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Show FALL 2013 UHQ pp 304-385_UHQ Stories/pp.4-68 9/16/13 1:25 PM Page 334 UTAh hISTOrICAL QUArTErLy plunged in, seized his hands, and was kissing them while tears flowed in big gobs down his cheeks.” The sergeant walked three blocks with the trio, waving off other policemen who sought to intervene.25 The three were across West Street and getting closer to the pier. They passed an Italian customs guard who bent down on his knees and began kissing Marconi, whom he recognized from photographs.26 Russell pushed on. Policemen challenged them at the pier: “The officer in charge of issuing permits to go upon the pier was appealed to. At first he had no time to listen. Finally he gathered what the request was about and came hurriedly to a place where Mr. Marconi had been backed against a pier buffer by a guard. The policeman invited him to come quickly through the door and past a long line of the suffering.” Marconi started sobbing as he met injured and traumatized Titanic survivors.27 He had been scheduled to travel on the Titanic’s maiden voyage himself and would have done so, but he needed to work en route and believed that the Lusitania had better stenographic services on board, so he took that ship a few days before the Titanic set sail.28 The obstacles to their progress were removed. As Russell described it, What mortal power could issue orders to bid Marconi stop? Sailors fell before us. Eyes popped out and lips froze with one word [“Marconi”] half uttered upon them. Gaping guards to the right of us, gaping guards to the left—and gaping guards in front of—and beside themselves and all ready to die—to see that Marconi passed in spite of every order they had received. . . . The magic word had travelled along—“Marconi” came up in a murmuring mutter from the guards ahead. And the “living wall” crumpled before us as men pressed back to hold their bayonets out of Marconi’s way, and strive for a snatch at his hand or a long glowing glance into his face.29 Russell, Marconi, and the engineer neared the gangplank to the Carpathia. The three waited as injured Titanic survivors were carried down the gangplank. “The maimed were coming off now, dangling helpless arms as they wildly looked about, and were gently guided down the living lane of guards towards the rooms where fr iends were waiting.” Russell whispered to the head guard that “the wireless boys” wanted Marconi. The “hard-boiled” guard responded, “Marconi goes ahead but you go back.” Isaac Russell replied that “we are three—Marconi, his chief engineer, and myself a reporter off duty.” Russell had placed his reporter’s police card in the engineer’s hat to help him along in the crowd, but the chief guard, noticing the card and confused by everything going on around him, permitted Marconi and Russell to proceed while holding back the engineer. As Russell later recorded, “Marconi and I were more lifted than 25 Russell, unpublished manuscript on visit with Harold Bride, 5–6, Russell Papers; Russell, “Met Survivors of Titanic,” July 6, 1917. 26 Russell, unpublished manuscript on visit with Harold Bride, 6, Russell Papers. In other accounts, Russell described the man as an Italian taxicab driver who wept “because he could no better serve his great compatriot.” Russell, “Met Survivors of Titanic,” July 6, 1917. 27 [Russell], “Marconi Pays Visit,” April 19, 1912. 28 Greg Daugherty, “They Missed the Boat,” Smithsonian, March 2012, 38. 29 Russell, unpublished manuscript on visit with Harold Bride, 6, Russell Papers. 334 |
