Titanic exhibition at Rayleigh Town Museum

Now a brand new exhibition focusing on our county’s links to the Titanic - and there are plenty of them! - has opened at the Rayleigh Museum.

“RMS Titanic and its Essex Connections” opened at the museum on Friday and runs until April 22.

It features an exhibition of Titanic related items and the chance to find out about the several Essex residents who either perished on or survived the sinking of the Titanic in the early hours of April 15, 1912.

Among them was Eva Hart from Ilford. She was a 2nd class passenger on board the Titanic and was just seven-years-old at the time. Throughout the voyage Eva’s mother was troubled by a fear that some kind of catastrophe would hit the ship. To call a ship unsinkable was, in her mind, flying in the face of God.

“My father was so excited about it and my mother was so upset... The first time in my life I saw her crying... she was so desperately unhappy about the prospect of going, she had this premonition, a most unusual thing for her, Eva later recalled.

Eva was sleeping when the Titanic struck the iceberg. Eva’s father rushed into her cabin to alert his wife and daughter, and after wrapping Eva in a blanket, carried her to the boat’s deck. He placed his wife and daughter in Lifeboat No. 14 and told Eva to ‘hold mummy’s hand and be a good girl.’ It was the last time she would ever see her father. Eva’s father perished and his body, if recovered, was never identified.

Eva and her mother were rescued by the RMS Carpathia and arrived in New York City on April 18.

Eva was one of the most outspoken survivors concerning the Titanic’s lack of sufficient lifeboats and of any salvage attempts of the ship-wreck after its discovery in 1985. She often criticised the White Star Line for failing to provide enough lifeboats for all aboard Titanic. “If a ship is torpedoed, that’s war,” she once said. “If it strikes a rock in a storm, that’s nature. But just to die because there weren’t enough lifeboats, that’s ridiculous.” When salvaging efforts began in 1987, Eva was quick to note that the Titanic was a grave site and should be treated as such. She often decried the “insensitivity and greed” and labelled the salvers “fortune hunters, vultures, pirates, and grave robbers.”

Eva died on February 14, 1996 at her home in Chadwell Heath at the age of 91. A Wetherspoon’s Pub in Chadwell Heath is fittingly named ‘The Eva Hart’ Another passenger onboard, but not so lucky, was Thomas Franklin, of Ceylon Road, Westcliff. He was a 1st class passenger and occupied cabin D-34. Franklin died in the sinking, his body, if recovered, was never identified.

He had written two letters from onboard the Titanic, one of them being to his mother, In the course of one letter he mentioned how he had a conversation with Bruce Ismay - chairman of the Titanic’s owners White Star Line - about the ship.

Another fatality was Arthur Lawrence, 35, who was born in London. He initially signed-on to the Titanic in Belfast for her delivery trip to Southampton. When he signed-on again, on April 4 1912, he gave his address as 66 Old Oxford Street, (Southampton). His last ship had been the Adriatic. As a saloon steward he received monthly wages of £3 15s.

Lawrence died in the sinking. His wife Lily went on to open a sweet shop in Rochford.

Able Seaman Joseph Scarrott also worked for the White Star Line. He was born in Portsmouth in 1878. Scarrott and had previously worked on White Star and other vessels, mainly out of Plymouth, sometimes as a bosun’. Scarrott was rescued in Lifeboat 14 when the Titanic went down. In later years he moved to Essex and went onto work as a night-watchman on Southend Pier in the 1930’s Then there was Gurshon (“Gus”) Cohen, 18, who was born on December 31, 1893 in Whitechapel, London. He was an out of work printer who was seeking his fortune in America. He borrowed the equivalent of $32.00 and booked passage on the Adriatic, but the coal strike forced him to take the Titanic instead.

Cohen managed to escape lifeboat 12.

He later worked as a cloth buyer. He and his wife lived in Southend.

Another victim was Father Thomas Byles, who was rector of St Helens Parish church in Ongar from 1905 to 1912. He was travelling on the Titanic on his way to officiate at a family wedding in New York. It is recorded that he helped 3rd class passengers up to the lifeboats and at the end said prayers, heard confessions and gave absolution to more than 100 3rd class passengers trapped in the stern.

A stained glass window to commemorate the tragedy stands in St Helens Church and reads ‘Pray for the Rev. Thomas Byles for eight years Rector of this mission whose heroic death in the disaster to S.S. Titanic April 15 1912 earnestly devoting his last moments to the religious consolation of his fellow passengers this window commemorates”

The Rayleigh Town Museum exhibition will enable visitors to find out lots more about the Essex victims and survivors. There will also be the chance to see artefacts and documents, including the sheet music of the last song said to have ever been played by the orchestra as the ship went down, as well as menus for 1st and 3rd class passengers.

The exhibition has been organised by Mike Davies, chairman of the Rayleigh Town Museum and his colleagues. Mike has spent years researching the Titanic – its history, its brilliance, its flaws and its victims. He says all towns in the country were associated in some way with a passenger or member of crew and there were a number of interesting and often surprising connections to the tragedy right here in Essex.

Mike explains what first ignited his passion for all things Titanic: “My first interest came about at a postcard fair in Southend in the mid 1980s,” he recalled.

“On looking through a batch of cards I came across a postcard of the Titanic (missorted) and noticed it was for sale at £30! I could not believe that any postcard could be worth that incredible amount.

“The most expensive postcard I have since seen sold on the Titanic was £50,000 and almost unbelievably was written on the Titanic, posted in Queenstown – the last port of call - and posted to Castle Road, right here in Rayleigh. The postcard is now in a museum in the USA.”

Mike added: “I then went to the local library, borrowed a book on the Titanic and was soon hooked. I became one of the very early members of the British Titanic Society and I have attended a number of Titanic conventions and met three survivors and many descendants of crew and passengers.”

Over the years Mike has also visited every Titanic-related site in the world, with one exception - its current location, two miles down at the bottom of the Atlantic. Although trips to dive down and see the wreckage are on sale for an eye-watering £50,000, Mike says: “In my opinion it is a grave and should be respected as such.”

During a visit to a convention of the British Titanic Society in Southampton in 1989 Mike even met three survivors of the tragedy - including Eva Hart.

Entry to the Titanic exhibition at Rayleigh Town Museum is free. The museum can be found at 91 High Street, Rayleigh, above Pizza Express.

rayleightownmuseum.co.uk