Recalling a Somber Anniversary

This weekend marks the 112th anniversary of the day that most famous of all ships carried 1,522 people to their watery graves. Did you know that the Titanic was three football fields long? She was 11 stories tall and 92 feet wide. The infamous ship tipped the scales at 46,000 tons.

At the time, she was the largest and most luxurious ship ever built. This vessel “fit for a king” could carry nearly 3,000 passengers and crew. She had her own swimming pools, suites, restaurants, Turkish baths and squash courts. There was even a Parisian sidewalk café complete with strolling musicians.

With sixteen water-tight compartments below sea level, the Titanic was deemed unsinkable. The 14,000 workers at Harland and Wolff Shipbuilders in Belfast spent thirty-six months assembling this beautiful craft. They took pride in the fact that she was the most sea-worthy vessel ever constructed.

The Titanic was the pride of the White Star Line. Perhaps it was the belief that this vessel was so seaworthy that there were less than half the number of recommended lifeboats installed. No one could imagine a situation in which every passenger and crew member would need one.

With a sense of his own pride, Captain Edward Smith was determined to complete the journey from England to New York in record time. Since the maiden voyage of the Titanic would be his last before retiring, he had this one last opportunity to achieve his desired legacy and line his pockets.

To achieve his goal, Captain Smith knew he would have to move his vessel at 26 knots day and night in order to arrive in New York’s harbor in six days. His pride trumped prudence.

On the evening of April 14, 1912, the Titanic struck an iceberg and was swallowed up in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic. The ship “not even God could sink” sank. Only 706 lived to tell of the unthinkable nightmare.

One of those who perished was a thirty-nine year old British pastor by the name of John Harper. Reverend Harper was a widower enroute to Chicago to become the next pastor of the historic Moody Memorial Church. Traveling with his six-year-old daughter and his niece, Harper’s status as a parent and guardian entitled him to a seat on a lifeboat (on which his loved ones would eventually be rescued). But this man of faith willingly gave up his seat. His concern was sharing his faith with those for whom there would not be enough lifeboats.

A sailor, who was one of the last to be rescued from the sinking vessel, later attested to the fact that it was Harper who asked the band leader on the deck to play Nearer My God to Thee. While the musicians played a somber soundtrack to the real-life drama playing out on the Atlantic, Harper gathered a large group of people around him. He knelt in the center of the circle and prayed on behalf of those who were nearer to God than they ever imagined they would be when the ship left England. Soon they drowned.

The pride of the ship’s captain and the humility of the reverend is most noteworthy.  The contrast was engraved in my heart some years ago when my eye caught sight of a little book in a thrift store. The beautiful volume contained illustrated lyrics to Nearer My God to Thee, a hymn that will always be associated with the sinking of the Titanic.  

I carefully opened the fragile book. What I read gave me pause. This printed treasure was inscribed to a young man by the name of Francis Griset by his grandmother. The occasion was the boy’s 8th birthday. It was dated July 14, 1911. Amazing! The book was given exactly nine months before that hymn would be played as the ship was sinking.

This weekend while we ponder the tragic circumstances of the Titanic, why not reflect on the “icebergs” in your life that could capsize your dreams? As with Captain Smith, the lust for power, popularity and wealth puts us on a collision course with pride, arrogance and failure.

We might think we are unsinkable, but as a bumper sticker I once saw aptly suggests “Don’t believe everything you think!”