J. Bruce Ismay
Joseph Bruce Ismay was an English businessman who was the chairman and managing director of the White Star Line. He was the highest-ranking White Star official to survive the 1912 sinking of the company's flagship.
Early life
Joseph Bruce Ismay was born on 12 December 1862 in Crosby, Lancashire. He was the son of Thomas Henry Ismay and Margaret Bruce, daughter of ship-owner Luke Bruce. Thomas Ismay was the senior partner in Ismay, Imrie and Company and the founder of the White Star Line.The younger Ismay was educated at Elstree School and Harrow, then tutored in France for a year. He was apprenticed at his father's office for 4 years, after which he toured the world. He then went to New York City as the company representative, eventually rising to the rank of agent.
On 4 December 1888, Ismay married Julia Florence Schieffelin, daughter of George Richard Schieffelin and Julia Matilda Delaplaine of New York, with whom he had five children:
- Henry Bruce Ismay
- Evelyn Constance Ismay, who married Basil Sanderson in 1927
- George Bruce Ismay, who married Florence Victoria Edrington in 1926.
- Thomas Bruce Ismay, who married Jane Margaret Seymour, a daughter of Walter Seymour of Ballymore Castle, County Galway, Ireland, in 1922.
- Margaret Bruce Ismay, who married George Ronald Hamilton Cheape in 1912
Chairman of the White Star Line
After the death of his father on 23 November 1899, Bruce Ismay succeeded him as the chairman of the White Star Line. He decided to build four ocean liners to surpass the built by his father. The ships were dubbed the Big Four:,,, and. These vessels were designed more for size and luxury than for speed.In 1902, Ismay oversaw the sale of the White Star Line to J.P. Morgan & Co., which was organising the formation of International Mercantile Marine Company, an Atlantic shipping trust which absorbed several major American and British shipping lines. IMM was a holding company that controlled subsidiary operating corporations. Morgan hoped to dominate transatlantic shipping through interlocking directorates and contractual arrangements with the railroads, but that proved impossible because of the unscheduled nature of sea transport, American antitrust legislation, and an agreement with the British government. White Star Line became one of the IMM operating companies and, in February 1904, Ismay became president of the IMM, with the support of Morgan.
RMS ''Titanic''
In 1907, Ismay met Lord Pirrie of the Harland & Wolff shipyard to discuss White Star's answer to the and, the recently unveiled marvels of their chief competitor, Cunard Line. Ismay's new type of ships would not be as fast as their competitors, but it would have huge steerage capacity and luxury unparalleled in the history of ocean-going steamships. The latter feature was largely meant to attract the wealthy and the prosperous middle class. Three ships of the were planned and built. They were in order, and RMS. In a move that would become highly controversial, during construction of the first two Olympic-class liners, Ismay authorised the projected number of lifeboats reduced from 48 to 16, the latter being the minimum allowed by the Board of Trade, based on the 's tonnage.Ismay occasionally accompanied his ships on their maiden voyages, and this was the case with that of the Titanic. Ismay boarded in Southampton. During the voyage, Ismay talked with either chief engineer Joseph Bell or Captain Edward J. Smith about a possible test of speed if time permitted. After the ship collided with an iceberg 370 miles south-southeast of Newfoundland on the night of 14 April 1912, it became clear that it would sink long before any rescue ships could arrive. Ismay stepped aboard Collapsible C, which was launched less than 20 minutes before the ship went down. He later testified that as the ship was in her final moments, he turned away, unable to watch. Collapsible C was picked up by the about 3–4 hours later.
After being picked up by Carpathia, Ismay was led to the cabin belonging to the ship's doctor, Frank Mcgee. He gave Captain Rostron a message to send to White Star's New York office:
Ismay did not leave McGee's cabin for the entire journey, ate nothing solid, and was kept under the influence of opiates. Another survivor, 17-year-old Jack Thayer, visited Ismay to try to console him, despite having just lost his father in the sinking.
When he arrived in New York, Ismay was hosted by Philip Franklin, vice president of the company. He was summoned by and testified before a Senate committee hearing headed by Republican Senator William Alden Smith the day after the arrival of Carpathia to New York. Ismay was the first witness to testify. A few weeks later, Ismay also testified at the British Board of Trade inquiry.
Criticism
After the disaster, Ismay was savaged by both the American and the British press for deserting the ship while women and children were still on board. Some papers called him the "Coward of the Titanic" or "J. Brute Ismay", and suggested that the White Star flag be changed to a yellow liver. Some ran negative cartoons depicting him deserting the ship. The writer Ben Hecht, then a young newspaperman in Chicago, wrote a scathing poem contrasting the actions of Captain Smith and Ismay. The final verse reads: "To hold your place in the ghastly face / of death on the sea at night / is a seaman's job, but to flee with the mob / is an owner's noble right."Some maintain Ismay followed the "women and children first" principle, having assisted many women and children himself. Ismay's actions were defended in the official British inquiry, which found "Mr. Ismay, after rendering assistance to many passengers, found 'C' collapsible, the last boat on the starboard side, actually being lowered. No other people were there at the time. There was room for him and he jumped in. Had he not jumped in he would merely have added one more life — namely, his own — to the number of those lost."
Ismay had boarded Collapsible C with first-class passenger William Carter; both said they did so after there were no more women and children near that particular lifeboat. Carter's own behaviour and reliability, however, were criticised by his wife, Lucile Carter, who sued him for divorce in 1914; she testified Carter had left her and their children to fend for themselves after the collision and accused him of "cruel and barbarous treatment and indignities to the person". London society ostracised Ismay and labelled him a coward. On 30 June 1913, Ismay resigned as president of International Mercantile Marine and chairman of the White Star Line, to be succeeded by Harold Sanderson.
Ismay announced during the United States Inquiry that all the vessels of the International Mercantile Marine Company would be equipped with lifeboats in sufficient numbers for all passengers. Following the inquiry, Ismay and the surviving officers of the ship returned to England aboard.
''Titanic'' controversy
During the congressional investigations, some passengers testified that during the voyage they heard Ismay pressuring Captain Smith to increase the speed of Titanic in order to arrive in New York ahead of schedule and generate some free press about the new liner. The book The White Star Line: An Illustrated History by Paul Louden-Brown states that this was unlikely, and that Ismay's record does not support the notion that he had any motive to do so.Ismay was widely vilified in the United States after the sinking of Titanic due to the hostility shown in the yellow press controlled by William Randolph Hearst, who had fallen out with Ismay.
Following from the Hearst press depiction of Ismay, various subsequent films about Titanic have depicted Ismay either in an unfavorable light or almost as a villain, starting with the 1943 Nazi propaganda film Titanic where he is depicted as a corrupt British businessman who forces Captain Smith to sail Titanic recklessly at full speed into ice-infested waters in order to set a transatlantic speed record. A similar portrayal followed in the 1996 miniseries Titanic. Additionally, Julian Fellowes' 2012 miniseries Titanic depicts Ismay as a bigot who orders a group of non-British crew members locked below to drown during the sinking. A Titanic-themed episode of the science fiction television series Voyagers! depicted Ismay dressing as a woman in order to sneak into a lifeboat.
James Cameron's 1997 film, depicts the inclusion of a scene based on the eyewitness account of First Class passenger Elizabeth Lines, who after the sinking stated in a deposition that she overheard Ismay urging Captain Smith to arrive in New York ahead of schedule in order to beat the transatlantic crossing time of Titanic sister,. The scene takes place in the exact location, day, and time that Lines recalled overhearing Ismay and Smith's alleged conversation, with the character of Elizabeth Lines seen in the background, visibly taking note of their discussion, but does not specify it is Olympic crossing time that Ismay is hoping to beat. Over the years, Lines's account has been questioned by historians, with some expressing doubt that it occurred. Louden-Brown, one of several consultants to the Cameron film, has stated that he thought the antagonistic characterization of Ismay was unfair, and he tried to challenge this, but regardless of Louden-Brown's opinions, it was included in the film. Louden-Brown said, "Apart from being told, 'under no circumstances are we prepared to adjust the script', one thing they also said is 'this is what the public expect to see'."
Lord Mersey, who led the 1912 British inquiry into the sinking of Titanic, concluded that Ismay had helped many other passengers before finding a place for himself on the last lifeboat to leave the starboard side.