10. 1912 (The Writer Appears)

During 1912 F.A.I. was at sea from February until New Year 1913. It would seem he did more or less back to back sailings.

This was the year of the sinking of the Titanic on 14th April on her maiden voyage to New York. F.A.I. had returned from New York on the 3rd April on the Franconia and spent the rest of April on land (it would seem) before sailing out again across the Atlantic to Boston.

Can you imagine what it would have been like at that time with such an event having just taken place? I wonder if he lost his nerve for a while or maybe sailings were curtailed?

Also that year he sailed on the Lusitania and the Carpathia. I heard tales as a child that granddad had been on the Carpathia at the time of the sinking of the Titanic (probably not true… unless we have a missing entry from his discharge book). Recently I heard another tale that he missed the sailing from New York on the Lusitania on the very day it was torpedoed on 7th May 1915. Again there are no entries in his discharge book for 1915 and feel this is another fanciful tale of my dear Granny. (Lucky for me anyway as I may not have been here to write about him).

So the entries for 1912 will be many, mostly containing his poems and snippets about the ships on which he sailed. A lot of the works are not dated, the early ones I have taken as 1912 and later ones where his writing has changed and is similar to dated pieces I have taken them as being of that year.

The Book