#senator smith

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Titanic Officers

E. J. Smith: The Captain of the Titanic, who had a relatively spotless record. Owns a sword. He was on the brink of retiring when he went down with the ship in 1912.

Henry Wilde: Chief Officer. He had recently lost his wife when he was called to join the Titanic's crew last minute- hence, a certain sense of distance from the rest of the crew. Also went down with the ship.

William Murdoch: Scottish First Officer, seen as a bit of a prodigy (he was the only one of the crew who passed all of his certification tests first try). He was the one at the helm when the Titanic struck the iceberg. Went down with the ship.

Charles "Lights" Lightoller: Second Officer, who enjoys causing trouble. Once played a prank by making a recently war stricken town think it was being fired upon. Has a yacht. Went down with the ship, but survived.

Herbert Pitman: Third Officer. Had seasickness. He was first off the ship (they thought seeing an officer on the water would convince passengers to get in the lifeboats). Later had to resign because he was color blind.

Joseph Boxhall: Fourth Officer. Well known for being the navigator, but as it turns out, he was wrong about the Titanic's location. Put up flares during the sinking. When he died, he had his ashes spread over the supposed (incorrect) location of the Titanic.

Harold Lowe: Welsh Fifth Officer, who was going on his first transatlantic trip. Was not woken up until half an hour after they hit the iceberg. Well known for quotes such as "get back or I'll shoot you all like dogs."

James Moody: Sixth Officer, only 24 years old. Semi fluent in Spanish. In the middle of writing a novel. Requested leave to go on vacation but was instead sent to the Titanic. Went down with the ship.

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Wireless Operators

Jack Phillips: Titanic's Senior Wireless Operator. Top of the line operator. Turned 25 while on board. Told the Californian to shut up, but it wasn't that big a deal. May or may not have gone into shock as it was sinking. Went down with the ship.

Harold Bride: Titanic's Junior Wireless Operator. Wears a fedora in at least one photo. Had a fiance while on board, but never ended up marrying her. May or may not have killed a stoker while the ship was sinking. Went down with the ship, but survived.

Harold Cottam: Carpathia's singular Wireless Operator. Friend of Bride, and probably Phillips as well. He wasn't the only one to hear their distress signal, but his ship was the quickest to get to them.

Guglielmo Marconi: The inventor of the wireless telegram, and the boss of all three of the above. Suspected of telling Bride and Cottam to not give people information, but it's hard to say for sure.

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Other Crew

Frederick Fleet: He was the guy who spotted the iceberg first. Was an orphan and had a generally rough life. Very skittish during the inquiries. Committed suicide at 77 years old in the '60s.

Reginald Lee: Did not spot the iceberg first. He was the other lookout on watch when the iceberg was spotted. Had a pretty serious drinking problem. Died from hypothermia complications a bit more than a year after the Titanic sank.

Robert Hichens: Was the man at the wheel when the Titanic hit the berg. Did NOT handle the sinking well. Might have tried to kill a guy. Definitely tried to kill himself. Generally not having a good time.

George Rowe: Had 10 (ten) siblings. Was on duty when the Titanic hit the berg but was not alerted, and didn't realize what was happening until he saw a lifeboat on the water at 12:25 AM. Seems like a pretty sweet guy, but who's to say.

Violet Jessop: Was on the Olympic when she hit the Hawke, was on the Titanic when she sank, and was on the Britannic when she sank. Was frequently sick as a child, but going to the sea fixed her. Was a nurse during WW1. When she was on her third shipwreck, she made sure to bring her toothbrush.

Wallace Hartley: Conductor of the band. There's actually a very good song called "Hartley's Farewell" by Arbor Green that's inspired by him (and his band).

Jock Hume: Played violin in the band. In "The Watch That Ends the Night" (my favorite Titanic book), he spends much of his time improvising music and deciding between two violins that he wants to buy, but none of that probably happened in real life.

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Carpathia Crew

Arthur Rostron: Captain of the Carpathia. Very religious man, highly respected by all. Regularly insisted that it wasn't him who got them to the Titanic, it was God.

Horace Dean: First Officer, pretty good at his job. Good friends with Lightoller, and supposedly was the best man at his wedding, but I've yet to find a reliable source about that.

James Bisset: Second Officer, wrote a decent book "Tramps and Ladies" about ships, and a couple other books that no one talks about. Seems like a pretty nice guy.

Harold Cottam: The singular Wireless Operator. See wireless operators section.

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Others

Thomas Andrews: The designer of a ship. Owns bees. Supposedly, as a kid, he once carried his bees into the kitchen so they wouldn't get cold. Was a really good boss, and actually listened to the crews' feedback on his ships. Went down with his ship.

J. Bruce Ismay: Technical owner of the ship. Was on board for the maiden voyage but insisted he was "just a passenger." He faced a ton of backlash for getting on a lifeboat and became a hermit. Gets a lot of (mostly) undue bashing in fiction.

Senator Smith: Ran the US Inquiry following the disaster, probably as a bid to advance his political career- but if that was the case, it failed miserably. He made a fool of himself. The people he interviewed did a pretty good job of making a fool of him, too, especially Lowe and Lightoller.

Sheriff Bayliss: Helped Sen. Smith with the US Inquiry. Generally seen as unrefined and a brute, but mostly because not a lot of people do actual research on him. Has written some stuff. Became good friends with Lowe.

Margaret Brown: Actually my role model. Traveled on the Titanic alone because she wasn't in a relationship with her husband anymore. Called out Hichens in the lifeboat. Helped out a lot of the third class survivors. Was never called "Molly" in her lifetime.

Daisy Minahan: Had at least ten siblings. Was a first class passenger (and in fact, one of the only first class passengers to board at Queenstown). Really didn't like Lowe (who was in charge of her lifeboat) and tried to run a smear campaign against him, but didn't have much support.

David Blair: Honorary member of the crew (original second officer, got taken off last minute). Once, he (and Lightoller) were on the Oceanic when it ran aground, and as the navigator, Blair got the blame. So maybe it's good he wasn't on the Titanic. Maybe if he had, it would've run aground or something tragic like that.

Sylvia Lightoller: Lights's wife, who is mentioned a total of two, maybe three times in his autobiography (and one of those is in the dedication, where Lightoller says she's the one who convinced him to write it). Really wanted to help out Walter Lord while he was writing his book but got turned down.

Ada Murdoch: Low-key really awesome. Murdoch's wife, who, duh, outlived him by quite a bit- so she lived alone when that was unusual for women. She worked as a seamstress and earned roughly the same wages as a junior officer. One of her only regrets was not having children with her husband.

Ellen Whitehouse: Later became Ellen Lowe- our favorite fifth officer's wife. Nicknamed "Nellie." Was a "good fit" for him, and they had a good marriage, which is nice (and seems to be a trend with these officers). My favorite Titanic researcher, Inger Sheil, says that "one gets an overwhelming impression of sheer confidence about her." She certainly was an active participant in her community (and her marriage!).

Helen Reilly Barbour: Andrews's wife, who had to take care of a two year old girl on her own after the Titanic sank. Also nicknamed "Nellie." Loved him to death (which is to say, loved him until she died), which is saying something, since she did eventually remarry and lived to 85 (dying in 1966, so might've known the Beatles).

Julia Schieffelin: Has a really hard-to-spell maiden name, but later became Julia Ismay, which is easier. Spent much of her time discouraging talk of the Titanic (supposedly). I'm pretty sure she had five kids, even though oceanlinersmagazine said she had four. Probably didn't have a great life because of how closely related her husband was to the disaster, but I'm extrapolating.

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Relationship Tags

Whenever there's only two characters featured in one quote, it'll be tagged with "Character A & Character B," in alphabetical order by last name (regardless of whether it's romantic or platonic- that's up to you to decide)

The group tags will be tagged for any combination of the people included. Group tags in use:

the officers (Wilde, Murdoch, Lightoller, Pitman, Boxhall, Lowe, Moody)

the senior officers (Wilde, Murdoch, Lightoller)

the junior officers (Pitman, Boxhall, Lowe, Moody)

the wireless operators (Phillips, Bride, Cottam, Marconi)

the carpathia crew (Rostron, Dean, Bisset, Cottam)

the big three (Captain Smith, Andrews, Ismay)

the families (Sylvia L, Ada M, Whitehouse, Barbour, Shieffelin)

the crewmen (Fleet, Lee, Hichens, Rowe, Jessop, Hartley, Hume)

Let me know if there's a group tag you think I'm missing!

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Instead, the EPA took a meeting with the American Chemistry Council’s Formaldehyde Panel. The American Chemistry Council “spent more than $7 million last year lobbying EPA and Congress on issues including ... formaldehyde.” The Panel argued against release of the formaldehyde report, not because it was wrong, but because nearly a million jobs “depend on the use of formaldehyde.”

“As stated in our meeting, a premature release of a draft assessment … will cause irreparable harm to the companies represented by the Panel and to the many companies and jobs that depend on the broad use of the chemical.”

The top staffer for the Formaldehyde Panel, Kimberly Wise White, has repeatedly lobbied the EPA to “incorporate industry-funded research that found no link between formaldehyde and leukemia,” and argued that those industry-funded studies “shifted the scientific consensus away from the conclusion that it does.” (You might recognize White’s name. Last year, Pruitt kicked all of the academic scientists off the EPA’s science advisory board and replaced them with people representing the industries the EPA is supposed to regulate. White was one of Pruitt’s appointees. She’s still lobbying the EPA, and her creative interpretation of “consensus” squares exactly with Pruitt’s own interpretation of a supposed lack of “consensus” on climate change. But I digress.)

Pruitt’s EPA deferred to the Council’s desire to put their corporate profits above the health and safety of U.S. citizens. Some officials have now come forward to confirm the reason the EPA is blocking the formaldehyde report’s release:

“Top advisers to departing Administrator Scott Pruitt are delaying its release as part of a campaign to undermine the agency’s independent research into the health risks of toxic chemicals.”

And although Pruitt may have resigned, don’t expect better progress under the EPA’s new acting director, Andrew Wheeler:

“As staff director for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in 2004, Wheeler worked to delay an earlier version of the EPA’s formaldehyde analysis – and went on to profitable career as chemical industry lobbyist.”

The National Academies of Sciences, an independent panel of the country’s top scientists, must weigh in on all EPA risk assessments. This is the highest level of scrutiny a scientific study can receive. And the EPA has already paid the Academies $500,000 for that review. But the work cannot start until the EPA sends the study; blocking its release prevents the review.