Titanic Memorials Alive in Halifax, Nova Scotia
Visit Cemetery with Shipwreck Victims, Including Film’s J. Dawson
Oct 25, 2009
When the “unsinkable” Titanic hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank in April 1912, the port city of Halifax played a crucial role in recovering the bodies from one of the world’s worst maritime disasters.
Today, this city of 145,000 prepares to respectfully mark the 100th anniversary of the Titanic tragedy in 2012.
Titanic Sailed off Course into the Frigid North Atlantic
For reasons Capt. Edward J. Smith took to his watery grave, the mighty Titanic was 200 miles north of her plotted course in the North Atlantic. Headed from Southampton, England, to New York on her maiden voyage, Titanic steamed at a fast pace through an area called “Iceberg Alley.”
She struck an iceberg late in the evening of April 14, 1912, ripping a deep gash through the hull and compromising several water-tight compartments. Titanic sank two hours and 40 minutes later in the early hours of April 15.
The current theory, explained in Halifax’s Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, is that Titanic’s rivets were made with high sulfur levels, which made them brittle at cold temperatures. They gave way and the hull popped open.
More than 1,500 Perish as the ‘Unsinkable’ Titanic Goes Down
Titanic, pride of the White Star Line, carried more than 2,200 passengers; 705 survived, leaving more than 1,500 to die in the frigid North Atlantic.
Halifax was the closest port to the Titanic sinking. The White Star Line hired three telegraph cable ships, whose crews were expert in repairing the transatlantic cable between the U.S. and Europe, to assist in the recovery.
White Star also hired John Snow and Sons, undertakers, and 40 other embalmers from around the Maritime Provinces. They recovered 330 bodies from Titanic’s gravesite; 209 were returned to Halifax and the rest were buried at sea when the undertakers ran out of embalming fluid.
Arminias Wiseman was aboard the Mackay-Bennett recovery ship on April 20, 1912, when he wrote “…as far as the eye could see, the ocean was strewn with wreckage and debris, with bodies bobbing up and down in the cold sea.”
Extra Rations of Rum at Sea, Preparing the Halifax Ice Rink for Hundreds of Bodies
Because of the grueling nature of the work, Titanic recovery crews received double pay and extra rations of rum.
As the Mackay-Bennett and her sister ships steamed back to Halifax, the town mobilized to store the bodies at the Mayflower Curling Rink. First-class Titanic passengers were moved in coffins, while second- and third-class passengers were carried in canvas bags.
There were “funerals at the rate of 20 or 30 a day,” wrote Dr. Byard William Mosher on May 13, 1912.
Of the 209 bodies taken to Halifax, 59 were then sent elsewhere for burial.
Halifax’s Fairview Lawn Cemetery Adds Titanic Memorial Section
Most of the Titanic victims who remained in Halifax were buried in Fairview Lawn Cemetery. Catholic victims were buried in Mount Olivet; Jewish in the Baron de Hirsch cemetery. The White Star Line paid for the simple white headstones.
At Fairlawn, the Titanic headstones are arranged in the shape of a ship’s bow. The city of Halifax paid for the burials, except for that of a little boy - the crew of the Mackay-Bennett paid for that.
When he was researching his movie “Titanic,” writer/director James Cameron chose the name J. Dawson from one of the headstones.
The real man was James Dawson, a coal stoker. He had no family to negotiate with, said guide Robert Hapgood. Afterwards, the film company put a concrete base under his headstone.
J. Dawson’s stone still collects mementos, Hapgood said, such as flowers, underwear and hotel keys.
Paying Respects to The Lost at Halifax’s Titanic Memorials
Destination Halifax has complete information on the city, its cemeteries and memorials.
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