duly be reported in newspapers and magazines.
Brailey spent two years in Southport, apparently building up a wide circle of friends. Then, according to the Southport Guardian , he left the town “to go to a musical college to complete his education,” although there are no records of him attending any of the major colleges of the day. By 1911 he was composing instrumental music and two manuscripts of his work survive—“Ballet of the Roses” (February 1911) and “A Little Scherzo” (November 1911).
He must already have gone to sea by this time. His first ship was the Saxonia , a 14,281-ton Cunard vessel built in 1900 that boasted one distinct 106-foot-tall black funnel. Originally it sailed constantly between Liverpool and Boston but in 1911 began the New York to Mediterranean route, and then Liverpool to New York calling in at Queenstown, Ireland. One of these trips got him back to Liverpool late in January 1912 and on February 10 he joined the Carpathia .
On the Carpathia , playing alongside Roger Bricoux, he heard of the Titanic work for the first time. It was a spectacular offer for someone so young. His only apprehension at first was that he’d recently become engaged to Teresa and had promised to bring his seagoing days to an end. Then, when he got back to England, there was the warning of his clairvoyant father who felt that the Titanic would come to no good . . .
6
“A T HOROUGH AND
C ONSCIENTIOUS
M USICIAN. ”
O n May 1, 1911, the Oruba , a 5,850-ton steamship, arrived back in Southampton after a twenty-four-day trip from the British colony of Jamaica via Trinidad, Barbados, the Azores, and Cherbourg. On board, traveling as class passengers, alongside some members of the MCC cricket team who’d recently played thirteen matches on the island, were a group of five musicians who had just spent the past three and a half months as the orchestra of the Constant Spring Hotel at the foot of the Blue Mountains, six miles outside the capital of Kingston. This establishment had a checkered past. Built as a luxury hotel for the 1891 Jamaica International Exhibition, it had never made money for its owners. Despite its desirable location, 165 acres of grounds, one hundred rooms, a swimming pool, tennis courts, a croquet lawn, and a nine-hole golf course, it had suffered from bad management and incompetent staff. Guests repeatedly complained about everything from the irregularly manned reception desk to the length of time the kitchen took to boil an egg.
Things became so bad that the government took it over. Then in 1908, Sir Alfred Jones, of the British shipping line Elder, Dempster & Co, bought it and attempted to turn around its fortunes by marketing Jamaica as a holiday destination for wealthy Britons. 1 He died the following year and Elder Dempster was taken over by Sir Owen Phillips, later Lord Kylsant, who was described by the New York Times as “the Napoleon of British shipping.” Phillips was based in Liverpool and one of the lines he owned was the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, a client of C. W. & F. N. Black. The Oruba was a Royal Mail ship.
Through this connection the Black brothers became musical agents for the hotel, responsible for providing a top-notch orchestra the equal of anything to be found in Paris, London, or New York. By December 1910 the hotel that called itself “the finest in the West Indies” was able to advertise in the local newspaper that it was offering “two music concerts a day and a Saturday Cinderella Ball” for the winter season ending April 1911. “A first class orchestra consisting of five professionals has been engaged in England who will play at all our dances. Select concerts will be given daily from 1–3 pm and every evening from 7:30 to 11 o clock. The orchestra is bringing a full programme of classical and all the latest dance music.” In the Times of London, Elder Dempster had a series of advertisements promoting Jamaica as “The New Riviera” and
Brailey spent two years in Southport, apparently building up a wide circle of friends. Then, according to the Southport Guardian , he left the town “to go to a musical college to complete his education,” although there are no records of him attending any of the major colleges of the day. By 1911 he was composing instrumental music and two manuscripts of his work survive—“Ballet of the Roses” (February 1911) and “A Little Scherzo” (November 1911).
He must already have gone to sea by this time. His first ship was the Saxonia , a 14,281-ton Cunard vessel built in 1900 that boasted one distinct 106-foot-tall black funnel. Originally it sailed constantly between Liverpool and Boston but in 1911 began the New York to Mediterranean route, and then Liverpool to New York calling in at Queenstown, Ireland. One of these trips got him back to Liverpool late in January 1912 and on February 10 he joined the Carpathia .
On the Carpathia , playing alongside Roger Bricoux, he heard of the Titanic work for the first time. It was a spectacular offer for someone so young. His only apprehension at first was that he’d recently become engaged to Teresa and had promised to bring his seagoing days to an end. Then, when he got back to England, there was the warning of his clairvoyant father who felt that the Titanic would come to no good . . .
6
“A T HOROUGH AND
C ONSCIENTIOUS
M USICIAN. ”
O n May 1, 1911, the Oruba , a 5,850-ton steamship, arrived back in Southampton after a twenty-four-day trip from the British colony of Jamaica via Trinidad, Barbados, the Azores, and Cherbourg. On board, traveling as class passengers, alongside some members of the MCC cricket team who’d recently played thirteen matches on the island, were a group of five musicians who had just spent the past three and a half months as the orchestra of the Constant Spring Hotel at the foot of the Blue Mountains, six miles outside the capital of Kingston. This establishment had a checkered past. Built as a luxury hotel for the 1891 Jamaica International Exhibition, it had never made money for its owners. Despite its desirable location, 165 acres of grounds, one hundred rooms, a swimming pool, tennis courts, a croquet lawn, and a nine-hole golf course, it had suffered from bad management and incompetent staff. Guests repeatedly complained about everything from the irregularly manned reception desk to the length of time the kitchen took to boil an egg.
Things became so bad that the government took it over. Then in 1908, Sir Alfred Jones, of the British shipping line Elder, Dempster & Co, bought it and attempted to turn around its fortunes by marketing Jamaica as a holiday destination for wealthy Britons. 1 He died the following year and Elder Dempster was taken over by Sir Owen Phillips, later Lord Kylsant, who was described by the New York Times as “the Napoleon of British shipping.” Phillips was based in Liverpool and one of the lines he owned was the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, a client of C. W. & F. N. Black. The Oruba was a Royal Mail ship.
Through this connection the Black brothers became musical agents for the hotel, responsible for providing a top-notch orchestra the equal of anything to be found in Paris, London, or New York. By December 1910 the hotel that called itself “the finest in the West Indies” was able to advertise in the local newspaper that it was offering “two music concerts a day and a Saturday Cinderella Ball” for the winter season ending April 1911. “A first class orchestra consisting of five professionals has been engaged in England who will play at all our dances. Select concerts will be given daily from 1–3 pm and every evening from 7:30 to 11 o clock. The orchestra is bringing a full programme of classical and all the latest dance music.” In the Times of London, Elder Dempster had a series of advertisements promoting Jamaica as “The New Riviera” and
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