Cowardly Cosmo knew that sinking feeling all too well

TITANIC Belfast has re-opened for business, so I’m hoping to make my way there ASAP. Apart from it being an essential visit for anyone with an interest in nautical matters, I want to check out what details they have on Cosmo Duff Gordon.

The name may be familiar to you if you’re a sherry drinker — the Duff Gordon bodega still operates in Jerez. But Cosmo, sadly, became a byword for cowardice last century.

The Scottish landowner, right, was on board the Titanic’s maiden voyage. But when disaster struck Cosmo did little to cover himself in glory. Ignoring the ‘women and children first’ ethos, he ran for Lifeboat No.1 with his wife Lucy, and forced his way on board. He then bribed the coxswain to row away from the stricken Titanic and not pick up further survivors. Or so the accusations went.

On making landfall back in Britain, the Duff Gordons were questioned by Scotland Yard detectives, the only passengers to face police interrogation. Cosmo denied that he had bribed the crew, but admitted he had given money to the sailors. He maintained this was a charitable donation.

At a subsequent inquiry by the British Wreck Commissioner in London the Duff Gordons were ultimately exonerated. The findings did note, however, that had their lifeboat returned to the vicinity of the Titanic, other lives probably would’ve been saved.

In 2015, a letter written on behalf of Lucy to another survivor resurfaced (no pun intended).

It reads, ‘We do hope you have now quite recovered from your terrible experience. I am afraid our nerves are still bad, as we had such trouble and anxiety added to our awful experience by the very unjust enquiry when we arrived in London.’

Cosmo pretty much kept his head down from then onwards. Much like the Titanic itself, the episode became off-limits. Until the late 20th century, the Titanic was Belfast’s guilty secret, rarely mentioned.

But then slowly it began to dawn that a bob or two could be made from this disaster. And so it was that the story of the Titanic emerged — to the extent that we have a cracking good museum dedicated to the doomed ship.

As George Bernard Shaw so wisely put it: ‘If you can’t get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.’