The Survivors of the titanic , Who were already dead, were the ones who could tell at the time the tragedy that was experienced in the transatlantic the night of the 14 to 15 of April of 1912. These testimonies have been portrayed in different books and films About what happened that night, the best known being the tape directed by James Cameron , Titanic .
The RMS Titanic, known as the"dream vessel"was the largest ship of its time and among its 2,207 passengers and crew, was hoping for hundreds of immigrants from all over the world who were looking for a future to America.
Titanic under construction (1912).
The Titanic sailed from Southampton on April 10, 1912, sinking into the 4-day crossing of the North Atlantic after colliding with an iceberg.
Of the 2,207 people who traveled on the ship, little more than 700 survived. Most of them were women, by the protocol that was followed when loading the lifeboats,"women and children first".
The RMS Carpathia was the ship that came to the rescue of the shipwrecked Titanic, accounting for 712 survivors. 1,495 passengers and crew died that night.
Then I tell you what was the last ten people who lived to tell what happened that fateful night of April 14, 1912 aboard the"ship of dreams."
The Stories of the Titanic Survivors
1- Beatrice Irene Sändström (1910-1995)
Beatrice Irene Sändström, was just under two years old when she boarded the Titanic. She was the first of the last survivors to die.
He was born on August 9, 1910 in San Francisco, California. His parents were Hjalmar Sandström and Agnes Charlotta Bengtsson. He also had a sister two years older than her, Margarite Rut Sandström.
Beatrice, had been visiting her maternal grandparents in Hultsjö, Sweden with her mother and older sister. The three embarked on the voyage back to the United States on the Titanic. They were traveling with a third class passage aboard the Titanic.
The three survived the tragic night of April 14, 1912, when they were rescued by boat number 13.
They arrived in New York on April 18 in the Carpathia.
Beatrice, by her young age when the transatlantic collapsed, remembered nothing of that night, only what others had told her. However, in later years, there was once she recognized that as a child she used to say,"look, the moon is falling", it may have rockets that fired for help as the Titanic sank.
After the disaster of the Titanic, the family Sandström returned to Sweden, where it survived until the end of its days. Beatrice died on September 3, 1995 at the age of 85.
2- Eva Miriam Hart (1905-1996)
Eva Miriam Hart was born on 31 January 1905 in Ilford, a cosmopolitan town in London, England. His parents were Benjamin Hart and Esther Bloomfield, with whom he traveled aboard the transatlantic.
Eva Hart was one of the most critical survivors with the security protocol of the Titanic, emphasizing that there were not enough lifeboats. Hart gave several full-length interviews on the BBC's website.
In his memories, he tells of the impact of the cries of the shipwrecked ones, followed by an abysmal silence. Eva told how she lived the moment when the Titanic split in half and sank. Another of the aspects that most draw the attention of the story of Eva Hart, are the presentiments that had its mother that a catastrophe was going to take place.
Eva and her mother were saved aboard the boat number 14. They never saw Eva's father, Benjamin Hart again.
Eva Hart Died on February 14, 1996 for cancer at age 91.
3- Edith Eileen Haisman (1896-1997)
He was born on October 27, 1896 in Cape Town, South Africa. His parents were Thomas William Solomon and Elizabeth Catherine Brown.
He was 15 years old when he boarded the Titanic, with his parents, on his way to Seattle (Washington), where his father wanted to open a hotel. They were traveling with a second class ticket.
His experience in the"ship of dreams"was collected in a biography he published two years before his death in 1995, A Lifetime on the Titanic .
Edith Haisman is the only victim of the sinking, of the last ten survivors, who was a teenager when she boarded the Titanic.
Edith and her mother were saved aboard the lifeboat number 14, while his father stayed on the boat and was counted as deceased, although they never found his body.
In his memoirs, he recounts, as at first it was not thought that the clash with the iceberg had been so serious. It also tells as an anecdote, that in his lifeboat, there was a man who dressed dressed as a woman. A scene that gathers Titanic , The James Cameron movie.
In 1917 he married Frederick Thankful Haisman, with whom he had ten children.
Edith died on January 20, 1997 at the age of 100, in a Southampton residence as a result of pneumonia.
4- Louise Laroche (1910-1998)
Louise Laroche was born in Paris on July 2, 1910.
He went up to the Titanic, about to turn two, with a second class passage, along with his parents Joseph and Juliette and his sister Simone.
Louise was rescued alongside her mother and sister by the Carpathia, while her father, the engineer Joseph Philippe Lemercier Laroche died in the sinking. It is not known exactly which boat left the Titanic.
As with many of the victims, the reason why Louise Laroche boarded the Titanic was entirely circumstantial.
The Laroche family lived in France. Joseph, Louise's father, had planned to return to Haiti, his native country in late 1912, but learned that his wife was pregnant and decided to advance the trip so that the child was born in Haiti. They were traveling on the SS France with a first-class ticket, which was given to them by Joseph's mother. However, they did not like the policy that had the first cruise with respect to the children and decided to exchange the tickets for second class aboard the RMS Titanic.
Another curious fact is that Louise, Simone and Joseph Laroche were the only passengers of the Titanic of black descent, at least so in the official information.
Louise Laroche She died on January 25, 1998 at the age of 87.
5- Eleanor Ileen Shuman (1910-1998)
Eleanor Shuman, a maiden Johnson, had 18 months on the fateful night of April 14, 1912.
Daughter of the newspaper editor, Oskar Walter Johnson and Alice Wilhelmina Backberg, she embarked on the Titanic with her mother and her brother Harold by chance, with a third-class passage.
Eleanor has a story similar to that of Beatrice, as they both climbed the Titanic by chance, after a family visit. In the case of Ms. Shuman, in Finland.
He was saved aboard the last boat that left the Titanic, according to the same Mrs. Shuman.
Although she remembered little of that tragic night because of her young age, Eleonor made sure to remember perfectly the screams and an avalanche of hands trying to reach its lifeboat.
This survivor was the only one that met the filmmaker James Cameron during the filming of his film on the liner.
He died of an illness at a hospital near his home in Elgin, Illinois, on March 7, 1998.
6- Michel Marcel Navratil (1908-2001)
He is the only man on the list of the last survivors of the Titanic.
He was born on June 12, 1908 in Nice, France and with only four years embarked in the"ship of dreams".
Michel and his younger brother, Edmond, were known as the"orphans of the Titanic", as they were rescued in boat D, the last successfully launched from the ship, without any guardian in their charge.
Michel Marcel and his brother were traveling aboard the transatlantic, kidnapped by their own father Michel Navratil, who sought to find a future in the United States, with his children, in hiding from his then ex-wife, the Italian Marcelle Caretto. The marriage was divorced at the beginning of 1912, reason why only they had separated months.
Michel Navratil, father, died in the sinking, managing to save his children in the last boat of the Titanic.
During the trip, Michel Navratil posed as a Louis M. Hoffman and his sons nicknamed Lolo and Momon.
Michel Marcel Navratil died on January 30, 2001, at age 92.
7- Winnifred Vera Quick (1904-2002)
Winnifred was born in Plymouth, Devon (England) on January 23, 1904. His parents were Frederick Charles Quick and Jane Richards Quick. He also had a sister five years younger than her, Phillys May, also a survivor of the Titanic.
Winnifred was traveling as a second-class passenger, along with her mother and sister, to reunite with her father in Detroit, Michigan.
The three were saved in lifeboat number 11, one of the first to leave the ship, as reported by Winnifred's mother, Jane Quick in a April 20, 1912 chronicle published in the Detroit Journal.
In 1923 he married Alois Van Tongerloo, with whom he had five children.
The Quick's eldest daughter died on July 4, 2002 in East Lansing, Michigan at the age of 98.
8- Lillian Gertrud Asplund (1906-2006)
Lillian Gertrud Asplund, known as Lillian Asplund, was born on October 21, 1906 and was the last American survivor of the Titanic.
She was one of the descendants of the marriage formed by Carl and Selma Asplund. Lilian had four other brothers, including a twin brother, Carl Edgar, whom he lost that night of April 14.
The Asplund family returned from visiting relatives in Sweden. Of the shipwreck, only Lillian, its mother and its small brother Félix Asplund were saved.
The little Asplund never wanted to talk about the tragedy. One of the memories that are known of Lillian Asplund, is how it embarked aboard the boat number 15 through a window, that later identified with the cover of first class, next to its mother and its small brother. All this, while leaving behind more than half of his family.
Lillian and the survivors of his family had many economic problems after the collapse, since in it they lost most of their savings.
Her mother, Selma never surpassed the death of her husband and her children. Lillian never married and dedicated herself to taking care of her mother until she died at 52 years of age.
Nor did his brother, Felix Asplund, marry.
Lillian Asplund died in Worcester at age 99.
Barbara Joyce West Dainton (1911-2007)
Barbara West was one of the daughters of Edwy Arthur West and Ada Mary West. He was born on May 24, 1911 in Bournemouth, England.
Barbara boarded the Titanic with her parents and her older sister, Constance. Her mother was pregnant when she boarded the ship. The West family emigrated to Gainesville, Florida, in search of a new life.
They carried second-class passages. In fact, Barbara was the last survivor who traveled in second class.
The West median always refused to talk about what happened that night. What is known, is by his mother Ada.
Barbara, her mother and sister were saved aboard the boat number 10, while her father died and was never identified.
Mrs. Dainton died on October 16, 2007 at the age of 96.
10- Millvina Dean (1912-2009)
Millvina Dean was just a baby of two months when she embarked on the Titanic and became the last survivor of this tragedy. This fact made her one of the most media victims.
He was born on February 2, 1912 in Devon, England.
Millvina was part of one of the migrant families aboard the Titanic. He traveled with his parents and his older brother.
His father, like most of the men on the ship, died in the sinking.
The Dean family was one of the first with a third-class passage that boarded a lifeboat. Millvina embarked in the boat number 10 next to its mother and its brother.
Like many other survivors, he had economic problems. Received donations from Leonardo Dicaprio , Kate Winslet And James Cameron.
Millvina died on May 31, 2009 in Hampshire, England, for pneumonia.
References
- Barbara Celis. (2006). Lillian Gertrud Asplund, survivor of the"Titanic". El País Website: elpais.com.
- David Alandete. (2009). Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the Titanic. El País Website: elpais.com.
- Encyclopedia Titanica. (2017). Titanic Survivors. [Online] Available at: encyclopedia-titanica.org.
- Harvey Aranton. (2014). A Matchup of Unsinkable Spirits . New York Times Website: nytimes.com.
- Radio 4. (1983). Today, Eva Hart, Titanic Survivor . BBC Website: bbc.co.uk.
- Titanic Historical Society. (2017). Home of the first and original Titanic Society. [Online] Available at: titanichistoricalsociety.org.
- Will Payne. (2008). Secrets of the Titanic survivor Lillian Asplund revealed . Mirror Website: mirror.co.uk.