The Postcard
A postcard that was published by Palphot Ltd. The photography was by L. Borodulin, and the card was printed in Israel.
The card was posted in Israel on Wednesday the 14th. February 1995. It was sent to a recipient who lived in Eastern Road, East Finchley, London N2, England.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Tuesday.
Waiting for the Minyan
man!!
Weather fine, food OK,
everything in its proper
place.
Having a good rest.
Love from Brian."
A minyan is a quorum of ten men over the age of 13 required for traditional Jewish public worship.
Vietnamese Boat People
So what else happened on the day that Brian posted the card?
Well, on the 14th. February 1996, violent clashes erupted between Filipino soldiers and Vietnamese boat people, as the Filipino government attempted to forcibly repatriate hundreds of Vietnamese asylum seekers.
Eva Hart
The day also marked the death from cancer of Eva Hart, British survivor of RMS Titanic which sank on the 15th. April 1912. Eva was 91 when she died.
Eva Hart - The Early Years
Eva Hart was born in Ilford, London, England, to a Jewish family. Her parents were Benjamin Hart and his wife Esther (née Bloomfield). She was their only child.
Eva was educated at St. Mary's Convent in Gidea Park, London. In early 1912, Benjamin decided to take his family and emigrate to Winnipeg, Manitoba.
On Board the Titanic
Eva was seven years old when she and her parents boarded the Titanic as second-class passengers on the 10th. April 1912 at Southampton. They had originally been booked on a ship called the Philadelphia, but the coal strike at Southampton that spring kept it from sailing, and many of her passengers were transferred to the Titanic.
Her mother felt uneasy about the Titanic, and feared that some catastrophe would happen. To call a ship unsinkable was, in her mind, flying in the face of God. With such fear, she slept only during the day, and stayed awake in their cabin at night fully dressed.
Eva was sleeping when the Titanic struck the iceberg at 11:40 pm on the 14th. April. Her mother was awake at the time, and felt "a slight bump." She immediately asked her husband to investigate this, and he left the cabin.
Upon his return, he alerted her and Eva to the collision, and after wrapping her in a blanket, he carried her to the boat deck. He placed his wife and daughter in Lifeboat No. 14 and told Eva to: 'Be a good girl and hold Mummy's hand'. It was the last thing he ever said to her, and the last time she ever saw him.
She and her mother were picked up by the rescue ship RMS Carpathia and arrived in New York City on 18 April. Her father perished and his body, if recovered, was never identified.
Memories of the Sinking of the Titanic
Being seven years old at the time of the sinking, Eva maintained several vivid memories:
"We went on the day on the boat train.
I was 7, I had never seen a ship before.
It looked very big.
Everybody was very excited. We went
down to the cabin, and that's when my
mother said to my father that she had
made up her mind quite firmly that she
would not go to bed in that ship.
She would sit up at night. She decided
that she wouldn't go to bed at night,
and she didn't!"
In a 1993 interview Eva stated:
"I saw that ship sink. I never closed my
eyes. I didn't sleep at all. I saw it, I heard
it, and nobody could possibly forget it.
I can remember the colours, the sounds,
everything.
The worst thing I can remember are the
screams. It seemed as if once everybody
had gone, drowned, finished, the whole
world was standing still.
There was nothing, just this deathly, terrible
silence in the dark night with the stars
overhead.
The band played one version of 'Nearer
My God to Thee' of which there are three,
and the one they played was the one that
was played in church.
I saw that ship sink. And I saw that ship
break in half."
Outspoken Criticism
Hart was one of the most outspoken survivors concerning the Titanic's lack of sufficient lifeboats and of any salvage attempts of the Titanic after its discovery in 1985 by Robert Ballard.
She frequently criticised the White Star Line for failing to provide enough lifeboats for all aboard the Titanic:
"If a ship is torpedoed, that's war. If it
strikes a rock in a storm, that's nature.
But just to die because there weren't
enough lifeboats, that's ridiculous."
Hart was vocal in interviews about the ship having broken in half, a widely debated rumour that was later proven to be true after the discovery of the wreck site.
She was also adamant regarding the controversy surrounding the SS Californian, a ship that was only a few miles from the Titanic, and yet failed to respond to distress rockets and calls for help. Hart claimed the vessel was less than ten miles from the Titanic, not nineteen as was previously believed:
"I saw that ship (the Californian). It was
terribly close...I didn't see a ship nineteen
miles away. I saw a ship that was so close;
and they said at the time it was less than
nine miles away, and yet now they're trying
to say it was nineteen... I saw it you know,
and it wasn't just 'lights on the horizon' –
you could see it was a ship.
And I saw our rockets being fired, which
that ship must have seen.
Well, this inquiry says that they did see it,
but they didn't think it was a portent of
danger.
I would have thought in the middle of the
Atlantic in the middle of the night that
rockets must mean trouble."
When salvaging efforts began in 1987, she was quick to note that the Titanic was a grave site, and should be treated as such. She often decried the "insensitivity and greed" and labelled the salvors "fortune hunters, vultures, pirates, and grave robbers." In 'Titanic: The Complete Story', she stated:
"I hope severely that they will never attempt
to raise part of it. I do hope they will remember
this is a grave - a grave of 1,500 people who
should never have died, and I don't think you
should go down there and rob graves, and I'm
very much opposed to it."
Eva Hart's Later Life
Hart remained active in Titanic-related activities until well into her 80's. In 1982, she returned to the United States and joined several other survivors at a Titanic Historical Society convention commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Titanic sinking.
She participated in three more conventions in 1987, 1988, and in 1992. In 1994, she wrote an autobiography, 'Shadow of the Titanic – A Survivor's Story', in which she described her experiences aboard the ship and the lasting implications of its sinking.
On the 15th. April 1995, the 83rd anniversary of the disaster, she and fellow second-class Titanic survivor Edith Brown dedicated a memorial garden plaque in the grounds of the National Maritime Museum in London.
Death of Eva Hart
Hart died on the 14th. February 1996 in a hospice in Chadwell Heath, two weeks after her 91st. birthday. Her death left nine remaining survivors. In her memory, a Wetherspoon's pub in Chadwell Heath is named 'The Eva Hart'.
James Cameron's 'Titanic'
James Cameron's 1997 film 'Titanic' features a scene where a father says to his daughter:
"You hold Mummy's hand
and be a good little girl".
This is a reference to Hart's father, Benjamin, who spoke the same words on the night of the disaster, when she was put into a lifeboat.
