Titanic Damage Control

This is from a 1908 Technical World Magazine, showing the Olympic and its sister ship the Titanic being built.

Well.

As I was looking up information on the garment worker’s strike in 1912, I found an interesting article from June 15 about Big Ships. This was just a few months after the Titanic sank, or is it sunk?, anyway.

“Large ships are still in demand. Olympic sails today with full list. 676 first class passengers.”

“The popularity of the large steamer with the travelling public does not seem to be on the wane, as was feared might be the case in consequence of the accident to the Titanic. White Star Olympic is due to sail from New York today for Cherbourge and Southampton.

It sailed every three weeks or more, from what I can see. July 6, July 27, August 17, Sept 18. “All steamers equipped with wireless and submarine signals.”

Now, I’m not sure, but the McCoys, Mr and daughter, of Flo in the City sailed to Europe on Sunday June 16, according to a letter from Marion to Margaret. Maybe they took the Olympic, who knows?

There were many liners sailing. These boats were big business. Hence the Titanic event being described as a mere ‘accident.’ Didn’t they see James Cameron’s movie?

That’s the trip to Paris and other destinations that they invited Marion along on, where she despondently wrote “Teachers will have to make much more money before I will see Europe.”

The Nicholsons were right in the midst of huge financial struggles, with Marion as their life-line.

In September, the McCoys brought her back a gift. “Imagine me in a Parisienne blouse,” Marion writes in a letter. The McCoys (an old Richmond family) also helped her land her own apartment on Hutchison, not an easy thing for a single woman to do in 1912.

In August, 1912, Edith and Marion went to Boston instead, to visit Dr. Henry Watters. They were introduced to a “Great Yankee” Chester Coy. “Chester is the man, now,” Marion jokes in a letter. Mrs. Coy, a hapless homemaker with no daughters to help, is anxious to marry her son off.

In September he visits Marion, in Montreal in her new flat on Hutchison. (How scandalous! Gentleman callers.) No use, though. She is already hung up on Hugh Blair. He dumps his old girlfriend “we were never engaged and I only thought of you as a very good friend” and proposes to Marion in May, 1913. (I guess it doesn’t hurt to have rival suitors when trying to get a man to propose.)

Marion finally does see Paris, in 1946, as a delegate of the Canadian Teaching Federation.

I saw notices in the 1912 Gazette, declaring which Montrealers, or Quebeckers were visiting Paris or London and in what hotel they were staying.

Opium Dens and Olympics

Row, row, row your boat, but not in the Olympics. Marion 1910

Once thing for sure, the 1908 London Olympics, despite having some Canadian gold medal hopes, was not big news in Montreal in July 1908.

The big news was the Quebec Tercentary, now forgotten. (In Flo in the City, Margaret attends the event.)

The July 13th edition of the Monteal Gazette had an editorial describing the full dress rehearsals for the pageant, open to the public at lower prices than the real event the next week. The pageant was to be the finest of its kind.

The Prince of Wales was to attend.

Meanwhile, the opening day of the Olympics in Londontown warranted a short report in the sports page, above the news of the M.A.A.A. cricket matches.

The article says the rain interfered with the opening at Shepherd’s Bush which the King attended. There were many vacant seats in the 70,000 seat stadium, apparently. Luckily, the American and “colonial” contingents filled many seats, keeping the event from being a totally dismal affair.

The 2012 London Olympics will not be dismal, I imagine.

The same newspaper had an article about a murder in an Opium Den in Chinatown.

And also another most interesting article about an institute of higher education being opened for Catholic Girls, associated with College Notre Dame, the first such institution on the island of Montreal.

Rev. Sister Ste, Euphroayne, directress of studies claimed that the proposed foundation seemed particular suited to the spirit of our day and generation since “even the casual observer must be aware of the modern tendency towards a broader education for women.”

“To know more so as to better love and serve God will be the motto of our new institution,” remarked sister Anne Marie.

The courses were to be in English and French equally, covering letters, science and commerce. Foreign languages would be taught too, German, Italian and Spanish as well as Latin.

This ambitious track was for ‘the chosen few’ – for most women would continue to need only primary and perhaps secondary education. Establishing the school of higher education would require prudence and great tact in the undertaking as well as a knowledge of the world.

I just checked and this institution became College Marguerite Bourgeoys, where my mother studied in the 30′s. The anglo section became Marianopolis College.

My mother took English, and was perfectly bilingual. She took Latin and Greek too and that made her able to work as a legal secretary. But she was a terrible housekeeper and ‘home economy’ was a mystery to her. A good cook though. And not a bit religious.