Reflections from the Past
Issue date: 2/3/10 Section: Perspectives
The Mirror has been a part of Drury nearly as long as the university has existed. The photo is of the newspaper's staff from 1896; the young man seated at the right is Carlos Hurd, Class of 1897, who served as the editor of The Mirror his junior and senior years. Not many people know that Carlos Hurd played a very significant role related to the sinking of the Titanic.
After graduating from Drury, he took at job at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a paper that was at the time owned by Joseph Pulitzer. Pulitzer also owned the New York Evening World.
In 1912, Hurd and his wife, Katherine, decided to take a trip to Europe. They boarded the Carpathia, which left New York on April 11; their trip was uneventful until the morning of April 15.
When the Hurds awoke that morning, they noticed that the ship's engines were stopped and that there seemed to be a commotion on deck. Hurd went on deck to learn that the Titanic had sunk, and that the Carpathia was picking up survivors.
Unbeknownst to Hurd, his boss Ralph Pulitzer (the son of Joseph Pulitzer) had sent a series of radio messages to the Carpathia, urging Hurd to interview the Titanic's survivors and get the story of the tragedy. But the Carpathia's captain, a man named Arthur Rostron, had not passed the messages on to Hurd, and had declared a news "blackout" on the event. He even went so far as to confiscate all of the stationary on the Carpathia so that Hurd would not be able to write the story down.
Yet even though he never received Pulitzer's radio messages, Hurd knew the importance of the story and set to work interviewing the survivors of the Titanic, including the ship's officer who had been at the helm on the night of the sinking. Hurd wrote down notes on any scrap of paper that he could find, even toilet paper. Finally, Hurd was able to piece together a 5,000-word story detailing first-hand accounts of the sinking.
There remained the problem of how to get the story to Pulitzer's representatives. The Carpathia turned back to take the surviovors to New York, but Hurd knew that the ship's crew would not let him leave the ship with the written story. So he and a Titanic survivor named Spencer Silverthorne put the manuscript in a cigar box, waterproofed the box, and attached champagne corks to the box so that it would float. When they arrived in New York Harbor, a tug hired by Ralph Pulitzer pulled up along the Carpathia, and the editor of the New York Evening World, Charles E. Chapin, shouted to Hurd, telling him to throw the box to him. Hurd did so, but the box became entangled in one of the Carpathia's guy wires. Fortunately, someone reached up, grabbed the box, and tossed it down to Chapin. The story was published in the New York Evening World and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Hurd wrote several other stories about the Titanic disaster in the following days; his wife, Katherine, also wrote a story entitled, "Stories of Women Who Survived the Titanic."
To show his appreciation, Ralph Pulitzer gave Carlos Hurd a $1,000.00 bonus, and told him to take an extra three week's vacation. The Hurds boarded the Carpathia again and went on to Europe, where they spent two months on vacation.
After graduating from Drury, he took at job at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a paper that was at the time owned by Joseph Pulitzer. Pulitzer also owned the New York Evening World.
In 1912, Hurd and his wife, Katherine, decided to take a trip to Europe. They boarded the Carpathia, which left New York on April 11; their trip was uneventful until the morning of April 15.
When the Hurds awoke that morning, they noticed that the ship's engines were stopped and that there seemed to be a commotion on deck. Hurd went on deck to learn that the Titanic had sunk, and that the Carpathia was picking up survivors.
Unbeknownst to Hurd, his boss Ralph Pulitzer (the son of Joseph Pulitzer) had sent a series of radio messages to the Carpathia, urging Hurd to interview the Titanic's survivors and get the story of the tragedy. But the Carpathia's captain, a man named Arthur Rostron, had not passed the messages on to Hurd, and had declared a news "blackout" on the event. He even went so far as to confiscate all of the stationary on the Carpathia so that Hurd would not be able to write the story down.
Yet even though he never received Pulitzer's radio messages, Hurd knew the importance of the story and set to work interviewing the survivors of the Titanic, including the ship's officer who had been at the helm on the night of the sinking. Hurd wrote down notes on any scrap of paper that he could find, even toilet paper. Finally, Hurd was able to piece together a 5,000-word story detailing first-hand accounts of the sinking.
There remained the problem of how to get the story to Pulitzer's representatives. The Carpathia turned back to take the surviovors to New York, but Hurd knew that the ship's crew would not let him leave the ship with the written story. So he and a Titanic survivor named Spencer Silverthorne put the manuscript in a cigar box, waterproofed the box, and attached champagne corks to the box so that it would float. When they arrived in New York Harbor, a tug hired by Ralph Pulitzer pulled up along the Carpathia, and the editor of the New York Evening World, Charles E. Chapin, shouted to Hurd, telling him to throw the box to him. Hurd did so, but the box became entangled in one of the Carpathia's guy wires. Fortunately, someone reached up, grabbed the box, and tossed it down to Chapin. The story was published in the New York Evening World and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Hurd wrote several other stories about the Titanic disaster in the following days; his wife, Katherine, also wrote a story entitled, "Stories of Women Who Survived the Titanic."
To show his appreciation, Ralph Pulitzer gave Carlos Hurd a $1,000.00 bonus, and told him to take an extra three week's vacation. The Hurds boarded the Carpathia again and went on to Europe, where they spent two months on vacation.
Article last update: 2/2/10 at 8:35 PM CST
Be the first to comment on this story