Archibald Gracie (1859–1912)

I heartily recommend this memoir. This might be the single most fascinating account of the Titanic that I have ever had the privilege to read.

Col. Archibald Gracie was an extraordinary man, and his account of the sinking—with its clarity and its unassuming tone—provides both insight into the disaster and closure for those shaken by the tragedy. Gracie seems to have been a methodical man, and he lays out the information as smoothly and logically as possible. He makes it abundantly clear show more what things he witnessed personally and what things he deduces based on evidence. His eye for detail is extraordinary.

This book has two parts. The first is Gracie’s memoir, in which he shares his experience on the ship the day of the sinking. He describes the loss of his friend James Clinch Smith, who was with him until the ship sank beneath them both. He recounts the valor of the men and women on the ship, as well as the kinship he felt with the other survivors on Collapsible B. He describes, quite scientifically, a telepathic experience that was attested by three people thousands of miles apart. He recounts with gentle humility his own shortcomings. His writing is poignant but never maudlin. There is dignity here, not just for Col. Gracie, but for everyone whom he describes. He includes names whenever possible, but he also pays tribute to some brave people whose identities he never learned.

The second part of this book is Gracie’s meticulous research. Much of it is not his own words, as he has collected a great deal of survivor testimony and drawn from the transcripts of the inquests in order to provide a more complete picture of the the disaster. It’s not as personal or as moving as Gracie’s own account, but it provides a great deal of background information, particularly with regard to the people in the other lifeboats. It seems that Col. Gracie’s purpose for this publication was to collect as much historical record as he could—including his own account—and preserve it for all. It is truly a phenomenal project.

Col. Archibald Gracie never lived to see his work published. He died of complications from his exposure in the icy water. In a sense, this makes him the last victim claimed by the disaster. He was 53 years old. show less

This is the incomplete draft for a manuscript written by Col. Archibald Gracie about his experiences as a survivor of the sinking of the Titanic.

Col. Gracie includes his reminiscences of being a passenger on the Titanic, as well as his account of the sinking and his subsequent survival of the disaster. In addition to his own firsthand account, Col. Gracie includes the experiences of others gleaned through interviews & through their own written narratives. He also provides information & show more testimony obtained from the official inquiries made into the disaster both in England and in America.

Col. Gracie focuses a great deal on the individual lifeboats: who was in them, who was left behind, and how they were managed from the time they left the Titanic until their rescue by the Carpathia.

Col. Gracie himself blames the inexcusable loss of life onboard the Titanic to four factors: the inaction on the part of Capt. Lord of the Californian to render aid, the insufficient number of lifeboats, the lack of organization & preparation on the part of the crew in efficiently filling and launching the lifeboats, & the eagerness of the captain to finish the crossing in rapid time in spite of iceberg warnings.

There are three main problems with this book:
1) There is no index. All non-fiction books should have indices, & this book really suffers from a lack of one.
2) Col. Grace is incredibly pompous and it really comes through in his writing. (However, as a privileged member of the upper crust and of the military, I would have been more surprised if he weren’t such a pompous ass.)
3) The book is only an unfinished rough draft and it reads like one. Unfortunately, Col. Gracie died only eight months after the disaster and was never able to complete his work on the book; therefore, it lacks the organization, coherence, & polish it undoubtedly would have had if Col. Gracie had lived to finish it.

Nevertheless, this is a fascinating book. Col. Gracie is a genteel, well-educated man who is a skilled writer. His words provide an interesting and insightful look at the tragedy of the Titanic, & it should be considered an indispensable primary source for anyone researching the Titanic or even just anyone casually interested in learning more about it. show less

#100, 2006

This was a fascinating book, and I’m pleased to have it be my 100th of the year. It contains two survivor stories – Col. Archibald Gracie’s extensive one, and the much shorter, “Sinking of the S.S. Titanic” by Jack Thayer.

Colonel Gracie’s story takes up most of the book. Not only does he give a detailed account of his own experience (he went down with the ship, but made his way to the overturned collapsible lifeboat on which he and several others were able to stand show more throughout the night until rescued), but he also put together a thorough sampling of other testimony from both the British and American inquiries.

All together, I felt as though I got an intimate look at what happened that night, and also about the mindset of many passengers and crew, and the era in general. I think the most interesting part – aside from learning about the actual events – was seeing so plainly the biases and predjudices of some of the people who survived the disaster. A great deal was made about how many persons from each class (first, second and third) were saved (this seemed important to many people at the time, with the inference being that some people didn’t consider the lives of the third class passengers as “important” as those in the upper classes). It was also disturbing to note the way many people from foreign countries were viewed in a less-than-favourable light (even Americans seemed to be viewed as “foreigners” by some of the British passengers and crew). There was also a lot about the actions of Bruce Ismay that night, and whether or not he had a moral obligation to go down with the ship. There were tales of heroism, too, though, so I’d say the story was both disturbing and uplifting in about equal parts, and most definitely a glimpse of that era in history.

Another thing that I really enjoyed was seeing where filmmakers (both Cameron and Baker/Lord) got their inspiration. Gracie’s account contained quotes and stories from actual passengers, some of whom are portrayed in the films, and their testimony here (or what was described of the actions of people who did not survive) was obviously a huge source of material. What I found even more interesting, though, were the little details about anonymous people which I spotted as having been incorporated into the films in various ways. For example, there is a very brief mention of a “male passenger carrying a baby” on one of the last lifeboats to leave the ship; I’m guessing this line was the inspiration for Hockley’s actions in the Cameron film.

There were parts of Gracie’s account that were repetetive and a bit tedious (some of the “duplicate” lifeboat accounts), but it was worth it to wade through them for the wonderful bits of information contained there.

Thayer was only 17 at the time of the disaster, and he, too, went down with the ship and ended up on the same overtuned collapsible. His account is very brief – not many more than a dozen pages long – but it was no less powerful than Gracie’s in many ways. Thayer is particularly eloquent in expressing his feelings about what the disaster meant to society:

It seems to me the disaster about to occur was the event, which not only made the world rub its eyes and awake, but woke it with a start, keeping it moving at a rapid pace ever since, with less and less peace, satisfaction, and happiness.

Today, the individual has to be contented with rapidity of motion, nervous emotion, and economic insecurity. To my mind the world of today awoke April 15th, 1912.

A fascinating book. I’m looking forward to the other collection of survivor stories I’ve got waiting for me to read. show less

I have read a number of books about the Titanic recently and this is one of the famous survivor accounts by Colonel Archibald Gracie. He barely survived after being washed into the sea near the very end as he and others were trying to launch one of the collapsible lifeboats, swam up again and survived the night along with others (such as the senior surviving officer, Second Officer Charles Lightoller) clinging to the top of the upturned boat. This is a book of two distinct sections. The show more first third is Gracie's own dramatic account of his actions and survival during those hours. The remaining two thirds of the book consists of two very long chapters detailing all the information he had gathered from both the American and British inquests and his own enquiries about the names and accounts of survivors in each boat on both the port (his own) side of the ship in one chapter and the starboard side in the other. While valuable and very systematic, it does contain quite a lot of repetition and many of the accounts read very similarly. All the accounts, including Gracie's own, inevitably reflect some of the assumptions of the time about human behaviour, the default view that foreigners tend to lack the courage shown by true Brits and Americans, and largely passing over the fate of the steerage passengers, whose survival rate was much lower. This is a valuable collection of information that must have cost Gracie a lot of time and energy, even while he was ill during the summer of 1912 due to the strain and exhaustion of his experiences; sadly, he died in December of that year, the first survivor to pass away. show less