The annual business meeting for Frome Family History group took place on Tuesday 29th January at Frome Library.
The meeting was chaired by Chris Featherstone who thanked the committee for all their hard work over the preceding year and also thanked members for the contributions they had made. Mention was made of the book, about to be published, on the members of the Armed Forces who returned to Frome after the First World War. The treasurer’s report was read out and the committee voted in for another year.
“Following our business meeting, Gerald Burdall gave a talk on the loss of the Titanic, in particular, looking at the role of the ships in the vicinity.
“Gerry began by describing the three ships built by Harland and Wolff in the early twentieth century. The Olympic, launched in 1911, the Titanic, launched in 1912 and the Britanic launched in 1914. The ships were built to fulfil a requirement for transporting emigrants to the United States. Between 1900 and 1914 13,000,000 people emigrated to the USA and with liners carrying about 2,500 passengers at a time it was considered to be a lucrative business. Of the three ships, the Olympic was in active service until 1925, the Britannic hit a mine in 1916 and sank and the Titanic sank in April 1912 as we all know. One lady, nurse Violet Jessup, survived both the Titanic and Britannic sinkings.
“On Sunday April 14th 1912, the Captain of the SS California radioed the Titanic to say that there were icebergs en route. Captain Lord of the California stopped his ship but the Titanic continued travelling south, the message coming back “shut up, shut up busy working!” It is not clear whether the message got to a senior officer but about twenty minutes later the Titanic hit an iceberg.
“Distress rockets were fired from the Titanic but Captain Lord did not recognise them so took no action although his ship was only about 15 miles away. However, the Royal Mail ship Carpathia did take action, despite being 58 miles away. Captain Royston prepared his ship, asked for medical help from passengers and travelled at about 17 knots to reach the area by about 4pm. Captain Royston and his crew rescued 705 survivors and were hailed heroes whilst Captain Lord spent the next few years of his life trying to clear his name despite an enquiry deciding that the outcome would have been no different had he responded to the emergency and gone to the aid of the Titanic. Both ships were torpedoed during the First World War, SS Californian in 1915 and RMS Carpathia in 1918
“Gerry was thanked for a very enjoyable evening where we all learnt new information on a very familiar story.
“Our next event is on Tuesday 26th February where Mike Horler will talk about tools of the trade. Our regular Saturday morning advice sessions continue on the first Saturday in the month. Please ask in the library.”
