64 pages • 2 hours read
Shana AbeThe Second Mrs. Astor: A Heartbreaking Historical Novel of the Titanic
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Cultural Context: New York’s Gilded Age
American author Mark Twain used the term the Gilded Age to characterize New York City from the 1870s to the 1890s, a time when the rich and prosperous flaunted their wealth in clothing, jewels, and enormous mansions built along Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Operas, symphony halls, balls, and lavish dinners were places to display one’s wealth and taste, often inspired by European trends and fashions. The ostentatious wealth of the Gilded Age contrasted with the poverty experienced by the working class of the city, particularly the immigrants who lived in crowded, unsanitary tenements in Lower Manhattan and the outer boroughs.
Inside the high society of the Gilded Age, long-established families with wealth looked down on the nouveau riche, those who rose to prominence with the boom of industry and expansion that followed the Civil War. Families like the Astors, who had known wealth for generations, snubbed couples like the Vanderbilts, whose fortunes were newer. Among the most elite were those who could trace their descent to the first Dutch families to settle Manhattan; they called themselves the Knickerbockers, after a type of short trousers that the Dutch colonists wore.
Another term used to describe the strict boundaries of New York City’s upper class was the Four Hundred. Various origins have been offered for this term, among them the suggestion that four hundred was the capacity of Caroline Astor’s ballroom, and she acknowledged only the “best” people. While the opulent lifestyle of the rich was much admired, the great wealth that certain men realized in industries like oil, steel, expanding railroads, finance, or Wall Street was often gained at the expense of the working class, leading these tycoons to be nicknamed “robber barons.” It was this stark contrast between the very rich and the very poor that Twain satirized, though wealth and culture are elements more often romanticized in modern depictions of the Gilded Age.
While the lifestyle of the very wealthy continued in Britain through the turn of the 20th century into the Edwardian Age, epitomized by the lifestyle of wealthy families in their great houses, the years 1900-1914 in the United States are referred to as the Progressive Era because the exploitative practices of the robber barons were checked by new laws, regulations were introduced to correct corruption, and protections for workers became a matter of public interest. While the social lifestyle of upper-class New Yorkers continued in the early years of the 20th century, the eruption of World War I in 1914 disrupted these rigid class distinctions. Even at the time, the sinking of the Titanic, the most lavish passenger ship ever built, along with the resulting loss of the lives of many wealthy celebrities, was read as the end of an era known for gilding over unpleasant realities.
Historical Context: The Astor Family
The first John Jacob Astor, born in Germany, emigrated to the United States in 1783. He made a fortune in the fur trade and, it’s been claimed, smuggling opium in China. He then invested in real estate, which brought exponential wealth to him and his son, William Backhouse Astor, earning the Astors the nickname of the landlords of New York City.
William’s seven children included three sons: John Jacob Astor III, William Backhouse Astor Jr., and Henry. John Jacob Astor III attended Harvard University, managed the family’s real estate business, and served in the Civil War. He was also a noted philanthropist. He had one child, William Waldorf Astor.
William Backhouse Jr. graduated from Columbia College and funded a Union Army regiment during the Civil War. While his elder brother ran the family business, William preferred spending time on his yacht and racing horses at Ferncliff, the estate built on the Hudson River. William married Caroline “Lina” Schermerhorn, daughter of a wealthy New York merchant and a Knickerbocker, with links to the original Dutch colonists of Manhattan. Lina considered that her pedigree made her an equal of the Astor wealth, and she reigned over New York high society as the Mrs. Astor. Lina, along with socialite Ward McAllister, decided who belonged among the so-called Four Hundred. Lina’s entertainments, dress, and activities were reported in newspapers and magazines. William and Lina had five children: four daughters and a son, John Jacob Astor IV.
A feud between the families of William Backhouse Sr.’s sons led William Waldorf to build a hotel, the Waldorf, on property beside William and Lina’s mansion, thus overshadowing it. In retaliation, Jack built himself and his mother adjoining chateaus further up Fifth Avenue and reared his own hotel, the Astoria, across from the Waldorf. The two cousins later reconciled and joined the properties into the Waldorf-Astoria, which became a landmark of New York City.
Around 1891, William Waldorf moved to England. He was later made a baron, then a viscount, making him a British peer. He bought and remodeled Hever Castle, home to Anny Boleyn, King Henry VIII’s short-lived second wife. William Waldorf’s son, John Jacob Astor V, inherited his title and estate.
The fourth John Jacob, known as Jack, was a magnet for attention from his earliest days, first for his family name and then for his own accomplishments. He attended Harvard University, became a colonel in the US army, fought in the Spanish-American war, wrote a science fiction novel, and held patents on a handful of inventions, including a bicycle brake and a turbine engine. He supervised the family’s real estate empire, building the St. Regis and other hotels. In 1891, he married Ava Lowle Willing, a socialite from Philadelphia. They had two children, Vincent and Alice. The marriage turned unhappy, and the couple divorced in 1909. Jack caused a scandal when he married again in 1911 to a woman 29 years his junior, Madeleine Talmadge Force, the daughter of shipping magnate William Force. Ava later married an English baron.
Jack Astor was reputedly the wealthiest passenger aboard the Titanic and one of its most famous and most lamented casualties. Madeleine survived, five months pregnant, and gave birth to their son, John Jacob Astor VI, in August. The boy would later inherit a portion of the Astor fortune. Madeleine remarried William Dick in 1916, with whom she had two sons. They divorced in 1933, and Madeleine then married an Italian boxer, Enzo Fiermonte, whom she divorced in 1938. She died in 1940 just before she turned 47, the age Jack was at his death.
Jakey, who was nicknamed the “Titanic baby” by the press, did not have a warm relationship with Vincent, and legal battles ensued over the Astor money. Jakey attended Harvard University and entered the business world. He was married four times and had two children. The Astor name survives in both England and the US, and the family on both continents has continued their philanthropy.
Socio-Historical Context: The Legend of the Titanic
The sinking of the RMS Titanic the night of April 14, 1912, ranks among the worst disasters to befall a civilian ship. Of the 2,224 registered passengers, over 1,500 perished from drowning or hypothermia in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic Ocean.
The many ironies around the disaster, as well as the immense loss of life, have had an enduring hold on the world’s imagination. At her launch, the Titanic was the largest, most luxurious ocean liner ever to sail the seas. The ship contained elevators and a swimming pool. The company that built her, the White Star Line, hoped that the Titanic would be the fastest transatlantic liner. Compartments in the hull could be separately sealed in the event of damage, so the ship might remain afloat even if four of the compartments filled with water. With this innovative design, the Titanic was touted as unsinkable.
Built in Belfast, Ireland, the Titanic departed on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, then picked up passengers in Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland, before heading for New York City on April 11. The ship dazzled passengers with its opulence; even the third-class or “steerage” passengers felt well accommodated. Her captain, Edward Smith, was known as the “Millionaire’s Captain” because of his ease with the very wealthy. While John Jacob Astor was considered the wealthiest man on board, the Titanic boasted many celebrities and important people among her 1,300 passengers. White Star chairman Bruce Ismay and the ship’s designer, Thomas Andrews, sailed with her.
A compounding of small misjudgments escalated into an unprecedented tragedy. Warnings of icebergs received in the wireless room didn’t make it to the captain at the bridge. The lookouts in the crow’s nest didn’t have their binoculars. Around 11:40 pm, when the fatal iceberg was sighted, the first officer ordered the ship to turn, but too late to avoid an impact that, it is thought, breached five of the special compartments. Rather than being watertight, the bulkheads or walls of these compartments didn’t reach all the way to the ceiling. Andrews, the designer, realized that as the bow filled and tipped forward, water would overflow into successive compartments, and the ship was destined to sink.
The Titanic began sending out distress calls. The Carpathia, a Cunard liner, was three hours away. The Titanic’s sister ship, the Olympic, was even further. A nearby liner, the Californian, had been locked in by ice and turned off their wireless for the night. Crew began launching lifeboats, of which there 20—enough to hold just over 1,000 people. Orders were to load women and children first. For reasons that would emerge in the inquiries later, lifeboats left the boat filled far under capacity, some half, some only a third full. Some first- and second-class passengers refused the inconvenience of boarding the lifeboats because they simply didn’t believe the ship would sink; many more passengers in steerage weren’t aware of what was happening until too late.
In one of the most poignant stories that later circulated of the tragedy, the ship’s musicians serenaded passengers as they boarded the boats. Speculation had it that the last song they played was the popular hymn “Nearer, My God, To Thee.” As the bow filled with water, the stern rose into the air, and around 2:20 am on April 15, the massive ship cracked in two, and both parts sank. The remaining passengers and crew were drowned or thrown into the frigid water. Most of the lifeboats declined to return to the wreckage, fearing they would be capsized by the suction or swamped by the desperate. Those in the water did not long survive the freezing temperatures.
The Carpathia arrived on the scene around 3:30 am and retrieved 705 survivors from lifeboats, delivering them to New York City on April 18. While the greatest loss of life occurred among the third-class or steerage passengers and crew, the deaths of public figures like Astor amplified the tragedy as well as the world’s fascination. Ismay survived, fleeing on a lifeboat. Captain Smith went down with his ship. So did Andrews. Ships searching the wreckage eventually retrieved 333 bodies of the more than 1,500 who died.
Inquiries into the disaster were held in both the United States and Britain, with the result of more stringent safety requirements, among them sufficient lifeboats to accommodate every passenger, safety drills, and a 24-hour watch for distress signals from other ships.
In 1985, 435 miles off the coast of Canada, the wreck of the Titanic was discovered around 12,500 feet underwater by Robert Ballard, who was using the submersible robotic technology he’d developed to search the wrecks of two US Navy nuclear submarines that had sunk in the North Atlantic Ocean. Since then, the Titanic has proved of continued interest to researchers and explorers. In May 2023, pictures were released by a research company that had conducted extensive scans of the wreck and built a 3D model, a “digital twin.” The most sophisticated picture to date, this data preserves information about the wreck, which continues to deteriorate, and helps researchers understand with more precision what happened to the ship during and after that fatal night.
