12. Committed to the Deep

Titanic: Ship of Dreams

NOISER

Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.8 • 774 Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

White Star dispatch a funeral ship to begin recovering Titanic’s dead. The surviving crew return to Britain and try to move on with their lives. For one senior officer, Titanic is but a chapter in a barely believable life. Sailors in the North Atlantic search for the iceberg that sank the ship of dreams. And, decades later, descendants of those lost pay their respects… A Noiser podcast production. Narrated by Paul McGann. Featuring Josyann Abisaab, Stephanie Barczewski, Jerome Chertkoff, Clifford Ismay, Tim Maltin, Stephen McGann, Susie Millar, Claes-Göran Wetterholm. Special thanks to Southampton Archives, Culture and Tourism for the use of the Eva Hart archive. Visit SeaCity Museum for an interactive experience of the Titanic story (seacitymuseum.co.uk) Written by Duncan Barrett | Produced by Miriam Baines and Duncan Barrett | Exec produced by Joel Duddell | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design & audio editing by Miri Latham | Assembly editing by Dorry Macaulay, Anisha Deva | Compositions by Oliver Baines and Dorry Macaulay | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw | Recording engineer: Joseph McGann | Nautical consultant: Aaron Todd. Get every episode of Titanic: Ship of Dreams two weeks early and ad-free by joining Noiser+. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's evening on Friday, April 19, 1912.
0:07.0	In New York, the first day of Senator Smith's Titanic inquiry is coming to an end.
0:15.0	Meanwhile, 1,300 miles away, C.S. Mackay Bennett is approaching the spot where Titanic sank.
0:27.6	In the Mackay Bennett's hold are 100 tons of ice and as much embalming fluid as the crew could get their hands on before they departed from Halifax.
0:38.3	The former cable-laying vessel has been chartered by the White Star Line.
0:43.3	The crew were on double their normal pay,
0:46.3	because their mission is a grim one,
0:49.3	to recover as many of Titanic's dead from the water as possible, and bring them back to Canada for burial.
1:00.0	It's dark when the so-called funeral ship arrives at the same.
1:04.0	Too dark to get started.
1:07.0	Captain Frederick Lardner decides their work can wait until morning. He and his crew turn in for the night, surrounded by hundreds of bodies.
1:16.6	It's not until sunrise that they get a good look at them, men, women, children, floating all around the ship.
1:24.6	We saw them scattered on the surface, Lardner will later recall,
1:31.3	like a flock of seagulls.
1:34.3	They've been dead for the best part of a week,
1:36.3	but, thanks to the icy conditions,
1:39.3	at least some of them are still in a fit state for burial.
1:48.0	Others were so mangled during Titanic's violent death throes that they can only be committed to the deep.
1:56.0	On Saturday morning,
1:58.0	Captain Lardner gives the order to launch the Mackay Bennett's boats,
2:02.5	and the bleak task begins.
2:05.6	One by one, the bodies are hauled in, heavy in their water-logged clothes.
	...

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