FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT MASONS AND THE TITANIC

1 BRITISH INQUIRY

The British inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic may have been influenced by the Freemasons, according to a newly released secret archive of the order. The archive confirms that not only the judge who oversaw the British Wreck Commissioner’s inquiry into the disaster and leading investigators but also some of those who escaped censure were Freemasons.

2 U.S. INQUIRY

A U.S. Senate inquiry into the sinking savaged the White Star Line and singled out the British Board of Trade for blame for lax regulations that allowed such a small number of lifeboats on the ship. However, the UK investigation, overseen by Lord Mersey, exonerated the Board of Trade.

3 BOARD EXONERATED

Lord Mersey, John Charles Bigham, was a Freemason, the records show. It appears, so too was the president of the Board of Trade, Sydney Buxton.

4 A MONTREAL LORD

The names of at least two of the inquiry’s five experts can be found in the masonic archive. Quebec-born Lord Pirrie, chairman of the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, which built the Titanic, and one of the directors of White Star’s parent company, also appears to have been a Freemason. Records show William Pirrie was initiated in Montreal in 1904.

5 CAPTAIN CLEARED

The British inquiry concluded that the ship’s captain, Edward Smith, had done “only that which other skilled men would have done in the same position,” and neither White Star nor its parent company, the International Mercantile Marine Company, was found negligent.