One of my favorite stories that came out of the sinking of the Titanic
was the story of the head baker Charles Joughin who famously got drunk
and rode on the stern of the ship as it went beneath the waves,
and as I tell his story I'm going to make a cocktail that he might have enjoyed:
the Murphy cocktail using a recipe from 1910.
Charles Joughin and the Murphy cocktail this time on Drinking History.
So we really don't know what Charles Joughin was drinking that night on April 14th 1912.
Many stories say that it was whiskey though that probably comes from the story of Walter Belford
who was actually an imposter who years later stole many aspects of Joughin's story.
He was never even on the Titanic.
Now during the inquiry Joughin talked about drinking,
and just said that he had liquor and when pressed on specifically what it was he was drinking.
They basically said it doesn't matter so all we know is liquor.
Years later his family claimed that he said that he had been drinking Schnapps,
but then other family members said that he didn't drink at all
which is definitely not the case.
So I've opted to make a drink that he probably would have enjoyed
had he been able to sit down in the first class smoke room.
A Murphy cocktail using a recipe from 'Jack's Manual' written in 1910.
"40% Italian Vermouth, 40% rye whiskey, 20% sloe gin, a 1/2 glass cracked ice.
Frappe and strain. Serve."
So for this cocktail i'm using three liquors that would have been available in 1912,
and are available today online at Curiada. I'll put a link in the description.
So it's one jigger of Carpano Antiqua vermouth,
one jigger of Canadian club rye whiskey,
and a half jigger of Hayman's sloe gin.
Add some ice and then shake well.
[Maxwell shakes well]
And then strain into a rocks glass half filled with cracked ice,
and speaking of ice Joughin often claimed that he saw the iceberg on that night of April 14th,
as did many on the ship.
But when he told his family about it he added the lovely little embellishment
"I knew it was an iceberg when i saw it because I saw a polar bear,
and he waved to me."
So let's give this drink a try. Now he doesn't mention any kind of garnish, though
I think an orange twist or a lemon twist might be good but i want to try it with nothing.
Cheers!
Hm!
Interesting.
That's good.
So you get a little bit of the whiskiness. You get that kind of
woody- This whiskey has a little bit of a woodiness and a little bit of the burn
but that is
really put to rest by the sweetness of these two ingredients especially the sloe gin.
You get that berriness
but it's not overwhelming because of the whiskey.
Honestly it really just reminds me a lot of a Manhattan which
you know with those two ingredients kind of makes sense.
And then this does add a little complexity to it but i think in doing so
it's missing a little bit of that whiskey
character that you want in a whiskey drink.
Also I don't know that I would do it on ice.
He's very specific in how he wants it
and I had to kind of question what he meant by frappe
but then looking throughout the rest of the book it became very clear that it is served over crushed ice.
I don't think it needs it. I think it would do much better in-
in you know up in a glass like this but
I didn't write the recipe.
Now going back to Joughin his little embellishment about the polar bear
obviously did not happen,
and there are other aspects of his story that kind of change with each telling
because he is asked about it many many times and of course when you tell the same story over and over
details will kind of change.
Also he was probably very drunk that night so you know
things things are a little fuzzy especially in that kind of situation but!
For the most part the narrative of his story remains consistent,
and this is that narrative.
Charles Joughin was born in Birkenhead just outside of Liverpool in 1878.
So he was only33 years old when he was given the post of head baker on the Titanic.
Though the person that plays him in the 97 movie is like in his late '50s so
I don't really see why why they did that but
neither here nor there that doesn't matter.
What does matter is Charles Joughin story of what happened to him
on the night of April 14th 1912.
He told the British inquiry that he was actually in his bunk when the ship hit the iceberg
even though he was midship he still felt the collision and got up.
Not long after Second Steward George Dodd came by and said
"Get up lads, we're sinking!"
And whether or not he had already been drinking at that point in the night, we don't know.
It wouldn't be surprising based on other people's accounts of Joughin but he was clear-headed enough
to know that he had a job to do.
Now each lifeboat was already stocked with water and hard tack
[Clack Clack]
but one of Joughin's duties was to further stock the lifeboats with fresh bread.
So at 12:15 AM he roused the 13 bakers on his staff
and directed them to get bread and take it up to the lifeboats.
15 minutes later all the bread had left the bakery and so he locked up,
and went up on deck to help load lifeboat number 10
which was the lifeboat that he was assigned to to actually have been on when the lifeboat lowered into the water.
It was women and children first but those women on deck said that they felt safer on the ship
rather than being lowered on a tiny boat in the north Atlantic.
And many of them simply walked away and went inside.
So Joughin went down to A deck and physically took women and children and dragged them up to the boat deck.
When he got back up there he had a mother and her two children,
but by now the ship was listing quite a bit
and the lifeboat was dangling several feet away from the side of the ship.
The children and the mother were afraid to make that leap but Joughin got no time for that!
Another crew member Frank Evans said that
Joughin "...threw them onto the women and he was catching children by their dresses and chucking them in."
But the mother refused to be chucked and instead decided to leap.
"She missed her footing... This steward named Burke got hold of her foot
and she swung head downwards for a few minutes...
Somebody caught her into B deck, no, A deck."
Joughin doesn't mention her again but Evans did say
that she was able to get back up to the boat deck just in time to be reunited with her children.
Once the boat was full, though it wasn't full, it could have easily carried 10 more people
Joughin stood there waiting to be ordered into the boat that he was supposed to be on...
but instead the officer ordered three other men into the boat,
and so Joughin stood there and
watched the boat lower without him.
He said that he thought it would set a bad example if he was to leap in without the order.
Well after being frankly screwed out of his place on a lifeboat
"I went down to my room and had a drop of liquor that I had down there,
and then while I was there I saw the old doctor and spoke to him and then I came upstairs again."
He knew that there weren't enough lifeboats and was told that the last lifeboat
had just lowered into the water.
"I went down onto B deck. The deck chairs were lying right along and i started throwing deck chairs through the large ports."
He threw about 50 deck chairs into the water hoping that one would still be available
when HE needed it.
"Then I went to the deck pantry, and while i was in there i thought i would take a drink of water,
and while I was getting the drink of water I heard a kind of crash as if something had buckled...
It was not an explosion or anything like that.
It was like as if the iron was parting...
As if part of the ship had buckled and then I heard a rush overhead."
He came out to see people fleeing toward the stern of the ship and so
he ran along though tried to stay separate from all of the other people.
And just then the ship lurched and he said that he saw hundreds of people
thrown to the side,
but he was able to grab a hold of the railing and swung himself onto the outside of the ship
and worked his way along the starboard side to the very back of the poop deck.
He testified that he didn't see anyone else there so that makes this exchange completely historically inaccurate,
but in those last seconds rather than panicking
"Well, I had tightened my belt and i had transferred something out of this pocket into my stern pocket.
I was just wondering what next to do when she went."
And when she went rather than being sucked down with the ship he says that he was able to just
step off into the water like an elevator.
"I do not believe my head went under the water at all."
For over two hours he treaded water in the pitch black unable to see anything around him,
and most people died long before two hours.
During the inquiry they suggested that it was the amount of alcohol that he had coursing through his bloodstream
that actually kept him warm in the water,
and I'm pretty sure science refutes that but
something worked
because he was still floating at daylight when he saw the overturned collapsible boat.
It had 25 men clinging to it including Second Officer Lytaller.
He swam toward it though he knew that there was no space on it for him,
though that didn't mean he didn't try but he was pushed away,
but one of the men a cook named Isaac Maynard reached out
and grabbed his hand and pulled him to the boat he didn't get him onto it but he held him at the side.
A half hour later one of the lifeboats with room for 10 people came within about 50 yards
and so he let go of Maynard's hand and swam to it.
A few hours later the Carpathia arrived
and rescued them and his only ailment
was frozen swollen feet which later he claimed were thought out in an oven.
"They popped me in the oven like one of me own pies!"
Now I don't know if that's true, and the story about the polar bear is definitely not true and there's still some questions about
if a bunch of alcohol can actually keep you warm when treading water in the north Atlantic but!
I can tell you if I ever do find myself in that kind of situation
I'll make sure to have meself a few Murphy cocktails just to be safe,
and I'll see you next time on Drinking History.