Almost immediately after the sinking of RMS Titanic, numerous ships were hired by the White Star Line to go back to the Titanic’s wreck site and make an attempt to recover any bodies that may still have been left in the water. The news of Titanic’s foundering did not take long to travel. Although some early reports of the disaster remained reluctant to give any statistics of the survival rate, and in some cases the press had stated that there had been no loss of life at all. The crew of ships such as the Arabic, Sardinian and most notably, the CS Mackay Bennett were loaded up with coffins to take to sea. The SS Minia had also been drafted in by the White Star Line to help with the recovery efforts. On board this ship was twenty-year-old, Francis Dykes. At the time of the sinking, Dykes had been working as the Minia’s second engineer. In a letter that was written to his mother, it was clear that Dykes was not prepared to see the remnants of one of the worst sinkings in maritime history.
Francis Dykes
Francis Dykes was born in 1892, Farringdon in Berkshire, England. Dykes was one of three sons. His brothers were Jack and George Dykes. Francis grew up in a relatively wealthy family, because of his background he received his primary education at home. For a time, Francis did attend boarding school. It is likely that Dykes left school before turning sixteen. Although it is not confirmed, it is a likely guess that Francis did attend go on to attend college. Dykes studied wireless communication and operation in England. It is also unknown when Dykes began his career at sea. But by the age of twenty. Dykes had taken a job on board the cable ship, Minia.
Above: The Crew of the CS Minia (circa 1910) Francis Dykes can be seen sitting on the front row, second from the left. ( Credits: Atlantic Cable)
The Minia
The CS Minia was built in 1866 by the London & Glasgow England & Iron Shipbuilding Company. The ship served for three years under the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company before being sold to the Anglo-American Telegraph Company. Shortly before the buying the Minia. The company had recently produced the Great Eastern (1856). For four decades the Great Eastern held the record for the largest ship afloat. The Anglo-American Telegraph Company was comprised of the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph company and the French Atlantic Cable Company. The Company specialised in under sea cable communications.
The Record Breaker: The Great Eastern. (above)
The Minia, like most other ships operated by the Anglo-American Telegraph Company was not designed as a passenger liner. But, the job of ship like the Minia and her predecessors had been to lay cable lines under the sea bed. Famously the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, after a few failed attempts, operated four lines between 1869 and 1880. These communication lines were placed between Ireland, France, Canada and the USA. Finally, In 1912 the Minia was leased to the Western Union Line.
The CS Minia (above) picture credits: The Titanic Inquiry Project
Francis worked as the ship’s second engineer. His job would have entailed transmitting messages from other steamships via the cape race. The cape race acted as a terminal for all telegraph lines that ran under British and American waters. Through the cape race, ships would be able to communicate to each other through forms of Morse code. The Titanic had famously used the Marconi wireless system of telecommunication. Ships would use or ‘work’ cape race to send signals, messages, and warnings to nearby ships.
The Titanic Connection
On the evening of April 14th, 1912, the cape race had sent a wireless to the Minia. The message was a set of co-ordinates. Naturally the Minia’s wireless team perhaps had assumed that it was the co-ordinates of ship in distress. It first thought that the cape race had sent the Minia the location of the sinking Titanic. Interestingly, it was thought that the ship’s location to the sinking vessel was closer than any other ship in proximity. With this information the crew of the Minia had been hopeful that they would reach the sinking ship and rescue as many people as possible. Unfortunately, the Minia had slightly overestimated their proximity to the Titanic and were unable to reach the site in time.
Eleven days later, having docked into Halifax to pick up the relevant supplies, which included 150 coffins. The Minia joined the CS Mackay Bennett at the location of Titanic’s sinking. Francis Dykes had been apart of the recovery effort and was unprepared for what he would witness. In a letter to his mother, Cordelia. Dykes had seen bodies drifting as far as 130 miles from the wreck site. The first body that the ship picked up was the corpse of Charles Hays. Charles Hays was amongst some Titanic’s wealthiest passengers. Hays was the President of the Grand Trunk Railways in America. In Dykes’ letter, he stated that “It was no trouble to identify him (Charles Hays) as he had a lot of papers on him.” This was a method that all the ships in the recovery process had used. Countless records exist of descriptions of bodies that were recovered. The point of identifying the body would have been so that the ship’s wireless team would be able to send the name back to land, via the cape race. The crew would look for any means of identification on the body. This could include personal items such as pocket watches, tickets, name plates or letters. For example the body of steward, Arthur Lawrence had been identified by his white steward’s coat that had the initials ‘ A. Lawrence.’ Stitched into the item of clothing.
The problem occurred when the body had no identification on them. This was tragically the story for a host of crew members and third-class passengers. The rule was adopted that if the body could not be identified, they would be buried at sea. Tragically, the Mackay Bennett buried 116 bodies at sea. One had been the body of thirty-two-year-old, Mary Mangan. The crew would also have to consider if the body would have had any relatives to contact. The Titanic had been a means of transport for a host of immigrants. If they had no relatives that would be accessible there would be no apparent reason to bring the body back to land. In Mary’s case she had come from a remote Parish in Western Ireland. If her body would been brought back to Halifax. It would have been difficult to contact any of her relatives. In addition, it had to be considered if any relative to the deceased was contacted, would they be able to pay the fee for transporting the body back home? Sections of Titanic’s crew that included engineers, firemen, greasers, and trimmers economically ranked in the lowest and poorest section of society. It was unlikely that any of their wives or family would be able to pay to bring their loved ones back home. In the end many families ended up creating memorials for their relatives that were lost at sea. One of the most famous examples in the Southampton Cemetery. The Cemetery contains over sixty headstones that connect to the Titanic. But as the families could not afford to transport the bodies back home, most of the graves are empty.
On May 3rd 1912, the recovery process was beginning to take a toll on the crew of the Minia. That day Francis Dykes and the ship’s doctor had taken a nap on the ship. They were surrounded by fifty coffins. Nearly all were filled with Titanic’s victims. Interestingly, Dykes concluded that he thought the Titanic must have blown up as she sank. As on his job Dykes had picked up pieces of debris, that seemed to belong to the ship’s grand staircase. Dykes’ perspective is certainly interesting as through out the last 100 years, it has been debated if the ship had experienced an explosion of some kind on her plunge to the bottom of the Atlantic.
After searching for a week, the CS Minia returned to Halifax having only recovered seventeen bodies. Body number 323 was identified as a steward by the name of Thomas Mullin. Mullin had attended St. Michael’s School, Dumfries. He attended around the same time as Titanic’s bandsmen, John Law Hume. Tragically out of the seventeen bodies that the Minia collected, two were buried at sea by Reverend Cunningham. It is likely that Dykes had witnessed the bodies as the being pulled onto the ship and it is likely a sight that he would never forget.
As always, I’ll leave a few external links about the Minia and the recovery efforts made by other ships, following the sinking of the Titanic.
Feel free to ask any questions and let me know what you think.
Have a ‘titanic’ week,
Millie.
Extra Links and Bibliography
Francis Dykes, Telegraphist of the Ship used to Recover Titanic’s Bodies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvGRJKxeCTw
Titanic Related Ships – Minia, The Titanic Inquiry Project: https://www.titanicinquiry.org/ships/minia.php
History of the Atlantic Sea & Undersea Communications: The Anglo-American Telegraph Company, Glover, B.: https://atlantic-cable.com/CableCos/AngloAmerican/
Charles Melville Hays according to Encyclopaedia Titanica: https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/charles-melville-hays.htmlused “It was no trouble to identify him.”
Arthur Lawrence Encyclopaedia Titanica: https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/arthur-lawrance.html “ A white steward’s coat marked A. Lawrence.”
Thomas Mullin according to Encyclopaedia Titanica: https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/thomas-mullin.html
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