Book Review of And The Band Played On

We all know the tale, or do we?  As the news about the Titanic sinking starting to permeate through First Class, the band continued to play their music. 

At first, it was mainly to entertain or provide some background normality in an unusual situation. Then, as it finally became clear that this wasn't a drill, nor some sick joke, they played to maintain calm amidst the chaos.

The official inquiries later credited them with saving lives, as they staved off panic amongst the passengers.

Those seven men continued to play until they couldn't be heard over the death rattles of the Titanic breaking up, as a prelude to disappearing beneath the waves. There was never any hope of them being saved and, by then, it was every person for themselves.  None of the band survived.

One of them was John Law Hume, a 21 year old Scottish violin player, who was known to his friends as Jock. He had gone to sea to escape an abusive father.  During his shore leave, he didn't go home to him, but to his hand-fast fiancee, Mary Costin.

She was carrying his baby when he died that night. This is mostly her story.

(Apologies that it looks like it was filmed on a potato. If anyone finds a better version, please let me know.)

Jock's father didn't like Mary Costin. His step-mother called her a 'slut' on the doorstep. But then Andrew and Alice Hume didn't like a lot of people, their own children included.

Jock didn't care what his parents thought. He had moved out of their home months before to live with Mary and her mother.

In Scottish law and tradition, this was a hand-fasting. It meant that any children forthcoming during the next year should be considered legitimate, as long as the couple then married.

His voyage on Titanic would have earned him enough to pay for the wedding ceremony. It was planned for when he returned home from the Atlantic crossing. It would have happened anyway, but the news of the baby hurried things up. Both Mary and Jock were ecstatic at the idea of starting a family.

He must have been thinking of her, as he battled to stay alive in the freezing ocean. She wasn't even listed as his next of kin.

Unmarried and pregnant, in Edwardian Scotland, Mary had an up-hill struggle on her hands. It would take several court cases to even entitle her daughter to assistance from the Titanic Charity Fund. She did the absolute best that she could in the circumstances.

Most stories about Titanic's victims and survivors concentrate on the rich and titled. This biography is something different. It tells, in well-researched depth, the experiences of two working class families in the aftermath of the disaster.

Some of the details are absolutely shocking. For example, I already knew that the crew were all fired from their jobs at the instant that Titanic sank.  But I hadn't grasped what that meant. The reality was that their wages stopped at that moment too. White Star Line paid their next of kin what was owed until April 15th, 2.20am, and no more.

But that also included stoppages.  Jock Hume had been liable for his own uniform, as well as the White Star insignia and buttons. The costs would have been deducted from his pay, before it was given to him.  By the time that the ship sank, he hadn't earned enough to cover what he was wearing. His family received an invoice for the out-standing amount.

That is just one of the jaw-dropping details that you will learn when reading And the Band Played On...

Jock and Mary were the author's grandparents. Christopher Ward's mother was the unborn child, whom Mary was carrying, on the night that the Titanic went down. It's therefore a genealogy which underpins this whole tale.

However, Ward is no amateur writer.  He has had a long career as a tabloid journalist, before turning his hand to writing his family history.

The result is more than readable. In part, it appears like a novel, penning thoughts and reactions which could only have been deduced. Though some of those must have come from the memories of the major players themselves.

The rest consists of cold, hard facts, compiled in such a way that they too become fascinating to devour. I have never, for example, read about the grisly task of the CS Mackay-Bennett in such detail. This was the boat deployed to the scene to recover the bodies of Titanic victims. They had not sank in death, but were kept buoyant by their life-jackets.

Ward used the ship's log, a crewman's diary, and archivist cuttings in Halifax, Canada, to piece together that journey in minute detail.  It was relevant.  One of the bodies recovered was that of his grandad, Jock Hume.

I found that I couldn't put this book down.  I even took it out with me to a shop, where I knew there would be a long queue. I had to be prompted by a fellow customer, when it was finally time for me to be served!

This is not your usual Titanic book.  The disaster itself is a catalyst and something which set off a whole chain of events. The consequences of that sinking went on and on.