Stories of the Titanic survivors

Survivors/Remembrance stories

Charles Joughin was the only person to survive the ice water because he had reportedly been drinking.

 

Elizabeth Shutes

Elizabeth Shutes was 40 years old at the time the Titanic went down. After she and other passengers were rescued, she described view saying

“our men knew nothing about the position of the stars, hardly how to pull together…the men’s hands were too cold to hold on…in my ears I heard: ‘she’s gone now lads; row like hell or we’ll get the devil of a swell.”

She was one of the passengers who talked about needless items which had been more important than getting to safety.

 

Laura Mabel Francatelli

Laura was a 30 year old secretary from London who was one of the passengers who got saved by the Carpathia.

She stated that her weakest moment was when they lowered down the rope swing. She says she just closed her eyes and held on tightly asking if she was safe. Then she remembered a pair of strong arms pulling her to safety.

Charlotte Collyer

Charlotte was one of the many passengers who started a panic search for their loved ones.

She was a 31 year old second class passenger who was searching for her husband. She expressed the incident by saying

“There was scarcely anyone who had not been separated from husband, child, or friend. Was the last one among the handful saved?I had a husband to search for, a husband whom in the greatness of my faith, I had believed would be found in one of the boats. He was not there.”

 

Eva Hart

Eva Hart was 7 years old at the time of the tragedy. She was a second class passenger along with her parents. She lost her father but went on to live a vibrant life. 

She says that people are always shocked that she doesn’t mind traveling car, train, plane, or ship. It doesn’t faze her that she survived a historic tragedy and lives like it may have never happened

 

Edith Brown Haisman

"I was in Lifeboat Number 13. I always remembered that. My father was waving to us and talking to a clergyman, the Rev. Carter."

"The Titanic went in the ice and I heard three bangs. Before we hit, there had been terrific vibrations from the engines during the night as the ship was really racing over the sea."

"As the lifeboat pulled away we heard cries from people left on the Titanic and in the water and explosions in the ship. There were lots of bodies floating ... We were in the lifeboat nine hours."

"I kept looking in the water for my father and when we reached New York we went to the hospitals to see if he had been picked up."

 

Conclusion

A little bit about that night

The maximum number of people the Titanic could carry. 2,208: the number of people aboard (passengers and crew).

1,503 passengers and crew died. 705 of the 2,208 survived.

2,208 lifeboat seats were needed, 1,178 were on board.

962 seats were required by law, The very first lifeboat could have help 64 but on carried 28,  472 seats weren’t used.

Almost all persons were wearing a lifejacket but 300 people were pulled from sea the next day floating in there life jacket. The temperature was around 31 degrees. One child died from first class while 49 from steerage died.