were cataloged by description and personal effects, and had tags attached to their toes. Only three of the musicians were found and, although their numbers are close together, suggesting they were found near each other, they would appear to have been picked up on three consecutive days—Hume on April 23, a day that Hamilton described as full of “rain and fog”; Clarke on April 24, which was “cold, wet, miserable and comfortless”; and Hartley on April 25.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“One of the most compelling pieces of evidence, though, for the use of “Nearer, My God, to Thee” was the fact that it was the best-loved hymn of Wallace Hartley and had been introduced to the Bethel Chapel by Wallace’s father, Albion Hartley, when he was choirmaster. A friend from Colne told the British Weekly: “It was the custom of the Bethel church choir leader to choose the hymn or chant after prayer and Mr. Albion Hartley often selected ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee.’ The hymn was also a great favourite with his son, the bandmaster of the Titanic, for a cousin mentioned that he would often be kept waiting for Wallace to go and play cricket because he was practicing ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee’ in variations on the violin.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“All of the band members had been raised as churchgoers—Bricoux, Krins, and Clarke as Catholics, Hume as a Congregationalist, Woodward and Hartley as Methodists, Brailey and Taylor as Anglicans. Harley and Taylor had sung in choirs, and Hume played his violin in church. It’s impossible to determine the commitment they each had to the religion of their birth, but it’s likely that they all had knowledge of and affection for hymns.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“When survivors specifically mentioned that hymns were played, the consensus was that it was toward the end. It would make sense that the band members played the popular tunes as the lifeboats were loaded and the more reflective pieces once they only had themselves and their destinies to contemplate.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“It can be difficult for contemporary commentators to appreciate the place that hymns occupied in the lives of typical Edwardians. They were not indicators of doom and gloom but of hope and joy. They were also a register of commonly held assumptions about the most important issues in life. The difference between the early twentieth century and the early twenty-first century can be illustrated by Elizabeth Nye’s reminiscence: “On Sunday the 14th it became very cold. We couldn’t stay out on deck so we all came together in the dining room for a hymn sing.” It’s hard to imagine passengers on a twenty-first-century cruise liner opting for such an alternative.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“In November 1912, shortly before his death, Gracie gave a talk at the University Club in Washington DC in which he went further, saying that if they had dared play that hymn they would have been forcibly restrained by the men on board who were trying to calm the women. “If the band had played that familiar hymn, panic would have resulted. Fixing the minds of the passengers on the possibility of their being nearer to God, and I say it seriously, would have been the last thing they wanted.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“What the band played has always been more a matter of controversy than whether it played at all. This is sometimes presented as an issue raised by modern historians, but it was there from the very beginning in the divergence of the accounts given by Harold Bride to the New York Times and by the survivors on the Carpathia to Carlos Hurd for the Pultizer newspapers. Had the musicians gone down playing a tune known as “Autumn” or the music of “Nearer, My God, to Thee”? The public inquiries in America and England raised the additional issue of whether they had played any religious music at all. Some witnesses claimed that they’d stuck to popular tunes and that hymns would have been inappropriate at such a time of despair.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“Despite the awfulness of what was happening, the backdrop was a scene of beauty: a clear sky, a bright moon, clearly visible stars, flat undisturbed water, and an immense liner blazing with pinholes of light. The music would have carried farther than usual because for most of the time there were no competing sounds from engines or waves. Passengers who left from both port and starboard told similar stories of being able to hear the band as they were quickly rowed away to avoid the inevitable drag of the suction. Emily Rugg claimed she could hear the band from a mile away.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“The other possibility is that the idea came from Hartley and was supported by the bandsmen. By all accounts he was a man of faith, character, and moral strength. At Sunday school and later at church, the importance of sacrifice and putting the needs of others first would have been stressed. We know that he had discussed what he would do in the face of death and so he was more prepared than most. He apparently believed that music could be more powerful than physical force in bringing order to chaos. John Carr, the Celtic bandsman previously quoted, had played on ships with Hartley, and in April 1912 told the New York Times: “I don’t suppose he waited to be sent for, but after finding how dangerous the situation was he probably called his men together and began playing. I know that he often said that music was a bigger weapon for stopping disorder than anything on earth. He knew the value of the weapon he had, and I think he proved his point.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“Even if Smith had made this demand, however, the band was under no obligation to obey him. As had been made very clear from the outset, they were not employees of White Star, they had not signed the ship’s articles, and they had the same rights as any other passenger to expect their safety to be a prime consideration of the crew.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“Why the band came to be playing in these circumstances is a question that will never be satisfactorily answered. Pierre Maréchal, the French aviator, informed the chairman of the Amalgamated Musicians’ Union that they’d been told to do it. He was sure that instructions had come down from Captain Smith, possibly via Purser McElroy, saying that they should play in order to prevent panic. The sound of bright music would have suggested that even if all was not well, at least all was under control. He reasoned that in the captain’s mind, the eventual deaths of eight men were a reasonable sacrifice for the saving of hundreds of passengers.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“It’s possible that Brailey and Taylor could have continued playing on other instruments once they moved away from the upright piano at the top of the staircase. We know, for example, that Hume had two violins with him and that Brailey was a multi-instrumentalist. The fact that the musicians played for the passengers as the lifeboats were lowered can’t seriously be questioned. There were a handful of survivors who claimed not to have heard them, but the evidence for the music is far too substantial to ignore.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“What has never been absolutely certain is how many of the eight musicians were involved in this exercise, as they’d previously worked as two separate groups with different repertoires. If they combined, what did the two pianists, Percy Taylor and Theo Brailey, play after they were out on the Boat Deck itself? It seems unlikely that they would have hauled a piano onto the deck of a sinking ship. Others have questioned the ability of the cellists to remain in place once the ship listed beyond a certain degree because cellists need to be firmly seated. The survivors mostly referred to “the band” or “the ship’s orchestra” without enumerating them.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“According to an unidentified third-class steward, who spoke to the Western Daily Mercury: “As the musicians ran after their instruments they were laughed at by several members of the crew who did not realize how serious matters were.” According to a separate account in the Sphere, this was because they thought the band members were anxious to save their instruments. The crew didn’t realize they were about to play.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“By 12:15 a.m. the musicians had set up on the Promenade Deck and played for around twenty-five minutes in the entrance as the passengers awaited instructions. Jack Thayer, only seventeen at the time, recalled them playing there as crowds milled around. Then they moved upstairs to the Boat Deck level of the grand staircase, where there was a piano, before eventually moving out onto the Boat Deck itself. This fits with Lawrence Beesley’s account of seeing a cellist walking down the deck at 12:40 a.m.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“There is only one account of the musicians making their way to their position. It comes from stewardess Violet Jessop, who knew Woodward and Hume from their time on the Olympic. She was in her bunk on either E or F Deck and heard a “low, rending, crunching, ripping sound” on impact but didn’t leave her cabin until the call to lifeboats came. On the way up the stairs she passed Captain Smith, J. Bruce Ismay, Chief Purser Herbert McElroy, and the ship’s surgeon, Dr. O’Laughlin, none of whom seemed overly concerned. She wrote that as she turned at the top of the staircase, “I ran into Jock, the bandleader and his crowd with their instruments. ‘Funny, they must be going to play,’ thought I, and at this late hour! Jock smiled in passing, looking rather pale for him, remarking, ‘Just going to give them a tune to cheer things up a bit,’ and passed on.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

“Ice fields were an ever-present threat to transatlantic ships at this time of year and after only two days at sea the Titanic had begun to receive warnings from eastbound ships. On April 14 alone, it had heard from the Caronia, Noordam, Baltic, Amerika, Californian, and Mesaba. One message wasn’t passed to the bridge, one was passed on but ended up in J. Bruce Ismay’s pocket, and yet another was ignored as the Titanic’s wireless operators struggled with the volume of messages needing to be sent on behalf of passengers. When the iceberg that would do the damage was first spotted, it was only around five hundred yards away. The engines were consequently cut and the ship turned toward port by the helmsman, but there wasn’t enough time to sufficiently navigate so large a vessel and therefore, although the bow avoided the ice, the starboard side rubbed along it in what at the time seemed like a glancing blow.”
― Steve Turner, The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic