Tile Films : ‘SAVING THE TITANIC’
The Tile Films film ‘Saving the Titanic’ (website here) will have its UK premiere showing on the UK History Channel at 18.00 on the eve of the centenary, the 14th of April ’12. Programme schedule as below:
Gripping drama-doc revealing the unsung heroism of the Titanic’s boilermen and engineers. Below deck, they gave their lives to power the sinking ship as its passengers struggled to safety. …”
St Faith’s Church, Waterloo, Merseyside, will hold their regular Sunday morning Solemn Eucharist at 11.00 a.m. on April 15th. This will include an Act of Remembrance for the 100 years anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.
The choir will sing an anthem by the Acting Director of Music, Mr Daniel Rathbone, entitled “They that go down to the sea in ships”, in memory of Joseph Bell, Chief Engineer of the Titanic.
Joseph and his wife Maud attended St Faith’s, and a plaque is to be seen in the church placed there by his wife in his memory.
Take a look at the selection of photos here they are a good selection:
I have just added a family biography written by Ann Freer the present occupier of the Bell family home in Farlam. The biography can be found here.
A memorial service will be held at St Thomas a Becket Church, Farlam, CA8 1JR, on April 15th 2012, at 2.00 p.m.
Musical accompaniment by the Brampton & District Silver Band, playing hymns & music performed by the titanic musicians.
An exhibition of titantic artifacts will be on show in the church. Tea will be provided after the service and the Joseph Bell memorial gravestone can be visited in the cemetery.
A film about the Titanic’s doomed voyage will be a memorial to the bravery of one of Cumbria’s unsung heroes and those who died alongside him.
Legend has it that he and others refused to desert their posts as they battled to keep the stricken vessel afloat and to maintain power right up to the last minute. Saving the Titanic is the first feature-length HD drama documentary to focus on the work of the men below deck.
Irish filmmaker Keith Farrell, its creator and co-producer, said: “I hope it will reawaken people’s interest in Joseph Bell because he really is the hero of this story.
Full story at the Cumberland News here: http://bit.ly/ysVKCL
Full details of the new film here: http://tilefilms.ie/productions/saving-the-titanic/
JOSEPH BELL CHIEF ENGINEER R.M.S. TITANIC
Many people in the northwest of England and nationally, will on April 15th the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, wonder why Carlisle County Council has failed to honour in any public way over the last 100 years the Cumberland born heroic Chief Engineer of the Titanic, Joseph Bell, born 1861 in Farlam, nr Brampton. In the early 1870’s Joseph and his family moved to Stanwix, Carlisle where he continued his education.
Recognizing and distinguishing this Cumbrian hero in this centenary year in a more permanent way is long overdue in Carlisle. Cumbria County Council have an opportunity in spite of any other priorities, to express their respect and honour on behalf of us all in the County of his birth, Cumbria.
Joseph Bell and his engineers stayed at their posts in the engine room till the ship sank into the ocean, and as a consequence of their collective courage and self-sacrifice saved many hundreds of lives. Their heroic action in sustaining the functioning of electrical power, keeping the lights burning, and wireless going enabled the life- boats to function too.
This unsung engineer Joseph Bell and his fellow engineers have memorials to them in Southampton, and at the Pier Head in Liverpool, but why is he so shamefully neglected in Cumbria’s Carlisle? Please let Cumbria put matters to right in this centenary year and honour him in his own land.
Barrie Bell Hodgson, bandjhodgson@gmail.com
“The orchestra had decamped to the deck outside. And in spite of the cold the cellist wore no gloves and I marveled that he managed to hold his bow so steady on the strings. There was terrible confusion below, the passageways jammed with people, their possessions stowed in pillowcases slung across their shoulders. In the public lounge an untidy circle of men and women surrounded a priest reciting the rosary
Coming to a bend in the passage near the dormitories, we had to flatten ourselves against the tiled wall as a dozen or more stokers, faces black with grease and some carrying shovels, swept headlong past. I couldn’t help contrasting their subterranean hell with the Eden above, where, under the twinkling stars, they paced to the swoon of violins.
I was told that once on the boat deck to climb the companionway up to the officers’ house which was forward of the first funnel. There were seamen on the roof, struggling to release the collapsible. I could hear the orchestra which was playing rag-time to raise our spirits then the orchestra changed tune and struck up a hymn, it was a favourite … E’en though it be a cross that raiseth me, Still all my song shall be, Nearer my God to Thee, Nearer to Thee.
And now, the moment was almost upon us. The stern began to lift from the water. The hymn turned ragged; ceased altogether. The musicians scrambled upwards, the spike of the cello scraping the deck. Clinging to the rung of the ladder I tried to climb to the roof but there was such a sideways slant that I waved like a flag on a pole. I thought I must make a leap for it. The water, first slithering, then tumbling, over us.
The ship staggered and tipped, a great volume of water flowed over the submerged bows and tossed me like a cork to the roof. My fingers touched some kind of bolt near the ventilation grille, and I grabbed it tight. I filled my lungs with air and fixed my eyes on the blurred horizon, determined to hang on until I was sure I could float free rather than be swilled back and forth in a maelstrom. I wouldn’t waste my strength in swimming, not yet, for I knew the ship was now my enemy and if I wasn’t vigilant would drag me with her to the grave.
I waited for the next slithering dip and when it came and the waves rushed in and swept me higher, I released my grip and let myself be carried away, over the tangle of ropes and wires and davits, clear of the rails and out into the darkness. I heard the angry roaring of the dying ship, the deafening cacophony as she stood on end and all her guts tore loose. I choked on soot and cringed beneath the sparks dancing like fire-flies as the forward funnel broke and smashed the sea in two. I was sucked under, as I knew I would be, down, down, and still I waited, waited until the pull slackened – then I struck out with all my strength.
I don’t know how long I swam under that lidded sea – time had stopped with my breath – and just as it seemed as if my lungs would burst the blackness paled and I kicked to the surface. I had thought I was entering paradise, for I was alive and about to breathe again”
This image of Beryl Bainbridge, was taken for The Observer article on the publication of her new title ‘Everyman for Himself’ in 1996, of which the extract above refers.
Joseph Bell, Chief Engineer on the R.M.S. Titanic 