Historian to return with more Titanic stories in Asheboro library talk

Hearses line up on a wharf at Halifax, Nova Scotia,
to carry Titanic victims to funeral parlors

All the people who traveled on the Titanic in April 1912 are now dead.

Many lived decades after the tragedy to tell their stories. Those who died that night did not have that chance.

Through multimedia and memorabilia, Titanic scholar Dr. Melinda Ratchford will tell a few more of those stories in “Titanic: The Halifax Dead Speak,” at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, October 16, at the Asheboro Public Library.

After traveling to Halifax, Nova Scotia and visiting the graves of the 336 bodies recovered, Ratchford learned that even after a tragedy of such magnitude, the stories of heroism, cowardice, common sense, faith and hope live on.

Learn about the brave sailors from the ships Mackay Bennett, Minia and Montmagny, who recovered bodies and brought them to Halifax; the newly-devised numbering system for the bodies — sadly needed again in 1917 when two ships collided at Halifax resulting in an explosion that claimed almost 1,800 lives; how to determine whether to bury someone in the Catholic, Protestant or Jewish cemetery; and other intriguing issues that survived the sinking of the Titanic.

Ratchford is an associate professor of education at Belmont Abbey College. Her avocation has been a 60-year interest in the study of the Titanic and its history. She has visited Belfast, where the ship was built; Southampton, from where it sailed; the pier in New York where it would have docked; and Halifax. She also spent a week in the North Atlantic in 1996 at the site of the sinking.

A Kannapolis native, Ratchford worked in the North Carolina public schools for 31 years.

The library is located at 201 Worth Street. For more information, call 3336-381-6803.