AFT VIEW


Jock Hume (far left) and his young family (right)


CW: Twenty-one. He was a seasoned sailor, an accomplished musician and an extremely popu- lar young man. PR: Married to your grandmother? CW: No, they were engaged, but not married at the time of the disaster. In fact my mother, Johannan, was only born six months later. PR: And were the little family looked after by White Star? CW: Absolutely not. In fact, it was the callousness and corporate greed, coupled with the absolutely horrendous prevailing ‘class culture’ of the era, that prompted me to write the book. PR: Can you elaborate? CW: Yes, I can – at considerable length. But I’ll limit my comments to one or two incidents that, I believe, highlight the is- sues. Titanic officially sank at 2.20am, and my grandfather’s pay was stopped at that moment. In fact, when reckoned up, the amount of money owing to him up to that time was insufficient to cover the 5s 4d claim made against the family for the cost of the brass buttons on his uniform tunic. PR: You’re joking! CW: No, sadly I’m not. Further, when asked by the family if Jock’s body could be repatriated from Halifax, Nova Scotia, where it had been landed by the recovery ship Mackay-Bennett, they were told by White Star that ‘normal cargo rates would apply’ – so perforce the body was buried where it lay. But it didn’t end there. On a wider stage, the fact is that, whereas the bodies of first class passengers were placed in coffins, those of lesser mortals were thrown onto a bed of ice in Mackay- Bennett’s hold for transportation and, in


96 WORLD OF CRUISING I Spring 2012


“I realised I was the last SURVIVING MEMBER of my family able to flesh out OUR HISTORY for my children.”


the absence of any formal identification, the preliminary differentiation was made on the basis of whether or not a body bore any tattoos, or whether it ‘looked foreign’. PR: That’s a frightful story. CW: Yes, it is. It’s worth noting, too, the behaviour of Bruce Ismay, White Star’s Chairman and the man who made the de- cision to remove 16 lifeboats from the ship before she sailed. He successfully saved his own life by embarking a lifeboat filled with women and children, but he never accepted corporate or personal respon- sibility, never apologised to anyone, and spent the rest of his days in comfortable retirement indulging his hobbies of grouse shooting and fishing. PR: Shades of the corporate greed so often apparent in our day? CW: Absolutely. In fact, at a recent book festival where I presented comparisons with a book recently published about Ismay and suggested parallels with the management style of ‘Fred The Shed’ (Sir Fred Goodwin), I was met with resounding cheers.


PR: Perhaps in conclusion you would comment on any perceived parallels with the recent loss of Costa Concordia? CW: I’m not a shipping man, but it seems to me comparisons do exist, notably in the lack of effective communication between those who knew what was happening and those who did not. But, again, I expect a great deal will come out in the wash in the fullness of time. PR: Just to wrap it up, then, the book is selling well? CW: Yes, very. In the Sunday Times best- seller list, sales of the hardback edition have recently topped 30,000 and it is the subject of a drama/documentary by The Discovery Channel, scheduled for broadcast in April. PR: Christopher, thank you so much. A reminder: the book ‘And the Band Played On’ is published by Hodder & Stoughton, and is available in both hard and paper- back editions (£20 and £7.99). 


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