None more so than the chairman of the White Star Line, J Bruce Ismay. Ismay became known as the “coward of the Titanic” after he made it off the ship, which sank on 15th April 1912 with the loss of more than 1,500 lives.
Countless wire stories asserted Ismay's guilt at manipulating the Titanic's master into driving his ship faster than he wanted; of cowardice in taking the place of a passenger in one of the lifeboats; and of resigning from the company after the disaster rather than face the public.
From the beginning, some blamed the Titanic's skipper, Captain E.J. Smith, for sailing the massive ship at such a high speed (22 knots) through the iceberg-heavy waters of the North Atlantic. Some believed Smith was trying to better the crossing time of Titanic's White Star sister ship, the Olympic.
How many children died on the Titanic? Of the 109 children traveling on the Titanic, almost half were killed when the ship sank – 53 children in total. 1 – the number of children from First Class who perished. 52 – the number of children from steerage who perished.
The most famous Titanic survivor, “new money” socialite and philanthropist Margaret Brown became known as “the Unsinkable Molly Brown.” There was a Broadway musical based on her and, later, a film starring Debbie Reynolds. On the night of the sinking, after helping with the evacuation efforts, she got into Lifeboat 6.
Captain Smith having done all man could do for the safety of passengers and crew remained at his post on the sinking ship until the end. His last message to the crew was 'Be British. '"
The sea's surface shone like glass, making it hard to spot icebergs, common to the North Atlantic in spring. Nevertheless, Captain Smith kept the ship at full speed. He believed the crew could react in time if any were sighted. (Related: go on the trail of Titanic in the UK.)
SS Californian was a British Leyland Line steamship. It is thought to have been the only ship to see the Titanic, or at least its rockets, during the sinking, but despite being the closest ship in the area, the crew took no action to assist.
908 – the total number of crew members on board the RMS Titanic. 696 – the number of crew members who perished. 212 – the number of crew members who survived. 76% – the percentage of crew members who died, a higher death rate even than third class.
Only 25 percent of the Titanic's third-class passengers survived, and of that 25 percent, only a fraction were men. By contrast, about 97 percent of first-class women survived the sinking of the Titanic. The term steerage originally referred to the part of the ship below-decks where the steering apparatus was located.
334 – the approximate number of victims whose bodies were recovered from the sea (common accounts of the precise number differ from between 316 and 337 bodies). 23% – the percentage of the dead whose bodies were recovered. There were men, women, and children.
Bruce Ismay, chairman of Titanic's owner the White Star Line persuaded the captain to continue sailing, sinking the ship hours faster than would otherwise have happened. “If Titanic had stood still, she would have survived at least until the rescue ship came and no one need have died,” Patten said.
The designer of the Titanic went down with his ship, whereas the man whose company owned the liner left on the last lifeboat, a decision he almost immediately regretted.
Bruce Ismay. J. Bruce Ismay, in full Joseph Bruce Ismay, (born December 12, 1862, Crosby, near Liverpool, England—died October 17, 1937, London), British businessman who was chairman of the White Star Line and who survived the sinking of the company's ship Titanic in 1912.
Smith's body was never recovered, and his final moments remain a mystery—with no shortage of conflicting accounts. No one knows exactly where Captain E.J. Smith was at 11:40 p.m. on Sunday, April 14, 1912.
One of the many myths surrounding the 1912 tragedy is that the 62-year-old captain was drunk, although no evidence has ever been produced to support this.
The ship wasn't nimble enough to avoid an iceberg that lookouts spotted (the only way to detect icebergs at the time) at the last minute in the darkness. As the ice bumped along its starboard side, it punched holes in the ship's steel plates, flooding six compartments.
On today's date in 1912, the body of James McGrady, a saloon steward aboard the RMS Titanic, was interred in Halifax, N.S., where he's buried at Fairview Lawn Cemetery. Recovered in the preceding weeks, McGrady's body was the last body recovered from the tragic sinking that took place about two months prior.
First-class berths would cost $4,591, second-class would be $1,834, and third-class accommodations $1,071. A calculated estimation of the Titanic concludes that the total number of first-class travelers was 324.
Many of the factors leading to the loss of life on board the ship were judged to have been unforeseeable. Hundreds of claimants had joined the suit, asking for more than $16 million in damages. In the end, the company paid a total settlement of $664,000 to be divided among them.
The youngest of the ship's 705 survivors, Ms. Dean was only 9 weeks old when the Titanic hit an iceberg in waters off Newfoundland on the night of April 14, 1912, setting off what was then considered the greatest maritime disaster in history.
John Jacob Astor was the wealthiest passenger aboard Titanic. He was the head of the Astor family, with a personal fortune of approximately $150,000,000. Born on 13 July 1864 to William Astor, he was educated at St.
The greatest age reached by a survivor of the Titanic was 104 years 72 days. Mary Wilburn, née Davis (UK, b.