Steve Turner
Steve Turner is a music journalist, biographer and poet, who grew up in Northamptonshire, England.
The band played marching from deck to deck, and as the ship went under I could still hear the music.
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.
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.”
The image of the lighted ship sliding under the waves, while the band carried on regardless, captured the public’s imagination.
“I could hear the band playing a cheery sort of music. I don’t like jazz music as a rule, but I was glad to hear it that night. I think it helped us all.”
In the whole history of the sea, there is little to equal the wonderful behavior of these humble players.