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  • The Rev. Gerry Bechard, pastor of Saints Simon and Jude Parish in Westland, with the radio-controlled RMX Titanic model he built. Special to the Record-Eagle

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June 19, 2010

Priest draws ties between Titanic, oil spill

He'll speak at LIFE Academy Thursday

By MARTA HEPLER DRAHOS mdrahos@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Gerry Bechard was a boy when his cousin told him the story about the RMS Titanic and her disastrous voyage.

"I was overwhelmed by the intrigue of it, the mystery of the story, the complexity of it," said Bechard, who would grow up to say Mass over the site of the wreck. "It captivated me."

The regular visitor to Traverse City will talk about his lifelong interest in the ship, her tragic sail, the factors that led to the accident, and the "what ifs" that surround the narrative in a Northwestern Michigan College LIFE Academy luncheon program Thursday, June 24. "The Short Life of the Immortal Titanic" takes place from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the NMC University Center on Cass Road.

A 30-year ordained priest in the Archdiocese of Detroit, Bechard currently is pastor of Saints Simon and Jude Parish in Westland. But he's never far from his hobby. His books on the Titanic fill two shelves topped by a light-up, remote-controlled model of the ship he spent years building.

His fascination with the ship culminated in a 1996 cruise to the wreck site to watch an attempt to bring up a portion of the hull that had broken off. Passengers also attended daily lectures by world-class Titanic experts and took part in an experiment to determine if the distress signals placed by the Titanic could have been seen by the Californian, a nearby vessel that failed to come to the Titanic's rescue the night it sank.

Bechard, who presided at a Mass over the site in a special stole his sister made for the occasion, said the cruise was marked by bizarre coincidences. One was when a reproduction White Star Line flag lowered at half mast in honor of those who died went perfectly still during a moment of silence. Another was a disproportionate number of first-time cruisers and men traveling alone.

"It felt as if they were the ghosts of men who went down with the ship come back to do business," he said.

Though the expedition was unsuccessful, the hull section later was recovered. It now is part of "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition," which features re-creations of first- and third-class accommodations, a simulated iceberg and ship's artifacts like silver, china, perfume vials and a tophat. Bechard has seen the exhibit three times and will share many of its details.

"A lot of people already know the story of the Titanic. But in a lot of cases they don't know the details behind it," he said.

One such detail is the 1898 novella, "Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan," which foreshadowed the Titanics's sinking. A copy of the book was in the ship's library.

"By itself it was a parable," said Bechard, noting the striking similarities between the ship in the story and the Titanic, which sank in icy waters of the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City.

The tragedy resulted in the deaths of 1,517 people on board including millionaires John Jacob Astor IV and Benjamin Guggenheim and Macy's department store owner Isidor Straus and his wife, Ida.

Bechard said the accident is a lesson in how paying attention to superficial details can sometimes obscure the more important ones.

"It wouldn't take any stretch at all to draw a comparison to the Titanic and what's happening right now in the Gulf," he said. "This is the Titanic in slow motion."

The NMC program is $18 and includes lunch. To register, call NMC-Extended Education at 995-1700 or stop by the University Center, suite 102.

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