Steve Turner Quotes

In the whole history of the sea, there is little to equal the wonderful behavior of these humble players.

By the twentieth of April, the story was widely accepted and was viewed as one of the most heartening acts of bravery in the whole tragedy.

They kept it up until the very end. Only the engulfing ocean had power to drown them into silence.

For those out on the water it provided a bizarre soundtrack to a sight that so many would only be able to describe as “like watching a moving picture.”

[Bandleader Hartley] apparently believed that music could be more powerful that physical force in bringing order to chaos.

The band played marching from deck to deck, and as the ship went under I could still hear the music.

The arrival of Wallace Hartley’s body became a focal point of national grief. This young man not only represented all who had died on the Titanic, but also the values that the British feared were in decline.

Shipwreck was an ever-present possibility in 1912.

I shall never forget the sight of that beautiful boat as she went down, the orchestra playing to the last, the lights burning until they were extinguished by the waves. It sounds so unreal, like a scene on the stage.

The musicians had played on the deck as the ship went down. They had forfeited their lives for the sake of others. They had played the tunes of hymns to induce a spirit of peace and calm. They were heroic.

It wasn’t hard for people to see the Titanic as a metaphor for Western civilization’s obsessions with speed, wealth, and conquest at the expense of contemplation, sharing and the well-being of one’s neighbor.

The ship's orchestra of eight young men were standing knee deep in water playing.

No praise could be sufficient for those courageous musicians whom we left behind. They were heroes to a man.

As the screams in the water multiplied, another sound was heard, strong and clear at first, then fainter in the distance. It was the melody of the hymn “Nearer, My God, To Thee,” played by the string orchestra in the dining saloon.

In the last moments of the great ship’s doom, when all was plainly lost, when braver and hardier men might almost have been excused for doing practically anything to save themselves, they stood responsive to their conductor’s baton and played a recessional tune.