The tragedy of the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic

Mike Schindler with a photograph believed to have been taken in 1910 of Harland & Wolff shipyard workers in Belfast, Northern Ireland, who helped build the Titanic.

Susan Grieco/Herald

Susan Grieco/Herald The Rev. Gerry Bechard of Sts. Simon and Jude Parish in Michigan, aka the “Titanic Priest,” spoke about the Mass he celebrated over in 1996 on a cruise ship over the site of where the Titanic went down.

Susan Grieco/Herald

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April 14 marked the 100th anniversary of the “unsinkable” Titanic’s collision with an iceberg in the icy waters of the northern Atlantic, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,500 lives.

To mark the solemn anniversary, the Lynbrook Public Library hosted a program on April 9 that featured the insights of two men who have traveled to the site of the sunken ship — Michael Schindler of the Titanic Historical Society and the Rev. Gerry Bechard, the only priest who has celebrated Mass over the site of the wreck. The event attracted about 75 people.

“It seems there is always another generation that comes up and perpetuates the story and wants to know more,” Schindler said. “I use an old quote, ‘Once it enters your life, it never leaves,’ as a way of describing people’s relationships with the story of the Titanic.”

Bechard noted that there were many children in attendance who asked detailed questions about sinking. “In most cases, the story grabs people,” he said. “When they’re children, somehow it won’t let you go. The kids were very sharp about the subject, and the questions were very good.”

Schindler, who once worked for ABC television and now works for Lynbrook TV, met Bechard in 1996, when they went on an expedition with RMS Titanic Inc., a group that attempted to bring up a section of Titanic’s hull. Due to bad weather, however, the lines snapped and the wreckage never breached the surface.

The two Titanic aficionados have kept in contact over the years, and when library employees asked Schindler to organize a program for Titanic’s 100-year anniversary, he in turn asked Bechard, who lives in Michigan, to share his knowledge on the subject.

“Father Gerry interacts extremely well with an audience,” Schindler said. “He feeds off of them and they feed off of him. Being a priest gives him a certain outlook on events such as the Titanic, and I think most people are very interested to hear what he has to say and the context in which he places the event.”