Army link to heroic sailor thrice blessed
Army link to heroic sailor thrice blessed
A postcard of the Empress of Ireland that sank in the St Lawrence River in 1941. Of the 1477 people on board, 1012 died, including 167 Salvationists, making it the worst peacetime maritime disaster in Canadian history.
Frank Tower’s introduction to The Salvation Army was brief, but it was a moment he remembered for the rest of his life.
As a younger man, he found a steady line of work by signing aboard steamers that crisscrossed the Atlantic. A tough fellow with a strong back who was not afraid of hard work, he became a ‘stoker’, shovelling coal into the ocean liners’ insatiable boilers.
A photo of a man thought to be Frank Tower.
And so it was that on one of the many ships on which he worked through the course of his life that Frank Tower would achieve a most unusual reason for celebrity, plus a link forever forged with Salvation Army history. What we are about to learn about this ‘thrice-blessed’ man qualifies his story as part of the Army’s archives.
It was 28 May 1914, and Frank arrived at the dock in Quebec City where the RMS Empress Of Ireland was moored, ready for the six-day journey to Liverpool, England. He had made the trip across the ocean many times before – and aboard more ships than he cared to count. But this voyage was ill-fated. During the early hours of 29 May, the Empress Of Ireland would go to the bottom of Canada’s St Lawrence River, taking with her more than a thousand souls.
There were 200 Salvationists on board, taking passage to England and the International Congress being held in London. But 167 Salvationists were promoted to glory in the disaster – among them the territorial commander for Canada and Bermuda, Commissioner David Rees, other high-ranking officers, and most of the renowned Canadian Staff Band.
In fact, the band gave an impromptu concert on the deck of the ship before they set sail. One can only imagine the excitement filling the air as passengers and crew members boarded while hearing the lilting melodies played by some of the best musicians Canada offered. It is almost certain that Frank Tower heard the music, either as he arrived at the dock or even as he went about his many duties before the voyage could begin.
It is also certain that with so many Salvationists about that Frank had ample opportunity to speak with some of them before his shift in the engine room began later that evening.
Ted Hanagan was the bandmaster of the Canadian Staff Band on the Empress of Ireland. He and his wife Edith perished in the sinking but their little girl, Grace, survived.
Until this point, Frank’s association with his new friends was a happy one, sharing in the excitement and adventure of the trip that lay ahead. But joy turned into sorrow just hours later as he helped pull several of the dozens of surviving Salvationists into lifeboats.
Frank was in the engine room when calamity struck. Fog had enveloped most of the river. The Empress and the SS Storstad suddenly were engaged on a collision course. The Storstad rammed broadside into the Empress, leaving a huge gash below the waterline. With water surging in, Frank and his workmates dropped their shovels and made for the nearest vertical ladder.
As he ran for his life, Frank must have been thinking, “Oh no – not again!” For he also survived, in a similar fashion, the same nightmare only two years earlier, when he worked aboard the RMS Titanic!
In the event of an emergency, Frank’s crew was instructed to proceed to Lifeboat No.5, which they did. But due to the extreme tilt of the ship, the lifeboat swung out, slipped off its davits and dropped into the water. Fortunately, it fell upright – but now it was drifting away.
Frank dived into the water, secured the lifeboat, and spent the next few hours plucking Salvationists and other survivors out of the cold water.
Sure, Frank was a hero. But he achieved a celebrity he’d rather not have endured – having been ‘twice blessed’ in surviving two maritime disasters. And the Army thereafter held Frank Tower in high esteem, not just for his heroism but for his friendliness before and after the disaster – a bond between the two until his death a few decades later.
No doubt Frank was blessed – but not just ‘twice blessed’. For you see, his next assignment was aboard yet another ill-fated vessel, the RMS Lusitania, sunk by German U-boats at the outset of World War One! Yes, he survived that one as well in nearly identical fashion.
So we leave him ‘thrice blessed’ – and we are blessed as well, now that we know this story from the Army’s archives.
Major Frank Duracher is a former editor of Warcry in Australia.
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