AFT VIEW
“And The Band Played On...”
Our cruise insider Peter Rushton conducts a remarkable interview with the descendant of a Titanic victim
me the extraordinary story of his lucky experience with mainstream publishers Hodder & Stoughton. Ward revealed: “As part of a private family history project, I unearthed a lot of information about my grandfather, Jock Hume, the violinist on the Titanic who, along with his fellow bandsmen, achieved universal acclaim for continuing to play as the ship literally sank beneath their feet. “It occurred to me there could be a book in this
O
story, so I set out my thoughts on a single sheet of paper and sent it off to a literary agent on the off- chance a publisher might be interested. “Getting a book published these days is not
easy, so I was thrilled to receive, exactly two days later, an offer of a substantial advance for an 80,000-word book. This is something that simply doesn’t happen in this day and age.” My own experiences with rejection slips pain-
fully re-awakened, I invited Christopher to lunch in the hopes he would elaborate, not only on the publishing contract, but on the story itself – topical indeed with the up-coming 100th the tragedy in April.
anniversary of
Here is the basic interview I conducted over that memorable lunch: Christopher Ward: With the death of my sister about five years ago, I realised I was the last surviving member of my family able to flesh out our history for my children, so I set about research- ing it. It quickly became apparent one of the most significant individuals from my family past was Jock Hume, who left his home in Dumfries and ‘ran away to sea’ at the age of 15, serving on all manner of passenger ships until he joined Titanic. Peter Rushton: So how old was he in April 1912?
ne of the benefits from owning a Speakers’ Agency is the fact one gets to meet a great many interesting people. One of these, Christopher Ward, told
Spring 2012 I WORLD OF CRUISING 95
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