On p. 43 of a book named "On board the Titanic" by Shelly Tanaka there's a picture of a telegram Bruce Ismay sent from the Carpathia. I do handwriting analysis, and am curious as to whether Mr. Ismay penned the message himself or if passengers dictate to stewards who then bring the message to the wireless room. You always here about messages waiting to be sent from within the wireless room, but I have no clue how they originate before that. Later in the day I'll scan the pic in and post it too.

-- Cindy (Cindy763@hotmail.com), April 09, 1998

Answers

Cindy, there's probably no way to tell. The big question to ask is the origin of this particular document.

Wireless telegraphy in 1912 was very much a round-robin affair. Ships with less-powerful transmitters, like the rescue ship Carpathia, depended on other ships to relay their messages to shore. The operator of the relay set would jot down the incoming message, then send it back out again. Most of the messages sent out on April 15 were relayed via the Olympic, which had a much more powerful wireless system.

If this particular document was written onboard the Carpathia, there is a chance the handwriting is Ismay's. However, the accounts of Ismay's state of mind after the sinking would lend me to believe that it was written out for him. The only way to know for sure, of course, would be to have a handwriting expert compare this original with a known sample of Ismay's handwriting, which today would be pretty tough to do.

Cheers!

-- Kip Henry (kip-henry@ouhsc.edu), April 09, 1998.