Dr. Blackmarr---"Carpathia" passenger---items

[Thomas Golembiewski]

The following news items were culled from various Chicago newspapers concerning Dr. Frank H. Blackmarr, a lst class passenger aboard the rescue vessel, Carpathia.

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Chicago Examiner, Thursday, April 18, 1912, p. 4, c. 4:

CHICAGOAN FLASHES NEWS OF THE SAVED

City’s Residents Taken Aboard the Carpathia Well, Says Dr. Blackmarr.
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The first communication sent directly to Chicago from the Carpathia since it picked up the survivors from the Titanic was received yesterday. The message read as follows:

“Carpathia picked up 700 Titanic, mostly women. Over 2,000 lost.
Iceberg continuous mass twenty-five miles long. Chicagoans on this ship well.
—Dr. F. H. Blackmarr.”

The sender of the message, Dr. Frank H. Blackmarr, is a Chicago physician with offices in the Marshall Field Building, and resides at 6349 Kimbark avenue. He was bound for Europe to continue his investigations of radium and substitutes, for which he has become well known in the United States.

He took the Carpathia because its route touched Mediterranean ports he wished to visit. The telegraphic code signs show the message was sent by wireless to Halifax, and from there to Chicago by Western Union Telegraph. The message was read to Dr. Blackmarr’s mother, who resides at the home of her son, last night.

“I am glad to hear my son sent the message,” declared Mrs. Blackmarr. “It shows that he is doing everything he can for the people saved from the Titanic.”

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Chicago Tribune, Thursday, April 18, 1912, p. 4, c. 4 (with photos and telegram):

The first communication sent directly to Chicago from the Carpathia since it picked up the survivors from the Titanic was received yesterday by the Tribune.

The sender, Dr. Frank H. Blackmarr, is a prominent Chicago physician. He has offices in the Marshall Field building and resides at 6349 Kimbark avenue. He was bound for Europe to continue his investigations of radium and substitutes, for which he has become well known in the United States. He took the Carpahtia because its route touched Mediterranean ports he wished to visit. The telegraphic code signs show the message was sent by wireless to Halifax and from there to Chicago by Western Union telegraph. The cost of the message was a trifle when compared with the importance of its contents, but telegraphers took interest in the fact that the cost of sending the wireless from the Carpahtia to the shore was $6.88, while the charge for relaying it at press rates was only 22 cents.

RECEIVED AT:
3 Chc Collect 6.88 and 22 Wireless Via Halifax Dpr.
S.S. Carpathia 17
Chicago Tribune
Chicago.

Carpathia picked up seven hundred Titanic, mostly women.
Over two thousand lost. Ice berg continuous mass twenty five
miles. Chicagoans this ship well.

Dr. F. H. Blackmarr
8:35 a. m.
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Chicago Record Herald, Tuesday, April 23, 1912, p. 2, c. 5:

DESCRIPTION OF WRECK

While the Carpathia was returning to New York with the Titanic survivors a description of the scene on the rescue ship was written by Mrs. C. F. Crain, who was the first Carpathia passenger to hear of the disaster. Mrs. Crain and her husband, Captain C. F. Crain of the United States army, stationed at Fort Sheridan, were on their way to Spain when the news reached the ship:

“I was the only passenger on the Carpathia to know about the accident until the first small boat arrived alongside,” wrote Mrs. Crain to a friend in Chicago. “About 1:30 o’clock in the morning the ship surgeon, Dr. McGee, came to see my husband, who was ill. He told me of the message announcing that the Titanic was sinking, which had just been received by wireless.

“The lifeboats were made ready to lower, the rope gangways slung over the side and the baskets put in shape to haul up the children. On all sides of our ship were icebergs. The captain said we picked our way through like a snake.

“Rockets were sent up, and on such a beautiful starlit night, and with the sea like oil, it seemed as if we must see and be seen for miles. Finally we saw a blue light which seemed to flicker and go out. A voice cried, ‘Shut off your engines.’ Then a boat came alongside. Many of the women were in evening dress.

“After an hour or so we had all the survivors on board, a pitiful 700. We could hear the agonized cries for help as the stern rose high in the air, and then crashed down with the waves.”

Writes of the Rescue

How passengers and crew on the Carpathia sacrificed their comfort to provide for the survivors of the Titanic disaster is told in a letter written to THE RECORD-HERALD by Cecil R. Francis, son of P. D. Francis, of 6022 Kimbark avenue, a student at the Morgan Park Academy. He was with Dr. Frank H. Blackmarr of Chicago, a passenger on the Carpathia, bound for Genoa. Francis is a personal friend of Harold Cottam, wireless operator on the rescue ship. He and Dr. Blackmarr obtained pictures of survivors picked up from lifeboats and of the iceberg which the Titanic struck.

“Dr. Blackmarr and I were the first passengers on the Carpathia who knew the Titanic was in trouble,” Francis said in his letter. “Operator Cottam came to our cabin and told us immediately after he notified the captain. We dressed and kept a lookout until dawn, when we sighted some of the lifeboats, which looked like specks in the distance.

“When the survivors were brought aboard the majority of the passengers on the Carpathia relinquished their staterooms and provided the unfortunates with clothing. Among the rescued were three motherless babies, and a number of small children. One little fellow, a son of Dr. Washington Dodge of San Francisco, was fitted out with a pair of knickerbockers which the women made out of a steamer rug.

Floating Ice in Sea

“The sea in the vicinity of the wreck was covered with debris and floating ice. There was an ice field, apparently twenty-five or thirty miles long, with a number of large bergs visible. The temperature was low and my heaviest clothing, with a sweater and a big ulster, was none too comfortable.

“During the trip back to New York everybody, including crew and passengers seemed to forget themselves in devoting their time and attention to trying to make the survivors of the wreck as comfortable as possible. We slept anywhere we could, a part of the time on mattresses in the cabin, and some of us even slept in the dining saloon on the tables.”

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Chicago Tribune, Friday, December 12, 1919, p. 5, c. 6:

CHICAGO NEWS IN BRIEF

The soldiers at the United States hospital at Forty-seventh street and Drexel boulevard will receive Christmas gifts purhased with $100 which Dr. Frank H. Blackmarr of 5555 Hyde Park boulevard donated as “backing” for Miss Rachel Kinsolving in case her insistence upon having the soldiers invited to her musicals should make her regular patrons withdraw their subscription. No subsriptions have been withdrawn, so the money with other sums sent in goes to the hospital.

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Chicago Tribune, April 12, 1935, p. 23, c. 4:

MUSEUM GETS LIFE BELT, RELIC FROM TITANIC

A life belt taken from a survivor of the Titanic and a tin dipper used to bail water from one of the lifeboats of the liner that sank in the Atlantic with a loss of `1,517 lives on April 15, 1912, have been presented to the Chicago Historical society and will be placed on display there next Monday, the 23rd anniversary of the tragedy.

Dr. Frank H. Blackmarr, 7350 Phillips avenue, a passenger on the Carpathia, which picked up the occupants of thirteen of the Titanic’s lifeboats, was the donor of the relics.

The flag of the steam cutter which was on the deck of the battleship Maine when it sank in Havana harbor on Feb. 15, 1898, also has been given to the historical society. Rear Admiral Wat T. Cluverius, who then was a young naval officer in command of the cutter, gave the flag to the society before he left the Great Lakes Naval Training station recently for a new post with the Pacific fleet.

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Chicago Sun-Times, Saturday, April 25, 1998, p. 3, c. 1 (with photo):

WITNESS’ SCRAPBOOK OF TITANIC DISASTER TO BE AUCTIONED TODAY

Auctioneer Doug Ross (right) looks through a tattered 85-year-old scrapbook, put together by a witness to the Titanic disaster, that will be auctioned today in Elgin. The scrapbook includes photos of survivors, two watercolor paintings of the 1912 shipwreck by another witness and handwritten survivor accounts (above). It was assembled by Chicago physician Frank H. Blackmarr, a passenger aboard the ocean liner Carpahtia, which went ot the Titanic’s aid after it struck an iceberg. The bidding is expected to start at $20,000.
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Sad he didn't donate his precious scrapbook to the CHS---it would've been preserved better . . .

The Chicago contingent aboard the Carpathia consisted of Capt. and Mrs. Crain of Lake Forest, Dr. Blackmarr and his traveling companion, Cecil R. Francis (who lived within blocks of one another), and Miss Mary Fabian of Evanston---or, at least, these are the ones who received press exposure . . .

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[Timothy Trower]

I've said it before, Thomas -- you are doing a valuable service for all Titanic historians by mining these Chicago newspapers.

Thank you.

Tim

[Karen Kamuda]

There is a remedy to those who are interested in seeing the treasures that are in Dr. Blackmarr's scrapbook. The auctioneer allowed photographs of the collection to be taken and the result was published in color in two issues of The Titanic Commutator:
No 143: http://titanichistoricalsociety.net/sto ... cts_id=520

No 147: http://titanichistoricalsociety.net/sto ... cts_id=524

Karen

[WITNESS’ SCRAPBOOK OF TITANIC DISASTER TO BE AUCTIONED TODAY
Auctioneer Doug Ross (right) looks through a tattered 85-year-old scrapbook, put together by a witness to the Titanic disaster, that will be auctioned today in Elgin. The scrapbook includes photos of survivors, two watercolor paintings of the 1912 shipwreck by another witness and handwritten survivor accounts (above). It was assembled by Chicago physician Frank H. Blackmarr, a passenger aboard the ocean liner Carpahtia, which went ot the Titanic’s aid after it struck an iceberg. The bidding is expected to start at $20,000.
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Sad he didn't donate his precious scrapbook to the CHS---it would've been preserved better . . .]