The Band That Played On-28

When the Titanic sunk, the musicians of the ship decided to play music until the very end, making them heroes in the eyes of the survivors. This book details the investigation on who those people might have been, since only one body was recovered and identified the identities of the famous musicians were never discovered.

Even after the investigation I noted that the book was still very uncertain about many, if not most, of the details about the musicians that it said were probably the ones playing on the Titanic when it sunk. So the accuracy of the information is uncertain at best.

Rather than focus on the questionable accuracy of the entire book, I think this blog post should address the thing that made those musicians famous enough for a book to be written on them. While the ship they were on sank, these musicians played on rather than do anything to preserve their lives.

I'm torn between calling that action brave or calling it stupid. Certainly I wouldn't expect them to force their way onto a lifeboat at the expense of others, but I also can't help but feel there might have been some course of action that wouldn't end in death. If nothing else, the musicians should have played for a while and then got clear of the ship so as to avoid getting sucked underwater by the suction. It wasn't as if they were able to play their music when the ship went vertical and started sinking straight down. They might as well have left the ship at that point and tried to survive the cold water until rescue arrived, the odds of surviving at that point were slim, but still much better than staying on the ship.

Apart from that, since the floorboards of the deck were probably wooden, the musicians could probably have worked together and made a makeshift raft, thus keeping themselves out of the cold water and almost guaranteeing survival. A few boards tied together with strings from one of their instruments would have worked, and depending on their instruments they might have been able to play some music from their raft. 

Other things could have been used as flotation devices, such as their hollow instrument cases. Or empty boxes and barrels of food or drink. Perhaps a bed mattress might have floated, add some rigid boards of wood and the need for string might have been eliminated from the raft creation plan.

I could go on thinking of ideas to survive, but the point is simple. In half an hour I came up with several ways to increase the musicians chances of surviving by myself. If they had put their heads together over the several hours it took for the Titanic to sink they could have certainly come up with these same ideas and more. One of my ideas even left the option of surviving AND also playing music to comfort others open. So I think in the end I have to dub their course of action as stupid rather than brave.

I think my point is made, and I have to be ready to go somewhere in about 5 minutes, so farewell until next time.