Steve Turner
Steve Turner is a music journalist, biographer and poet, who grew up in Northamptonshire, England.
“No praise could be sufficient for those courageous musicians whom we left behind. They were heroes to a man.”
“The ship’s orchestra of eight young men were standing knee deep in water playing.”
“The notes of this music were the last thing I heard before I went off the poop and felt myself going headlong into the icy water with the engines and machinery buzzing in my ears.”
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.
Wallace Hartley: “I’ve always felt that, when men are called to face death suddenly, music is are more effective in cheering them on than all the firearms in creation.”
They kept it up until the very end. Only the engulfing ocean had power to drown them into silence.