A Novel to Stir the Soul
According to the afterword, Robert Prechtl wrote Titanensturz ('Fall of the Titans') between September 1934 and March 1935 (a period of time when, strangely enough, Titanic's Second Officer, C. H. Lightoller, must have been working on his memoirs.) The novel, originally published in Austria, was later (unfortunately, I have not been able to find out the date) renamed Der Untergang der Titanic (The Sinking of the Titanic).
Prechtl explains that while only a quarter of a century had passed since the events he is writing about occurred (in fact, it was not even 25 years), they happened in a different age. World War I, the end of that era of arrogance, was preceded by several catastrophes, symbolic harbingers of doom. Among them were, according to Prechtl, the eruption of Mont Pelée, the Dreyfuss Affair, and, naturally, the "unexpected and theoretically impossible sinking" of the Titanic. With his novel Prechtl attempts to prevent the story of the Titanic slipping into oblivion as it seemed in danger of doing at the time he was writing. It was his aim that the reader of the novel experiences a "compassionate disturbance of the soul".
This, so Prechtl continues, is naturally only possible if the author uses his fantasy to recreate the events. Moreover, Prechtl has little time for 'facts', that, according to him, cannot be established with certainty anyway. Therefore he only used those facts in his story that fitted with his concept and ignored the rest. No doubt about it, that is exactly what he did. Sometimes Prechtl's narrative is so far from the despised historical facts that it bears no resemblance to the story of the Titanic at all. However, according to Prechtl, "a work of art has to shape truth, not repeat banal reality."
While Prechtl is disarmingly honest about his goals and methods, the publishers chose to use the blurb to advertise that "Prechtl recounts the dramatic events so credibly the reader could get the impression he had been present." It is not the explicit endorsement of truthfulness the publishers give Felinau's Titanic or H. Hesse's Der Untergang der Titanic, but it is misleading nevertheless.
Titanensturz
Prechtl's story has two overlapping strands. One focuses on the Titanic, the new wonder ship on her maiden voyage, Captain Smith and his officers, as well as a meddling J. Bruce Ismay. In the centre of the second strand of the novel is John Jacob Astor, who finds himself at a cross-road: Should he continue to amass riches just for their own sake, or employ his money and energy to create a better world? These two strands come together as Astor attempts to exploit Ismay's financial difficulties by forcing a further devaluation of shares of the shipping line, just 'White Star' here, and then acquiring a majority of them. (This piece of plot appears in the 1943 film.) Astor could therefore be seen as the real author of the Titanic disaster. It is in an attempt to prevent the hostile take-over of his company that Ismay persuades the Captain to attempt to capture the 'Blue Ribband' despite ice warnings and poor visibility.
Of course, there was no attempt made to win the Blue Ribband with the Titanic. The ship simply could not compete in speed with the faster Cunard liners. The attempted take-over of 'White Star' by Astor, the fact that Ismay is said to be on the way to search for additional American capital to restore the financial health of the ailing shipping line is almost amusing since the White Star Line was already part of an American company, J.P. Morgan's International Mercantile Marine. Prechtl took these liberties from reality to be able to create his morality play about the fall of the 'titans', i.e. Astor and his colleagues.
Perhaps to move the story on a territory more familiar to his German-speaking readers, Prechtl turned Astor's new wife Madelaine into Helia, whose father was a French general, her mother German. Helia grew up in Heidelberg with relatives and studied to become a singer. Astor's secretary was also transformed into a German, Herr von Prittwitz.
Chief Engineer Vickers
Considering that Prechtl did not even attempt to write anything that may be considered 'historically accurate' it is not surprising that the crew of Titanic appearing in this book also includes a number of fictional characters. There is, for example, Chief Engineer Vickers who is also the designer of the Titanic's engine. While Vickers is at first opposed to any attempt to win the Blue Ribband, he is finally persuaded to go for it.
A really amazing departure from historical facts is Prechtl's description of the Titanic's engine room. The engine designed by the ship's chief engineer Vickers is so revolutionarily modern that it is fully automated. No stoker is needed to fire the engines. Oddly enough, stokers do appear later in the novel (see below).
Third Officer Erikson
There is also a fictional officer present, a Norwegian 'Captain' called Erikson. It is interesting to note that it is the Third Officer, Herbert Pitman, that Prechtl replaced. Pitman is the officers who is most often omitted in film or fiction. Additionally, in his 'memoirs' Max Dittmar-Pittmann claimed to have been the Titanic's Third Officer and there are some similarities between Third Officer Erikson and Dittmar-Pittmann's story.
Erikson, the reader learns, was hired on short notice when the original Third Officer fell sick, the same reason why Dittmar-Pittmann claims to have been on the Titanic. This piece of information is related by Colonel Gracie. According to him, there were several crewmen who refused to sign on on the Titanic, while Lord Pirrie had to cancel his trip because he, too, became ill. While 'Benjamin Straus' is slightly worried to hear this, Gracie dismisses any significance as superstitious, show-casing the arrogance and ignorance of the elite when faced with portents of fate. (A propos 'Benjamin Straus': Dittmar-Pittmann places Benjamin Guggenheim and his wife into the Strauses' shoes. Is it possible that Prechtl knew that they were in fact called Strauss, but did not find out/check for their first names? Mrs Straus first name here is Rebekka)
Uncannily, Officer Erikson's previous encounters with ice is almost identical to that of Dittmar-Pittman: Twice he had encountered pack ice when seal hunting, one time the ice even crushed his ship. It seems that Prechtl did base his third officer on Max Dittmar-Pittmann. The question is then, why did he not call him by that name? Did he already have doubts about his authenticity?
Erikson's role in this novel is to be the voice of reason, to be the one officer who opposes Captain Smith's excessive confidence in the ship. Erikson has an ally in Lightoller who is described as capable but lacking in strength of character. First Officer Murdock by contrast is arrogant and a bully to boot. He is not interested in ice warnings or the fact that Erikson had 'smelled ice'. After Lightoller timidly suggests that they should perhaps take the southern route, Smith and Murdock confer with Ismay. Smith then decides to stick to the northern route.
The Iceberg
The entire section of the novel leading up to and including the Titanic's collision with the iceberg is depicting the ship's British crew and particularly Murdock in such a negative way that I could imagine if the book had been published in the UK the author would have found himself sued for libel, novel or no novel. Murdock, who has been given command of the ship when Smith, reluctantly but nevertheless, joined a party given by Ismay, spends his time lounging in the chart room daydreaming of his brilliant future. When Lightoller calls him by phone from the bridge (Lightoller is too scared to face Murdock in person!) to inform him that the ship is not only surrounded by thick fog but also by ice-flows, he tells Lightoller that there is no reason to change course or speed or for him to come to the bridge. Erikson's attempt to move Murdock by talking to him in person doesn't have any effect either. While Erikson storms off to report Murdock's behaviour to Captain Smith, showing again that he is the officer who does the right thing, Murdock calls Lightoller to the chart room - even though the latter points out that he is not allowed to leave the bridge - to discuss two more ice warnings. Faced with these new reports, Lightoller suddenly springs into action and ascertains that the reported icebergs are indeed in their path.
Just as both officers return to the bridge, the lookout calls the bridge about an iceberg in their path, a call that Murdock takes personally, so there really seems to have been nobody on the bridge while Murdock and Lightoller were discussing the ice warnings. Against Lightoller's advice to ram the iceberg, Murdock tries to avoid it - with the well-known consequences. Faced with the fact that the ship is badly damaged, Lightoller breaks down in hysteric tears, and Murdock, after closing the watertight doors, informing Chief Engineer Vickers and instructing the wireless operators to send out a distress call, shoots himself. Very symbolically his blood drenches a White Star pennant on the chart table.
The way the Titanic's collision with the iceberg is described is based largely on the description in Max Dittmar-Pittmann's 'memoirs': Murdock being in command while the Captain attends a party, Murdock summoning the second officer to the chart room just before they hit the iceberg, and Murdock's suicide appear in both Dittmar-Pittmann's so-called memoirs and Prechtl's novel. How much Prechtl based on Dittmar-Pittmann's description could only be ascertained if it were possible to find out whether Prechtl did have contact to Dittmar-Pittmann or perhaps attended one of the talks Dittmar-Pittmann gave for quite a while.
This (somewhat lengthy) description of the Titanic's collision with the iceberg is a good indication of what Prechtl was doing in his novel: his account of the events is not completely wrong but he is playing fast and loose with the facts, depicting the ship's crew, with the exception of fictional Erikson, as overly confident or incompetent. Erikson is escorting Captain Smith to the bridge when they hit the iceberg. Somewhat surprisingly this paragon of an officer subsequently vanishes from the novel.
The story focuses instead on the reaction of various sections of the ship's passengers and crew to the accident. Astor is co-opted as deputy officer to replace Murdock. While there is hardly any word on any of the other officers, Astor is seen as in charge of getting the first class passengers into boats, a task he fulfils in exemplary fashion. Astor in the end gives up his place in the boat for a scrawny, disgusting Polish woman with a crippled baby (a scene that reeks unpleasantly of racism), who both die before the lifeboat is picked up by the Carpathia.
While Astor in the end proves himself to be a true 'titan', a hero and capable commander who selflessly steps back to give up his place in the boat for a woman, the rest of the crew, at least those appearing in Prechtl's description (as already mentioned the capable Erikson does not appear in this part of the novel), are of stuff less stern. 'Handsome' Moody is put in charge of one of the last boats to leave the ship, filled with such notables as Guggenheim, Widener and Roebling. The young officer from Wales (sic!) hopes to use his acquaintance with the important people in his charge to further his career. But, alas!, the boat's falls get stuck and it is impossible to either raise the boat again or lower it completely. Moody is not seaman enough to do anything about it. We are left to assume the boat's passengers all perish. Of course, all the people Prechtl put in the boat did die, but not sitting in a lifeboat.
Just as some writers, like Prechtl, seemed incapable to imagine that the Titanic struck the iceberg in clear weather and add some fog to explain the accident, they seem equally reluctant to have all the lifeboats leave the ship intact. In Prechtl's novel another boat is boarded pirate style by a group of stokers (who had been turned away from the boats earlier) while it swings down past a gangway door. The original occupants fall out of the boat when the stokers capture it. It subsequently breaks in two as it hits the side of the ship with all the rebellious stokers aboard who therefore meet what is presented as their just desserts.
The fictional officer seems to be introduced as a counterpoint to the actual crew, who are either overly confident, like Murdock, or have a weak character, like Lightoller. Both Murdock and Moody also are depicted as ignoring the peril around them to dream about their future. Considering that Prechtl had no compunction to change facts to suit his intentions, he could equally have given the real Third Officer Pitman the role he gave Erikson. Either Prechtl thought a Norwegian who had already had close encounters with ice served his purpose better, and/or a certain anti-British sentiment was the reason for his decision.
Looking Back
Looking back now, over 70 years later after the book was written, Titanensturz or as it is still called today Der Untergang der Titanic is a rather odd book, full of mythical occurrences and hair-raisingly distorted facts. There are also some moments when the sentiments expressed strike one as distinctively unpleasant, e.g. the description of the Polish woman and her child mentioned above, or as obviously anti-American (New York is the 'most abysmal city in the world').
It is, historically speaking, an interesting novel, due also to the influence it had both on the more famous German novel, Josef Pelz von Felinau's Titanic and the 1943 film, which shaped at least German perception of the Titanic disaster for a long time.
The book was published in the USA in 1940 and was repeatedly reprinted in the 1940s. (thanks to Michael Tennaro for the information). I would be very interested in finding out how popular it was there and whether some of its anti-American sentiments were toned down in the translation.
The original fictional officer and inspiration for Prechtl: Max Dittmar-Pittmann
Another fictional Third Officer, strong influence of Prechtl noticeable: Third Officer Hans Erik Petersen
Return to Fictional Officers of the Titanic