Alabama is somehow connected with Titanic. On this date in 1912, four days into her maiden voyage, the “unsinkable” passenger ship Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in sub-freezing waters two days shy of her destination in New York City. Among the 324 first-class passengers onboard was an Alabama native – Archibald Gracie IV. The Alabamian is a little-known hero of the sinking these 112 years later.
Archibald Gracie IV was born in Mobile, Alabama on January 17, 1859. In 1912, he was a native of Washington, DC, and New York City. He was a descendant of Archibald Gracie, a Scottish-born shipping magnate, and early American businessman and merchant in New York City and Virginia. Gracie Mansion was his elaborate home, which now serves as the mayor’s residence of New York City.
Gracie’s father, Archibald Gracie III, was a West Point graduate and a career U.S. Army officer before being commissioned as a Brigadier General in the Confederate Army during the period of the Civil War. On December 2, 1864, General Gracie was killed at the siege of Petersburg, Virginia, while observing Union Army movements. Respected by his troops, he was eulogized in the “Gracie of Alabama” poem by Francis O. Tickner.
He spent seven years writing a book, “The Truth About Chickamauga.” After publishing it in 1912, he felt he needed a rest in Europe. Leaving his wife and children home in Washington D.C., he spent some time touring several countries, deciding to be a part of history and return home on the maiden voyage aboard the then-largest ship in the world, Titanic. Little did he know what history that would be.
Gracie returned on the Titanic, boarding at Southampton, where he traveled as a first-class passenger.
The time was when gentlemen formally offered their help to “unprotected ladies” from the start of an ocean voyage. Once on board, Gracie offered his help to three sisters returning to America after attending a family funeral in England and traveling unaccompanied, including Mrs. E. D. Appleton, Mrs R. C. Cornell and Mrs John Murray Brown and their friend, Miss Edith Evans. Gracie knows the sisters very well. Gracie’s wife and the sisters were friends for a long time.
As Titanic rose and broke, Gracie ended up in the 27-degree water. He grabbed ahold of one of the upside-down lifeboats along with several other men. In his memoir, he recounts how, in the following hours, man after man succumbed to hypothermia and slipped into the water.
Second Officer Lightoller used his whistle to summon half-filled lifeboats to rescue them. Gracie, Lightoller, and the other crew were pulled into lifeboat No. 12, the last lifeboat to reach Carpathia.
Gracie described to the senator what happened after the ship had slipped below the frigid waters, “We were taken through the wreckage and away from the screams of the drowning people, and we were on the lookout then in every direction for lights and ships to come to our rescue, hallooing all the time “Boat ahoy,” or “Ship ahoy,” our spirits kept up all the time by what we thought were steamship lights and boat lights, but I think most of those lights we saw were the lights of the lifeboats of the Titanic.