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The British and United States enquiries into the Titanic disaster interviewed lookouts Archie Jewel, George Symons, Reginald Lee and Frederick Fleet. Fleet and Lee were on duty when Titanic struck the iceberg. Their evidence can be found at www.titanicinquiry.org

Reginald Lee's testimony was given on day 4 of the British enquiry, and Frederick Fleet's on day15. Frederick Fleet also gave evidence on days 4 and 5 of the United States enquiry.

Frederick Fleet's account on the CD Rom is taken from testimony given at the American enquiry.

Overview
At 10pm on April14 1912, Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee began their watch. They were told 'to keep a sharp look out for ice and growlers' (small icebergs). Just after seven bells (about 11.30pm), the ship passed through a patch of mist. On the other side, Fleet saw the dark shape of an iceberg. He rang the bell in the crow's nest three times, and telephoned the bridge with the message 'Iceberg dead ahead'. Although the Titanic's engines were put into reverse, it was too late to alter course, and the ship's starboard bow grazed the iceberg, pieces of ice falling on the deck. The lookouts thought it had been a near miss, the fate of the Titanic was sealed.

Although Fleet survived the Titanic, he seems to have left the White Star service a few months later as, according to his biography in www.encyclopediatitanica.com, surviving Titanic seamen were not welcome on board White Star ships.

In later life, Fleet sold newspapers in the streets of Southampton. He finally committed suicide in 1965.

Activities for the Classroom

• Compare Frederick Fleet's and Reginald Lee's accounts of the night of April 14 1912 given to the British Enquiry
• How do Frederick Fleet's accounts to the British and US enquiries differ?
• Why did Frederick Fleet find it difficult to say how big the iceberg appeared or how far away it seemed?
• The lookouts on the Titanic had no binoculars. Why not? (See the Key by Robert Edmonds) - http://www.maritimequest.com/liners/titanic_the_key_by_robert_edmonds.htm
• Frederick Fleet thought binoculars would have helped him spot the iceberg sooner. Do you think he was right?
• What clues might the lookouts have noticed to warn them that an iceberg might be nearby?
• In 1912, experienced and alert lookouts played an important part in ensuring the safety of ships crossing the Atlantic. Find out the duties of a lookout and write a job description
• In 1912, ships depended on the sharp eyes of the lookouts to warn of dangers ahead. What extra safety features do ships have today?
• The iceberg that sank the Titanic was called a 'blackberg'. Find out what this is
• Discuss why Titanic crew like Frederick Fleet might not be welcome on White Star ships
• Tell the lookouts' story of the iceberg drawing on evidence to both enquiries. (See Richard Krebes' online article cited below)

References
New York Times April 21 1912
Account of warnings from crows' nest to the bridge of the Titanic
http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/alarm-from-lookout-ignored-sailor-says.html
Defending Fleet and Lee: Richard Krebes

Due to a faulty hyperlink, this section must be accessed in the following way:

• Dinner and Dance - Iceberg>Iceberg Dead Ahead


• Go to the Astern/Ahead navigation (top right hand corner) and click 'Astern'

Overview
This section describes the life on an iceberg in the North Atlantic, and the process of melting and calving as it drifts south towards the shipping lanes.

After the British and American enquiries following the Titanic disaster, North Atlantic shipping lanes were moved further south. In 1913, the American and British governments established the International Ice Patrol (IIP). This service monitors and warns shipping about icebergs in the North Atlantic. During the ice season, long-range patrol aircraft scour thousands of square miles of ocean looking for icebergs that could be a danger to ships.

Weather conditions and ocean currents around the Newfoundland Grand Banks affect iceberg drift. The IIP asks ships to report any ice they see, and also to send weather reports and take sea surface temperature readings. All this information feeds into a sophisticated computer programme designed to predict the movement of icebergs.

Today, Coast Guard cutters move icebergs out of the shipping lanes. Every year on April 15, the International Ice Patrol hold a memorial service for the Titanic, and an aircraft drops wreaths of flowers into the water.

Activities for the Classroom

• Find out about the work of the International Ice Patrol


• The North American and Canadian Ice services now produce a regularly updated iceberg chart. Find out about this at http://www.uscg-iip.org/pdf/NAIS_CHART.pdf


• Invent, and make a co-ordinates game in which ships travelling from Southampton to New York steer a course to avoid icebergs


• Research the effect of melting ice on sea levels. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100428142258.htm


• Can we drink iceberg water? How do we know?


• Does ice melt at different rates in salt and fresh water? Design an experiment to find out using ice cubes. Think of other ways ice cubes might help us find out more about icebergs.


• Half fill two identical plastic bottles with water. There must be exactly the same amount of water in each. Mark the level of water on the outside of each bottle. Now put one of the bottles in the freezer overnight. Compare the water levels next day. What has happened and why?


• Newspapers at the time said the iceberg Titanic struck was about as tall as St Paul's Cathedral. Research eyewitness accounts of the iceberg, and think of other helpful comparisons to give an idea of its size and mass


• The biggest icebergs are in the Antarctic. Find out just how big these can be

In the film Titanic II, melting at the Greenland Ice Cap creates an iceberg the size of Manhattan. As this falls into the sea, it creates a Tsunami. Although this is pure science fiction, children could

• Research global warming at the poles


• Research the effect of melting ice in the Atlantic. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100428142258.htm

References

International Ice Patrol (schools' pages)
http://www.uscg-iip.org/Students/Default.htm

Webquest's Iceberg Ahead!
http://express.howstuffworks.com/wq-iceberg.htm

Due to a faulty hyperlink, this section must be accessed in the following way:

• Dinner and Dance - Iceberg>Iceberg Dead Ahead


• Go to the Astern/Ahead navigation (top right hand corner) and click 'Astern'

As the winter of 1911 - 1912 had been very mild, icebergs breaking away from the Arctic glaciers had drifted south towards the busy Atlantic shipping lanes. The Titanic's radio officers received several ice warnings, and two crew members were posted to 'keep a sharp look out for the ice'. Although it was a perfectly clear night, the Titanic passed through a patch of mist to face an iceberg straight ahead. Despite attempts to turn the ship, the Titanic scraped against the iceberg, tearing a 30 metre gash in her hull.


iceberg photo courtesy of Oskar Henriksson

Ice sounds
Ice makes an incredible variety of sounds. Coleridge's description in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is inspired by the accounts of early polar explorers.

The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around:
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled
Like noises in a swound

In The Wreck of the Titanic, David Bedford provides a group composition activity for ice based on some of these early accounts.

As large icebergs drift south and slowly melt, huge chunks of ice break off and fall into the sea, creating smaller icebergs. The sound is like a tremendous crack of thunder.
Sometimes, icebergs close together scrape against one other to make strange grinding sounds.

Melting icebergs make a fizzing sound as air bubbles trapped in the iceberg pop. Pieces keep breaking off as icebergs drift further south until they become very much smaller. These are called 'bergey bits'. Bergey bits less than a metre high are called 'growlers', and are not a danger to shipping.

Web Links

• Icebergs make sounds outside the range of human hearing. Teachers can find out about 'singing icebergs' at Andreas Bick's Silent Listening site (unfortunately, the movies will not be available for classroom use)


• Children will be interested in the ice musical instruments of Norwegian musician and sculptor Terje Isungset.


• The International Ice Patrol was set up after the Titanic enquiry to alert shipping in the North Atlantic. There is an excellent children's site detailing the life of icebergs.

Activities for the Classroom: Sound Log
A ship's log is an important record of everything that happens on a ship's voyage. It is filled in daily, and records the weather, the ship's course, distance covered each day, etc. It is a bit like the 'black box' of an aircraft.

Children could compose their own 'sound log' plotting the course of the Titanic from the time she reaches the edge of the ice field to the collision with the iceberg.

• As the Titanic reaches the edge of the ice fields, she meets with small and harmless pieces of ice. Think of words to describe the sounds they might make as the ship's bow wave disturbs them - high/ringing/ tinkling etc
• As the Titanic moves further into the ice field, she meets with very small icebergs called 'growlers'.
• The ship bumps against a 'growler', turning it over in the water. It rocks from side to side, making a ringing,'wavery' sound. Try filling a metal saucepan with a little water. Hold the handle, and tap the edge of the pan with a metal rod (e.g. triangle beater). Swill the water from side to side. What happens to he sound?
• Think of other ways to make this effect. Fill a washing up bowl with water. Strike a large triangle, and dip it in and out of the water while it is still vibrating. Can you say why the sound changes?
• Try other metal instruments like Indian bells and cymbals to suggest different sizes of 'growler' and 'bergey bits'.
• As the Titanic sails on, the ice sounds become more threatening. Create fizzing scraping, and distant, rumbling sounds as distant icebergs split, or rub against one another. You could record your sounds using free Audacity software, and add echo effects.
• As the Titanic passes through the mist, there is complete silence
• As the lookouts spot the iceberg, the ship's bell is rung three times to warn the officers on the bridge
• What sounds might the ship make as the engines are put into reverse?
• What sounds will be heard as the steel plates of Titanic's hull are torn open as the bow scrapes along the iceberg?

Using ICT

• Children could use Audacity to record their completed 'sound log'
• They could search the internet for ice sounds created using ICT. Although many sites are commercial, children could explore the sounds online to get ideas for creating their own sounds with Audacity. Try http://www.soundsnap.com/tags/ice
• David Bedford's Iceberg composition activity considers how the impact of the iceberg was perceived in different parts of the ship. Visit David Ashworth's Titanic Soundtracks resource at www.thewreckofthetitanic.com for ways of interpreting this using Audacity.

The Titanic provides opportunities to find out about toys played with by Victorian and Edwardian children.

Like Victorian children, young Edwardians liked playing with toy animals, dolls, puzzles, board games, tinplate and clockwork toys, including trains and model boats. Cheaper toys produced in Germany became available to more children during this time.

Titanic survivor Edith Russell carried a toy pig-cum-clockwork music box on lifeboat 11. The pig played a tune called the Maxixe. Edith entertained children in her lifeboat with this until rescued by the Carpathia. The story is told in Gary Crew's Pig on the Titanic! Harper Collins (2005)

The Teddy Bear was introduced during the Edwardian era, taking its name from President Edward 'Teddy Roosevelt'. The Steiff toy company produced very expensive, high quality jointed bears, including Polar Bears. Daisy Spedding's Polar the Titanic Bear (1913), written for her son, tells the Titanic story from the toy bear's perspective (See A Trunk full of Souvenirs). In May 1912, Steiff produced a limited edition of 600 black 'mourning bears' to mark the Titanic tragedy.

Titanic survivor, Marjorie Collyer, described how she was woken up by her mother and made to board a lifeboat, leaving both her father and her doll behind. One of the sadder finds during undersea exploration of the Titanic was a porcelain doll's head. Could this be all that remains of Marjorie's favourite Christmas present?

In Southampton a doll was given to Amy Wiltshire, the youngest child who had lost her father in the Titanic tragedy

The development of shipbuilding technology during the late Victorian era meant it was possible to build bigger and more powerful ships, capable of making quicker and smoother journeys, and providing more spacious and luxurious passenger accommodation,

In an 1899 edition of Scientific American, an artist imagines how White Star's ground breaking new ship, the Oceanic, might look if set down in New York's Broadway! Eye-catching comparisons like these provided effective advertising for competing shipping lines, and Cunard produced a twenty four-page booklet, Cunard Comparisons, comparing the dimensions of their liners to a wide range of well-known landmarks. .

At 882.5 ft long, Titanic and Olympic were described as the largest man-made moving structures ever built. Said to be as tall as an eleven-storey building, and each one-sixth of a mile long, they drew the following comparisons:

Washington monument: 555ft
Metropolitan Tower, New York: 700 ft
New Woolworth Building, New York: 750 ft
Cologne Cathedral, Germany: 516 ft
Grand Pyramid, Egypt: 451 ft
St Peter's, Rome: 448 ft

Gigantic size implied invulnerability, making the tragedy of the Titanic seem all the more unbelievable. Newspaper accounts of the disaster emphasised this by including further comparisons of the great liner's dimensions. Following the sinking of the Titanic, the April 20 edition of the Daily Sphere newspaper featured an artist's impression comparing the size of the Iceberg compared to the Titanic.

The dimensions of the Titanic have even been compared with those of Noah's Ark!

Activities for the Classroom
The dimensions of the Titanic provide a great starting point for numerous mathematical investigations.

These could include local comparisons.

In a letter to the Carlisle Journal, chemist Henry Sawyer said:
"I do not wish to write of the deplorable loss of the Titanic or of the men who died such heroes but I thought it might be interesting to some if I mentioned the following facts."

He then gave some local comparisons. The number lost he said would equal the Drill Hall packed to the doors; the length of the Titanic would be from the Steel Monument to Court Square and the length of the bridge of the vessel (92.5 feet) equal to Wetheral Viaduct.''

• Find out the height and length of London's Tower Bridge and compare with the Titanic
• Compare the length of Titanic with Cunard's Lusitania and Brunel's Great Eastern
• Compare the dimensions of the Titanic with modern liners like Cunard's Queen Elizabeth (2010) and Queen Mary 2 (2004)
• Approximately how many football fields are equal to the length of the Titanic?
• Compare the length of Titanic with the heights of the following:
  Post Office Tower, London
  Empire State Building, New York
  Eiffel tower
  21st Century Tower, Dubai

The quality of food served on board transatlantic ships was an important draw for passengers. For early Victorian steerage passengers, food was inedible or non-existent, and even first class passengers like Charles Dickens complained about food that was tasteless or mouldy.

By the end of the Victorian era, accommodation and catering had greatly improved on board transatlantic liners. White Star's Oceanic, Adriatic and Baltic all boasted smart first- and second-class dining saloons, along with good wholesome food for steerage passengers. New ships built for the Hamburg-Amerika line also included exclusive 'Ritz' restaurants aimed at the seriously wealthy, matching the quality of the very finest restaurants in London, Paris and New York.

First Class Dining Saloon, RMS Oceanic

Dinner and Dance-Iceberg! >Dining on the Titanic

With the new White Star liners Olympic and Titanic, White Star once again raised the bar for the competition. Ritz restaurants and French style cafés joined first, second and third class dining saloons, and White Star's president, Bruce Ismay influenced significant improvements in catering for, and in the diet of, steerage passengers.

Activities for the Classroom

Children might research:

• Food and conditions on board ship for steerage passengers in the early nineteenth century


• How perishable foods can be preserved without refrigeration.


• What difference did the introduction of steamships make to food and conditions on board ship?


• What improvements did refrigeration make?


• How healthy was the Late Victorian/Edwardian diet?

During the days of sail, crew and passengers suffered from various ailments ranging from scurvy to food poisoning, as food made to last many weeks lost its freshness and began to decay. Drying, pickling and salting were traditional ways of preserving food, and lemon and lime juice were introduced by the Navy to prevent scurvy. Perishable foods were also packed in ice.

Children could explore ways of keeping food cool without refrigeration. During the nineteenth century, transporting fresh water ice by sea from New England to Europe, and even India, became a profitable business. Children could explore methods of insulating and stacking ice so it melts less quickly

Because steamships greatly reduced the Atlantic crossing time, food did not have to last as long. Along with the introduction of refrigeration, this made a marked difference to the diets and choices offered to passengers. Olympic and Titanic had separate refrigerators for meat, fish, fruit, eggs, vegetables and dairy products, along with separate cold storage for wine, etc.

First, second and third class menus are preserved from the Titanic. These provide fascinating opportunities for children to discover what people ate during the Titanic era.

Opportunities for discussion

• Are vegetarian choices available? Why do you think this is?

First Class Menu

Dinner and Dance-The Iceberg! >First Class
Dinner and Dance-The Iceberg! >First Class Menu

Eleven separate courses were served, including dessert. The menu offered one thick soup and a clear soup, and one fish course. The fifth course was called the remove and was a roast course. This is the course children are most likely to recognise

Activities for the Classroom

Look at the first class menu.

• From the menu choose: a) a soup b) a fish course c) a sweet

• What language are the following foods written in? a) Hors d'Oevre b) Consommé c) Vinaigrette d) Ėclairs

• The meal began with hors d'oevres followed by oysters. Oysters were measured in quarts (two pints = one quart). The Titanic had 1221 quarts of oysters on board. Find out how many first class passengers were on board the Titanic, and calculate the quantity of oysters per passenger.

• Find out what a Squab is

• There are eleven course altogether. Smartly dressed waiters served each guest lots of different courses from big silver plates called platters. Do you think guests a) ate everything? b) ate just a little of everything? c) missed out some courses?

• Choose two courses you would like to eat

Second Class Menu

Dinner and Dance-The Iceberg! >Second Class

Food served in the second-class dining saloon of the Titanic and Olympic was as good if not better than first class on other transatlantic ships.

The meal begins with a savoury consommé with tapioca floating in it. If this seems strange to us, think what Edwardians might have thought of clear soup with noodles! The second-class menu might be more familiar to children as it is more like one found in a modern restaurant.
American ice cream is served instead of French ice cream. French ice cream is richer, as egg yolks are added.

Activities for the Classroom
Look at the Second Class Menu

• Choose one main dish and one dessert
• If you were having Christmas dinner, what main course and sweet might you choose from this menu?
• In the first class menu, French ice cream is served. In the second-class menu, American ice cream. Find out the difference.

Third Class Menu

Dinner and Dance-The Iceberg! >Third Class
Dinner and Dance-The Iceberg! >Third Class Menu

The third class meals for the day appeared on one menu card. Second and third class menus were postcard size, and the backs were divided with spaces for stamp, address and a short message. This was good advertising for the White Star Line.

Third class fare included cabin biscuits. These were rather like modern crackers, and were said to help with seasickness.

Activities for the Classroom
Look at the Third Class Menu

• Create menu postcards telling relatives about the food on board Titanic
• Choose three things from the breakfast menu you might like to eat
• Choose two things that seem strange to eat for breakfast
• Find out what cabin biscuits are
• What sweet also appears on the second-class menu?
• What are the healthy options on the third-class menu?
• Look again at the 1st, 2nd and 3rd class menus. Which menu do you think is the least healthy?

Activities for the Classroom

Dinner on the Titanic
Every year on April 14, people remember the Titanic tragedy by preparing and sitting down to a meal based on the final dinner prepared on the ship. Children could recreate some elements of this in the classroom

a) Who will you invite? Send out handwritten invitations to your guests
b) What do you expect your guests to wear?
c) Decide what will be on the menu. How many courses will be served?
d) Make menu cards and place cards. Don't forget to include the White Star flag!
e) How will you set the tables? Decorate the tables with fruit and flowers
f) A bugler played as a signal for passengers to get ready for dinner Dinner and Dance>Roast Beef. What music will you play?
g) Will musicians play during the meal? Make a playlist for the musicians

Introduction
CD Rom>Maiden Voyage>Jack (Third Class Passenger)

Many steerage passengers on the Titanic were emigrants like Jack, hoping to find work and better lives in the USA and Canada. Once they had arrived at New York, they expected to be questioned and 'processed' by officials at Ellis Island before being sent on their way. Unfortunately, hundreds of emigrants bound for New York on the Titanic were to meet a very different end to their journey.

What was the purpose of Ellis Island?

The registration station on Ellis Island was built in 1892. Between 1892 and 1954 (when the registration station closed), over 20 million people were processed on their way to a new life in the United States of America. In 1907 11,747 new arrivals were processed at Ellis Island on just one day.

At first, the majority of immigrants came from Germany, Ireland, Britain, Scandinavia. Gradually, more and more Jews escaped from persecution in Russia and Eastern Europe and increasing numbers of Italians emigrated to escape poverty at home. Other new arrivals came from countries such as Greece, Armenia, Turkey, Syria, Africa and The West Indies. Many immigrants spoke little or no English. Some of the new arrivals were not able to read and write in any language (5% of all the emigrants from Britain were not literate). Although some of the immigration officers could speak a range of languages, many immigrants could neither understand what was spoken to them, nor read the signs posted around the station.

What happened to the new arrivals?

Around one third of all the newly arrived immigrants set up home in New York City. The rest travelled elsewhere throughout America. Immigrants of all races and nationalities lived packed together in poor tenement houses in area such as Lower Manhatten. Look at the Lower Eastside Tenement Museum to see some of the tenants who lived at 97, Orchard Street between the years of 1870 and 1915 and to learn about where they came from, what they did to earn a living, what they ate and their health problems.

http://www.wnet.org/tenement/logcabin.html

How did Ellis Island Change in the 20th Century?

After 1914 and the outbreak of the first world war America was less welcoming to immigrants from all over the world. Between 1914 -18 the station became a detention centre. During the 1920s, fewer and fewer immigrants were allowed to set up home in the United States. Immigrants were assessed in their home countries and Ellis Island became a place of detention for immigrants being sent back to their home countries.

Why did people leave their countries to begin a new life in the United States?

People moved to the United States from all over the world for many different reasons. Sometimes hunger and poverty made them leave home and try to find a better life across the sea. In 1845 the potato harvest failed in Ireland and many Irish people were starving, one and a half million Irish people left Ireland to begin again in new countries at this time. Many Italians left home after the vineyards and olive groves began to fail.

Some had to leave their homes as they were not free to follow their religion; many Jewish people came to America for this reason. Others came to find a better life. There were many new jobs in America, and as the railroads spread, new towns grew up
Railway and shipping agents advertised the new country very cleverly promising land and work and new chances. Look at the White Star Line posters enticing Europeans to begin new lives in Canada and America.

http://www.russborough.com/antique_prints/posters/canada_immigration_posters.html

Many industrialised cities in Europe were becoming overcrowded and emigrants were very excited by the make money and have land and space. The United States of America seemed to many travellers to be a land of freedom and opportunity.

What were early immigrant ships like?

CD Rom>Maiden Voyage>Jack: Third Class Passenger

Conditions in steerage were often very bad. Many travellers must have believed the adverts from the shipping companies promising 'a six day trip on a fine ship including a plentiful supply of food'. Some travellers packed their own food and tried to make it last. Often the sea was rough, the voyage was slow and the food became worse and worse as the journey went on.

Below deck conditions were very crowded; often hundreds of people were in spaces only six or eight feet high. Men, women and children were separated by blankets hanging down the centre of the room. Many people were seasick, and it was difficult for passengers to wash. Steerage accommodation was smelly, noisy and overcrowded. On calm days, children could play on the deck and adults could get some fresh air; but in bad weather the hatch to the deck was locked to make sure that no one was washed overboard. It was often difficult to get fresh water in steerage and so in stormy weather people must have felt seasick, frightened, trapped and thirsty.

What difference did steamships make on journeys for immigrants?

CD Rom: Building the Titanic>Floating Hotels

Not everyone was allowed to stay. Some people were considered unsuitable or too poor to set up home. Between 1891and 1892, 2142 people were sent back to their home countries. If passengers were too poor to pay their fares, the steamship companies like the White Star line had to carry them free of charge.

Other new arrivals were detained for a while at Ellis Island. Women and children travelling alone were often not allowed to leave the island until a relative collected them. Other travellers who did not have enough money or were sick had to stay for a while. The steamship companies had to pay for their food each day. In 1904 each person was charged 5 cents for breakfast, 11 cents for lunch and 8 cents for dinner.

In 1904 a typical menu was: breakfast, coffee bread and butter, lunch, beef stew, potatoes and bread and pickled herrings for Jewish immigrants; dinner was baked beans, prunes, bread and tea.

Most people were not detained on Ellis Island; they left soon after they arrived. Immigration officers worked twelve hour days and staff could process twelve thousand immigrants a day.

The very first person to go through Ellis Island in 1892 was a young Irish girl, Annie Moore. She was 15 years old and had left Ireland to begin a new life with her two brothers in America.

Activities for the Classroom

Drama

• Imagine you are Annie. How did you feel as you walked into the huge new building?

First class and second-class passengers did not have to go through Ellis Island. They were interviewed briefly on board ship before they were taken to the pier to disembark. Steerage passengers had to wait on the steamship until they were told to get on to the barge or ferry that would take them to Ellis Island.

• Why were these passengers treated differently?

Look at this account from an immigrant. The questions below could support a hot seating activity.

The boat anchored at mid-bay and they tendered us off the ship to Ellis Island... We got off the boat... you got your bag in your hand and went right into the building. Ah, that day there must have been five to six thousand people. Jammed ... it was August hot as a pistol and I'm wearing my long Johns and my heavy Irish tweed suit.

• Where might this person have travelled from?
• What might he have felt on that hot August day?
• What sounds might he have heard?
• He only had one bag. What might he have packed for the start of his new life in America?

The immigrants had medical and mental tests. Then they were asked a series of questions very rapidly at times the interview often lasted only two minutes. These questions included:

1. What is your name?
2. What is your age?
3. Are you married?
4. What is your job?
5. How much do you earn?
6. Can you read? Can you write?
7. What is your nationality?
8. What city are you from?
9. Where are you going?
10. Who paid for your ticket?
11. How much money do you have?
12. Have you ever been to the U.S.A?

Although some immigration officers could speak different languages, many new arrivals must have been confused by the speed of the process and the strangeness of the language.

Music

• Create a vocal composition based on the questions addressed to immigrants at Ellis Island. Immigrants must have been confused and distressed when bombarded by questions they may not have fully understood. We can try to recreate this through rhythmic speech. Repetition and the creation of overlapping vocal parts as question after question is added are central to creating the intended effect. Some simplification and paraphrasing of questions is advisable to create interesting and secure rhythms. Not all questions need be included.

• Questions one and two could be combined to create a steady foundation for more complex rhythms

  
  Name? Age? (slowly)

  Question 6 might take the form of a 'call and response' performed by two groups

  Group 1: Can you read?
  Group 2: Can you write?
  

• Add more complex rhythms as children become increasingly confident: e.g

  Have you ever been to the USA?

• Add a percussive accompaniment to suggest officials stamping official papers accepting or rejecting immigrants.

This activity could be further developed by asking the questions in a range of languages

Drama

• Look at the images of disembarkation and processing on Ellis Island in Shaun Tan's The Arrival. This could be used as a stimulus for writing or the start of a drama. How does Tan convey the feeling of powerlessness in his images?

Immigrants were told to leave any luggage in the baggage hall as they were assessed. This must have been a frightening experience for many people, especially those who did not speak English. In many families the men husbands, fathers, older brothers went ahead to start a new life. They sent for their families later when they were settled. Luggage was very important, especially for these men, not only did it hold important items, but personal objects such as photographs and pictures, to help people to feel close to home.

Visual Literacy

• Look at the pictures at the start of The Arrival by Shaun Tan.
• Describe the scene as the father packs his case to set sail. (narrative writing)

Ellis Island is now a museum telling the story of the men women and children who passed through it on their way to a new life. One display shows the luggage of the steerage passengers. Many steerage passengers had to walk to the ports taking only what they could carry with them.

• If you could only take one small case to start a whole new life, what would you pack?

Detective work

• Present the children with cases with different objects reflecting a range of cultures. These could include texts in different languages, currency, photographs of places, etc.
• Work out the origin of the immigrant from the evidence.

Poetry based on the magic box

• Think about the hopes for the future that children setting sail to start a new life might have had. These could be written individually and collated and presented as a group list poem.

'In this case I put my wishes for the future .....'

Art

Sandra Ramov is a Cuban artist who takes old, often battered, suitcases and paints inside the hopes and dreams of those crossing the sea to start a new life. In some cases, the pictures are full of hope; in others the images represent the harsh reality of immigrant life.

Sometimes, she creates suitcases out of wood or other materials in various shapes, reflecting the hopes or experiences of the owner.

• Children could create their own suitcases from cardboard boxes, as a visual documentary charting the dreams and the nightmares of Titanic's steerage passengers.

'A Case History', John King's installation in Liverpool's Hope Street, also provides an imaginative starting point for children's own work

http://www.hilaryburrage.name/hilary_burrage/2008/03/liverpools-hope-street-suitcases-a-case-history.html

References
Allen, L. (1992) Ellis Island New York: Evelyn Hill Group

Kotker, N. et al (1989) Ellis Island: Echoes from a Nation's Past New York: Aperture Foundation

www.ellisisland.org

By 1912, SOS had replaced CQD as the international distress call. This was because SOS was easily and instantly recognisable in morse: 'dit dit dit, dah dah dah, dit dit dit'. Children can prove this to themselves by translating, and speaking CQD in code.

However, Marconi operators still continued to use CQD. When ships were slow to reply Titanic's CQD calls, Harold Bride joked to radio officer Jack Phillips, 'Send SOS; it's the new call, and this may be your last chance to send it!

Activities for the Classroom

Try making long and short sounds on chime bars. It's easy to make long sounds, but to make short sounds you will need to use your thumb to stop the bar vibrating.

• Practise making long and short sounds on your chime bar


• Now try to play the SOS call on your chime bar.


• Can you repeat it several times without stopping?

• Try to send the message smoothly from one player to another.


• Listen to the effect of the SOS rhythm played on the different notes.


• Experiment with rearranging the notes in different orders

• Experiment with different ways of joining in


• the last player could drop out, others following one by one until only the distressed ship is left sounding the emergency signal.


• One person could act as conductor to tell each player when to start and stop


• What happens when each player plays at different speeds so the SOS signals get jumbled up?

The dot and dash representing letter A is spoken as 'dit dah'.

• Encourage children to vocalise other letters of the alphabet
• Once they are confident with this, get them to string together groups of letters to make three - or four-letter words.

Numbers are also represented in morse code. Here are numbers one to five. Can children think why numbers are important? (recording ship's position, speed, etc).

• Can children make up simple morse messages including words and numbers? 0 dah-dah-dah-dah-dah
  1 dit-dah-dah-dah-dah
  2 dit-dit-dah-dah-dah
  3 dit-dit-dit-dah-dah
  4 dit-dit-dit-dit-dah
  5 dit-dit-dit-dit-dit
  

Adele is travelling back to New York after holidaying in Europe. She has visited Paris and other European cities, and has been seen in the most fashionable resorts.

Adele is typical of the set of super rich Americans that the White Star and Cunard lines were keen to attract. They demanded the very best, and were prepared to pay huge sums of money for it.

The super rich included wealthy bankers and business people, all anxious to meet up and network. To facilitate this, White Star and Cunard published passenger lists, which were distributed to all first class passengers.

American heiress Daisy Spedding was typical of this exclusive Edwardian set. Along with her husband, Frederic, and six-year old son, Douglas, she travelled extensively on luxurious ocean liners, visiting the most fashionable resorts in the Caribbean, Africa, Panama and Europe.

In 1913, Daisy wrote Polar the Titanic Bear for Douglas. The previous year, the family had sailed on the Titanic, and survived the disaster. The narrator is Douglas's favourite toy, a Steiff polar bear, and the story is told with the aid of photographs and postcards of the places the family visited on holiday.

Although the Titanic figures prominently in the story, perhaps the most interesting aspect is the description of the carefree lifestyle of the very wealthy which was to end abruptly with the onset of the First World War.

Kaspar, Prince of Cats by Michael Morpurgo tells the story of Kaspar, an aristocratic cat, and Johnny Trott, the bellboy of the Savoy hotel. The pair meet up with Lizziebeth Stanton, a spirited young American heiress staying with her family at the Savoy, and after a series of adventures end up returning with them to the USA on the ill-fated Titanic.....

Activities for the Classroom

• Design a brochure to attract first class passengers to travel on the Titanic. Research the first class facilities on board Titanic. These included electric lifts, telephones, swimming pool, Turkish baths, etc.
• Find out about fashionable Edwardian resorts. These might include the seaside resorts of Deauville and Cannes
• Imagine you are a wealthy American tourist. Send postcards back home to friends and family. Perhaps younger children might send them from Polar the Bear?
• Edwardians made up scrapbooks as souvenirs of their holidays. Make up a scrapbook of your European holiday
• Crossing the Atlantic took between five and seven days. Keep a diary of your time on board ship.

The song reflects the popularity of the British seaside among working class people during Edwardian times.

In The Wreck of the Titanic, Beside the Seaside is played by the Titanic's orchestra as the ship hits the iceberg. In steerage, we imagine that the song is also being sung by aspiring music hall artiste, Miss Wendy Sharrock (Dinner and Dance>The Iceberg>Miss Wendy Sharrock Entertains>I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside).

The song could lead to work centring on the Edwardian seaside. An excellent focus is the outstanding resource Morecambe and Back . Developed by CLEO and the Morecambe Bay Community Primary School, the resource provides insights for the classroom into rare footage taken around Morecambe by moving picture pioneers Mitchell and Kenyon.

Film 246
'A Panoramic View of Morecambe Seafront'

Film 247
'Parade: West End Pier, Morecambe'

Film 251
'Panoramic View of Morecambe Sea Front (2)

Film 254
'The Seafront, Morecambe'

Introduction
After the Titanic hit the iceberg, Wallace Hartley and his band got together in the first-class lounge on 'A' deck. They played ragtime music to keep passengers calm as they boarded the lifeboats. Some people remember them playing the popular tune Alexander's Ragtime Band, and Scott Joplin's Elite Syncopations. Finally, the musicians played on the boat deck as the lifeboats were lowered.

The repertoire of the Titanic's band included Ragtime and Cakewalks, extremely popular both in Europe and the United States.

The Cakewalk was a funny and very popular Edwardian Ballroom dance, originally invented by African Americans. The French composer Debussy included a cakewalk in his piano music , and music played by the Titanic band included a 'Comic Cakewalk' by Volstred.

During the American Civil War, marching music by composers like Sousa became very popular, as it helped soldiers to keep in step. However, African pianists played popular march tunes with a looser, jazzier (syncopated) feel. People began to grumble that it was impossible to march to this ragged-sounding music, and the name 'ragtime' stuck.

Soon, this lively music became so popular that everyone wanted to dance to it. Dances with strange names, like 'Turkey trot' and 'Grizzly Bear' were performed to Ragtime tunes all across the USA

The White Star Song Book included several arrangements of ragtime pieces by Scott Joplin and others

Listen to some of his best-known piano rags at Warren Trachtman's ragtime site.

Activity 1

• Open the Wreck of the Titanic CD Rom
• Visit Dinner and Dance -The Iceberg> Ragtime
• Follow the hyperlink to open Compose World Junior. The following screen should appear:

• The pictures represent the titles of Scott Joplin piano rags (left to right: reflection rag, palm leaf rag, leaping rag, maple leaf rag, sugar cane rag, pineapple rag, magnetic rag, gladiolus rag, heliotrope rag). Children could listen to most of these at Warren Trachtman's Ragtime site (see above)
• Each picture links with musical phrase in ragtime style. Click on each picture to listen
• Drag and drop pictures onto squares in the grid to create melodies. Consider which phrases suggest beginnings/endings etc
• To increase/decrease the number of squares in the grid, go to: view>sequence/options
• Children might create their own ragtime compositions, exploring simple musical forms
• Encourage children to think of a name for their ragtime compositions. Can they design a cover for their music (see cover to Maple Leaf rag)
• Compose your own selection of ragtime tunes to be performed during dinner.

Bathtime Rag

Although many of the first class suites had their own baths, there were only two baths for all the third class passengers!

• Compose a 'bathtime' rag using another Compose World Junior ragtime file.


• Open Compose World Junior>File>Open>Melody>Bathtime


• Using the 'bathtime' file, compose a' Bathtime Rag' in Sonata form. You need to put together two sections of music.


• The first section (A) is repeated.


• This is followed by a different musical idea (B).


• Finally the piece finishes with the A music again. Here is an example based on the bathtime file

Children could go on to create their own dances influenced by ragtime and cakewalk.

Teachers can view dance styles of the Ragtime era