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On April 14, 1912, the R.M.S. Titanic hit an iceberg and sank. It\u2019s been resurfacing ever since. How often and how vividly the ship reappears in the public imagination varies according to the year\u2019s news and zeitgeist. High points were 1955, when A Night to Remember<\/a><\/em>, Walter Lord\u2019s definitive history of the Titanic, was published; 1985, when Bob Ballard reached the wreck on the ocean floor; 1997, when Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio did that cringey splayed-wing thing on the bow in the Titanic<\/em> movie; and 2023, when a tourist submersible descending to the wreck failed catastrophically.<\/p>\n Grief plus time equals frivolity, and as such, a regular feature of April since at least the 1950s has been the appearance of the festive Titanic-themed dinner party. These range from gala fundraisers to quiet at-home soir\u00e9es. (\u201cTitanic Parties Make a Splash,\u201d was the headline in a 1998 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette <\/em>story.) These typically feature dishes from the 10-course menu that was served on the voyage\u2019s final night, hours before ship met iceberg.<\/p>\n So we are reacquainted annually with Punch \u00e1 la Romaine, which developed minor notoriety as the \u201clast cocktail served aboard the Titanic.\u201d This concoction dates back to the first cocktail guide<\/a> ever published, in 1862, which included a recipe for this sherbet-like concoction of lemon juice, orange, juice, white wine, rum, sugar, and egg whites. The first-class dinner menu for April 14 listed \u201cPunch Romaine\u201d as the sixth course, where it would have served as a refreshing palate cleanser between the lamb and the roast squab.<\/p>\n \u2026 The ship\u2019s bartenders made drinks popular at the time\u2014Martinis, Manhattans, Stingers.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n No known cocktail list survived the Titanic\u2019s sinking (spurious versions lurk around the internet). But the Titanic\u2019s cargo manifest supports the idea that the ship\u2019s bartenders made drinks popular at the time\u2014Martinis<\/a>, Manhattans<\/a>, Stingers<\/a>. Some 2,000 bottles of wine and spirits went onboard, including six cases of vermouth from George F. Dubois, 110 cases of brandy from H. Hollander, and 15 cases of Cognac from Van Renssaller. A bottle that once held Grand Marnier was found during salvage dives, as were those for Irish whiskey<\/a> and Champagne.<\/p>\n It was nearly midnight when the ship struck the iceberg. Dinner had long since concluded. A small group of first-class passengers, including the English businessman, Hugh Woolner, left the Caf\u00e9 Parisien and retired to the smoking room for a nightcap. They may have been sitting there when the ship shuddered and the thud echoed through the cabins. Woolner, it was reported, was drinking hot whiskey and water; others had highballs<\/a>.<\/p>\n While modern parties recreating the pre-iceberg splendor of the Titanic\u2019s first-class lounges are common, few as far as know have staged reenactments of drinking on and around the post-iceberg Titanic. That would be simple to do: One needs only flasks<\/a> and straight spirits. Later inquests, along with interviews with and journals of survivors, suggest that drinking was very much a part of the Titanic as it sank, and survivors awaited rescuers.<\/p>\n Shortly after midnight, the mood aboard the ship shifted from gaiety and celebration to disbelief and survival. Lifeboats were lowered; women and children boarded first. Liquor\u2019s role shifted from celebratory quaff to balm for the afflicted.<\/p>\n According to Walter Lord\u2019s account, a 22-year-old woman named Marguerite Fr\u00f6licher aboard one lifeboat was \u201cintroduced to an important piece of picnic equipment.\u201d She grew seasick and another lifeboat passenger pulled out a silver flask with a cup top and offered a sip of brandy. \u201cShe took the suggestion and was instantly cured.\u201d According to Lord, she had never seen such a flask in her life, and was captivated by it.<\/p>\n Another lifeboat plucked up a crewman bobbing in the icy water like a cork. He had a bottle of brandy in his pocket, to which he was evidently already quite familiar, as he was thoroughly soused\u2014not an unreasonable condition, one supposes, given the circumstances. The quartermaster promptly threw the bottle overboard, and threw the drunken crewman to the bottom of the boat.<\/p>\n [The R.M.S. Carpathia\u2019s] chief steward ordered his crew to have brandy and whiskey on hand for the survivors.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The first rescue ship arrived nearly four hours after the distress call went out. It was the R.M.S. Carpathia, a Cunard-line steamship en route from New York to Croatia. As the magnitude of the rescue became clear, the ship\u2019s chief steward ordered his crew to have brandy and whiskey on hand for the survivors.<\/p>\n More than a century later, interest in the ship\u2019s demise shows no signs of flagging. Atlanta saw the opening last summer of the May Peel<\/a>, a bar \u201cinspired by the indomitable spirit of author Lily May Futrelle, a Titanic survivor.\u201d<\/p>\n And, naturally, there are plenty of cocktails named after the Titanic. These invariably involve a lot of ice.<\/p>\n One that stands out was created in 1998 by Anthony Belman, a Virginia bartender whose grandfather was a third-class passenger and wreck survivor. Belman called his drink the Titanic Iceberg, and concocted it of blue cura\u00e7ao, rum, and cr\u00e8me de menthe, blended with ice and made into a frigid, aqua-colored slushy. Atop the drink he floated slabs of vanilla ice cream, on which he placed two Lifesavers.<\/p>\n 2 lb. powdered sugar Tools: sieve, barspoon, whisk, bowl Combine the juice of the lemons and oranges with the powdered sugar in a bowl until the sugar is dissolved, and add a thin rind of orange. Stir and run the mixture through a sieve into another bowl. Slowly add the egg whites and beat it to a froth. Put the bowl in the freezer, allowing the mixture to freeze a bit. When ready to serve, stir the wine and rum into the mixture and stir briskly. Serve.<\/p>\n Jerry Thomas,<\/em> The Bar-Tender\u2019s Guide: A Complete Cyclopedia of Plain and Fancy Drinks<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
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Punch \u00e0 la Romaine<\/h2>\n
1 (750ml) bottle of white wine
1 (750ml) bottle of rum
10 egg whites
10 lemons
2 sweet oranges<\/p>\n
Glass: punchbowl and punch cups <\/p>\n