White Star

White Star is the story of a fictional Irish setter who joins the dozen very real dogs who were on board the Titanic when the ship sailed on its maiden – or first – and as it turned out, last – voyage in April 1912.

This dramatic sea disaster has always fascinated people, with both poor immigrants and the rich-and-famous sailing on a ship some had dubbed “unsinkable.” Since the James Cameron movie “Titanic” came out in 1997 and won the Best Picture Oscar in 1998, history buffs have flocked to traveling exhibits of Titanic artifacts, and even whole museums devoted to the ship (in Southampton, England; Belfast, Northern Ireland; Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; Buena Park, California; Indian Orchard, Massachusetts; Orlando, Florida; Branson, Missouri; and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.)

It wasn’t until 1985 that the wreckage of the ship was finally discovered, two miles below the ocean’s surface.

White Star was the name of the shipping line, and the name of the fictional dog meant to represent that line in advertisements, much as RCA Victor ads of the time featured a terrier listening to “his master’s voice.” The company that owned Titanic never completely recovered from its association with the greatest ocean liner disaster of all time. The business was sold to Cunard Lines (still operating under the Carnival Cruise umbrella). Arguments continue to this day about how, exactly, the ship came to sink; exactly where the dog kennels were; and why more people weren’t loaded into the lifeboats – although there was never enough room for everybody. Maritime law was changed as a result so that today there must always be enough room in the lifeboats for everyone onboard, and lifeboat drills are mandatory on Day One of any voyage.

We’ll never know for sure if the dog kennels were on the boat deck, as many experts believe, or on F deck, many levels down, near the third class galley (kitchen). Since dogs were seen on deck and in the water at the time of the sinking, it’s hard to imagine them getting up to the boat deck from the depths of the tilting, filling-with-water ship. But more than a century later, people still argue about what-went-where and who-did-what.

J.J. Astor was one of the richest men in the world, but he and his dog went down with the ship. His young wife Madeline survived in a lifeboat. The graph at the bottom of this page organizes my research about the Titanic’s dogs, placing them with their known or likely owners, marking who survived and who didn’t. I needed to know as much as possible about the real dogs before putting a fictional dog in their midst.

At the 35^th anniversary of the Titanic Historical Society, Inc., I had the privilege of meeting Miss Elizabeth Gladys (Millvina) Dean, 1912-2009, who was a nine-week-old baby, heading from Devon, England to Wichita, Kansas, when she was carried off the Titanic. I met third class passenger, Dean, during that celebration of all things Titanic.

NOTE: To learn more about the HMS Titanic, click here to learn about my book Titanicat.