While the band played on, Gilbert M. Tucker Jr. pondered the cold waters of the North Atlantic.

Thirty minutes earlier, the 31-year-old Glenmont resident had been planning only a good night’s sleep. But he was a passenger on the RMS Titanic, and his schedule changed during the late evening hours of Sunday, April 14, 1912.

Plans changed for everyone aboard the Titanic that night. The pride of Britain’s White Star Line sank a century ago, during the early morning hours of April 15, 1912.

In addition to passenger Tucker, there are other local connections to the Titanic in the Capital Region. Businessman Benjamin L. Foreman, a native of Albany, was among the 1,500 people who died in the famous sinking. Ellen “Nellie” Hocking left home in Penzance, in England’s southwest, to board the ship and begin life in Schenectady. She was one of 700 who survived.

Word reached the Schenectady Gazette late Sunday night. Editors had time to place just a one-paragraph story near the bottom of page one, using the headline “Titanic Hits Iceberg.” The captain of the steamship Virginian had been in wireless communication with the passenger liner and had learned about the iceberg situation. “The Virginian reported that she was on her way to the Titanic,” the report concluded.

Once the paper hit the streets, people became frantic for news.

“From early morning until long after midnight the telephones at the Gazette office were constantly ringing, and hundreds of people sought the latest news of the disaster,” read a short story on the newspaper’s front page on Tuesday, April 16. “Beginning at 9 o’clock in the morning, bulletins were placed in the business office windows and crowds gathered there all day for the latest news.”

Such gatherings were not uncommon. Before radio, baseball fans often gathered in front of the newspaper to await World Series updates.

Captivating story

The Gazette, like other newspapers of the era, kept the Titanic on the front page for the entire week.

Banner headlines were dramatic: “1200 Drowned When Titanic Goes Down” on Tuesday, April 16; “Titanic Survivors on Way to New York; Missing Total 1302 and Those Safe 868” on Wednesday, April 17.

On Thursday, April 18, it was “Carpathia Wires Scout Cruiser Chester Names of All the Living Have Been Sent In.” The next day, the front page message was “While Band Plays, 1601 Sink With Titanic; Carpathia Docks With 733 Rescued Souls.”

One hundred years later, people remain curious about the disaster. Andrew Morris, professor of 20th century American history at Union College, offered three reasons why.

“One, as with a lot of modern disasters, there’s this undertone of man’s technological hubris, the belief that our technological accomplishments can overcome nature,” Morris said. “And the faith in that just being destroyed by this classic example — this largest-ever ship being undone by the iceberg.”

Survivor’s tale

Peter Hess knows the Gilbert Tucker story. The president of Albany Steel and past president of the Albany Rural Cemetery Association has researched Tucker by reading articles from old newspapers and consulting Titanic historical societies and websites. He added that Englishman Arthur John Bright — quartermaster on the Titanic — settled in America after the tragedy and eventually made his home at 50 Dove St. in Albany.

The Albany Rural connection is an easy one. The remains of both Tucker and Bright are buried inside the Menands cemetery.

The Tucker story has a little bit of everything — romance, drama, danger.

Hess said Tucker was the grandson of Luther Tucker, the founder and editor of Albany’s “Country Gentleman” newspaper. The “Gentleman,” Hess said, was a specialty publication aimed at farm and market workers.

The Tucker family used to take trips to Europe and would prepare articles for the family business on the current European farm scene. That’s how young Gilbert met Philadelphian Lily Potter, Lily’s daughter Olive Earnshaw and Olive’s school friend, Margaret Hays of New York City.

Hess said Tucker fell for Hays and was soon spending plenty of time with the three women. The ladies had planned a trip to France and then would return to the United States. Tucker, a gallant man, told his family he didn’t think it proper for the Potter party to travel alone. He appointed himself their escort.

The quartet traveled to Paris, Hess said, but there was travel trouble. A coal strike in Britain had put all passenger liners in dry dock — without coal, there was no power for the steam engines. Lily Potter learned the Titanic would leave Southampton, England, on April 10 and arrive in Cherbourg, France, by evening. She booked passage for her crew.

Frightening escape

Tucker and his friends — along with the other 2,200-plus people on board — had four great days. Then, late on that Sunday night, the Titanic struck the iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland. The ice sliced into more than 200 feet of the ship’s starboard bow and water flooded the ship’s first six watertight compartments (there were 16 altogether).

Hess said Olive and Margaret had been sleeping. Many had felt the ship shudder from the icy impact; the young women left their quarters to get some details. They learned about the iceberg and told mother Lily.

Lily made her move immediately. She took her girls topside, where they met Tucker, and all four were among just 25 in line for the first lifeboat.

Tucker later told his story to staffers from The Times-Union of Albany. (The newspaper was using a hyphen in its name in 1912.)

“The boat deck of the Titanic was 75 feet above the water, and it did look like a terrifying drop,” Tucker........

© The Leader Herald