1. The Titanic Orphans
This real-life sad story did not make it to the Hollywood adaption of the Titanic. Two-year-old Edmond and four-year-old Navratil were kidnapped by their father Michel Sr. who set sail for New York on the Titanic. To board the ship, their father assumed the name Louis Hoffman and used the children's nicknames, Lolo and Mamon. He had hoped that his estranged wife, who he believed was having an affair, would soon follow and they could all start a new life together in a new country. On that fateful night, Navatril got his boys on a lifeboat, but would soon perish.
Before putting his son into the boat, his father gave him a message: "My child, when your mother comes for you, as she surely will, tell her that I loved her dearly and that I still do. Tell her I expected her to follow us so that we might all live happily together in the peace and freedom of the New World." The two boys were reunited with their mother when she spotted their pictures in a newspaper.
2. Violet Jessop-“Miss Unsinkable”
This story has a bit of a bad news, good news message to it. Aside from the sinking of the Titanic, Violet Jessop, an ocean liner stewardess, survived the collision of the RMS Olympic with a British warship in 1911, whereby the ship managed to stay afloat. Unphased by what happened, Jessop began working on the HMHS Britannic, which was dubbed the Titanic 2.
But in an unfortunate circumstance, it came across a mine that had been planted by a German U-boat in 1916 and sank. Jessop would cheat death once again. After retiring in 1950 and dying at the ripe old age of 84, Jessop earned the nickname, 'Miss Unsinkable'.
3. Frederick Fleet
Frederick Fleet was one of the ship's lookouts and one of the first two people to spot the giant iceberg that would doom the Titanic. After the ship sunk, Fleet would man one of the lifeboats and row many to safety. Afterward, things would take an unfortunate turn for Fleet. He was interrogated to determine whether, with his help, the disaster could have been avoided.
He insisted that things would have turned out differently had he been supplied with a pair of binoculars. Later, in 1965 he committed suicide, after the death of his wife. On the centennial anniversary of the ship's sinking, someone would leave a pair of binoculars at Fleet's gravestone, with a note reading, 'sorry for bringing these 100 years too late.'
4. Masabumi Hosono- “The Shame of Japan”
This survivor was actually mocked for making it out alive. The 42-year-old was the only Japanese passenger aboard the ship. The decision to board a lifeboat - rather than going down with the ship - was not an easy one. But, after he saw another man jump into a boat, Hosono's survival instincts kicked in and he snuck into another lifeboat.
While he did survive, he would pay a heavy price. Upon returning to his homeland he was scorned by his countrymen for taking a spot on a lifeboat. He had lost his job and his family was ashamed of him.
5. Lawrence Beesley
35-year-old Lawrence Beesley, a science teacher at the Dulwich College in England, boarded a lifeboat with the unlucky number 13 and was later picked up by the RMS Carpathia. He would pen the Loss of the SS Titanic a few weeks later. However, it seemed that he hadn't gotten the event out of his system.
Four decades later, during the making of the 1958 film A Night to Remember, which recounted the tragic Titanic, Beesley snuck on the set during the sinking scene. He had hoped to symbolically go down with the ship. Of course, this scene was banished by the movie's director.
6. Dorothy Gibson
This was a case of art imitating life. American silent film actress, and a great beauty back in her day, the 23-year-old Dorothy Gibson arrived in New York immediately after surviving the tragedy and began to work on the first film to ever detail the events of the disaster, Saved From the Titanic.
The film was released in May 1912, a month after that fateful day. She also wore the same clothes and shoes in the film as she had worn during the actual sinking of the Titanic. While the movie went on to become a success, years later, the only known print of the film would be destroyed in a fire.
Bonus: While Ann Elizabeth, also known as Lizzie, did not survive the Titanic, she deserves a mention. The 50-year-old was one of five female first-class passengers who had climbed out of a lifeboat because she was told to leave her dog, a Great Dane, behind.
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