The Titanic Archives - Joni Scott Books

Surviving the Titanic Tragedy

By Joni Scott | August 2, 2025

SURVIVING the TITANIC

At 4am, on the icy dawn of April 15, 1912, a still, glassy sea lay scattered only with silent lifeboats. The mighty Titanic had sunk hours before and taken 1700 souls with it down to the icy, minus 2-degree depths of the North Atlantic.

The night before, the RMS Carpathia was fifty-eight miles away when the Titanic radio operators sent a distress signal. This smaller, distant ship had onboard 725 sun seeking passengers, mostly steerage, travelling from New York to five Mediterranean ports. However soon the then unknown Carpathia would go down in history as the ‘ship of widows’.

Unfortunately, the Carpathia was not as close as the SS Californian, but it was the only ship to act on the Titanic wireless SOS distress signal. Powering away, it headed northwest to the Atlantic ice fields, the location of the stricken Titanic. Risking his own ship to the two-hundred-foot icebergs, Captain Rostron navigated through them to the compass position given.

But the sea was empty of ships. One as large as the huge liner would surely be noticed. Time had run out. The Titanic was gone. A series of human errors had coalesced to compound its fate.

The Titanic was Gone

Captain Rostron had prepared his ship for the rescue mission. But he could never prepare himself for the sight of the sad little boats with their dismal load of women and children, dressed in just nightdresses and ballgowns.

One by one his crew hauled the frozen, silent survivors on board and bundled them to warmth in the ship’s lounge and dining areas. Hot soup and coffee gave some comfort but how could anything erase the grief of leaving one’s husband and teenage sons to a sinking ship in icy waters?

Grief and Loss

The 705 survivors of the sinking, mostly women and children, would never shed their grief. Long before PTSD was a well-known condition, these women surely were candidates for that long lasting mental trauma. They would forever live in the shadow of the Titanic.

Most were wealthy first-class women due to the class system of loading of the boats, but some by mere chance were second or even third class. The statistics speak for themselves; only 2.7 per cent of first-class women died, just 4, and 3 had opted to stay aboard, whereas15 per cent of second-class women died and in third class, 53 per cent died.

Most men did die, between 83 to 91 percent depending on class again. Interestingly, a higher percentage of British men died than any other nationality, possibly due to their chivalrous nature and politeness in queues.

Those who survived, either left in lifeboats to row the women, or clambered onto a boat after the sinking. A few men like Bruce Ismay, the owner of White Star Lines, had slipped through the cracks of the panic-led loading. Branded as cowards, they would live to regret their actions on that night.

Survivors Tell their Stories

Many, many refused to ever speak of the sinking again. They closed the book on the matter, but really the events of that night lay frozen in their souls forever.

Those few who later in the 1950s, responded to historian, Walter Lord, recalled the Titanic as an auditory, rather than visual memory. One by one they told Lord, the author of A Night to Remember of the roaring wail, the collective screams, the unbearable sound of 1700 people dying. Time does not erase this sound. Just a few years later soldiers from the Western Front would experience the same with the thunder of guns, and the screams of their comrades.

So, who were they, and what happened to these 705 survivors who by either fortune or misfortune, depending how you view it, managed to survive? Andrew Wilson in his book, The Shadow of the Titanic examines this question. As I own this book along with many other books on the Titanic, I can share some of his fascinating findings and showcase the lives of a few of the women survivors.

Widows, Young and Old

They were not all widows, but many were, the young and the old. Pepita Penasco, the new bride of wealthy eighteen-year-old Victor Penasco, farewelled her new husband to step aboard a lifeboat. Neither spoke English nor fully grasped what was going on. They were on an extended honeymoon. Later in the lifeboat, she screamed for him to no avail. His body was not recovered, posing a problem for the seventeen year old. In Spain, a person could not be declared dead without a body without waiting twenty years.

So eventually wanting to remarry, she arranged an unidentified corpse to be named as Victor, so she could move on from the tragedy. Pepita was well set financially, as Victor was the heir to his grandfather’s fortune.

Writer, May Futrelle lost her husband that night, the crime writer, Jaques Futrelle. The couple had left their children behind with grandparents to take a tour of Europe promoting his detective novels and discover background for their writing. His specialty was daring escape plots, but on the fateful night, he found himself in a plot with no escape.

May last saw her husband on deck lighting a cigarette with John Jacob Astor by his side. She kept him in her sight as the lifeboat lowered and crew rowed it away. Another young woman wailed beside her at the loss of her talented sculptor husband. May Futrelle forever honoured his talent and memory by promoting his books and finishing his uncompleted novel.

Madeleine Astor was just eighteen and the new and pregnant wife of Lord Astor the richest man in the world. She too was ushered unwillingly into a boat, reluctant to leave her husband. Read her story in the next section.

Wives Reluctant to Leave the Titanic

Many arguments broke out between couples. They wanted to stay together. Some only left their husbands for the sake of the children. The common encouragement being, ‘You go, dear and I’ll stay awhile.’

Mr. and Mrs. Isidor Strauss, an older married couple, decided to stay onboard together and would die in the sinking. Many women not only had to leave their husbands, but their teenage sons. Young Jack Thayer was fortunate to survive the sinking and reunite with his mother Marion, but this was a rare event.

Imagine how these women, safe in lifeboats, felt watching as the giant liner reared its stern and sank before their eyes, knowing their family members were part of this. Out beyond the liner they were powerless to help all the 1700 in the water. Some rowed towards the sinking liner but most did not, fearful of being sucked under or swamped by desperate frozen swimmers. Yet the lifeboats were barely full, some only at third capacity. The Duff Gordons went down in history for their chilling selfishness as they bribed other passengers to not row towards the sinking liner to save people in the water.

Being a Widow In 1912

Onboard the Carpathia, widows wept and told those who tried to comfort them, ‘Go away, we have just seen our husbands drown.’ Apart from the sheer emotion of it, being a widow in 1912 was no easy matter. Husbands were the sole breadwinners back then and women of middle class did not work. Adding to this issue was the fact that many travellers had carried their life savings onboard the ship. They were starting anew in America and had brought their wealth with them. This was the days before international wire transfers of funds. Bodies found at sea had their suit pockets stuffed with cash.

Fortunately, the Red Cross would help those left penniless, but many widows had lost their will to live. Marion Thayer never recovered from losing her beloved fifty-year-old husband. She remained haunted by the vision of his body at the bottom of the ocean and died on the 14 April exactly 32 years after the disaster. Her son, Jack killed himself at the age of fifty, the same age as the father he left behind on the Titanic.

Renee Harris bravely tried to run her husband’s Hudson Theatre but ended up miserable and penniless. A second marriage failed and by 1940 she lived alone in a single room in a welfare hotel. When someone once commented on her luck at being saved, she replied, ‘Was I saved?’

This was not an uncommon response from survivors. Many felt it would have been better if they have died along with their husbands and sons. Some suffered survivor’s guilt, others had no will to embrace life. They drifted along like ghosts, a shadow of their former selves. Young Constance Willard never married, never had children, never worked. She lived out her days in a mental institution where her only joy was caring for cats.

Young Madeleine Astor, the pregnant widow of fabulously wealthy John Jacob Astor seemed best suited to recover and move on from the tragedy. But did she? At least her husband’s body had been recovered and given a stately burial on land. His will left her well cared for by way of a $5 million trust fund, a Fifth Avenue apartment and $100,000 in cash, a lot of money in 1912. But there was a sting to it. She could only have it if she did not remarry. A dilemma for a young widow of eighteen.

After four years of playing the perfect widow, Madeleine again fell in love and decided to turn her back on her fortune to marry again. But by 1932 she had to escape this unhappy second marriage. On a trip to Europe on the Titanic’s sister ship, the Olympic, she met a young professional boxer, and he became her third husband. Ultimately, he used her and her money to advance himself at her expense. Her life, full of promise did not bring her any lasting happiness.

Child Survivors of the Titanic

Life after the Titanic was difficult emotionally and financially for widows. Was it any better for the child survivors?

Young Eva Hart, just seven at the time, was by 1992, one of the oldest survivors and the inspiration for the character in the Titanic film of 1998. Eva like other young survivors never married nor had a sexual relationship. She was the only surviving child of ten born to her mother, Esther. They had not died on the Titanic but previously as infants. If not for Esther, Ava would have died too.

Esther had misgivings about travelling on a ship dubbed ’unsinkable.’ It seemed to her to be flying in the face of God. She refused to sleep at night, convinced something would happen and it did. Wakeful, she roused young Eva and went up to the decks to be one of the first women to board a lifeboat. But the events of the night forever haunted their future lives. They may have been better to have not survived without their husband and father, Benjamin Hart.

Little Douglas Spedden escaped the sinking in lifeboat 3 with both his parents and white mohair toy bear, Polar, as they were first class travellers. But just three years later Douglas was killed in a rare automobile accident leaving his shattered parents forever childless. Their story is told in Polar, the Titanic Bear written for Douglas by his mother, Daisy Spedden. A beautifully illustrated book, it was a favourite of my Titanic obsessed son when he was eight years old.

The Titanic Cast a Long Shadow

There are few happy stories to tell about the survivors. Those who did open up seemed to have unhappy lives, lives lived in the shadow of tragedy. It did not help that World War One broke out just two years later. From this event, more widows would emerge. This war cast another shadow over Titanic survivor’s lives. Twenty years later another war would erupt. It is no wonder those touched by the Titanic had issues moving forward in those challenging times.

Annie Robinson, a young stewardess on the Titanic was the first of ten survivors to commit suicide. Many others lived lives of mental trauma, going forward only as ghosts of their former selves. I will not go into the sad details of these but mention one interesting case. Frederick Fleet, the young man on watch that night hung himself. He must have suffered enormously feeling it was his fault for not sighting the iceberg sooner. But the binoculars were missing from the poop deck!

‘If only’ is a phrase used over and over for this tragedy. So many human errors and human vices came to coalesce on that night, culminating in disaster. From my fascination with twentieth century history, it seems to me that the Titanic tragedy and the Spanish Flu were two events that book-ended the greater tragedy of the Great War. For these survivors where was no comfort in collective grief.

If you did enjoy this article, I have written another on the Titanic, Women of the Titanic, and include the disaster in my historical novel, Whispers Through Time.

Joni Scott is an Australian author with five published novels, three of them historical and has her own website; https://joniscottauthor.com.

The mystery ship and the Titanic

By Joni Scott | February 2, 2025

This SS Titanic is one of my history obsessions. As such, it showcases so much of humanity and was a pivotal moment in history, It and the Spanish Flu are bookends to the greater tragedy of WWI. The tragic story of the Titanic still fascinates, despite the ship’s loss over a century ago.

Indeed, The RMS Titanic lives on as a cautionary tale of what can go wrong when ego and greed overpower responsibility and safety concerns. But intriguingly, the mystery of the ‘mystery ship’ sighted by Titanic crew and passengers also endures. The loss of the Titanic affected many lives but just not those aboard. The involvement of other ships in its rescue affected the crew of those ships too. Read on for details of these mystery ships surrounding the Titanic.

Yes, the Titanic story is one that keeps on giving. There is so much to fascinate, so many lessons about human nature to appreciate and ongoing mysteries to puzzle. What really happened that night onboard the Titanic and the nearby ships?

What caused the Titanic tragedy?

It is telling of human nature that we are drawn to details of tragedies. Perhaps it is because there is so much to take away and reflect on. The factors that caused the real-life Titanic tragedy are themselves endlessly fascinating. In this instance, there were a myriad of fateful errors both human and natural.

Titanic was steaming ahead in a fateful race with Time itself. Captain Edward Smith confidently ordered her throttled into full steam so she could arrive in New York ahead of schedule. He, along with Bruce Ismay, director of White Star Line, wanted to showcase her capabilities as the biggest ship ever to sail the seas. It was Smith’s last commission at sea, so this would be a fitting end to his career. A timely six day crossing of the Atlantic was important for both men. But thousands of others would have preferred to just arrive.

The Titanic had everything but lifeboats

Neither man seemed concerned by reported ice warnings in the ocean ahead. Nor were they overly mindful of their responsibility to the cargo of 2240 passengers considering the paucity of lifeboats. The Titanic had everything anyone could want on board a ship, except enough lifeboats and a pair of binoculars. Those were missing to from the look-out.

There were only enough lifeboats for 1178 people, leaving 1023 others stranded. That is only if the lifeboats were fully loaded, which was definitely not the case. Many that could take 65 people, left with less than twenty aboard. Some of these fortunate passengers were extremely wealthy and influential women along with children and even first-class men. Most second and third-class passengers went down with the ship.

So many fateful errors

If it were not for the speed, the inattention to ice, the lowered bulkheads, the limited lifeboats, the missing binoculars on the watch deck, the poor-quality steel, the pop rivets, the last-minute attempt to swerve around the iceberg…. So many ‘ifs, so many factors that coalesced to cause tragedy. The mysteries surrounding the Titanic are many.

Then, apart from the ship’s construction, the speed and human factors, there was the bad luck that the only nearby ship, the Californian, turned off its telegram service and retired all staff to bed, even after sighting a flare rocket. ‘We thought it was a just a party,’ the captain claimed in defense. Words that went down in history like those of Captain Smith. ‘I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that.’

The mystery ship nearby

Captain Lord of The Californian would become the scapegoat during the British enquiry into the disaster. However, the Californian lay actually 20 miles to the north of the Titanic and may not have been the mystery ship on the horizon seen from the Titanic. Perhaps it was the crew of the mystery ship now identified as the SS Mount Temple who ignored their duty. This ship was also nearby but on the other side of the deadly icefield.

A night of confusion

The SS Mount Temple responded to the Titanic‘s distress signals on 14 April 1912 but its captain, Capt. Moore, stopped short of helping, He later claimed the ice was too thick to safely pass through. Controversy continues as to the exact position of the SS Mount Temple on tht fateful night. Moore’s recollections of his ship’s true speed and distance from Titanic confound conclusions to this day. Some historians claim that Mount Temple was the ‘mystery ship’ seen by officers and passengers aboard the Titanic five to ten miles away, rather than the SS Californian blamed in the British Inquiry.^[1]^[2]

However, many other experts firmly believe that the ‘Californian‘ was the ship seen from the ‘Titanic‘, and vice versa. This history article is one of many to summarize the findings.

Wrong coordinates for Titanic wreck

One of the most confounding mysteries surrounding the Titanic is why nearby ships did not come to the rescue. Mystery ship, SS Mount Temple stopped to the west of The Titanic disaster site. The British enquiry overlooked this because the reported disaster site had the wrong coordinates. Only in 1984 when the wreck of the Titanic was discovered were the true coordinates known. Despite being critically damaged by the iceberg, the Titanic drifted, not completely stopping, as first believed. This is one of the mysteries surrounding the Titanic

Quoting Wikipedia, as it explains the matter well, ‘At a distance of 49.5 nautical miles (91.7 km; 57.0 mi) from the famous distress coordinates of Titanic, and roughly 60 miles (97 km) from the actual location of the disaster, SS Mount Temple was simply too far away to be seen from those aboard Titanic, and for those aboard Mount Temple to see Titanic or her distress rockets. Captain Moore and his crew made a desperate attempt to reach the stricken Titanic but only reached the western side of the ice field that stood between her and the wreck site some 2 hours and 40 minutes after Titanic sank. There was no way that she could have reached Titanic in time to carry out a rescue; she did not ‘abandon’ Titanic.’

A possible rescue?

This seems the consensus of most historians on the SS Mount Temple’s possibility of rendering assistance.

The wireless operator onboard Titanic reported two sets of coordinates, one on either side of the icefield. But not all nearby ships received both as it was very late at night, and some had shut off the Marconi wireless. Smaller ships may not have even had the new innovation of a wireless. Other historians claim it was neither of these nearby ships, the Californian or the Mount Temple, but a northbound Norwegian steamer, named Samson. But this ship was very small and unlikely to be the mystery ship seen that night.

The hope of a rescue was one factor in the reluctance of passengers especially women to board lifeboats and leave the warm comfort of the Titanic. The mystery ship visible on the horizon seemed as if it could come soon to rescue them. The women waited with their men folk and let others board. A lack of urgency led to the boats leaving partially loaded. some with a capacity of 60 left with only a dozen or so, mostly men.

Titanic and its Women Passengers.

Women were also afraid of the drop down to the cold dark sea below. It was 70ft from Boat deck A to the chilly Atlantic. One of the few advantages of being a woman in the Victorian age was chivalry. For those who have no experience of it, chivalry is the social and moral code by which men supposedly, selflessly, respect women. It is definitely a dying art!

In 1912, chivalry dictated that women and children had priority over men, with regards to lifeboats. The problem, of course, was that there were not enough lifeboats, even for the women and children and women were not eager to be in one.

Class onboard Titanic mattered

Sadly, as explained above, most lifeboats left the ship with few onboard and most of these were first-class women and men, and crew. Because, though chivalry was active, class was the dominating decider of who survived.

Third-class women and children had a slim chance of making it on deck, to even try for a lifeboat. There were no lifeboats for third class at all. The rules of the ship restricted third class passengers access to higher decks. This was to avoid mass panic, so the captain maintained, but really it was all about class. James Cameron’s blockbuster, Titanic (1998) portrays this well.

Class and women survivors

The first-class women included the likes of eighteen-year-old Lady Madeleine Astor, the young and pregnant wife of John Jacob Astor. He was the richest man onboard the ship and unlike some first-class men, behaved admirably. Wealthy Sir and Lady Duff Gordon bribed their way onto a boat and like Bruce Ismay suffered lifelong disgrace.

Rumors abounded that these well-off individuals refused to row back to save others, when the ship finally descended to the icy depths of the Atlantic. The ‘unsinkable Molly Brown’ a nouveau riche society woman tried to influence her fellow passengers in lifeboat 6 to return to help those in the sea.

Most third-class women perished along with their husbands and children, and this was the fate of many second-class women as well. They did not join the ranks of first-class widows who arrived in New York in a state of shock and disbelief. At least they had financial security to continue alone.

Unhappy Survivors

But even these apparently fortunate women who survived, did not live on to have happy lives. The shadow of the Titanic cast a long shadow. The echoes of that night reverberated forever. Many reported that over seventy years later, that they still suffered nightmares and heard the screams from those in the water. The Shadow of the Titanic follows the ongoing lives of the survivors of that terrible night. Interestingly, most of them lived sad lives and many died young and even quite soon after the event.

The audio memory of the screams of those dying in the icy water, then the silence that followed haunted many survivors. This was the predominant Some women went insane, committed suicide or just suffered, not only as widows but as remarried women. Many had survivor-guilt and questioned the meaning of life.

Child survivors had similar memories and distress throughout their life. Maybe it was better to drown with your husband and children, than live on as a survivor? Being a third-class widow would have been a difficult role in life in 1912. So many factors compounded to cause the tragedy. There are a lot of ‘if only ifs’ that make this such a human tragedy involving not just nature at work but human nature with all its frailty.

Titanic in Literature

The ill-fated Titanic is the subject of many books such as the definitive A Night to Remember by Walter Lord (1956) and Titanic, An Illustrated History by Don Lynch (1992). The ship features in Stephen Weir’s book, History’s Worst Decisions and is the inspiration for a children’s book called Polar, the Titanic Bear, about the actual teddy bear of a little boy who survived the sinking. The little boy who owned the teddy bear died in a family car crash within a year and is just one example of the long shadow that the Titanic cast over people’s lives. Some folks never recovered from family losses, while others bore survivor’s guilt that prevented their happiness. Because of my obsession with this tragedy, I included the Titanic tragedy in my own historical fiction novel, Whispers through Time, set around 1912.

Follow my history blogs on https://joniscottauthor.com

Joni Scott is an Australian author with five published novels, three historical and two contemporary. https://joniscottauthor.com.

The Titanic sails on through history

By Joni Scott | August 8, 2023

The Titanic casts a long shadow though history. Even today it has been in the news with the loss of the Titan submersible. This tragedy is another notch added to its sad toll of casualties. The Titan submersible with five rich adventurers sank irretrievably to the cold dark depths of the Atlantic beside the rusted wreck of the fated White Star liner of 1912 fame. Now those passengers lie too forever nearby to the rusted tangled wreck. The Titanic sinking continues to fascinate. Truly, the Titanic sails on through history.

Deja Vu, the other ship called The Titan

Didn’t the CEO and founder of the submersible company, Ocean Gate know that the name Titan was that of the liner in Morgan Robertson’s eerily predictive 1898 novel, Futility? An ill-fated name. The liner featuring in this pre 1912 novel was so similar in dimensions, weight, number of funnels and load of glamorous passengers to the Titanic liner that would set sail on its maiden voyage some years later. Its fate was exactly the same. The Titan of the book hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic at similar co-ordinates to the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic. But it seems the owner of White Star Lines, Bruce Ismay did not read this book nor did Captain Smith or the builder, Thomas Andrews. Because of this, the Titanic sails on through history.

Ignoring the ice warnings, these well-intentioned men sailed their beautiful ship full steam ahead. With male bravado, they threw caution to the wind in an attempt to break the Transatlantic Crossing record and arrive in a fete of glory one day early in New York. But instead, due to their vanity and disregard for other people’s lives, two of the three did not arrive at all. The 2223 passengers would have preferred a late arrival than none at all. The women widowed that night would live in the shadow of the Titanic for the rest of their lives as mere ghosts of their former selves. For 1517 passengers, mostly male, that night was the last one of their lives.

Staring Death in the Face

Imagine waiting on the cold sinking deck, knowing there was now no hope of rescue, watching your wives and children fading into the distance in rowboats on the icy calm sea. This surely was worse than the five Titan passengers who, just a week ago, voluntarily descended to the same icy depths over a century later. Though these five men, one just a teen, did have to contemplate the dangers of the Atlantic as they signed a declaration that they were aware they may not return to the bright light of the surface as planned. Staring death in the face is never easy. Would you sign this waver? “This is an experimental submersible vessel, that has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma, or death.” Quote taken from The Titan Submersible Journey

A Bold Adventure for the rich?

In both cases, the trip was meant to be a bold adventure. The first in 1912 boasted a trip of a lifetime on the biggest ship afloat with everything of luxury you could ever want (except lifeboats and binoculars to spot icebergs). John Jacob Astor was onboard, the richest man alive. The others in first class were also fabulously rich. Likewise for the Titan sub trip, there was a billionaire, SEO Stockton Rush, onboard and indeed any of the other four were obscenely rich, paying 250,000 for the planned 8-hour adventure to the bottom of the Atlantic and back.

Build me a better boat!

In both cases, the hull of the vessel played a major role in the tragedies. The steel and pop rivets of the original liner were not strong enough to survive an iceberg scoring down its starboard side. A 300-foot gash opened the luxury liner to the ocean and compartment after compartment flooded, sealing the massive ship’s fate. For this recent tragedy, the carbon fiber and titanium hull would again prove the vessel’s downfall. There had been warnings but for the sake of innovation, the designer ignored these with disregard to his own and other passengers’ safety. The lights of the sub were reportedly off the shelf from a camper store and the steering operated by a game controller. Despite his fascination with the mysteries of the deep, was Mr Rush cutting corners or just in a rush for foolhardy adventures?

Withstanding pressure

AS any vessel or diver descends into the depths of the ocean, the pressure increases dramatically because of the water above. At the almost 4000 m depth of the Titanic wreck the pressure is almost 400 times that of the surface. this places a huge load on a submarine vessel and is incompatible for a human diver. It’s like having the New York, Empire State Building sitting on the hull. What sort of hulls can continually withstand this pressure? Not it seems carbon fiber ones. They may tolerate this stress a few times but not continually. Cracks could develop and then the vessel is history as are its passengers. It and the Titanic sail on through history.

What a terrible fate for anyone, even those who ride the depths of their own free will. The young Pakistani youth did not want to go but was coerced by his adventurous and very wealthy father. Did teenager, Sulemon have a premonition? Or was he just more sensible than the older men.

Titanic sails on through history

What was it like for the original survivors and their families after the 1912 tragedy? Were the 706 survivors mainly women and children? Maritime policy dictates these be first as the lifeboats are loaded. However, the overseeing of the loading of lifeboats was poor. The women and children only policy was instigated far too late. Many men had boarded and already sailed away in the lifeboats. Bruce Ismay was one of them. As the director of White Star Line, he would live to regret his decision to pop in early into a partially loaded boat. The rest of his life, he lived in shame as a recluse. Initially, women were hesitant to board as the ship seemed safe and besides it was a long way down to the dark cold sea from A deck.

Who survived?

No, this is not true as many men saved themselves, leaving hundreds of women and over 50 little children to drown. A staggering count of 325 male passengers survived plus 194 male crew, totalling 325 male survivors. Of the female passengers, 313 and 20 female crew survived. So, 333 women survived the disaster. Just a slightly larger number than the men. Crew survived in a higher proportion than male passengers. Some crew jumped in as rowers at the loading of the boats and more male crew survived the sinking and found their way to a boat than male passengers.

What about the children?

Of the 107 children onboard, only 56 survived. Most lost were third class as was the case for the third-class women. There were no lifeboats for third class or steerage passengers. They were hindered from getting up to a deck from their cabins in the bowels of the ship. Gates prevented the classes from mixing onboard, so access was denied to them to reach higher decks. Those who survived were either lucky or plucky. Jumping into the sea, surviving and swimming to a lifeboat. Chances were against such luck.

If you find maritime disasters and shipping stories fascinating as I do, then read about the fated liner, the Andrea Doria. The Andrea Doria’s fate was also compounded by human error. Another boat was going the wrong way in a major Atlantic shipping channel and there was a head-on collision in a fog. Again, nature was involved. Not an iceberg but a pea-souper fog that led to zero visibility. It’s an interesting read.

More on the Titanic

There is more on The Titanic on my blog on my website joniscottauthor.com There, you can read posts about history, amazing women, books and writers and I even wrote a few science ones. I am a scientist, a biochemist who took up writing historical fiction at a later age. Now history is my new obsession. It is fascinating and so instructive for us. We can learn about things that went wrong and correct our moves. I don’t think we should just cancel the uncomfortable parts but learn from them.

If you like good stories based on true historical events, check out my three published novels in the Time trilogy, Whispers through Time, Time Heal my Heart .

The third book is now released. Last Time Forever completes the story of two sisters, Francesca and Winnie.

Joni Scott is an Australian author with five published novels: Whispers through Time, The Last Hotel, Colour Comes to Tangles and her latest historical WWI drama, Time Heal my Heart. new release Last Time Forever completes her historical trilogy based on a true story. Joni has her own website; https://joniscottauthor.com.

Tag: The Titanic