Sixty years before the sinking of the Titanic, another ocean tragedy made headlines in the United States. The American transatlantic steamship Arctic set out on its last voyage in September 1854 and collided with a French ship in dense fog. The disaster--in which crewmen abandoned passengers, with many escaping in nearly empty lifeboats while every woman and child on board perished--took the lives of 400 people.

An upcoming talk on the River Campus will examine a local connection to the tragedy. "Death at Sea: The McCraken Family and Their Losses Aboard the Steamship Arctic" will be presented at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 24, in the Gamble Room on the third floor of Rush Rhees Library by Albert Robinson, a senior majoring in computer science and in religion.

Robinson will discuss the stories of two members of the McCraken family of Rochester who died aboard the Arctic. Robinson conducted the research for a course in the religion and classics department on gravestones and funerary architecture in historic Mt. Hope Cemetery. His essay for the course was published in the Spring 2003 edition of Epitaph, a publication of the Friends of Mt. Hope Cemetery.

The program is being sponsored by the Iota chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at the University and is open to all members of the University community and local members of Phi Beta Kappa and their families. For more information, refer to the University's Phi Beta Kappa website at: www.rochester.edu/College/pbk/.