The Titanic story of Evelyn by Lisa Wilkinson

Oh, the wish that it were not a true story! This is heartbreaking and compelling in the same breath - an epic retelling of the loss of the RMS Titanic, told with a focus on Evelyn Marsden, a South Australian stewardess and the only Australian survivor.  Everyone knows the harrowing tale of the unsinkable ship that proved that human skill and boasts can never ‘conquer the natural world, but in the end, when egos, arrogance and an unerring belief in invincibility align, disaster often follows’ (p525). But few know Evelyn Marsden, the steadfast survivor. Nothing about this story is easy to read because it is based on truth and accounts from those who were there (it is also 526 pages long), but its focus on Evelyn Marsden gives us a real person to follow and to feel her trauma through the harrowing hours of the Titanic’s great loss. Evelyn had demonstrated a desire to see more of the world than her hometown in Hoyleton, SA, and had a gentle, adventurous nature combined with a service heart that led her to work as a nurse/stewardess. Her work on board the Titanic was likely to be one of her last voyages before marrying her fiancé (who had miraculously escaped his own service upon the vessel), but as we read of the events that led to the iceberg’s impact you can only cry at the incredible loss of human life and marvel at the grace that any were saved. 

Lisa Wilkinson has written in a style very like her husband Peter FitzSimons, with significant use of primary sources, to tell an unfolding narrative-style account, with perhaps a more female-focused flavour. The inherent melancholy of the event is also woven with individual tales of the survivors (mostly the first-class passengers’ tales were documented, so the third-class survivors’ stories are less prominent). With the wealth and privilege of power or the claims of the shipbuilders and the White Star Line echoing vainly amidst the finery of the female passengers in First Class, this is also a story of the changing times of cross-Atlantic travel and of seafaring in general. But the overwhelming shock and long-term trauma associated with the loss of the Titanic resounds like a distress call across the still waters. Wilkinson reports on the life (and death) of some of the survivors in a brief precis of their lives at the end of the narrative related to the sinking. For lovers of history or those who have been captivated by the story of the Titanic, or even those who have watched James Cameron’s movie and wondered how much of it was true, this is for you. Make sure you set aside a good chunk of time to read it (perhaps not while on an ocean cruise) and you will be surprised at how well Lisa Wilkinson allows you to inhabit this piece of human history with all its ‘griefs to bear’.

Themes: Titanic, shipbuilding, survival, ocean liners, shipwrecks, sea travel, Biographies.

Carolyn Hull