I recently visited Halifaz, Nova Scotia on a New England Cruise. While there, I visited Fairview Lawn Cemetery where over 200 of the victims of the Titanic disaster were buried. The story of how the bodies found their final resting place there is both fascinating and tragic.
Two days after the the Titanic sank in 1912, the White Star Line dispatched the first of four Canadian vessels to search for bodies in the area of the sinking. Two of the vessels, the Mackay-Bennett and the Minia, were cable ships based in Halifax. Their crews normally worked on the high seas, repairing the underwater telegraph cables connecting North America and Europe. Suddenly they found themselves on a tragic mission.
Already in port, the Mackay-Bennett was able to leave Halifax almost immediately. She sailed on April 17th with a minister, an undertaker, and a cargo of ice, coffins, and canvas bags. The Minia was already at sea and had to come back to Halifax to take on similar supplies, and she departed on April 22nd.
Of all the recovery vessels, the Mackay-Bennett saw the worst of the tragedy and became known as the "Death Ship". Her crew recovered 306 bodies from the sea and some of the burials had to be held at sea.
In all, 209 bodies were brought back to the wharf in Halifax. The class barriers, so typical of life on the Titanic, were carefully respected even in death. The bodies of first-class passengers were uploaded in coffins, second and third-class passengers in canvas bags, and the crew on open stretchers. A temporary morgue was set up. The bodies were numbered for identification purposes. Observations were recorded
about the victims, their clothing, jewelry and other personal effects. Some bodies were never identified and their stones remain nameless. Only 59 bodies that were identified were shipped out to their families because White Star lines refused to pay for the shipping. Only those were shipped that the families could afford to pay the cost. They did provide small granite blocks upon which the survivors name and number were engraved. In some cases, families, friends, or other groups paid for larger, more elaborate gravestones.
The bodies were buried in three Halifax cemeteries, the majority of which are interred at Fairview Lawn Cemetery.
