Per Scriptum E. Wesley Reynolds
Soli Deo Gloria
A Formal Lecture and Reception
Afterward
Mr. Floyd Andrick, one of the most
gentlemanly Christians I have the pleasure to know is the chairman
for the Midland Historical Society and subsequently a native of
Midland (MI) all his life, a nationally renowned authority on the
Titanic, and someone who I may providentially with all sincerity call
a good friend. He knew fourteen Titanic survivors, and beginning in the
1980s, organized some of the last survivor reunions, uniting Titanic
passengers who had believed each-other dead for decades. No one can
help confiding in his gentle, soft-spoken disposition, making him the
natural person for being the last individual on earth to coordinate
the task of seeing the final curtain fall on an age of memories. All
of his close survivor friends are now dead, even his perhaps closest
friend Eva Hart. Being universally a man of his word, he decided to
follow through on his commitment to give commemorative lectures in
Midland on
April 12th and Bay City afterward, rather than accept
his invitation to the centennial commemorative cruise tracing the
path of the Titanic across the Atlantic. I first met Mr. Andrick this
past Christmas season, as we both led Bradley Home tours (click on my
Victorian sidebar picture), and soon discovered that he was a
Christian of the utmost moral character, a diligent businessman who
manages his own affairs and the affairs of the Historical Society
impeccably, and on the whole, someone inviting enough to make an
acquaintance. He has toured the world giving lectures on the Titanic,
was a personal friend to Dr. Robert Ballard, and introduced Dr.
Ballard's presentation to a survivor reunion just after Dr. Ballard's
all famous 1985 rediscovery expedition of the Titanic wreck.
This past Thursday’s lecture marked
the day of the Titanic's departure. Mr. Andrick's lecture was
extraordinary and extremely personal, as he based most of it off of
survivor memories. I will not here burden my readers with a
redelivering of his address, but if my readers desire certain
questions answered on any point of the Titanic, I shall attempt to
recall his answers and place them in the “comments” section of
this post. One point of interest may be necessary to recount, as I
rather harshly and too carelessly dismissed it in my last post (my
feeling of guilt being only protracted by my post's contrast to Mr.
Andrick's polite presentation): class. Mr. Andrick did argue that
class distinctions were made following the immediate disaster, and
that the officers did not bother to go down below to sufficiently
warn the 3rd class passengers of the wreck because of the
fear of panic and rushing the lifeboats. However, I do not for a
moment believe that Mr. Andrick would subscribe to the line of
historiography that uses such a decision to deconstruct the heroic
legacy of women and children first. This tale of tragedy and heroism
has inspired Mr. Andrick since the age of six, when his grandmother
who used to tell him notable stories from the past related the
particulars of how a ship left Ireland and smashed into an iceberg in
the middle of the Atlantic ocean, plunging a number of victims
equivalent to the then population of Midland into a watery grave. Mr.
Andrick has since added to his childlike curiosity an inexhaustible
knowledge of the dimensions, figures, and statistics surrounding the
Titanic disaster. He gave the entire lecture by memory. I would
rather have been no where else on the planet, for unless one meets
Dr. Ballard, Mr. Andrick remains in my estimation the
authority on the Titanic.
I
went to the lecture on Thursday evening in my celluloid winged
collar, three piece suit, watch-chains, Victorian watch, governor's
walking-stick, and top hat. I wished to commemorate it as formally
and authentically as possible within the constraints of my immediate
resources. We all were issued replica tickets aboard the Titanic with
authentic passenger names, and were advised to check the roster to
see if our passenger survived (above is a scan of my ticket). As is
apparent, my passenger was a man by the name of Mr. William
Alexander, and third class passenger, and a victim to the sea and ice
of that cold night one hundred years ago.
Titanic
Era Waltz: A Musical Evening
Yesterday
evening, I attended a gorgeous symphony at the Midland Center for the
Arts with the Midland
Symphony Orchestra. The theme was waltz music, and among the
selections, the orchestra played a waltz by Richard Strauss from
1911, one year prior to the Titanic disaster. As I listened to the
music, I could not help remembering the bravery of the Titanic bands,
feeling the power of Edwardian high culture, and lamenting the close
of an era that marked the greatest influence of the Western world in
the history of the earth. Ironically, another theme was modernity.
The program ran as follows:
Walton:
Scapino: A Comedy Overture
Walton:
Violin Concerto
Strauss:
Rosenkavalier Suite
Ravel:
La Valse
All
these composers have been considered modernists, but Strauss also
lived with enough connections to nineteenth century music to also be
classified as Romantic in my opinion. The Titanic stood in the
twilight of the old order of the West and the modern “additions
and alterations of latter days.” The selections represented
both “sides” of the Edwardian “coin.” One of the greatest
violinists of our day, Elissa Lee Koljonen performed the Violin
Concerto with an ability that perhaps surpassed my personal exposure
to violinists. Mischal Santora of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra
served as our guest conductor for the night, giving an authoritative
yet elegant luster to our already very talented local orchestra. His
delicate style did not compromise precession for art. His right hand
bent in elliptical concentric paths that set the orchestra in
excellent timing. Fluctuations in tempo during the waltz portion of
Strauss' Rosenkavalier accentuated the side-to-side motion of the
Waltz dance rhythm. Surely, some of the performers could not have
forgotten the profound shadow of history over last evening, and
played a final commemorative overture to “the dying before the
Gate!”
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