Their Last Suppers: Legends of History and Their Final Meals (2 page)

• Combine all ingredients.
  
• For best results, leave in the fridge overnight, but always marinate for at least 2 hours.
  

This recipe can be used for 2 lb of game, beef, lamb, or fish. You can use red wine marinade for chicken or white wine marinade for lamb; they both work.

• Combine the ingredients.
  
• Marinate the fish for at least 30 minutes, fowl for 1 hour, red meat for at least 2 hours.
  

Tip
: After removing marinated dishes from the fridge, always allow them to come to room temperature bece cooking, and always brush off excess marinade.

For an exciting accompaniment to your roasts, grills, and fish dishes, there is an easy recipe: butter! Use any flavor. There are no hidden recipes; just soften your favorite butter and add your favorite ingredients in the quantity you like, roll in foil, then refrigerate. Here are some ideas:

Likewise, take your favorite olive oil, add whatever ingredients you like, and seal with a cork; it will keep for more than a year and add tremendous flavor to your cooking. Examples:

CAPTAIN EDWARD JOHN SMITH

Nearly swamping a French trawler, the White Star Lines flagship RMS
Titanic
pulled away from its last ever contact with land at Queenstown in Ireland on the afternoon of April 11, 1912.

The eagerly awaited maiden voyage of the most luxurious and biggest liner ever built carried more than 1,200 of America’s and Europe’s wealthiest citizens, along with some 900 crew. And it was captained by the world’s best-paid seaman, the Commodore of the White Star Line, Edward John Smith. It was, ironically, his last scheduled voyage.

E.J., as everyone in the Merchant Navy knew him, was born in Hanley, England, in 1850. On leaving school at the age of 13 he went to Liverpool to begin an apprenticeship under sail, eventually joining the famous White Star Line in 1880, moving quickly through its ranks to his first naval command in 1887.

Within 2 years he had the first of many accidents, running the
Republic
aground in New York Harbor. Then, when it was finally refloated and reached the port, a furnace exploded in the engine room, killing three crewmen and seriously wounding seven others. The unflappable captain reported to the ship’s owners that they had had a “minor incident.” In 1890, he introduced the
Coptic
to the sandbanks outside the harbor of Rio de Janeiro. A series of other “minor incidents” occurred over the following decade, and in 1901, while in charge of the
Majestic
, he once again experienced a major fire on board in a linen closet and several cabins. By ripping up the deck and blasting in steam the crew avoided a real tragedy, but in the ensuing inquiry Smith calmly testified that no one had even informed him of any fire on board.

In 1906, while Smith was on the
Baltic
, moored in Liverpool, another large fire mysteriously broke out, taking some 640 bales of wood and other cargo but fortunately no lives. In 1907, approaching New York Harbor once again, this time on the
Adriatic
, Smith ran aground once again, this time at the entrance of Ambrose Channel.

On the
Olympic’s
maiden voyage to New York in 1911, he trapped and almost crushed a tug on June 21, collided with the warship HMS Hawk on September 20, and ran over a submerged wreck on February 24, 1912, losing a propeller in the process.

When interviewed by the
New York Times
in 1907 about his troubles at sea, the captain cheerfully replied, “None really, apart from bad weather.” For all his mishaps he was admired by both owners and crew and was given a £200 no-collision bonus every year.

Second officer Charles Lightoller, who survived the
Titanic
disaster, spoke fondly of the skipper at the inquiry. “It was an education to see him con his ship up through the intricate channels, entering New York harbor at full speed.… One particularly bad corner… used to make us flush with pride as he swung her around, judging his distance to a nicety, she heeling over to the helm with only a few feet to spare between each end of the ships and the banks.”

This was the man placed in charge of the company flagship. And as Smith gave a brief whistle of apology to the French trawler
that bright sunny afternoon in Ireland, the
Titanic
was already speeding toward an area of the North Atlantic ocean known to be infested with far more ice fields than normal because of an unusually mild winter in Greenland.

In keeping with Smith’s tradition of “not hanging around,” the
Titanic
covered 464 miles on its first day and 519 the next, then 546 from the next Saturday to Sunday at noon. Each day brought even more acceleration, and on the day before the sinking he was planning more speed trials, although he knew that heavy ice was dead ahead.

The
Titanic
was more than 882 feet long and displaced some 66,000 tons. It represented the best of everything of its day. Dozens of chefs prepared huge multicourse meals, based on the cuisine of Auguste Escoffier. And hundreds of stewards attended every whim of its passengers. There were Turkish baths, a swimming pool, a gymnasium, squash courts, and all manner of entertainments for its pampered guests.

For all its refinements, the
Titanic
had only enough lifeboats for about half the passengers, because it was considered totally unsinkable. Another minor oversight, particularly because they were heading toward heavy ice, was that the main lookout system for the ship, the crow’s nest, had been given no binoculars.

Early on the morning of Sunday, April 14, the
Titanic
, moving at close to top speed, received the first of many warnings about ice ahead from the
Caronia.
At 9 a.m. yet another message from one of the captain’s former commands, the
Baltic
, specifically warned, “Heavy ice directly on your course.” Unperturbed, the captain went about his normal routine, having an early breakfast in his cabin and then touring the ship with his officers, before retiring to prepare for dinner that evening in the a la carte restaurant with wealthy American bankers Mr. and Mrs. George Widener of Philadelphia.

After a leisurely dinner with his guests, the captain excused himself at 9 p.m. and had a brief chat with the officer of the watch before retiring to his bed at 9:30 p.m.

Events began to unfold rapidly. High above the speeding ship, in the freezing cold of the crow’s nest, the two lookouts, Fred Fleet and Reginald Lee, stared ahead as the
Titanic
, still at full speed, moved serenely over a flat ocean. The outside air was freezing at
0°C, and the water temperature suddenly dropped a half a degree below that (salt water freezes at a lower temperature than fresh water), an ominous sign.

The wireless room became even busier as reports of heavy ice began to flood in from other ships and the distant coastline. Incredibly, at 10:30 p.m. the bridge received a message by signal lamp from SS
Rappahannock
, a cargo ship passing just a few miles to the north: “Have just passed through heavy ice and icebergs.” The bridge replied, “Message received, thank you and goodnight,” but no one thought to disturb the captain or attempt to slow the ship.

Thirty minutes later the
Californian
, which was just ahead, warned that it was jammed by ice, to which they got the reply, “Keep out, shut up, you’re jamming our signals” from the now overloaded wireless room.

At 11:30 p.m., only half an hour before the end of their shift, the anxious lookouts noticed a low-lying area of mist ahead, and the cold air around them suddenly became very damp, adding to their discomfort even more. Complete silence enveloped them as they strained to penetrate the mist with their eyes. Then Fleet gave three desperate tugs on the crow’s nest bell and screamed over the telephone to the bridge officer, James Moody Toft, some 70 feet below, “Iceberg right ahead!”

Some 40 seconds after this warning, as the crew strained every sinew to change direction, the RMS
Titanic
, traveling at 22.5 knots, struck a large iceberg in what seemed a glancing blow.

Though only lasting about 10 seconds, the contact was enough to rip open a gash more than 300 feet long down the ship’s flank, and although it was only a few inches wide, it was a mortal blow. The “unsinkable”
Titanic
, the greatest ship ever built, had a little less than 3 hours left.

Within the first hour Captain Smith knew his ship was doomed, and he immediately ordered the lifeboats to be lowered and filled with women and children. In the inquest after the disaster survivors told harrowing stories of how landed English gentlemen retired with their valets to their cabins “to dress appropriately.” Others tried to dress as women to get on the lifeboats.

The eight-piece band, under conductor Wallace Hartley, remained on board playing ragtime music in a futile attempt to
cheer people up as the ship slowly started to tilt under them. At 2:20 a.m. the lights began to flicker for the last time, and the band, knowing this would be their final song, elected to finish with the hymn “Nearer My God to Thee.” They then accompanied Captain Smith and 1,500 other passengers and crew to their deaths in the freezing waters, as the
Titanic
slid over two and a half miles downward to its final resting place on the sea bottom, where it lay undisturbed for decades.

LAST MENU ON THE
TITANIC
Meals in Edwardian times often went on for 3 or 4 hours.

1st Course: Hors d’Oeuvres

Hors d’Oeuvres

Oysters à la Russe

2nd Course: Soups

Consommé Olga

Cream of Barley

3rd Course: Fish

Poached Salmon

Mousseline Sauce

4th Course: Entrées

Filet Mignon Lili

Chicken Lyonnaise

Vegetable Marrow Farci

5th Course: Removes

Lamb with Mint Sauce

Calvados Glazed Roast Duck with Apple Sauce

Roast Sirloin of Beef Forestière

Chateau Potatoes, Minted Green Pea Timbales, Creamed Carrots,

Boiled Rice Parmentier, Boiled New Potatoes

6th Course: Sorbet or Punch

Punch Romaine

7th Course: Roast

Roasted Squab on Wilted Cress

8th Course: Salad

Asparagus Salad with Champagne—Saffron Vinaigrette

9th Course: Cold Dish

Pâté de Foie Gras

Celery

10th Course: Sweets