Stories of the descendants of Titanic victims revealed

MANILA, Philippines - The Titanic’s sinking was the greatest civilian disaster ever, claiming the lives of two-thirds of those on board, and for the families of its victims the impact of the catastrophe resonated down the generations. TITANIC: THE AFTERMATH follows the descendants of three people involved in the sinking as they each explore the fate of their forbears and what happened next.

Jock Hume died playing the violin he loved. His grandson, Christopher Ward, travels to Scotland and to Nova Scotia to find out more. John Jacob Astor was the richest man on the ship. His young wife Madeleine survived and their granddaughter, Jackie Astor Drexel, follows their story. In 1912, John Barnstead was Halifax’s registrar for deaths. Now, his descendent, also named John Barnstead, finds out how John Barnstead Senior created a model for future disasters involving mass loss of life. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Titanic’s ill-fated maiden voyage, TITANIC: THE AFTERMATH premieres on Discovery Channel on Sunday, April 15 at 9:00 pm with encores on Monday, April 16 at midnight (12:00 am), 8:00 am and 2:00 pm and Saturday, April 21 at 11:00 am.

Discover how the disaster changed forever the families left behind by those who died, and how it impacted those left to deal with the aftermath. Combining archive footage with vivid dramatizations, the programme draws together the powerful human stories that unfolded in the hours, weeks and decades following the sinking. A compelling tale of corporate callousness and cover-up, heroism and medical innovation, as well as class prejudice and social divide, this is a story with powerful contemporary parallels in today’s world.

The three central characters are all men directly involved in the disaster. Two of them came from opposite sides of the class divide, but died together as the ship sank. They would both leave posthumously born children who would thereafter wear the scars of the disaster. The third would be the man responsible for identifying the victims after death, and whose pioneering forensic work, undertaken under the relentless prying gaze of the world’s media, would define how victims of disasters were treated for years to come. The three men are:

· Scottish violinist Jock Hume of the Titanic band, who heroically played until the end only to have his family scandalously treated by White Star Line after his death.

· Passenger JJ Astor, the richest man on the ship, whose wife and unborn son survived the disaster, only to be ostracised by Astor’s aristocratic family.

· Coroner JH Barnstead, who set up a remarkable and influential system for examining and identifying the victims as they were returned to Halifax.

A powerful and moving documentary recounting an unknown aspect of the Titanic story,

TITANIC: THE AFTERMATH provides a gripping account of how families of the Titanic victims found out the truth about what had happened to their loved ones, and how their lives would never be the same again after the sinking.