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Most of us are familiar with the story of
the Titanic. In 1912, on it's maiden voyage, the ocean liner
struck an iceberg and sank. Because there were not enough
lifeboats over 1,500 lives were lost. The ship's
passengers included some of the most well-known and wealthy people of
the time. John Jacob Astor, Major Archibald Butt and William
T. Stead (a friend of Conan Doyle's) were lost in
the tragedy.
A little-known fact is that
after the disaster Conan Doyle and George Bernard Shaw
had a very public
disagreement about how the disaster was characterized in the
press.
The tragedy caught the attention of the
world. Newspapers were filled with stories about the last
moments aboard the Titanic and the eventual rescue of those in the
lifeboats by the Carpathia. Many of these accounts told of the
heroism of those involved in the tragic incident.
The following quote from "Sinking
of The Titanic: Eyewitness Accounts" published soon after the
incident is typical.
The heroism of the majority of the men
who went down to death with the Titanic has been told over and over
again. How John Jacob Astor kissed his wife and saluted death as
he looked squarely into its face; the devotion of Mrs. Isidor Straus to
her aged husband and the willingness with which she went to her doom
with his loving arms pressed tenderly around her, the tales of life sacrificed
that women might be saved brought some need of comfort to the stricken.
Some of these
accounts were true and some were rumors presented as fact.
Virtually everything that was written was very dramatic and spoke in
absolutes about heroes and villains. The captain of the Titanic,
Captain Smith, was spoke of as a hero while Bruce Ismay, the managing
director of the White Star line, was thought to be a coward.
About a month after the disaster the
Daily News and Leader published an article by George Bernard Shaw
entitled
"Some Unmentioned Morals". Shaw questioned why the
disaster brought forth "an explosion of outrageous romantic
lying". Shaw felt that things were dramatized to the
extreme and that instead of examining the facts the public was viewing
the disaster as a dramatic epic.
For example, much was written about the
band on the Titanic playing as the ship sank. Shaw wondered if the
music gave people a false sense of security and delayed them in going to
the lifeboats.
Shaw also had a lot to say about Captain
Smith. Some people said he was last seen with a child in his arms
while others said they saw him going down with the ship. Virtually
everyone thought he was a hero.
Shaw had a different view.
"Though all the men must be heroes, the Captain must be a
super-hero, a magnificent seaman, cool, brave, delighting in death and
danger, and a living guarantee that the wreck was nobody's fault, but,
on the contrary, a triumph of British navigation." In short
he felt that Smith's reputation as a hero was not deserved and instead
his contribution to the tragedy, by the use of excessive speed in an
area known to have icebergs, should have been examined.
Conan Doyle was furious after reading
Shaw's article. In about a week he published a response. He
rebutted all of Shaw's points and added, " . . . it is a pitiful sight to see
a man of undoubted genius using his gifts in order to misrepresent and
decry his own people."
Shaw's response appeared in just a few
days. He in turn rebutted all of Conan Doyle's
arguments. Conan Doyle did respond again, but perhaps
sensing that this was an argument without end, his statement was
brief. He ended it by saying, "The worst I think or say of Mr.
Shaw is that his many brilliant gifts do not include the power of
weighing evidence; nor has the that quality -- call it good taste,
humanity, or what you will -- which prevents a man from needlessly
hurting the feelings of others."
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