It’s been nearly 100 years since that fateful night in April 1912 as Fergus native Thomson Beattie plunged into the freezing waters of the Atlantic Ocean as the Titanic sank beneath him.
The fateful journey of the Titanic has riveted North Americans for a century with stories of wealth and power and tales of heroism, cowardice and tragic loss of life.
The irony, is that Thomson survived the sinking of the Titanic, only to perish in one of the lifeboats.
When the ship was struck, he and a friend ran to the roof of the officers’ quarters to assist others into the lifeboats. As the ship sank, Thomson scrambled from the water into Collapsible Boat A, but died of exposure. His body and two others were left as survivors were rescued.
According to reports listed as part of the county museum exhibit, “A month later, a witness aboard the Oceanic described a chilling scene. A lifeboat with three bodies was spotted drifting on the Atlantic: two were the sun bleached bodies of sailors and a third, wearing evening dress, was identified as Beattie. Sewn into canvas bags with steel bar at the end of each was draped with Union Jacks, burial services were read and the bodies were released into the sea.”
In remembrance of the tragic event, Wellington County Museum and Archives is telling Beattie story through photos and historical documents in the coming exhibit Thomson Beattie: A Titanic Tragedy.
Curator Susan Dunlop explained the museum held a Titanic exhibit in 1992 in conjunction with a travelling exhibit with the Royal Ontario Museum.
“As always, we wanted to put a personal touch. I’d done a fair bit of research on Thomson Beattie at that time and saved the research and photos. It took a number of months to do the initial research.”
So many people were mentioning the Titanic anniversary and asking about Beattie, and “We wanted to do the personal side of one victim.”
The exhibit takes in Beattie’s life in Fergus and Winnipeg and some of the ironic coincidences – such as his sending a postcard home to his six-year-old niece about his booking passage on an “unsinkable” boat.
“He didn’t even have to use the word Titanic – everyone knew what he meant.”
Dunlop said the exhibit is about bringing light to some of those stories. “There was indeed a lot of local connection at the time.”
Dunlop said Thomson was the youngest of 11 children.
“They were a very prominent family. His father was clerk of the county, then his brother James became clerk, and then James’ son John became clerk.”
After his father’s death in 1896, Thomson and his older brother Charles took their inheritance and moved to Winnipeg, where he became a successful real estate broker.
Now with the current exhibit, staff had to choose from its collection what would best represent Beattie’s story.
Dunlop said it marked a major difference between the exhibit in 1992 compared to the one today. “We didn’t use the internet at that time. There is so much about Thomson on the internet. We get emails from people all over who find that connection, and they contact us … for other exhibits as well.”
She added people also want to share their own connections through social media.
Dunlop said of Maud MacArthur, who worked for Thomson’s friend, Hugo Ross, “the letter that she sent back to family, was as if she were attempting to write herself into history.”
The placard with the display suggests what MacArthur described as an intense relationship with Beattie “may have been more wishful thinking than fact.”
Dunlop noted Thomson Beattie was the only person on board the ship with Fergus connections.
She said there were Newspaper articles that wanted to connect Hugo Ross, a business partner, “but as far as we could determine, there was no connection to Wellington County.”
For his life in Fergus, Dunlop said the museum had numerous photos to draw upon for the display.
“I thought people might be interested to see Thomson as a small child and as a handsome young teenager before he heads off.”
In talking about the odd coincidences, Dunlop asked “Do we read fate into our destinies – or are they really just coincidence.”
She said Thomson’s mother Janet [Wilson] was born on the Atlantic ocean in 1830 aboard the Justinian. “The story was always that the location of the ship [at his mother’s birth], was close to where the Titanic sank … with Thomson dying near the place she was born.”
Ironically, it was an illness among his friends that prompted Thomson and his friends from Winnipeg to book earlier passage home from Europe. They had been travelling Europe and the Middle East.
“One of them got very ill, so they decided to shorten their trip.”
A backdrop to the exhibit is a painting by award winning local artist Meredith Blackmore.
The painting creates the scene of the icebergs off in the distance.
“We were really glad to have it as part of the exhibit.
Thomson Beattie: A Titanic Tragedy opened on Feb. 25 at the Wellington County Museum and Archives in Aboyne.
The exhibit is on display until April 29. The galleries are open weekdays from 9:30am to 4:30pm and on weekends and holidays from 12 to 4pm.
For more information visit www.wcm.on.ca.
Additional information about the Titanic can be found at www.encyclopedia-titanica.org
