Wordsley History Society

Vice-chairman, Jim Skidmore, welcomed 50 members and 40 visitors to the meeting. Following the usual announcements re safety, raffle and refreshment arrangements, he mentioned the following:

Subscriptions: Now due – also a reminder that in addition to Society membership an affiliation fee to the Community Centre of £2 was payable.

Jim then introduced Andrew Lound, now well-known to the Wordsley History Society. His talk was entitled 'RMS Titanic – Made in the Midlands'. He began by pointing out that while the ship was built in Belfast, registered in Liverpool, and sailed from Southampton (thereby greatly associated with these ports), it was remarkable the extent to which the Titanic was also a 'Black Country Ship', given a little licence to extend the accepted boundaries to Birmingham and Stoke.

In the early 20th century, the American multi-millionaire, J P Morgan, had attempted to take control of world-wide shipping The White Star Liner successfully opposed his takeover of Cunard and proposed five new great ships to consolidate their position – Mauretania, Lusitania, Titanic, Britannic and Olympic.

Work on Titanic began on 31 March l909 at the Harland and Wolff yard, Belfast, and she was launched on 31 May l911. The magnificient ship was replete with components large and small, luxurious and practical, from Midlands manufacturers. The list could hardly be greater or more varied: the celebrated chains and anchors from Hingley's of Netherton; davits from Welin, Brierley Hill; soft furnishing from George Field of Birmingham; crystal glass from Wordsley. And boilers, hydraulic rams, beds, brackets, bolts, signs, nameplates, china and silverware, uniform buttons, whistles, and megaphones – and literally millions of GKN screws. Hence Andrew's 'Black Country Ship' claim, not to mention the many passengers and crew members from the region.

He dismissed two popular myths about the ship – first advertised not as 'unsinkable' but 'practically unsinkable' the conditional dropped by the press after the tragedy in the interests of drama. Second, that she was attempting a record-breaking crossing: she was built for luxury, not speed.

Though within the, then, legal limits she carried only lifeboats sufficient for 1178 persons. There was a total of 2201 passengers and crew on board, of whom only around 800 were able to leave the ship after the collision with the iceberg on the night of 14/15 April l912. The liner Carpathia arrived at 4 am and picked up 712 survivors. Andrew closed his talk with poignant pictures of the remains of Titanic on the sea bed.

Andrew was thanked for another extremely interesting evening and it was obvious from the rapt attention that the audience had greatly enjoyed Andrew's dramatic presentation. Thanks were also expressed to the ladies who had provided refreshments.