The Titanic and Trinity: Morgan City had ties to doomed ocean liner

April 14, 1912, a gigantic British ship scraped an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean. This was the inaugural voyage of the RMS Titanic, once considered an unsinkable behemoth.
Last week was the anniversary of that incident which occurred 114 years ago. The Titanic has an extraordinary connection to Morgan City!
In April 1912, the Atchafalaya River rose to unprecedented levels, overran its banks and invaded Front Street and our small city. The waters of the Atchafalaya rose to 3 feet inside of some houses, and there was a need for the widespread evacuation of St. Mary Parish.
Two tragedies in one month . . . both involving water, but Morgan City survived its misfortune.
Demonstrating the resilience of our citizens, elevated wooden sidewalks were constructed; small boats were commandeered for transportation; and life and business continued as normal.
My great-grandfather, William Bailey Gray, was one of those in the newspaper business in Morgan City at that time. Delivering their product through the waist high waters proved difficult in April of 1912, and with a story as significant as the sinking of the Titanic, posters were nailed to telephone poles in order to get the news out.
That disaster’s importance can be seen in a photo taken on the corner of Front Street and Everett outside Leon Kahn’s Dry Goods.
A second connection with the Titanic and Morgan City involves Trinity Episcopal Church.
In 1873, a group of local women held a raffle to raise money to build an Episcopal Church. They raised $350 for the building fund, and one of the area’s fire companies won the prize – a silver trumpet.
In 1876, property on the corner of Second and Greenwood was purchased for $300, and this shotgun style building was constructed for both school and worship.
It wasn’t until 1911 that improvements were planned. In the next few years, church members as well as local Catholics, Methodists and Jews donated to a fund set up for renovations.
Out of town contributions were made by our town’s namesake, Charles Morgan, and his partners in the railroad business, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Whitney.
Also contributing to church improvements on was their friend, Mrs. Madeleine Astor.
Young Madeleine was just 19 years old when she married 40-year-old multimillionaire John Jacob Astor. They embarked upon a two-year honeymoon in Europe when Madeleine discovered she was pregnant.
Wishing to have her child born at home in New York City, the couple traveled to Paris where Mr. Astor purchased tickets for their party of five to return to the States on the safest possible ship, the Titanic.
On the night of April 14, Madeline was awakened in the middle of the night by her husband, who informed her that although everything would be all right, they needed to don their life jackets and report to the gymnasium of the ship.
Within minutes, Mrs. Astor, her nurse, and her lady’s maid were helped by Mr. Astor and his butler to climb through a window and onto Lifeboat No. 4, one of the final boats to be lowered before the Titanic sank.
Mr. Astor explained that his wife was in a delicate condition and asked if he could join her aboard the lifeboat. Unfortunately, he was refused.
Within 30 minutes, at 2:20 a.m., millionaire John Jacob Astor, his dog, Kitty, and his butler all went down with the sinking of the Titanic.
Madeleine Astor’s gift to Morgan City’s little green church helped turn what was once called a shabby little church into one of the most beautiful and historic places in St. Mary Parish. Today, this historic church remains an active place of worship.