The passengers onboard of RMS Titanic were approximately 2,224 people. They boarded the White Star Line’s famous Olympic class ocean liner for her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. Unfortunately after a tragic incident, RMS Titanic struck an iceberg, the ship sank on April 15th 1912 and over 1,500 of the people onboard lost their lives. The number of survivors is estimated to 712 and their stories are still exciting the world.
Millvina Dean: the Last of the Titanic Survivors
Ms. Millvina Dean was only 9 weeks old (born on 2 February 1912) when she boarded RMS Titanic. Her father was taking his family from London, where he had a pub, to Kansas City where he had been planning to run a a tobacconist’s shop. They were traveling in Third Class.
Ms. Dean survived the RMS Titanic disaster with her brother, aged 2 and her mother Georgetta, Mr. Bertram Dean was not among the RMS Titanic survivors. She worked as a secretary and an assistant in an engineering office in Southampton. She never married.
She was not a celebrity until the Titanic wrecks were found on September 1st 1985 and she was found to be one of the RMS Titanic survivors. Millvina always had trouble to be a famous Titanic Survivor. She considered herself as an ordinary person and she had no memories from the tragic RMS Titanic accident.
The last of the RMS Titanic survivors died at the age of 97 on 31st May 2009.
Eva Hart: one of the Most Outspoken Titanic survivors
Eva Miriam Hart, the only child of Benjamin and Esther, was born on January 31ts 1905 in Ilford. The Hart family boarded the RMS Titanic ship with the idea to emigrate to Winnipeg, Manitoba. Benjamin Hart had plans of opening a drug store. Eva was seven and she boarded with her family at Southampton as a second class passengers.
At the moment of the tragic disaster, Eva was sleeping. Her father placed her and her mother at Lifeboat 14. They both were among the Titanic survivors took by RMS Carpathia. Benjamin Heart perished and his body wasn’t even identified.
Being among the Titanic survivors at the age of 7 she kept some vivid memories of the fatal accident. She is considered to be one of the the most outspoken Titanic survivors because she commonly criticized White Star Line for not providing enough lifeboats. She was one of the most active Titanic survivors. She wrote an autobiography – “Shadow of the Titanic, A Survivor’s Story” (Amazon). She was attending all activities related with RMS Titanic.
Eva Hart died at the age of 91 on February 14, 1996.
Edith Haisman: the Oldest of the Titanic Survivors
Edith Eileen Brown, a child of Thomas William Solomon Brown and his wife Elizabeth Catherine, was born in Cape Town, South Africa on October 27th 1986. The oldest of the Titanic survivors boarded in Southampton as a second class passenger with her parents. They were traveling for the opening of a new hotel businesses in Seattle, Washington.
Among the Titanic survivors was also Edith’s mother, her father’s body was never identified. She was 15 years old and later in interviews she gave a vivid explanations of how RMS Titanic struck the iceberg at 11:40 pm on April 14th 1912. Edith Haisman biography, “A Lifetime on the Titanic” (Amazon), was published in 1995.
She took part in a few RMS Titanic survivors activities. In 1993 is Southampton she was given a gold watch recovered from wreckage expedition in 1987 and considered to be her father’s. She was a friend with Eva Hart.
Edith Haisman died at the age of 100 on January 20th 1997 in Southampton nursing home.
The “Unsinkable” of the Titanic Survivors: Margaret “Molly” Brown
Margaret Brown, a child of the Irish immigrant John Tobin and Laura Collins, was bor in Hannibal, Missouri on July 18, 1867. She grew up with two brothers and two sisters is a cottage near the Mississippi River. She married James Joseph Brown on September 1, 1886. they had two children Lawrence Palmer, born in 1887 and Catherine Ellen, born in 1889. Margaret was involved in the National American Women’s Association, Colorado Chapter, a feminine association.
She went on the board of RMS Titanic as a First Class passenger at Cherbourg, France. Margaret was traveling in Europe when she had received the news that her grandchild was very ill and she bought the first possible passage.
It is considered that Margaret helped a few passengers to be among the Titanic survivors, but her main activities took place later, on Carpathia. Margaret Brown was the founder of the Titanic Survivors Committee. She raised nearly $10,000 dollars for the poor and desperate Titanic survivors.
She continued serving the Titanic Survivors committee and even visited the victims graves at Nova Scotia to put wreaths. Margaret did not manage to give her testimonies at the Titanic hearings, so she wrote her version of the tragic accident and the story was published in the newspapers of Paris, New York and Denver.
Margaret Tobin Brown died on October 26, 1932 at the Barbizon Hotel in New York. She suffered a brain tumor.
Some of her fame came after her dead. She became a hit character in “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” (IMBD), Broadway musical and film but it had very little in common with the real story of Margaret Brown. Margaret’s biography was published in June 1999.
All the stories are unique and interesting. They have inspired books and movies. The Titanic Survivors are all dead now but their stories still keep the memories alive.