What do the Cooper Union, Astor Place, Grace Church and a Chelsea pier have in common? (Part 1 of 2)

Answer: The Titanic.

We recently took a ghost tour about the tragic yet predicted sinking of the Titanic.  The tour was hosted by local tour company Boroughs of the Dead.  The tour recounts the many connections, both mundane and supernatural, of New York City with the Titanic.

The tour occurred on cool, clear night.  There was definitely a chill in the air and the stories made it all the more chilling as the evening and tour wore on.  Tour guide S.J. (pictured below) began the tour in the East Village near the steps of the Cooper Union on 8th Street.

Talented guide S.J. Costello.  Susan recognized S.J. from the Lower East Side Tenement Museum where S.J. is also a tour guide.   

The Cooper Union, on a cool April evening

Why the Cooper Union?  Well, this is where the story started to get chilling.  Writer Morgan Robertson once worked at the Cooper Union.  Earlier in life, Robertson had worked on ships and later wrote fictional stories based on his experiences.  He wrote a story entitled Futility about a virtually unsinkable passenger liner that sunk in the North Atlantic during April after striking an iceberg.  He published his story in 1898, 14 years before the Titanic sank.  And what was the name of the ship in Robertson's story?  Titan.  (Cue the spooky music.)

According to a Wikipedia article, there are several similarities between the fictional ship Titan and the actual ship Titanic:

• Both were triple screw (propeller)
• Described as "unsinkable"
  • The Titan was the largest craft afloat and the greatest of the works of men (800 feet, displacing 75,000 tons, up from 45,000 in the 1898 edition), and was deemed "practically unsinkable" (as quoted in Robertson's book).
• Shortage of lifeboats
  • The Titanic carried only 16 lifeboats, plus 4 folding lifeboats, less than half the number required for her passenger and crew capacity of 3000.
  • The Titan carried "as few as the law allowed", 24 lifeboats, which could carry less than half of her total complement of 3000.
• Struck an iceberg
  • Moving at 22½ knots, the Titanic struck an iceberg on the starboard side on the night of April 14, 1912, in the North Atlantic, 400 nautical miles (740 km; 460 mi) away from Newfoundland.
  • Moving at 25 knots, The Titan also struck an iceberg on the starboard side on an April night in the North Atlantic, 400 nautical miles (740 km; 460 mi) from Newfoundland.
• Sinking
  • When Titanic sank, more than half of her 2200 passengers and crew died.
  • When Titan sank, more than half of her 2500 passengers drowned.

Of course, Robertson's story was not the only predictive tale with similarities to the actual sinking.  Two stories by fiction writer W.T. Stead tell the 1886 tale of a ship that sank with too few lifeboats resulting in many lives lost and the 1892 tale of another ship sinking after hitting an iceberg.  The stories predated the sinking of the Titanic by two decades.  W.T. Stead died in 1913.  How did he die?  He was a first class passenger aboard the Titanic and went down with the ship.  (Cue the spooky music.)

From the Cooper Union, we walked across the street to Astor Place.  Why Astor Place?  First, Astor Place was named for fur trader and real estate magnate John Jacob Astor.  The namesake died a century before the Titanic sank.  So, no connection there.  However, his immense fortune survived him and was eventually inherited in part by his great-great-grandson, John Jacob Astor IV.  The later Astor spent lavishly, including booking first class accommodations on the maiden voyage of the Titanic.  When the time came, he respected the "women and children only" protocol, put his pregnant second wife on a lifeboat and then, because there were no more lifeboats, went down with the Titanic.  Second, Astor Place is where the former Wanamaker's department store building stands to this day.  In April 1912, the radio antenna on top of the Wanamaker's building received transmissions from the Titanic and the rescue ships, including the Carpathia, which docked in New York City with Titanic survivors 3 days later.

The final radio transmission from Titanic: 

          15 April 1912, sometime between 2.15 a.m. and 2.25 a.m.

          R.M.S. Titanic to R.M.S. Carpathia:

          “SOS SOS CQD CQD Titanic. We are sinking fast. Passengers are being put into boats. Titanic.”

 ("CQD" was a maritime distress signal in the early 20th century.)

The former Wanamaker's annex, completed in 1907 .  Radio antenna on top of the building received reports of the sinking as it occurred.  Today, the building is home to AOL offices and a Kmart store.

During the tour, we realized that we had inadvertently booked the tour for April 15, the date in 1913 when the ship sank.  We toured on the anniversary on the sinking.  (Cue the spooky music.)

Next up:  Part 2--more of the tour.