Pages

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Staatsburgh Quiz Night: Titanic-sized Edition



For over a century, the sinking of the RMS Titanic has captured the imagination of the public - but how much do you actually know about the disaster?

The histories of Staatsburgh and the Titanic intersect in several interesting ways, and the ship's story offers many insights into the Gilded Age. Each year, Staatsburgh commemorates the tragedy of the ship's sinking through various programs, informing people about different aspects of the ship and the period in our history so marked by the disaster. On April 9th and 15th, 2021, Staatsburgh staff hosted the newest installment of their long-running quiz series; Staatsburgh Quiz Night: Titanic-sized Edition! Covering three rounds of questions - "The Unsinkable Ship," "The Last Word in Luxury" and "The Most Famous Ship in the World" - guests learned about Titanic, its parallels with Staatsburgh and Hudson Valley connections, and why it still fascinates us today. 

If you missed this month's contest, or want to re-play, the questions and answers are below. For those who want to play along at home, a custom answer sheet can be downloaded, below:


Thank you to everyone who played along live in April, and we hope you enjoy playing along at home!



1. What does RMS stand for?
(as in RMS Titanic)

Royal Mail Ship

R.M.S. are vessels that carry mail under contract to the British Royal Mail. There were 5 Postal clerks assigned to Titanic. With Titanic’s Mail Room flooding, they attempted to move 200 sacks of registered mail to the upper decks in the hope of saving them. All 5 of the valiant men were lost.


2. Titanic had four funnels (or smokestacks) –three were functional, while the last was fake.

True or False?

True

The 4th funnel (aft, or rear, of the ship) was a dummy. Modern ocean liners like Titanic and the Lusitania added these false funnels for a variety of reasons.


 

3. After its construction in Belfast, Norther Ireland, Titanic made call in three ports before sinking en route to New York. In what modern-day countries were those three ports of call?

Bonus points for the specific cities!

Southampton, England
Cherbourg, France
Queenstown (now Cobh), The Republic of Ireland


 

4. This crewman of the White Star Line was one of two lookouts on Titanic who first spotted and reported the iceberg by telephone to the bridge. 


A. Charles Proctor
B. Lieutenant William Murdoch
C. Frederick Fleet
D. Donald Fraser

C. Frederick Fleet

He survived and went on to testify on the sinking. Fleet was one of six lookouts on rotation the night of the sinking. He was paired with Reginald Lee. They did not have binoculars but perhaps wouldn’t have spotted the iceberg with them anyway as conditions for spotting icebergs were very poor that night: calm water on a moonless night. With calm water, no waves could be seen splashing against a berg; and the lookouts didn’t have the aid of moonlight to spot danger ahead.


 

5. Titanic was one of the first ships in history to send THIS coded message via Morse Code, shortly after striking the iceberg:

S.O.S.

Bonus Question: What was the previous call sign used by wireless operators?

C.Q.D.

C.Q.D. - combining CQ (sécu, from the French sécuritéand D ("distress") - was first issued by the Marconi International Maritime Communication Company in 1904. CDQ was understood as a "All Stations: Distress" call for wireless operators. Germany's Notzeichen distress signal - three dots, three dashes, three dots - was adopted as the international Morse Code distress signal in 1906. This code became known as "S.O.S." because three-dots three-dashes three-dots corresponds to S.O.S. in Morse Code. This new code was easier to hear and spell than the earlier CDQ signal.  


   

6. As with all tragedies, there are always stories of those who narrowly escaped it! The Slade brothers reportedly missed their work assignments on Titanic after stopping as "The Grapes," a local WHAT?

A. Office for the White Star Line
B. Nursing home, to say goodbye to their mother
C. Pub
D. They made it up!

C. Pub

At around 11:50am, a group of crew members (including the Slades) left the Grapes public house. Realizing they were late, they raced to the top of Oxford Street, but were stopped by a train at a grade crossing. One member of the surviving groups recalled "We were at the top of the main road and a passenger train was approaching us from another part of the docks. I heard the Slades say, ‘Oh, let the train go by.’" Once the train passed, the gangway of Titanic was already raised – and they were too late!


 

7. After Titanic's sinking, newspapers famously dubbed socialite Margaret Brown as the "___________" - for her leadership role in Titanic's lifeboat #6.


The Unsinkable Molly Brown

Molly Brown encouraged the women in her lifeboat to row to keep warm, and kept up a verbal battle with an uncooperative Titanic crewman throughout the night. After her rescue she would go on to organize a committee for destitute survivors that raised almost $10,000.


 

8. 1500 people lost their lives in the early hours of April 15th. There were three classes of passenger on-board Titanic - First, Second, and Third:

a. Which class (1st, 2nd, or 3rd) suffered the most casualties, by number of victims?

a. Third-class

61% of First Class survived (130 dead). 42% of Second Class survived (166 dead). Around 25% of Third Class survived (528 dead, out of a total of 706)


b. Which group (gender AND class) suffered the most casualties, by percentage?

b. Second-class Men

8% survival rate. According to Chuck Anesi, Third class men had (around) a 17% survival rate. There were nearly 3-times as many Third Class men as there were Second Class men.




 

1. The White Star Line, the firm that owned Titanic, wanted its ship to appeal to wealthy clients like the Mills, the Astors, and the Vanderbilts. 

What attribute did the White Star Line emphasize the most in their pitch to wealthy millionaire clients?


A. Speed
B. Luxury
C. Cuisine
D. Size

B. Luxury

Although Titanic was the largest ship built at its time, it was not made to be the fastest ship. Rather, its main appeal, especially to its wealthy clients, was the White Star Line’s commitment to luxury (one way the ship is similar to Staatsburgh). This was used as their appeal against their greatest competitor, the Cunard Line, with its speedier ships. Cunard was also the first steam liner company to introduce things like electricity and wireless communication on board their ships.


 

2. Titanic’s designer Thomas Andrews originally intended the First-class Reading and Writing Room as a retreat for ladies following dinner. 

Which equivalent room at Staatsburg – seen ABOVE– would Ruth Mills and her female guests retreat to after dinner?

The Drawing Room

 

3. Rhinebeck resident - and distant cousin of Staatsburgh’s owner, Ruth Mills, John Jacob Astor IV, was traveling back to New York after a honeymoon with his wife Madeline, who was expecting a child. 

When securing a lifeboat for his wife, what Gilded Age term for pregnancy did Astor use in describing his wife’s condition?

A. Fragile 
B. Feeble
C. Sensitive
D. Delicate

D. Delicate

Mr. Astor asked second officer Charles Lightoller, “May I please accompany my wife; she is in a delicate condition.” To which the officer replied, “No sir. No men are allowed in these boats until the woman and children are loaded first.” Astor stepped back from the lifeboat and went down with the ship.


 

4. Isidor and Ida Straus are perhaps the most famous love story from Titanic. Ida stayed behind with her husband, refusing a lifeboat, during the sinking – an act commemorated in stone in New York’s Straus Park and on film in the 1997 motion picture. 

Another memorial to the couple is located in WHICH iconic Herald Square department store co-owned by Isidor.

Macy’s Department Store


  

5. All of these items were features of both Staatsburgh and Titanic, EXCEPT:

A. Luggage elevator
B. Grand staircase
C. Squash court
D. Steinway piano

C. Squash court


 

6. Technically, American citizens could not own British ships. 

However, this wealthy New York millionaire – seen ABOVE– acquired The White Star Line firm (and thus Titanic) in 1902 through a loophole with his holding company, the International Mercantile Marine Group.

J.P. Morgan

Morgan were poised to embark on Titanic’s maiden voyage on April 10th, 1912 but canceled at the last minute due to illness. His suite - one of the most expensive on the ship - was filled by White Star owner Bruce Ismay.


 

7. In the famous love scene from Titanic (1997), when Jack and Rose snuck away to the ship’s cargo hold, WHICH car did they hide in from Spicer Lovejoy? 

That automobile was, in reality, the only one on Titanic’s maiden voyage.

A. Daimler
B. Ford
C. Renault
D. Rolls Royce

C. Renault

The only automobile onboard titanic was a 1912 Renault type CB Coupe de Ville owned by First Class passenger and survivor William Carter of Pennsylvania.


 

8. Next to the captain, WHAT position was the highest paid member of Titanic staff? 

Hint: At Staatsburgh, the same position was one of the highest paid employees!

The chef

As at Staatsburgh, fine dining and the service of French cuisine (at least for first class passengers), featuring dishes that were complicated to make or that required great culinary skill, was a key part of the hospitality experience. Highly-trained chefs, often trained in France, were de rigueur for the guests of the Gilded Age elites and upon the luxurious Titanic.



 

1. A statue of Captain Edward Smith stands in Lichfield, England. What is Smith’s connection to the city?

A. He was born there
B. He went to school there
C. He is buried there
D. He has no connection to Lichfield

D. He has no connection to Lichfield

Smith was born in Hanley, Staffordshire and lived in Southampton. Officially, the site was chosen because Lichfield was much more accessible than Hanley - about half-way between London and Liverpool. It is also the cathedral city of the diocese in which the captain had been born.

 

 

2. In what capital city is this Titanic memorial – dedicated to the men who gave their lives for women and children – located? 


Hint: It overlooks the Washington Channel


Washington D.C.

Originally located across the Potomac from the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington D.C. Titanic memorial was designed by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in 1914. After a close competition of female-only artists and nearly 2 decades of fundraising by the Women's Titanic Memorial Association, Whitney's 15 foot statue was unveiled in 1931 - the same year she founded the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. The statue was moved to its current location in the 1960s after construction of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Art.


   

3. The following occupations on-board Titanic are all memorialized in Southampton, EXCEPT:

A. Architects
B. Postman
C. Musicians
D. Engineers


A. Architects 


Southampton was hit hardest by the Titanic disaster - 539 of the 705 crew members who perished onboard were from the coastal city. A memorial to the ship's musicians was unveiled one year after the maiden voyage, but had to be replaced after heavy bombing during WWII. In 1914, the engineers' memorial was dedicated. As a Royal Mail Ship, a memorial to the lost British postal staff is located currently outside the City's Guildhall.

4. At the height of the Jim Crow era, some African-Americans saw the Titanic disaster as a symbol of white hubris, and even revenge for the violence carried out against Black people.

Blues singer Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter's 1948 song "The Titanic (Fare thee, Titanic, Fare thee well)" tells a fictional story about WHICH Heavyweight Champion of the World dancing after being refused a ticket?


Jack Johnson


'The Titanic (Fare thee, Titanic, Fare thee well)'
- heard HERE - tells a fictional story of the legendary boxer being denied a ticket on the legendary ship after Capt. Smith declares “I ain’t hauling no coal.” In fact, there was only one Black passenger on Titanic - Joseph Laroche. Joseph, his pregnant French wife Juliette Lafargue, and their two daughters were second-class passengers. Only Lafargue and the children survived the disaster (including Joseph Jr., born shortly afterward), and returned to France where they had to obscure their Black heritage. 
 


 

5. Remembered as “the definitive cinematic telling of the story,” the 1958 film, A Night to Remember is regarded by historians and survivors alike for its accuracy depicting the disaster.


What is one point, however, the film got wrong (which was not known at the time)?

A. The ship split in two pieces
B. The captain survived
C. The band played white Titanic sank
D. The Californian radio operator was on duty that night



A. The ship split in two pieces

When the wreckage of Titanic was discovered (see Question #7), they found out it had split in two while sinking in 1912. This was not known at the time of filming, thus Titanic is shown going down in one piece.


 

6. For many, Titanic represents the end of the Gilded Age. 

A propaganda film commissioned by Joseph Goebbels from WHAT nation showed how capitalism was responsible for the disaster.

Nazi Germany


 

7. In what decade was Titanic finally found at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean by the oceanographer Robert Ballard?


1980s

Titanic was found on September 1, 1985 at a depth of 12,500 feet. Settled 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, the wreck is more than 13 miles from the ship's last reported location.


  

8. The 1997 film Titanic starred the famous actor Victor Garber. He portrayed which historic individual? 

Hint: His name has already been mentioned in a previous question ….

A. Thomas Andrews
B. Captain Edward J. Smith
C. John Jacob Astor IV
D. Bertram Slade

A. Thomas Andrews


 


Tie Breaker

Although unsuccessful at marketing their new black teddy bears, German toy-maker Steiff re-released 655 of them – called “mourning bears” – after the Titanic disaster. They sold out instantly in London, and are one of the most sought-after teddy bears by collectors today. 

How much did one sell for at Christie’s in 2000?

$136,000 (£91,000)


So, how did you do? Let us know in the comments! Thanks for playing.


No comments:

Post a Comment