Thursday, March 6, 2014

Titanic Bandmaster Wallace Hartley-- Part 3: The Fateful Voyage

The Titanic's band was divided into two ensambles: a five-piece orchestra and a trio string section. //// The five-piece section was led by Hartley and included violinist John Low Hume, cellist John Wesley Woodward, bassist John Frederick Clarke and pianist Percy Cornellus Taylor. They played in the first-class reception room. //// The trio played in the B Deck reception room and included pianist William Theodore Ronald Brailey, cellist Roger Bricoux and violinist George Krins. /// After the collision with the iceberg, shortly before midnight 14 April, the band (I'm figuring both sections) gathered in the Promenade Deck First Class Lounge and then moved out onto the Boat Deck and played popular ragtime tunes. //// All eight band members died (average age 26). //// Wallace left a young fiance, Maria Robinson. His body and those of Clarke and Hume were recovered. The others were never found. //// After being taken to Halifax, Hartley's body was returned to England on the White Star liner Arabic and interred in the Colne Cemetery. ////

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