Professor interviewed Titanic survivor

Marshall Drew was 8 years old when he watched the massive ship sink into a calm sea under a starless night. He witnessed it from a seat aboard lifeboat No. 11. — the only one filled to capacity.

After being rescued from the Atlantic and arriving in New York, Drew would make a pinprick image of the ship as it sank. It would be picked up by The New York World and run on the front page the very next day.

The piece may have set the stage for the start of a lifelong pursuit of the arts for Drew, but it was also a first-hand look at a topic still widely discussed nearly a century later: the sinking of the RMS Titanic.

"Titanic represented a materialistic age," says Karen Lemke, a professor at St. Joseph's College in Standish.

"The sense that technology is always better and is always in control went out the window when Titanic went down because it represented the highest form of technology of its era," she said. "I think it's a metaphor of the 20th century, and I've always found it a fascinating topic."

Lemke, who plans to deliver a lecture on the Titanic at the Maine Irish Heritage Center in Portland Sunday, says her interest in studying the Titanic goes back decades.

The tale of steerage passengers being locked in the belly of the ship, until just before Titanic nearly completely sank, "tugs at my heart," Lemke said.

"They really represented hope in this country, and those peoples' legacies should live on," she added.

As a member of the Titanic Historical Society in Massachusetts, Lemke routinely gives lectures on Titanic. But likely something that sets her apart from others who study the topic is her interview with Drew.

"He was just amazing," she said, recalling her interview with him just six weeks before his death in 1986.

Drew, who had dual U.S. and English citizenship, was visiting his grandmother in England the winter before Titanic made its maiden voyage. He was returning to the U.S. with his aunt and uncle when the ship sank and his uncle was never seen again.

"He was alive because of his class, and other children were dead because of their class," said Lemke, noting the notion of class inequality was never lost on Drew, who became an art teacher later in life and "was never after money."

Being a second-class passenger not only saved his life, but also allowed Drew to tour the Titanic in the days leading up to it setting out to sea. His knowledge of the vessel was instrumental when Titanic was discovered on the ocean floor by Robert Ballard in 1985.

When the wreckage was discovered, older survivors were no longer alive, and those who were still alive were too young at the time to remember details of Titanic, Lemke said.

"He was tapped at age 82 to look at all of that footage (of the wreck) and helped Ballard determine what he saw," she said.

Lemke shares her interview with Drew during her lectures. She says the story of Titanic told through the eyes of an 8-year-old boy help bring the story to life, rather than a tale just lost over time.

"It changed the way I viewed Titanic," she said. "I want people to come away with the real story of the Titanic and the one little boy who viewed it in history."

Lemke is speaking Sunday at the heritage center at 2 p.m. The center is located on the corner of State and Gray streets. For more information contact Ellen Murphy at 899-0505.

This portrait by Ken Marschall shows the RMS Titanic at sea. (Image courtesy of RMS Titanic/Facebook)