Titanic accounts from Hawthorne, New Jersey, 1973

A Titanic Survivor and a passenger of a steamer that went through the wreckage of the Titanic sinking

The S.S. Bremen, North German Lloyde [i.e. Lloyd] Pier, Hoboken, N.J. By This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division.

“Two in Hawthorne Have Tales of Titanic”

The News, Paterson, New Jersey

April 3, 1973

“Two Hawthorne residents have good reason to recall the anniversary of the sinking of the S. S. Titanic in the North Atlantic 61 years ago, on April 15, 1912. They are Mrs. Joseph of 280 Warburton Ave. and Mrs. Herbert Umland of 85 Vreeland Ave. 

“Mrs. Joseph’s involvement with the sinking of the Titanic is told in a story submitted to The News by her grandson, Garnett Joseph, formerly of Midland Park, who began his newspaper career as a summer staff member of The News in 1968 and is now with the Kansas City Star. This is his account of his grandmother’s experience:  It was a cold, wind-whipped morning on the North Atlantic, but the weather could not chill the enthusiasm of a girl of 12 on her first ocean voyage. 

Game, Then Nightmare

“However, a happy game of tag with another girl on the upper deck of the German Lloyd Liner Bremen on April 15, 1912, was to end in a long remembered nightmare for Leoni Herrman, now Mrs. Joseph. 

“‘We were playing tag and our home base was the railing’, Mrs. Joseph recalled, ‘I had run back to the rail and was looking into the dark greenish water when I saw the body of a man floating there.’

“The horrified girls ran to the ship’s dining room and alerted passengers and crew. People scrambled up to the deck and stared into the icy ocean. 

“‘When we got back there we saw many more bodies in the water and overturned lifeboats, shoes, clothing and pieces of wood,’ Mrs. Joseph said. 

“‘Passengers were kneeling, praying and crying’, she remembered. It was then that they learned for the first time, from the ship’s captain, that on the previous night the White Star liner Titanic had struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York and had taken 1,517 passengers and crew to an icy death.

No Danger to Us

“‘The captain assured us that nothing would happen to us,’ Mrs. Joseph said. ‘There was no danger to us from the icebergs because we were traveling very slowly.’

“The bodies were pulled up on the ship and deckhands tried to revive them, but to no avail. Hours in the ocean had frozen them. The dead were identified, then strapped to boards and buried at sea. 

“‘I will never forget the pitiful sight of a young woman holding her child in her arms. The little one’s hand clutched the life preserver the woman wore. Their bodies dipped under water and reappeared with the waves,’ Mrs. Joseph said. 

“The tragedy dimmed the excitement of the immigrant girl who with her grandmother had left Dresden, Germany, to start a new life in the United States. 

“‘Even Ellis Island, then the receiving station for immigrants to New York, looked good to us after those events,’ Mrs. Joseph recalled, adding ‘every April the dreadful scene comes back to my mind, even 61 years later.’

Picture from Syracuse Herald-Journal of Syracuse, New York, April 24, 1912. Miss Emily Badman on left, and her aunt, Mrs. Ernest Arthur.

Story of Sinking

“Mrs. Umland’s story is a recollection of an account of the Titanic’s sinking given by her mother, then Miss Emily Badman, one of the survivors of the sinkings. 

“The young Englishwoman left her home in Somersetshire as a girl of 18 to visit a sister in Skaneateles, N.Y. because the ship was ‘big and new and could not sink’ she decided to sail aboard the Titanic. Her mother had told her, ‘remember, Emily, there is no back door to run out of if anything happens.’ 

“Mrs. Michael O’Grady, as Miss Badman was later to become, recalled to Mrs. Umland, her daughter, that the queen of the seas was just five days out from England and approached the eastern shores of the United States when it struck the iceberg and sank four hours later. Mrs. O’Grady, who lives in Ridgefield for many years and died some 26 years ago when she was 52 vividly recalled, Mrs. Umland said, the hectic moments as the ship lurched and sank with most seamen and male passengers going down with it, as well as many women and children who were unable to get into lifeboats at the time. 

“According to Mrs. Umland, the ship was just one day out from England when Mrs. O’Grady met Edward Lockyer of Sandhurtst, England, who was to be responsible for her rescue. 

“When the first alarm sounded and the seriousness of the ship’s position was explained to the passengers, Lockyer found Mrs. O’Grady and helped her on with a lifebelt. He brought her to the outer decks in all the confusion and got her into the last available lifeboat. 

Sad Scenes

“Mrs. Umland quotes her mother as saying, ‘I shall never forget the sad scenes on that ship, wives torn from husbands and children from their parents. I saw officers shoot men who tried to get into the lifeboats and others fall into the water when they attempted to get into the boats. Lockyer went down with the ship. Ten days later they recovered his body. In his pocket were my glasses which he was protecting for me. 

“Mrs. O’Grady and a group of other passengers were in the lifeboat all night. On the following morning nearly nine hours after the ship went down, Mrs. O’Grady and her fellow survivors were picked up by the Cunard liner Carpathia. All were taken to St. Vincent’s hospital in New York, where they were treated for shock and injuries. 

“Sharing the stateroom on the rescue ship with Mrs. O’Grady was another survivor from the Titanic. ‘Her hair,’ she said ‘turned white overnight as she realized she had lost family and money was arriving in the United States alone and destitute.’

“Mrs. Umland said that her mother had often told her, ‘The strange part of the trip was the fact that not one of the ship’s passengers believed it could sink, and I believe that was the reason so many were lost. The first lifeboats put off contained very few people, because passengers refused to leave the ship, never thinking it was doomed.’ Mrs. O’Grady often repeated that the real heroes of the tragedy were the officers and seamen who alone appreciated the hopelessness of the situation. 

“Mrs. Umland also recalled that her mother was deeply upset whenever she heard the hymn, ‘Nearer My God to Thee,’ played, because the ship’s band was playing it as the ‘unsinkable’ vessel slid under the waves. 

“When she recovered, Mrs. Grady continued on to her sister’s home in Skaneateles. She had intended to return to England after a visit of several months, but never did. She met Michael, O’Grady, married him and they had three sons and a daughter. Mrs. Umland, the daughter, was christened Margaret Titan, the name Titan, by which she has always been known, was given by her mother in remembrance of her rescue from the ill-fated liner. 

“The Umlands have four children, three of whom are married, and five grandchildren. They have been residents of Hawthorne for 21 years.”

Further Reading:

Biography of Emily Louisa Badman, https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/emily-badman.html

Biography of Edward Thomas Lockyer, https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/edward-thomas-lockyer.html