Thomas Ismay had begun the White Star Line, officially known as the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company Limited in 1867. The firm of Ismay, Imrie and Company, managed it and upon his death on 23rd November 1899 its control passed to 36 year old Bruce Ismay.
1st January 1900: Bruce Ismay decided to appoint Harold Arthur Sanderson as a partner. He was an old friend who had been the company’s general manager for the past five years. Under Bruce Ismay’s leadership, with Sanderson’s support and assistance, the White Star Line flourished.
Ismay also presided over White Star’s sale to the American-controlled International Mercantile Marine. In essence, White Star became an American-owned company on 1st January 1904. At Morgan’s request, J. Bruce Ismay assumed the chairmanship of International Mercantile Marine, which he effectively managed along with his own company’s operations.
With the company’s success after a few years, J. Bruce Ismay decided to retire as I.M.M. chairman, to devote more time to his own company and to personal pursuits. In autumn 1911, with an exchange of letters, Bruce Ismay and Harold Sanderson reached an understanding that Ismay was to retire at the end of 1912 and that Sanderson would head I.M.M.
A letter dated 26th February 1912 was sent to J. P. Morgan and Company at
After the sinking of Titanic, Ismay wished to remain chairman of White Star but the Americans blocked his wish. This may have been influenced by such stories as his cowards reported in so many American papers. It was not just confined to the American press, The German papers also had there said with the following article as reported in the American paper. NY World April 24, 1912
ISMAY EXECRATED BY A GERMAN PAPER
The British press however stood up to the pres and Ismay, which is evident by the following articles also reported in the American press.
PRESS DEFENDS ISMAY
London, April 23 - The British press, which severely criticizes its own Board of Trade and demands the most searching inquiry, declines to judge the case until the British inquiry is held, and displays strong feeling at the manner in which the American inquiry is being conducted and at what is regarded as the unfair treatment of J. Bruce Ismay.
“The Morning Post”, in an editorial protests against American and German papers branding Ismay as a coward, and declares that it was clearly his duty to live and help his company to retrieve the disaster by facing the music.
“The Daily Express” describes the Senatorial Inquiry as a parody of a judicial inquiry, which, it says, is rather calculated to swing public sympathy heavily to the side of Mr. Ismay and the White Star Company. “The Daily Express” contends that Mr. Ismay did nothing disgraceful, yet is attacked as though he played the pat of a shameful coward.
“The Daily News” says “we have no intention of prejudging the case or imitating the hasty, and often savage verdicts pronounced in the
NY Tribune April 23, 1912
MR. BRUCE ISMAY SENDS HOME A DEFENCE OF HIS ACTIONS
Mr. Bruce Ismay, who is in attendance at Washington with 28 officers and crew of the Titanic to answer the questions of the United States Senate Committee, has cabled a long statement to the Times, explaining his action in leaving the boat. Extracts are given above. Mr. Ismay complains that the American inquiry is not being fairly conducted.
MR. BRUCE ISMAY SENDS HOME A DEFENCE OF HIS ACTIONS
“I saw Captain Smith casually, as other passengers did. I was never in his room; I was never on the bridge until after the accident. I did not sit at his table in the saloon. I had not visited the engine room. It is absolutely and unqualifiedly false that I ever said that I wished the Titanic should make a speed record or should increase her daily runs.”
“I heard Captain Smith give the order to clear the boats. I helped in this work for nearly two hours as far as I can judge. I worked at the starboard boats, helping women and children into the boats and lowering them over the side. All the women that were on the deck were helped into the boat. They were all, I think third class passengers.
“As the boat was going over the side, Mr. Carter, a passenger, and myself got in. At that time there was not a woman on the boat deck, or any passenger of any class so far as we could see or hear. The boat had between 35 or 40 in it; it was afterwards discovered that there were four Chinamen concealed under the thwarts in the bottom of the boat.
“The boat would have accommodated certainly six or more passengers in addition if there had been any on the boat deck to go. Neither Mr. Carter nor myself would, for one moment, have thought of getting into the boat if there had been any women there to go in it. Nor should I have done so if I had thought that by remaining on the ship I could have been of the slightest further assistance.
Daily sketch of April 20
LONDON, April 22 - The Times editorially repeats its protest against the spirit it thinks is animating the United States Senate committee’s inquiry, adding “why, any man, even a managing director, after working hard to save others, should not at last enter a departing boat with many places unfilled and no one in sight to fill them is really more than we can understand and more, we suspect, than Mr. Ismay’s critics would have understood had they been in his place.”
The Morning Post says:
“All Englishmen will feel for the
“Frankly we will say that the English people find it somewhat difficult not to feel a little resentful at the way in which Englishmen are being treated by the American Senate. In particular we do not see why Mr. Ismay should be accused of cowardice and treated as if he were a criminal. All reports of his conduct show that he behaved throughout the disaster with courage and rectitude. Therefore, when American papers say he was a coward, and when the German papers say he has the brand of Cain upon his brow, it remains for the English papers to say that they will not judge Mr. Ismay or any man in anticipation of a fair trial and that for the present they see no reason to blame him.
NY World April24, 1912
MR. BRUCE ISMAY
CHEERED AT
HEARTFELT THANKS
FOR SYMPATHY IN THE TRIAL OF HIS LIFE
On his arrival at
Mr. Ismay, who was accompanied by his wife, greatly appreciated the reception given him, and raised his hat in acknowledgement. He was looking pale and haggard.
Through an official of the company, Mr. Ismay sent the following request -
“Mr. Bruce Ismay asks the gentlemen of the press to extend their courtesy to him by not pressing for any statement from him, first, because he is still suffering from the very great strain of the titanic disaster and subsequent events; again, because he gave before the American Commission a plain and unvarnished statement of facts which has been fully reported, and also because his evidence before the British Court of Inquiry should not be anticipated.
He would, however, like to take the opportunity of acknowledging with a full heart the large number of telepathic messages and letters from public concerns and business and private friends, conveying sympathy with him and confidence in him, which he very much appreciates in the greatest trial of his life.”
The surviving officers of the Titanic - Messrs. Lightoller, Lowe, Boxhall and Pitman - reached Liverpool by the same ship as Mr. Ismay - the
The fifth officer, Mr. Lowe, who told the American Court of Inquiry that he asked Mr. Ismay, while the boats were being lowered, not to let his anxiety to help hinder the men, attracted much attention from the crowd. It was Mr. Lowe to whom Senator Smith, the chairman of the inquiry, apologised for having made - through a misunderstanding - an unfounded suggestion.
Mr. Lowe was frank in his criticism of the newspapers on the other side.
DAILY SKETCH, 13 MAY 1912
As well as newspaper reports to the contrary that he was a coward survivor reports came to light as well.
LOCAL SURVIVOR DEFENDS ISMAY
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City Clerk Donnelly’s Cousin Sends Sympathetic Note to Official.
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NOT A COWARD, BUT BRAVE AND GALLANT
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“Ismay was unjustly criticised and abused for his actions regarding the Titanic wreck,” stated E. C. Taylor, one of the survivors of the steamship, yesterday, and who is spending a few days at the residence of his cousin, City Clerk E. R. Donnelly. Mr. Taylor, who with his wife, were saved in one of the small boats, is a big stockholder in a paper cup concern. He and his wife were on the deck of the Titanic a few moments after she struck the iceberg.
“We saw Mr. Ismay on the deck when he first came up. He looked as if he had just tumbled out of bed, but he was as careful and energetic on getting the people quietly into the boats as any of the ship officers.
Mr. Ismay did not leave the ship until the last of the collapsible boats was launched and then he got in because there were no other people there to go. He got in with a whole lot of women from the steerage, for their boat did not have enough men in it. I was surprised, after I saw his work on the night of the wreck, to see the way he was abused and criticized and I believed it was so unjust that I wrote Mr. Ismay a personal letter, telling him I thought it was entirely undeserved.
“I had known Mr. Ismay personally for some time and am confident he does not deserve the censure generally given him.” Mr. Taylor described some of the incidents of the wreck in a graphic manner.
“I have made eighteen trips across the ocean, but I never saw an iceberg until this trip,” said Mr. Taylor. “Even then I did not see the iceberg which the ship struck. It had floated by before I got on deck, but others, a few of the crew who were on deck, said it was fifty feet high and floated away in the darkness.
“When the sun arose the next morning I saw my first icebergs. It was the most beautiful sight I ever saw,” he said. “As far as the eye could reach it was one big white field, not glittering like ice, but soft and white as if it had been snowing the night before. In a radius of ten miles or so there were maybe a dozen icebergs, forty or fifty feet high and around the outer edge of the ice field were other bergs, but no one seemed to distinguish the one which hit the ship.
“There were thirty-six people in our boat and there was room for about ten more. We were ordered into it and set afloat. We put three of our passengers in one of the other boats, which had only about thirty people in it, later on when our boats were tied together. The sea was as smooth as glass and the sky was light and I never saw a more beautiful night in all of my trips.
“I saw one of the boats picked up by the Carpathia with only twelve people in it.
“We steamed around on the Carpathia in the ice field for several hours looking for survivors. The small boats and the ship picked up a few survivors, who had been floating in the water until daylight, but we did not see any people floating on the ice.
“While we were on the Carpathia we passed through a school of about a dozen whales and later on we passed a seal that was floating on a cake of ice. A little farther on we passed a big floe of ice on which there was a big white polar bear prowling around.
“We never expected any such demonstration when we got back to the pier,” said Mr. Taylor. “I never saw so much printed about any affair. A good many of the survivors were half-sick or dopey when we landed and hardly could talk about what they had been through.
“We were rushing along at a high rate of speed when the ship struck,” said Mr. Taylor, “but I don’t know just how fast. I do not believe there was any dinner party on the ship such as has been reported. I saw no indication of it on the part of the ship’s officers nor anything [sic] like it at any time during the trip.”
5 May 1912
AN ATLANTIC MAN FINDS EVIDENCE FAVORING ISMAY
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D. W. McMillan’s Sister, Titanic Survivor, Says He and Astor Helped Women
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DESCRIBES DEATH OF DOUGHTY CAPTAIN
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In a letter to his wife, D. W. McMillan, of Pleasantville, who visited New York last week to meet the Carpathia when it docked, in the hopes of securing some tidings of his sister, Mrs. Edward S. Robert, widow of former Judge Robert, of St. Louis, whom, accompanied by her daughter, Miss Georgette Madill, and her niece, Miss Elizabeth W. Allen, were saved, with other passengers, from the Titanic just before it sank, stated that his sister, who he met at the dock, related the story of the Titanic’s sinking, saying that she was in one of the last lifeboats launched, and that there was no disorder in the transferring of the passengers to the lifeboats.
She said that Captain Smith was on the bridge the whole time up to the sinking of the ship, and that after he sunk [sic] with the ship he raised to the surface of the water, and the boat in which she was failed to reach him before he sank again. She said that Mr. Ismay and Mr. Astor worked together in assisting the ladies and children into the lifeboats, and after all of the women and children around were placed in boats, Mr. Ismay got into the last one cast off.
The sister in the letter which Mr. McMillan stated his sister gave him, follows:
“My sister, Georgette and Miss Allen were taken off in one of the last boats with the fourth officer in charge, following his being commanded by Captain Smith to take charge of the boat. There was room for about two or three more persons in the boat and Captain Smith called for the boat to come back. The officer ordered the boat turned, but as they started back they saw the stern of the Titanic rising in the air, and didn’t dare to go near for fear it was going to sink. Shortly afterward the boat went down before them and they say the shrieks of the steerage passengers were awful and heart rending. Captain Smith went down with the ship and came up again, but sank before they could reach him with the boat. She told me that Mr. Ismay and Mr. Astor were helping the passengers to get into the lifeboats until the last boat, and when no more women and children were around Mr. Ismay got into the [back?] of one. Shortly following that young Thayer jumped into the water. There was no disorder during the whole thing.”
The letter did not state whether the boat Mrs. Robert was in was the one that reached little Jack Thayer, nor did it say whether they knew further about Mr. Astor.
Mrs. McMillan expects Mr. McMillan back tomorrow.
Miss Allen, who was in Mrs. Robert’s company at the time of the wreck, is to marry Dr. Mendell, a
23 April 1912
But newspaper articles were not the only things to originate at the time. Among with poems of remorse there was the other side to this as the following shows: This poem was by a
The Captain stood where a captain should
For the law of the sea is grim
The owner romped ere his ship was swamped
And no law bothered him
The Captain stood where the captain should
But the owner led when the women fled
For an owner must not drown
The Captain sank as a man of rank
While his owner turned away.
The Captain’s grave was his bridge,
And brave He earned his seaman’s pay
To hold your place in the ghastly face of death
On the sea at night is a seaman’s job,
But to flee with the mob is an owner’s noble right.
It was also reported that JB Ismay became a recluse and hated by all. This was also untrue, as although he resigned from the American White Star However, he did remain a member of I.M.M.’s British committee until he resigned from this post in 1916. After leaving I.M.M. and White Star, Ismay continued as an active board member with numerous companies, particularly the London & North Western Railway. When that firm became part of the
Following World War 1 he sold Sandheys, his country home near
Although Bruce Ismay did not have an active role in his business, he did not become a recluse. His
When his 3 children - Margaret, Tom and Evelyn - married, Ismay spent some time with his grandchildren. A mysterious fire burnt the Lodge at Costelloe and Bruce took an active interest in re-building and re-decorating the premises.
In 1934 Bruce Ismay retired from active business life. The shipping company his father had founded, and whose fortunes he, himself, had helped to ensure, had merged with its great rival, the Cunard Line.
Late in 1936, a circulatory illness forced the amputation of Bruce Ismay’s right leg. He was confined to a wheelchair, and could only walk with the aid of crutches. He was still able to spend the summer of 1937 at a house in the country, returning to his
On 14th October 1937, Bruce Ismay suffered a severe stroke and died three days later on the 17th October 1937. His cause of death was reported on his death certificate as 1(a) Cerebral Thrombosis (b) Endoarteritis.
The following is JB Ismay’s obituary in the Times of New York. It would appear the press by this time had done a full circle with him and now where praising him not maligning him.
J. BRUCE ISMAY, 74, TITANIC SURVIVOR
Ex-Head of White Star Line Who Retired After Sea Tragedy Dies in
Joseph Bruce Ismay, former chairman of the White Star Line and a survivor of the Titanic disaster in 1912, died here last night. He was 74 years old.
Mr. Ismay was a passenger on the White Star’s great new liner when she set out for
A commission of inquiry, investigating the disaster, found there was no foundation to assertions that third-class passengers had been unfairly treated when the lifeboats were filled. The commission’s report stated Mr. Ismay was aboard the liner as an ordinary passenger and that he had no control over actions of the crew. The report described how he had helped many women, and children into the boats, remaining aboard the stricken vessel until no woman or children were visible on deck. Several women testified he had helped them.
However, Mr. Ismay, who had been one of the outstanding, figures in the shipping world, resigned as chairman of the White Star Line the year after the Titanic sinking. He retained a few directorships in shipping companies, but lived thereafter in semi-retirement except for a short period during the World War, when he was chairman of the War Risks Board.
He is survived by his widow, who was Miss Julia Florence Schieffelin of
Mr. Ismay was born in
He donated $50,000 to the pension fund for widows of seamen on the Titanic shortly after the disaster, and in 1924 inaugurated the National Mercantile Marine fund with a gift of $125,000.
Mr. Ismay died without making any further public statement on the Titanic or his conduct than that which he told the Senate committee and Lord Mersey’s Board of Trade investigations.
19 October 1937, page 25, column 2
His wife
MRS. J. BRUCE ISMAY
Mrs. Florence Ismay, widow of J. Bruce Ismay, the chairman of the White Star Line at the time of the Titanic disaster in 1912, died at her home today. Her age was 96.
Mrs. Ismay’s husband, who survived the disaster, helped get women and children away from the ship for nearly two hours, escaping in the last lifeboat. He was later criticized for the leaving the Titanic at all, but was exonerated at both the American and British inquiries.
19 October 1937, page 25, column 2
