Ryan versus The White Star Line

'This case is one of very great importance for the parties

'and also one of infinite importance to the travelling public.'

This is the story the owners of the Titanic did not want you to know.

'I am sorry for the sake of my client that this great fight must arise

'in a case in which the plaintiff is a humble man in small circumstances.'

The story of an elderly, poor farmer from rural Ireland

who took on the mighty White Star Line in the High Court in London.

'He brought this case to recover damages for the death of his son.'

A David and Goliath battle between a grieving father

and one of the biggest companies in the world.

To think that my grandfather took on such a massive company was amazing.

To take them on and win.

100 years on, it's time to tell the story

of Thomas Ryan versus the White Star Line.

The recession in Ireland has introduced a new generation

to a custom many hoped was gone for good.

Emigration.

But no matter how difficult and tearful the goodbyes,

these emigrants can expect to be reunited with their loved ones

sooner rather than later.

For the fortune-seekers of Edwardian Ireland, there were no such guarantees.

They may have left behind grinding poverty,

but the distances involved and the cost of travel

were so great that many never saw their families again.

Well, it wasn't always just about the famine.

People looked for better opportunity elsewhere.

You would have had...

Ordinary life in rural Ireland at that time was difficult.

Life in the cities was dreadful.

Dublin was considered to be one of the worst cities

at the turn of the century throughout Europe.

So people looked to other countries.

And, you know, the relatives writing back about this land of opportunity,

it must have been a huge attraction for people at the time.

By the early 20th century, Ireland's population,

which once stood at 6.5 million,

had dropped to just 3 million.

Askeaton in County Limerick, like many other parts of rural Ireland,

experienced that huge social change.

In 1912, four young people from the town

decided to seek their fortunes in America.

Two of those aspiring emigrants

had already tasted life in the United States.

27-year-old Daniel Moran

had been working as a police officer in New York.

He and his 28-year-old sister Bridget, also known as Bertha,

had recently returned to Askeaton

to settle the estate of their father.

Travelling back to the States with them was 20-year-old Maggie Madigan,

who was going out to join her sister who had already emigrated.

And 29-year-old Patrick Ryan,

who was also planning a career in the New York Police Department.

But fate intervened.

And, like so many, the bodies of Patrick Ryan and Daniel Moran

were lost in the icy waters of the Atlantic.

Their stories, too, would have vanished without trace,

but for one man's determination.

Patrick's father, Thomas Ryan,

wanted to know the truth behind the sinking of Titanic.

The only way to find out more about Thomas's story

is to go to the south west of Ireland,

to visit his home town of Askeaton in County Limerick,

where he lived all his life.

Thomas Ryan was married to Ellen Donoghue.

They had 13 children, including Patrick and his younger brother Tom.

It was Tom's son Michael who I found still living in Askeaton.

Despite him being in his 80s and in poor health, he wanted to see us

and he allowed me to film the only interview ever recorded with him.

Is this a story that has just always been important to you?

Sadly, within just a few weeks of that interview, Michael passed away.

His dying wish was that people would know how his grandfather Thomas

took on the mighty White Star Line and won.

It was now down to his daughter Fiona and son Cormac

to carry on where he left off.

You lead the way, Cormac.

And is this the area known as Toomdeely, then?

Yeah.

I'm sure this isn't somewhere you would have visited much

-before you knew about this story here.

-No.

This is it.

Before I contacted you, what did you know about Patrick Ryan?

That he went down with the Titanic. That was it.

You knew nothing?

Absolutely nothing except that he went down with the Titanic.

That was the sum total of my knowledge of it.

And Dad had never really spoken much about him.

We had seen pictures of the Titanic and we were told,

"A relative of yours went down with the Titanic." That was it.

-So what did you know about this case?

-Nothing.

Nothing about it until you came and opened it all up.

Now that you've found out so much more,

what do you make of it all?

Um... We were shocked when we heard about it

and amazed that Thomas Ryan from Askeaton had...

We were thinking how had he the money to go and pursue a case like this,

taking on a huge company,

and that he actually won. We were just amazed.

'This is the only photo Cormac and Fiona have

'of their Great Uncle Patrick.

'He was a cattle dealer

'and most likely worked here, at the family farm.'

So this is the original homestead. I know it's a factory now.

It was the original homestead.

It would have been originally a thatched cottage in the early years, but it's gone.

This is where your great-grandfather and great-uncle lived?

Yeah. And my grandfather.

Have you known about this long, Cormac?

-Yesterday.

-THEY LAUGH

'It's a learning experience for both Cormac and Fiona,

'helped greatly by the documents

'their father gathered over many years.'

'And a distant relative has unveiled another piece of history.

'A boat named after their great-uncle.'

This is the famous boat you've been telling me about?

Yes. This is a cousin of ours and a grand-nephew of Patrick Ryan.

-Pleased to meet you, sir.

-This is Julie.

-Julie.

This is the boat I've been hearing about?

This is the boat, yes.

It was named Saint Patrick after Patrick Ryan,

who was lost on the Titanic.

The interesting thing is the man who commissioned to build the boat

was trained as a draughtsman in Harland and Wolff in Belfast.

He's been doing the same job for 100 years.

And it was named after the man that was lost,

Patrick Ryan, on the Titanic.

-It's amazing, isn't it?

-Yes.

Will it be ready for these two to go out in it this year?

-That it is, yeah.

-THEY LAUGH

If we dare.

Would you have known much about the court case we are learning about now?

No. There was very little known about Patrick Ryan

other than he was lost on the Titanic.

Even my own father wouldn't have been born for four years

after his uncle was lost.

And we grew up, we knew very little.

'But what we do know is that it was early April 1912

'when Patrick and his three friends decided to leave their home

'for the first leg of their Titanic journey.

'Their initial destination was Queenstown in County Cork,

'now called Cobh.

'Cormac and Fiona have come with me

'to find out about Patrick's last hours in Ireland.

'When the four would-be emigrants arrived in the town,

'they stayed here, at McDonald's boarding house.'

And this is where Patrick would have stayed the night?

That's right. This is where he would have stayed.

That was the usual thing when they...

Maybe 12, 24 hours beforehand,

they came into town and they took lodgings and stayed.

They would have been sailing the following morning.

On that, you see, the tender used to blow one blast

for them to come down.

This would have been the last bed...?

That they would have slept in before they left shore.

'It would have been an early start

'for Patrick and his friends on 11th April, 1912.

'They joined dozens of others praying for a safe passage

'at Mass in St Colman's Cathedral.

'Afterwards, they made the short walk down

'to the town's White Star Line offices.

'Somewhere among the hundreds of third-class passengers

'crammed on the pier is Patrick.

'Looking down on him, first and second-class travellers

'have a relaxed wait in more spacious surroundings.

'The tender which ferried passengers to Titanic took an hour.

'Cormac and Fiona are making that same journey.'

So that would have been Patrick's last view of Ireland.

What do you think was going through his head?

Oh, I'd say...it must have been a mixture of excitement

and obviously, sadness. There had to be sadness involved.

He knew he was going on a big adventure.

He thought he was going to have a great life in America.

And he was doing a historic journey

because he was on the maiden voyage of this massive Titanic.

He didn't know things were going to turn out this way.

He was excited about leaving and sad at the same time.

It's kind of hard to imagine the two together.

In hindsight, if he had known what was coming,

he wouldn't have got on the boat.

'Cobh has said farewell to countless Irish emigrants.

'And the memory of those long goodbyes are kept safe

'by today's seafarers.'

And they lit a fire on the headlands

at the time they were saying goodbye to everyone.

And each headland on the way down has a watch-over tower.

So the fires continued all the way down.

-They used to do that for funerals, as well.

-That's right.

-It was like a wake, in some respects.

-Yeah.

And would there have been many people on the dock in Cobh to say goodbye?

Oh, yeah.

Would there have been like a party atmosphere or very sombre?

I'd say it was probably sombre.

It would have been a party in some way because there was an excitement

because it was a new life for a lot of people.

It was sad for people left behind,

but for people who were heading out, it was a new adventure.

There was a lot of sadness there, as well.

I wonder, did he think that maybe he would be coming back at some stage?

Because he was going over to a career,

he was going to be a police officer.

Would he have saved up enough money to come home?

-Yeah.

-Or would he have bothered?

-Who knows?

-He was still very young.

-Yeah.

I kind of feel a bit more of a sense of history, as well,

but I also feel kind of...

Dad would have been... He would have been really...

I'd say he would've been kind of sad as well,

to have been standing here, looking at this and thinking about

his relatives and how they would've felt.

It must have been... I don't know, I think it's nice.

It's lovely to have been here and seen this.

'In the 100 years after the famine, Cobh Harbour was the departure point

'for nearly half of the 6 million Irish people

'who emigrated to America.

'Many of them chose to travel with the company

'behind some of the biggest ships ever built.'

The White Star Line building is still here today.

In 1912, its red and white flag

was the equivalent of the Virgin Airlines or BA logo of its day.

Its colours told travellers they were about to set sail

with the greatest and safest shipping company in the world.

'The rest, of course, is history.

'It wasn't a ticket to a better life in America,

'but to a life-or-death struggle onboard the stricken liner,

'400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.

'A struggle that's remembered at this heritage centre.'

I suppose in the scheme of things, four from Askeaton

out of 123 altogether from southern Ireland is a lot.

-It is, yes.

-Practically unsinkable and absolutely fireproof.

THEY LAUGH

'The names of all who left Queenstown

'on that fateful journey are recorded here.'

She obviously survived because there's no cross beside her name.

-Patrick Ryan.

-Patrick Ryan.

-Yeah.

Oh, Lord.

It's very eerie to think that he was in here

and left from here.

-Arrived here in Cobh.

-Yeah.

And was offered this date.

-See under that name?

-Yes.

So then they didn't know if it was right that he had died or not.

I got a chill crossing the road when we were going to that boarding house.

It was nearly like he was there with us.

Patrick and Dad, guiding us along.

Yesterday, we learned Patrick knew people in Cobh in the customs house.

-I never knew that.

-That customs guy, I think, was a Limerick man.

He was. And he went on the tender out with them and put them on the Titanic

and asked the staff to look after them.

-For someone to say, "You look after this person. He's my friend."

-Yes.

-It's comforting, in a way.

-It is comforting. Yeah.

'But there was no comfort for Patrick Ryan's father, Thomas.

'He left his home in County Limerick to go to the High Court in London

'to sue the people who owned White Star Line,

'the Oceanic Steam Navigation company.'

'There had already been two enquiries

'that had cleared them from any blame for the disaster,

'but Thomas Ryan could not and did not accept that.'

'To find out more about this remarkable court case,

'we went to the National Library in Dublin

'to see how the newspapers of the day reported it.'

-This is your first time here?

-Yeah.

It's amazing. I've never been before.

The public record office...

Action against White Star Company.

Yeah. Yeah.

What's the next reading?

"Irish emigrant, relatives sue for damages."

Oh, right. Take a look at that.

The case of Thomas Ryan was taken first.

-So that's your great-grandfather.

-Our great-grandfather.

-To actually see his name on paper.

-Yeah.

"Mr Scanlan, opening the pleadings, said the plaintiff, Thomas Ryan,

"brought the action for the benefit of himself

"as father of Patrick Ryan, deceased."

It says there Patrick was 27.

Did we know...? I thought he was older than that.

It was hard to determine what age he was because of the census.

Back then they changed ages because there was conscription.

"Mr Duke, for the defendant, said his case was that

"there had been all proper and ordinary and reasonable care."

So they were denying it, basically, weren't they?

'The court was told that April was a treacherous time

'to take a ship to America because of the danger of icebergs.'

Asked why the iceberg wasn't discovered sooner,

a witness had said there was no wind,

the sea was quite smooth, there was no moon

and the iceberg must have come on them

with its black side against them.

-So there would be no reflected light.

-Oh, right.

'But those steering the ship had been warned there was danger ahead.

'Thomas Ryan's legal team had evidence to show

'that five ships had sent Marconi messages

'warning there was ice in the area.

'Though the court could only be sure

'three had been seen by responsible officers.

-What does that say?

-The old story retold.

-Retold.

"The action by Thomas Ryan, a Cork farmer, against..."

-Cork farmer!

-Yeah.

-I'm going to have to take issue with that.

I don't think so.

-Look, it says there defendants denied any negligence.

-My God!

How could they be so bold as to say there was no negligence?

'And during the hearing, it was revealed

'that despite the warnings of ice,

'Titanic still didn't slow down.'

'Although they saw the berg 500 yards away,

'they were unable, owing to the speed of the ship,

'to deflect it so as to pass safely by.

'What was their excuse for not reducing speed?'

'The jury agreed that they had no excuse.'

Here. Look, Titanic judgements.

"The jury found that there had been negligence

-"as to the speed of the Titanic."

-Oh, right. OK.

So that's the main point, isn't it?

'But White Star Line still refused

'to admit responsibility for Patrick's death,

'highlighting their terms and conditions.'

There's talk about this ticket that they were on as well.

Whether the defendants in Ryan's case were exempt from liability

owing to the conditions of the emigrant ticket.

'This was White Star Line's defence.

'Two small words at the bottom of the ticket

'which told the owner to turn it over.

'On the back was a disclaimer that no matter what happened,

'the company would not be responsible.

'However, a brother of Patrick's travelled to the High Court

'to explain why the company couldn't use that defence.'

And he said that his brother had never seen the ticket.

It was a joint ticket for two friends and himself.

The jury found against the defendant,

so found against White Star Line in the Ryan case.

-It's amazing, isn't it?

-Isn't it?

"Judgement for £100 damages

"was yesterday, in the London King's Bench, given to Mr Thomas Ryan,

-"a Cork farmer..."

-Yes!

"..in his action against the Oceanic Steam Navigation company

"for the loss of his son in the Titanic disaster."

That's not much, is it, £100? How much would that have been then?

-I don't know.

-It would have been a lot of money, but it's...

-But for the loss of a life.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

'A case of very great importance' was how it was described at the time.

But how is it seen now?

He was an unlikely person to be the one

taking on this great company, wasn't he?

Well, he was unlikely

in the sense that he was an elderly farmer from County Limerick.

But my guess is that the lawyers were fairly shrewd

in that they picked a case that they felt they could win

because they had two aspects to it.

They had the negligence aspect, but they also had, if you like,

the plan B, that the disclaimer wasn't going to be of any benefit.

So they wanted to immediately knock down the whole issue of the ticket

so that the disclaimer was of no value whatsoever.

The Morans and Patrick Ryan were third-class passengers.

So they were really fairly low down the pecking order.

And this ticket was a three-way ticket.

It wasn't an individual ticket.

The fact it transpired that Patrick probably had never seen the ticket

and therefore, for the disclaimer to be effective at all,

it needs to have been demonstrated

that the person against whom the disclaimer is being used

must be aware of the disclaimer.

It's a bit like going into a car park

and the disclaimer sign's up that, er,

if you park your car here, the owner of the car park

isn't liable for any damage to the car or if it's broken into.

But those signs need to be in full view for them to be effective.

'The Ryan case was also significant because it was a class action

'that paved the way for other families to make claims for damages.

'To this day, we don't know how many of them received payments.'

'For Cormac and Fiona, there's just one final stop on their journey.

'They've come to Belfast to see where the story started.

'And it's here at the new Titanic Belfast attraction

'that Harland and Wolff built their 401st ship.'

-Would this represent the actual size of the Titanic?

-Yeah.

This would be slipway number two.

What we'll have here will be an outline of the deck of the Titanic.

The Titanic would have run here from the water's edge

all the way back up to New Titanic Belfast.

15,000 workers a day would have been coming into Harland and Wolff.

And 2,500 to 3,000 of them would have been here,

working on slipways two and three on the Titanic and Olympic.

This building, the size of it,

is it any representation to the size of the Titanic?

Yeah. The angle hulls that you see there

is the same height as the Titanic would have sat here 100 years ago.

As you stand there and look up,

you're seeing what the workers would have seen every day.

Just that fantastic height of the Titanic.

Shortly after 12pm on May 21st, 1911,

thousands of people all along the piers here were coming down

and a flare went up and they released the anchors on the Titanic.

There was no breaking of champagne.

The White Star Line never broke champagne on their ships.

It took her 63 seconds to slide down the slipways. So she would have been at an angle.

There's 20 tonnes of oil, grease and soap used to lubricate the slipways.

She'd been sitting there for two years,

so she probably got into a fairly comfortable state.

Ultimately, if the Titanic hadn't sunk,

-we wouldn't be standing here today.

-That's right.

And it's a very poignant thing to think that I'm employed

due to the sinking of the Titanic.

I suppose what you have to look at,

out of every disaster that happens, something comes out of it.

It gives us an opportunity to reflect on the disaster and the people that died

and also reflect on the work that was done here.

I know that when I came to see you and your father last year,

he had said that he would really have loved to have gone to Belfast.

What do you think he would have made of this?

I think he would have loved to come to Belfast.

He would have loved to have seen where it all started.

The sheer size of it. He would have had so many questions.

Questions we couldn't think of because, you know,

he would have loved it. Loved it.

It's like a jigsaw.

Coming up here is another little part of this jigsaw that's fitting into place.

We're up where the actual Titanic itself was built.

This kind of... It adds to the whole mystery of Patrick Ryan himself.

I'm where the story started and ultimately finished up.

For me it's been a history lesson, really. A massive history lesson.

This has just captured my imagination.

The family are gobsmacked with the fact that this has happened

and that it has come to light 100 years after it happened.

It's just... It's amazing stuff.

Titanic to me now is personal. It's not just a story.

It's not just a ship that sank. It's personal. It's part of us now.

It's part of our heritage and a part of our history.

It's not something that we will ever forget.

And it's not something we will ever take for granted again.

Titanic is a big story, but it's our story.

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