The Dogs of the Titanic

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Titanic's Capt. Edward Smith with his dog which was not on the Titanic.

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Hello! I'm Mr. Ed

Blog Created: 9-8-2023

Credits:

Wikipedia // American Kennel Club // Belfast Telegraph

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Greetings ~

We've all heard the story of the disaster of the R.M.S. Titanic. The ship that went down in 1912 taking over 1,500 passengers and crew with her. But what many have not heard is the other casualties that lost their lives that fateful night.

On board the great ship were no less than 12-dogs, locked up in the ship's kennel far below decks. The report goes that a crewman or a passenger went down and opened the kennel and released the dogs. However, they wondered the decks looking for a way off the ship but never found it.

There were three dogs that survived the wreck, only because they were small enought to be carried onto lifeboats by their owners. These three dogs were small enough that they had been kept in staterooms instead of the kennel. There was also a reported story of another dog that helped save the lives of passengers in a stray lifeboat.

This blog tells the story of the Dogs of the Titanic.

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From Wikipeda

There were many animals aboard the Titanic during her disastrous maiden voyage, which ended with the ship sinking on 15 April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg.

They included dogs, cats, chickens, other birds and an unknown number of rats. Three of the twelve dogs on the Titanic survived; all other animals perished.

Inventory ~

The ship had her own official cat named Jenny, who was kept aboard the Titanic as a mascot and also worked to keep down the ship's population of rats and mice. Transferred over from the Titanic's sister ship Olympic, Jenny gave birth in the week before the Titanic sailed from Southampton. She normally lived in the galley, where the victualling staff fed her and her kittens on scraps from the kitchens. Stewardess Violet Jessop wrote that the cat "laid her family near Jim, the scullion, whose approval she always sought and who always gave her warm devotion".

A number of dogs were brought aboard by passengers as pets. Most were kept in kennels on the ship's F Deck, though some First Class passengers kept theirs in their cabins – probably without the knowledge of the crew or with the turning of a blind eye, as they were not supposed to do so. The ship's carpenter, John Hutchison, was responsible for the dogs' welfare. The kennel dogs were exercised daily on the poop deck by a steward or one of the bellboys. As for the lapdogs, the American painter Francis Davis Millet wrote disapprovingly in a letter sent from the Titanic's last stop, Queenstown in Ireland, "Looking over the [passenger] list I only find three or four people I know but there are ... a number of obnoxious, ostentatious American women, the scourge of any place they infest, and worse on shipboard than anywhere. Many of them carry tiny dogs, and lead husbands around like pet lambs". The dog owners had planned to hold a dog show aboard the ship on the morning of 15 April, but the Titanic would sink the preceding night.

The details of several of the dogs aboard the Titanic were recorded and included:

- A King Charles Spaniel and an elderly Airedale Terrier, owned by William and Lucile Carter. Did not survive.

- Chow-Chow, a chow chow owned by stockbroker Harry Anderson. Did not survive.

- A champion French Bulldog born January 1910 called Gamin de Pycombe, owned by Robert Williams Daniel, who had bought him in England for the very high price of £150 (£13,393 in 2015 prices). Did not survive.

- Kitty, another Airedale Terrier, owned by millionaire John Jacob Astor. Did not survive and perished with her owner.

- A Pomeranian owned by Margaret Bechstein Hays, named Bebe, which she kept (probably surreptitiously) in her cabin. Survived.

- A dog owned by Elizabeth Rothschild, also kept in her cabin. Survived.

- A Pekingese called Sun Yat Sen, owned by Henry Sleeper Harper and his wife Myra. Survived.

- Frou-Frou, a toy dog owned by Helen Bishop. The dog was allowed to stay in her cabin as the stewards considered it "too pretty" to put among the bigger dogs in the kennels. Helen left Frou-Frou to die in the cabin when she realized that “there would be little sympathy for a woman carrying a dog in her arms when there were lives of women and children to be saved.” Did not survive.

- Rigel, black Newfoundland dog purported to be on the ship and said to have saved many survivors; however, some people have questioned whether a dog could have survived a long swim in the icy ocean, and there is no contemporary evidence that the dog even existed; First Officer William McMaster Murdoch, whom the dog reputedly belonged to, never owned any pets.

There were probably more dogs aboard, but their details (and owners) have not survived. Passenger Charles Moore of Washington, D.C. made a last-minute change to his plans to transport aboard the Titanic 100 English foxhounds, which he intended to use to start an English-style fox hunt in the Washington area. They were instead shipped aboard another vessel.

As well as the dogs and cats, there were a number of birds aboard. Ella Holmes White of New York brought four roosters and hens, which were probably kept in or near the F Deck dog kennels. She had imported them from France with the intention of improving her poultry stock at home. Another woman was said to have brought 30 cockerels aboard and Elizabeth Ramel Nye brought her yellow canary. Two dogs and a canary disembarked with the passengers who left the ship at Cherbourg Harbour, the Titanic's first port of call after Southampton. The animals travelled on their own tickets and even the canary that left at Cherbourg had to be paid for, to the tune of 25 US cents.

Like any other ship, Titanic had a substantial population of rats. One was seen running across the Third Class Dining Room on the evening of the sinking, to the shock and amazement of the diners. Some of the women who saw it burst into tears, while men tried unsuccessfully to capture the rat.

Fate ~

Few of the Titanic's animals survived the ship's sinking. Three of the dogs were taken aboard lifeboats by their humans. Margaret Hays' Pomeranian got away safely in Lifeboat 7 and lived until June 1917 when she ran away or was stolen, while Elizabeth Rothschild refused to board Lifeboat 6 unless her Pomeranian was allowed to come too. Henry and Myra Harper brought their Pekingese aboard Lifeboat 3, but Helen Bishop had to abandon Frou-Frou in her cabin, much to their mutual distress. The dog attempted to stop her leaving by holding on to her dress with his teeth until the seam tore. Afterwards, Bishop spoke of her sorrow: "The loss of my little dog hurt me very much. I will never forget how he dragged on my clothes. He so wanted to accompany me".

None of the other animals survived. At some point during the sinking, someone decided to free the dogs from their kennels, leading to a pack of excited dogs racing up and down the slanting deck as the ship went down. One female passenger is said to have refused to be parted from her dog and chose to stay aboard. Several days later, as the SS Bremen passed through an area still strewn with debris and bodies floating in the water, a single passenger saw the body of what she thought was a woman tightly holding what could have been a large shaggy dog in her arms. Robert W. Daniel's bulldog Gamin de Pycombe was last seen in the water swimming for his life after the ship went down.

After the sinking, several of the surviving animal owners made compensation claims for their lost pets and poultry. Daniel claimed $750 for the loss of his pedigree bulldog, while Carter claimed $300 for the loss of his two dogs. White claimed $207.87 for her lost chickens and Anderson claimed $50 for his Chow-Chow.

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From: The American Kennel Club

Remembering the Dogs of the Titanic

By Jan Reisen. Published: Apr 08, 2020.

Whether you learned about it in history class or, at the very least, from the iconic movie of the same name, there are very few people who don’t know the story of the RMS Titanic, the luxury ocean liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912. More than 1500 people died in the disaster, but they weren’t the only casualties. The ship carried at least twelve dogs, only three of which survived.

First-class passengers often traveled with their pets. The Titanic was equipped with a first-rate kennel and the dogs were well-cared for, including daily exercise on deck. There was even an informal dog show scheduled for April 15, which, sadly, never took place. Aside from the kenneled dogs, some first-class passengers kept pets in their staterooms, with the crew turning a blind eye.

How Many Dogs Survived the Titanic? ~

The three dogs that survived had a few things in common: they were being kept in staterooms, not in the kennel, and they were tiny. They were taken into lifeboats by their owners, most likely wrapped in blankets or tucked under a coat.

- Lady: a Pomeranian purchased by Margaret Bechstein Hays, in Paris. Her owner took Lady, wrapped in a blanket, aboard Lifeboat 7.

- Sun Yat Sen: a Pekingese belonging to Myra and Henry S. Harper, publishing magnate. The couple and their dog were on Lifeboat 3. According to J. Joseph Edgette, a historian at Widener University and curator of a museum exhibit about the Titanic, Mr. Harper said, “There seemed to be lots of room, and nobody made any objection.”

- Another Pomeranian: owned by Martin and Elizabeth Jane Rothschild. Mrs. Rothschild hid the dog until the following morning when those on Lifeboat 6 were rescued by the RMS Carpathia. The crew initially refused to take the dog on board, but Mrs. Rothschild insisted. Mr. Rothschild didn’t survive the shipwreck.

How Many Dogs Died in the Titanic? ~

History records at least nine other canine passengers, although there may have been more. For the most part, they were larger dogs that were staying in the ship’s kennel. Someone, possibly a passenger, freed the dogs from the kennel as the ship was sinking. The agitated dogs ran up and down the listing deck, adding to the chaos. Although some of these dogs weren’t identified, we do know something about several of them.

There were a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and an Airedale Terrier, both owned by the children of William Carter, a coal magnate from Philadelphia. Lloyd’s of London later reimbursed the family for the loss. Interesting side note: according to an article by The Today Show, the love scene between Rose and Jack in the movie, “Titanic,” took place in a replica of the Carter’s 1912 Renault.

The millionaire John Jacob Astor lost his Airedale, Kitty, in the disaster as well. Among the other dogs lost were a fox terrier, a Chow Chow, and others whose breeds are unknown.

Another casualty was a champion French Bulldog, Gamin de Pycombe, whose owner had purchased him in England before the voyage. A week after The Titanic sank, New York hosted the French Bulldog National Specialty. One of the show’s judges on the day was Samuel Goldenberg, who had boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg in order to get to New York to be a judge.

Stories From the Titanic ~

An apocryphal story describes a Newfoundland named Rigel that belonged to First Officer William Murdoch. According to the story, which even appeared in the New York Herald newspaper, Rigel withstood the freezing North Atlantic waters and barked to get the attention of the Carpathia’s crew, which helped the rescuers locate the lifeboats. However, according to the Smithsonian and other sources, there is no record of Rigel anywhere, including survivors’ accounts. The story didn’t stand up to fact-checking and has largely been discounted.

There is one story, however, that is both true and heartbreaking. One passenger, Ann Elizabeth Isham, boarded the Titanic in Cherbourg with her Great Dane. She refused to leave the ship without her dog, which was too big to go on a lifeboat. Ms. Isham was one of four first-class female passengers who died on the Titanic. There are accounts, although unsubstantiated, that her body, with her arms wrapped around the dog, was later found by a recovery ship.

When we think of the devastating losses suffered 108 years ago this April, let’s take a minute to think of the beloved pets that were part of the Titanic’s maiden voyage, the lucky three who survived and the many who, along with fifteen hundred human passengers, perished in the icy waters off the Newfoundland coast.

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From the Belfast Telegraph

Titanic: Did a dog save lives?

Fri. 23 Mar 2012

Legend has it that not all of the acts of heroism that night were carried out by humans. There were a few dogs on board, and the Titanic’s luxurious accommodation extended to “marvelous kennel facilities”.

According to a story in The New York Herald of April 21, 1912, one winner that spring night was Rigel, a big black Newfoundland dog, who swam through the icy water in search of his doomed master and alerted the rescue ship The Carpathia to the presence of a lifeboat nearby. If it hadn't been for his barking, the story went, these survivors would have been missed. Rigel was thought to have passed into the hands of one Jonas Briggs, a seaman aboard The Carpathia.

This could be Titanic’s own shaggy dog story, created by a journalist looking to profit from the money handed out for Titanic stories, but a Pomeranian and a Pekinese are known to have been saved with their owners.