Memories of Titanic
Hightstown, N.J. woman recounts her mother's experiences aboard ship
The following is a digital representation of a story that appeared in an April 1998 issue of the Windsor-Hights Herald newspaper. It was a second-place winner in that year's New Jersey Press Association's newspaper contest for Feature Writing. The story appeared several months after the release of the successful film Titanic.
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Gretchen Hyde said her mother rarely spoke about the Titanic. And, unless asked, she never talked about what it was like to be one of only 705 passengers fortunate enough to survive the mid-Atlantic disaster that claimed the lives of 1,502 people on April 14, 1912.
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"I don't know if she didn't speak about it because it was such a painful experience for her," Ms. Hyde said.
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Before her mother's death in 1965, Ms. Hyde, 83, who lives with her husband at the borough's Meadow Lakes community, said she was able to paint a mental picture of her mother's experiences aboard the Titanic from occasional stories she would tell her about the ship and the sinking.
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The stories cast light on the personality of not only the ship and its passengers but also on Ms. Hyde's mother herself, whose natural energy and strong will proved helpful during the sinking.
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According to Ms. Hyde and other published sources, her mother, Gretchen Fiske Longley, had just completed a trip through Europe with her aunts, Kornelia "Kornie" Theodosia Andrews, 63, and Anna Andrews Hogeboom, 51, when they decided to travel back to America aboard the Titanic.
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Ms. Longely, then 21, had been raised by her aunts after her parents died. They lived at a family home in Hudson, N.Y.
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"There was a lot of talk about the Titanic [in Europe]," Ms. Hyde said. "There was a lot of hype, so they said, 'Let's see if we can get some space on this great big beautiful Titanic."
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The three women paid 77 English pounds, or about $1,500 per person today, for their tickets and were assigned to Cabin 7 on Deck D, the lowest of the first-class decks aboard the ship.
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At 11:40 EST, about halfway through what was to have been a seven-day voyage, Ms. Longley was awakened by Kornelia.
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"Aunt Kornie said to her, 'I think you should ask the steward if something is wrong. The ship is not moving.'" Ms. Hyde explained. "My mother went out to talk to the steward and he said there was nothing. My mother returned to her cabin and went back to sleep."
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Ms. Hyde said her mother was told two more times by her aunts to ask the stewards what was wrong with the ship.
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"The third time, she found another steward and he told her the ship was going down and to put on her warmest clothes and go to the top deck and get on a lifeboat."
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Ms. Longley and her aunts attempted to board two lifeboats on the top deck -- boats 6 and 8 -- but were told by crewmen there were too many people in them to fit the three women together. They were able find room on boat 10.
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Ms. Hyde said it was fortunate that the women did not separate and attempt to board boat 6 because that boat did not have a water plug. When the boat was lowered into the cold Atlantic waters, it immediately began to fill with water.
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In order to save themselves and guarantee a spot on a lifeboat, some male crewmen claimed they could row a lifeboat when, if fact, they couldn't. Ms. Longley found that to be the case on her boat.
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Because her father had taught her how to row a boat before he died, Ms. Longley was able to grab an oar and join other capable rowers in moving the lifeboat away from the sinking Titanic.
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"It was tiring for her, but it was also a way for her to stay warm," Ms. Hyde said. She said in addition to a lifejacket, her mother was wearing a sealskin coat on the lifeboat.
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Ms. Hyde said her mother never got to see the ship completely sink or break in two.
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"Her back was to the Titanic," she said. "There was a big fear they would be sucked down, so they rowed away as fas as they could."
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Ms. Longley and the other suvivors were rescued a few hours later by the passenger ship Carpathia. She told her daughter that aboard the ship were a group of missionaries en route to Africa who gave their supply of toothbrushes to the survivors.
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Also aboard the ship were schoolmates of Ms. Longley who were passengers of the Carpathia. They allowed Ms. Longley's two aunts to sleep in their stateroom while she slept on the ship's dining room floor.
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After arriving in New York, where a school friend was waiting for them, the women visited one of the aunt's sisters living in East Orange, N.J., for two days before returning to Hudson, N.Y.
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One year later, Ms. Longley married a Philadelphia doctor, Raymond Leopold, who gave birth to Ms. Hyde in 1914.
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Ms. Hyde said that although her mother rarely spoke about the Titanic during her youth, when she did describe the vessel, it was with a sense of wonder and admiration.
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"She was 21 and having a good time and not trying to take any notes."
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"But she did remember a magnificent staircase. She described how beautiful it was and the women dressed in their evening costumes and in their best jewels," she said.
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Ms. Hyde said she remembered that the body of a steward was later recovered from the ocean and in his pocket was a list of passengers he was responsible for during the voyage. One of those passengers listed was Ms. Longley.
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A bon voyage letter sent to Ms. Longley by a friend in Paris was also recovered. The letter, one of several good-wish notes Ms. Longley was to read during each day of her voyage, shows each letter of her first name, Gretchen, and a good-wish phrase made from each of those letters. The letter was later reprinted in "The Last Dinner on the Titanic," a book about the ship written by Rick Archbold and Dana McAuley.
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Ms. Hyde said her mother's experiences on the Titanic may have been traumatic but it didn't darken her enthusiasm for traveling the seas by boat.
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"She was a strong woman," she explained. "She went back to Europe several times afterward."
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"She was always very happy to be on a ship."
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When Ms. Longley died on Aug. 11, 1965, she was enjoying a cruise in the Mediterranean aboard the S.S. Constitution. She suffered a heart attack after eating dinner.
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"My mother was a delightful person to know," Ms. Hyde said. "Even now, some friends continue to talk about her. She had a lot of personality."
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Ms. Hyde's daughter, Elizabeth Lev, a resident of New Glarus, Wis., said she also remembers her grandmother as having a strong personality.
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"She always took cruises after the sinking," she said. "She wasn't afraid. She was very attractive and always dressed nicely."
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Ms. Lev and Ms. Hyde said they share in the sudden public interest in the Titanic generated by the popular film "Titanic," although neither has seen the movie yet.
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"I am the last person who has not seen it," Ms. Lev said, laughly. "I keep wanting to see it."
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"Until all this hype about the movie, there wasn't much interest in the Titanic," Ms. Hyde said.
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Ms. Lev, who was born in Philadelphia, said her family's personal ties to the Titanic maintain her interest in the ship and its ill-fated voyage.
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"There's something about the hubris of it all," she said. "Everyone aboard the ship thought it was unsinkable. Everything on the ship was done on such a grand scale, no one thought it would sink."
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