The last image that many survivors of the Titanic recounted was the band playing steadfastly to soothe the passengers while the waters rose and the ship went down, while people struggled for survival. That last song was a hymn, "Nearer My God to Thee."
That band was led by Wallace Hartley. Hartley had previously played aboard the Lusitania, another doomed ship. He thought he had played his last concert aboard a cruise ship, since he was engaged to be married—until he was recruited at the last minute to play aboard the maiden voyage of the "unsinkable" pleasure ship Titanic.
It was after the Titanic hit the deadly iceberg that Hartley brought together his orchestra of five with another trio of musicians who were also performers aboard ship to form that impromptu heroic band of eight. They would go down in history—though they had never played together before. Not all agreed what the final song was, but many survivors recalled that the combined orchestra played "Nearer My God to Thee" as the ship slipped beneath the waves.
The members of this combined musical group acted selflessly, a genuine picture of grace under pressure, lives ready to be lost doing all they could to calm the souls of those who were about to lose theirs—and others who would be saved.
It was after midnight when the musicians began to play as if nothing were wrong. The heroic band played as the decks continued to slant higher and higher. Though their repertoire included "Alexander's Ragtime Band," as the stern rose steeply they began the strains of "Nearer My God to Thee." How many souls found that nearness to God at the last moment because the band played on, only eternity will tell.
Hartley's body was retrieved two weeks after the sinking and his funeral was held at Bethel independent Methodist Church in Colne, England. 30,000 people came. At his funeral, the orchestra played the music of the hymn that he had played until he could play no more—"Nearer My God to Thee." The song was played a second time at his graveside service. The words of the hymn are engraved on his tombstone.
100 years ago today, the band played on ... a song that would echo into eternity.
Here are the words of that great hymn:
Nearer, My God, to Thee
[Public domain]
Words: Sarah F. Adams (1805-1848)
Music: Lowell Mason (1792-1872)
Nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
E'en though it be a cross that raiseth me,
still all my song shall be,
nearer, my God, to thee;
nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down,
darkness be over me, my rest a stone;
yet in my dreams I'd be
nearer, my God, to thee;
nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
There let the way appear, steps unto heaven;
all that thou sendest me, in mercy given;
angels to beckon me
nearer, my God, to thee;
nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
Then, with my waking thoughts bright with thy praise,
out of my stony griefs Bethel I'll raise;
so by my woes to be
nearer, my God, to thee;
nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
Or if, on joyful wing cleaving the sky,
sun, moon, and stars forgot, upward I fly,
still all my song shall be,
nearer, my God, to thee;
nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
A contemporary drawing, by Walter R. Allman, published in the Toledo News-Bee in 1912
