The Night the Good Ship Went Down: Three Fateful Dinners Aboard the Titanic

Abstract

““The Night the Good Ship Went Down”” examines three final meals served aboard White Star's Titanic in order to reveal a complicated story about Anglo-American relations and consumerism on the eve of World War I. This article challenges the theory that the ship was a neat microcosm of life on land, complete with insurmountable class barriers. Rather than replicating a strict hierarchical social structure, White Star's newest ship was designed to encourage a degree of social fluidity and upward mobility unprecedented for its time. The Titanic was in part American financier J. Pierpont Morgan's attempt to keep White Star competitive enough to crush its rival, the British-owned Cunard. Food and dining call attention to this alternative narrative of the Titanic's cultural and economic importance.