Fur Coat Worn by Titanic Survivor When the Ship Sank Is Up for Sale 105 Years Later

A fur coat worn by a Titanic survivor as the ship sank has been found 105 years later and is now being sold for $80,000! This beaver lamb fur coat has seen it all. It's a piece of ancient history.

It belonged to a woman named Mabel Bennett who was a stewardess on the ship. When the Titanic was sinking, she grabbed the coat right before hopping into a lifeboat.

Mabel Bennett, a first class stewardess on the doomed liner, grabbed the garment from her room before climbing into a lifeboat. (BNPS)

Mabel, aged 33 at the time, still had the coat with her two weeks later when she was photographed wearing it while on board the SS Lapland, the ship that transported the surviving Titanic crew members back to England.

Mabel kept the beaver lamb fur coat for the next 50 years until she gave it to her great niece because it became too heavy for her to wear.

This is how the coat looks now. (PA)

A letter of provenance, that accompanies the size 12 coat, from Mabel’s great niece reads: “This coat was worn by my great aunt Mabel who was a stewardess.

“On her rescue from the Titanic she was in her nightdress and this coat was the first garment she snatched for warmth.

“My aunt gave me the coat in the early ’60s, because of her advancing years she found the weight of the coat too much for her.”

Mabel Bennett (6th from left) wearing the coat on SS Lapland two weeks after the sinking of the Titanic. (BNPS)

Mabel Bennett, from Eling, near Totton, Hants, served as a steward on the Titanic alongside her brother-in-law, Alfred Crawford, and her nephew, Leonard Hoare.

After the ship struck an iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912, she was one of 34 passengers and crew placed in lifeboat number five.

Survivors of the Titanic disaster in a crowded lifeboat. (Getty Images)

Alfred survived but Leonard died in the sinking aged 19. His body, if recovered, was never identified.

Mabel lived in the New Forest with her second husband. She outlived her daughter, also called Mabel, and died in 1974 aged 96.

She is believed to have been the last surviving female crew member. Her old coat will be sold on April 22.

Rare Historical Photos of the Titanic Disaster Taken by 17-Year-Old Girl Bernice Palmer in the Morning of April 15, 1912

Sometime around her 17th birthday, Canadian Bernice Palmer received a Kodak Brownie box camera, either for Christmas 1911 or for her birthday on 10 January 1912. Luck would have it that she was traveling on the Carpathia the day the Titanic sank.

Bernice and her mother were traveling on the Carpathia to the Mediterranean with 700 passengers on board. In the early morning hours of April 15th, 1912, Captain Rostron was awakened by his wireless operator about a distress call from the sinking Titanic. He immediately changed course to traverse the 60 miles to the disaster. After passing six icebergs on its way, it finally arrived at 4:00am and began picking up survivors. Bernice was on hand with her camera the next morning to capture some famous images on her Brownie Box camera. She used the Kodak Brownie box camera to capture some of the most famous and iconic photographs after the Titanic disaster. She was also the first the capture a photo of the iceberg that sank the Titanic.

Bernice awoke from the bitter cold. She opened a port-hole of her first-class cabin on the Carpathia and turned to her mother and said, “Something terrible has happened.” She quickly got dressed and hurried on deck. Bernice and her mother stood quietly on deck as the crew of the Carpathia began rope-lifting passengers up from the life boats. Some of the children from the Titanic rescue boats where so terrified they were drawn up in burlap bags.

Bernice remembers as the passengers where being lifted that “their faces looked frozen and terrified”. She remembers seeing many of the first class passengers being rescued as ‘well-dressed’. “A well-dressed woman always wore a hat when she went out – even on a shipwreck.” She remembers how many of the women were wearing over-sized coats from the men who went down with the Titanic. “Women with borrowed cloths from the lost men who went down with the ship”.

After all the survivors were rescued, the Carpathia made another pass over the site of the Titanic’s sinking. “I saw the floating deck chairs . . . ” It was at this moment that Bernice realized the magnitude of what had happened. It took the Carpathia about three days to return to New York. After rescuing the survivors, Captain Rostron had abandoned the trip to the Mediterranean and returned to New York. He gave strict orders for a news “blackout” regarding the Titanic tragedy during the return trip.

While on the Carpathia, Bernice was approached by an unnamed newsman for Underwood & Underwood, a New York photography agency. Underwood & Underwood quickly drew up a contract to distribute the photos that Bernice had taken on the Carpathia. They offered to develop, print and return the pictures to Bernice for ten dollars. In the contract, however, it states “In consideration of One Dollar, lawful money of the UNITED STATES, and other valuable consideration . . . “. I’m not sure if she actually just got one dollar or ten dollars, but it was a measly sum for five of the most iconic photographs of the Titanic survivors and iceberg. Here are the five photos released to Underwood & Underwood by Bernice Palmer. Sometime later, her father was quite upset with this arrangement since Bernice did not realize the importance of these photos.

The contract reads as follows: Assignment of Copyright. “Know all men by these presents”

That, we, UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD, a corporation organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of New Jersey, in consideration of One Dollar, lawful money of the UNITED STATES, and other valuable consideration to us in hand pain, before the ensealing and delivery of these presents, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, have sold, assigned, transferred and set over and by these presents do sell, assigns, transfer and set over unto BERNICE PALMER of Galt, Ontario, Canada, her executors, administrators and assigns to her and their own proper use and benefit, all our right, title and interest in and to the copyrights heretofore taken out by us for five separate photographs, which are numbered and entitled as follows:

U-140430.

First authentic photograph, taken by Miss Bernice Palmer, who was on board the Carpathia, showing a group of rescued passengers of the ill-fated “Titanic” on board the rescue ship.

In the early morning on board the Carpathia, Bernice Palmer captures images of the surivors of the Titanic on her Brownie camera. Most of the women are wearing overcoats or “borrowed cloths” from the men who went down with the Titanic. (Bernice Palmer | Smithsonian)

U- 140432.

A most remarkable photograph taken by Miss Bernice Palmer, a passenger on the Carpathia, showing Mr. and Mrs. George A. Harder, a young honey-moon couple of Brooklyn, N.Y., who were rescued from the steamship Titanic. Facing them with her head on her hands weeping, is Mrs. Chas. M. Hayes, who husband, Charles M. Hayes, Pres. of the Grand Trunk Railway went down on the Titanic while she and her two daughters were rescued.

Mr. and Mrs. George A. Harder, a young honey-moon couple of Brooklyn, N.Y., who were rescued from the steamship Titanic. Facing them with her head on her hands weeping, is Mrs. Chas. M. Hayes, who husband, Charles M. Hayes, Pres. of the Grand Trunk Railway went down on the Titanic while she and her two daughters were rescued. (Bernice Palmer |Smithsonian)

U- 140433.

First authentic photograph taken by Miss Bernice Palmer, who was on board the “Carpathia”, showing a group of rescued passengers of the ill-fated “Titanic” on board the rescue ship.

Survivors of the Titanic aboard the Carpathia rested on deck chairs, wrapped against the cold. (Bernice Palmer | Courtesy of Cara E. Bute)

U-140434.

First authentic photograph taken by Miss Bernice Palmer, who was on board the “Carpathia”, showing iceberg and icefield run into by the Titanic, which caused the greatest marine disaster.

First images of the icebergs and ice field on the morning of April 15th, 1912. Bernice saw debris and deck chairs floating in the ice field. She then realized the magnitude of the tragedy. (Bernice Palmer | Smithsonian)

On the back of this photograph, Bernice wrote:

“[The] Titanic struck a North Atlantic iceberg at 11:40 PM in the evening of 14 April 1912 at a speed of 20.5 knots (23.6 MPH). The berg scraped along the starboard or right side of the hull below the waterline, slicing op the hull between five of the adjacent watertight compartments. If only one or two of the compartments had been opened, Titanic might have stayed afloat, but when so many wer sliced open, the water-tight integrity of the entire forward section of the hull was fatally breached. Titanic slipped below the waves at 2:20 AM on 15 April. The Cunard Liner RMS Carpathia arrived at the scene around two hours after Titanic sank, finding only a few lifeboats and no survivors in the 28F degree water. Bernice Palmer took this picture of the iceberg identified as the one which sank Titanic, almost certainly identified by the survivors who climbed aboard Titanic. The large iceberg is surrounded by smaller ice floes, indicated how far north in the Atlantic Ocean the tragedy struck.”

U-140435.

First authentic photograph taken by Miss Bernice Palmer, who was on board the “Carpathia”, showing iceberg and icefield run into by the Titanic, which caused the greatest marinedisaster.

This is the iceberg thought to have sunk the Titanic. (Bernice Palmer | Smithsonian)

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Incredible Photos and Handwritten Notes Describe Grim Discovery of Titanic’s Last Lifeboat

The three photos were taken on May 13, 1912, almost a month after Titanic’s sinking, and show crewmen from RMS Oceanic attempting to recover one of the doomed liner’s lifeboats. Inside the lifeboat, thought to be the last to leave the sinking ship, were the decomposing bodies of three Titanic passengers.

One photo shows a boat from Oceanic being lowered, another shows the boat approaching the drifting lifeboat. A third picture shows Oceanic crewmen on the Titanic lifeboat.

Titanic struck an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. ship's time on April 14 1912 and sank just over two hours later with the loss of more than 1,500 lives.

A handwritten account of the lifeboat recovery by an unidentified Oceanic passenger describes the gruesome discovery of three corpses. One corpse was wearing a dinner jacket and the bodies of two Titanic firemen were wedged under the lifeboat’s seats, it explained, adding that one corpse’s arms came off in the hands of the Oceanic’s boarding officer. A woman’s ring was also found on the lifeboat, according to the note.

A number of Titanic passengers made it to the lifeboat, known as ‘Collapsible A’ when it washed off the ship’s deck, partly submerged, but not all survived. The bodies found by Oceanic were left on the lifeboat when Collapsible A’s survivors were picked by another lifeboat.

The corpse in the dinner jacket was identified as Titanic first class passenger Thomson Beattie. The wedding ring belonged to Swedish passenger Elin Gerda Lindell, who briefly reached Collapsible A, but later drowned, according to Encyclopedia Titanica. Her husband Edvard Bengtsson Lindell held Elin’s ring before he died on Collapsible A. His body was never recovered.

Crewmen from the RMS Oceanic on board the Titanic lifeboat spotted in the Atlantic.

A lifeboat from the passing liner, bottom right, is cast off to investigate the lifeboat from the doomed Titanic, marked with an 'X'.

The crew from the RMS Oceanic are lowered down before setting off for the drifting vessel.

The body of first class passenger Thomson Beattie, 37, who was dressed in his dinner jacket was among the three found on board the lifeboat.

This account penned by a passenger on board RMS Oceanic reveals the decomposed state the bodies were in when recovered.

A log from the RMS Oceanic, which recovered a lifeboat from the Titanic nearly a month after the tragic sinking.

(via Daily Mail)

The Johnstown Flood: 27 Rare Photographs of the Great Flood of 1889 Which Killed Over 2,000 People in Minutes

In a river valley in central Pennsylvania, heavy rain and a neglected dam lead to a catastrophe in which 2,209 people die and a prosperous city, Johnstown, is nearly wiped off the face of the earth.

Johnstown, located at the confluence of the Little Conemaugh River and Stony Creek, was 14 miles downstream from Lake Conemaugh, a reservoir turned recreational lake that was owned and maintained by the prestigious South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. The sporting club, which catered to a wealthy clientele from nearby Pittsburgh, included Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick on its membership rolls. Lake Conemaugh was held back by the South Fork Dam, a large earth-fill dam that was completed by the club in 1881. By 1889, the dam was in dire need of repairs.

When several days of heavy rain struck the area in late May 1889, club officials struggled to reinforce the neglected dam, which was under tremendous pressure from the swollen waters of Lake Conemaugh. The dam began to disintegrate, and on May 31 the lake’s water level passed over the top of the dam. Realizing that the dam’s collapse was imminent, club officials sent riders down the valley to evacuate area residents. However, flooding was a familiar occurrence in the valley, and few Johnstown residents heeded the riders’ desperate warnings. Most just took the same simple precautions they did when Little Conemaugh River flooded: They moved their belongings to the second story of their homes and settled down to wait out the storm.

At 3:10 p.m., the South Fork Dam washed away, drowning several laborers who were struggling to maintain it. Club officials on high ground watched awe-struck as 20 million tons of water went roaring down the valley toward Johnstown. The deluge swept through the communities of South Fork, Mineral Point, Woodvale, and East Conemaugh, accumulating debris, including rocks, trees, houses, barns, railroad cars, animals, and people, both dead and alive. By the time it reached Johnstown, at 4:07 p.m., the flood appeared as a rolling hill of debris more than 30 feet high and nearly half a mile wide. In a terrible swoop, the northern half of the city was swept away, sending some 1,500 demolished Johnstown buildings tumbling down with the roaring torrent.

It took 10 minutes for the waters of Lake Conemaugh to pass through Johnstown, and 2,000 people were drowned or crushed in the torrent. A few survivors were washed up along with numerous corpses several miles down the valley. At the old Stone Bridge in Johnstown, debris piled 40 feet high caught fire, and some 80 huddled survivors of the flood perished in the flames. A total of 2,209 died as a result of the disaster.

Among the survivors of the calamity, there was a scarcely an individual who had not lost a friend or relative in the Johnstown Flood. Despite the great scale of the tragedy, reconstruction of the devastated community began almost immediately, and Clara Barton and the American Red Cross constructed shelters for homeless residents while well-wishers around the country sent tons of relief supplies. The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club was widely criticized for its failure to maintain the South Fork Dam, but no successful lawsuits were ever brought against the organization.

A freight car lies near the damaged Cambria Iron Works warehouse.

Lower Johnstown three days after the flood.

A tree protrudes from a house tossed by the flood.

A souvenir stands sells flood memorabilia.

Johnstown's Main Street is choked with debris.

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40 Rare Vintage Photographs of Two Fires That Nearly Decimated Cripple Creek, Colorado in April 1896

In late April 1896, Cripple Creek, Colorado, endured two catastrophic fires over a period of 96 hours.

The first, on April 25, 1896, began around 1 p.m. when a gasoline stove overturned on the second floor of the Central Dance Hall on Myers Avenue. A brisk wind spread the fire to adjoining buildings. By the time the fire was out, two lives had been lost and eight blocks of the city's central business district had been destroyed.

Just a few days later, on April 29th, a second fire broke out. The headlines of the April 30, 1896, Rocky Mountain News declared:

CRIPPLE CREEK WIPED OUT BY FIRE / Second Conflagration Destroys Nearly All That Portion of the Town Not Touched by Flames—Thousands Are Destitute / Buildings Blown Up in an Attempt to Save the City / Three Men Are Dead and a Number Injured, Several of Them Fatally / Snow is Falling and Hundred of Campfires Dot the Surrounding Hills

The newspaper went on to include details of a fire that rendered 6,000 of the city's 16,000 residents homeless:

The second great fire came with the swiftness and deadly energy of the lightning's bolt. At 1 o'clock this afternoon fire started in the kitchen of the Portland hotel on Second street, below Myers...The whole city rushed to the scene, dropping tools from their hands. The fire jumped with a roar like a hungry giant at his food. Floods of water and the demolition of buildings with deafening explosions of dynamite were childishly impotent to stay the fire, and men stood with tears running down their cheeks, helpless.

Bennett Avenue, Cripple Creek, Colorado, first fire

The fire at Cripple Creek, Colo

Cripple Creek, Colorado after first fire

Cripple Creek, Colorado after first fire

El Paso Livery Stable before the fire

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25 Horrific Vintage Pictures of Accident Scenes in Amsterdam in the 1940s

They are accident scenes of cars, scooters, motorcycles, mopeds, bicycles, trams, buses, trains, boats, airplanes and pedestrians in, around and far outside Amsterdam in the late 1940s.

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Haunting Photo Showing Victims of the Titanic Disaster Being Buried at Sea

A photograph showing victims of the Titanic being buried at sea has been uncovered. The black and white image was taken days after the tragedy, on April 15, 1912, on board body recovery ship the CS Mackay Bennett. Bodies in sacks are piled three high on deck before being tipped overboard as the ship's priest conducts a service.

The photograph shows bodies in sacks piled three high on the deck of the CS Mackay Bennett, before being tipped overboard as the ship's priest conducts a service. Photo issued by Henry Aldridge and Son.

More than 1,500 people died when the 'unsinkable' RMS Titanic hit an iceberg and went down in the Atlantic. Records show 166 out of 306 bodies collected by the Mackay Bennett were buried at sea but no images had been seen until now.

The photograph was discovered by the family of one of the crew members of the recovery ship, who had it in a collection of his possessions. The Mackay Bennet was a Canadian cable laying ship and the owners of the Titanic, White Star Line, contracted it at a rate of £300 a day to recover the bodies.

It left Halifax, Nova Scotia, on April 17 and arrived at the wreck site on April 21. The crew conducted burials at sea on the evenings of April 21, 22 and 23 and then of the afternoon of April 24, when it is thought the picture was taken.

In an account of the burials, Reverend Hind later wrote: “Anyone attending a burial at sea will most surely lose the common impression of the awfulness of a grave in the mighty deep.”

RD "Westy" Legate, 4th officer of the CS Mackay Bennett (left), with his wife.

Andrew Aldridge, of Henry Aldridge & Son in Devizes, Wiltshire, where the photograph will go under the hammer, said it gave a “unique insight” into the final chapter of the Titanic.

“The Titanic has a beginning, middle and end,” he said. “This isn't one of the most pleasant or glamorous but it brings a certain level of realism to the story.

“She was the ship of dreams but the story ended with bodies being pulled out of the water.

“When we were looking through the archive, the picture jumped from the rafters. It is a chapter very little is known about.

“It has always been said that the process was dignified and organised but piles of bodies are neither of those. The bodies are piled up waist high.

“This picture shows the dirty side of the business.”

In the picture, the ship's priest Reverend Hind can be seen in the foreground conducting a burial service.

The British ship Titanic leaves from Southampton, England, on her maiden voyage on April 10, 1912.

Two crewman are shown consigning a body into the ocean, and a canvas bag containing the possessions of body number 177 - William Peter Mayo - can be seen.

The picture was found in an archive belonging to RD “Westy” Legate, 4th officer of the Mackay Bennett.

27 Haunting Photos of the Wreck of the Titanic When It Was First Discovered in 1985

Titanic, the world's best-known cruise ship was launched in May 1911, the ship sank in April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg en route from Southampton, England to New York City. Titanic was carrying more than 2,200 passengers and more than 1,500 reportedly died.

When the Titanic sank in 1912, the famous ship wasn't exactly sailing in obscurity. Yet it took decades before the wreckage was discovered. It wasn't until Sept. 1, 1985 that scientists, after years and years of searching, found what they were looking for.

Today, the Titanic rests, disintegrating at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 12,405 feet below the water's surface. Take a look at a collection of amazing underwater images of the ship.

A view of the bow and railing of the RMS Titanic.

Two of Titanic's engines lie exposed in a gaping cross section of the stern. Draped in "rusticles"—orange stalactites created by iron-eating bacteria—these massive structures, four stories tall, once powered the largest moving man-made object on Earth.

A view of the bow of the RMS Titanic.

A view of the bow of the Titanic from a camera mounted on the outside of the Mir I submersible.

A view of the steering motor on the bridge of the Titanic.

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6 Real Stories of the Titanic Tragedy As Told by Its Survivors

"Sinking of the Titanic" - Engraving by Willy Stöwer, 1912.

More than one hundred years after the RMS Titanic met its fatal end, the story of the tragic wreck continues to fascinate people worldwide. Out of over 2,200 people on board, approximately 700 lived to tell about it. Though many survivors and their family members disappeared into obscurity or were hesitant to talk about what they went through, others were willing to share their experiences during the wreck and in its aftermath. These are some of their stories.

1. Elizabeth Shutes

Elizabeth Shutes served as a family governess on board Titanic and was 40 years old at the time; she was among the passengers quickly ordered to the Sun Deck after the ship hit an iceberg. She later described the chaotic scene on the lifeboat, shortly before they were rescued by Carpathia: "Our men knew nothing about the position of the stars, hardly how to pull together. Two oars were soon overboard. The men’s hands were too cold to hold on… Then across the water swept that awful wail, the cry of those drowning people. In my ears I heard: ‘She’s gone, lads; row like hell or we’ll get the devil of a swell." Shutes was among those who reflected on "needless luxuries" aboard Titanic, which had been prioritized over lifeboats and other safety features.


2. Laura Mabel Francatelli

Titantic survivors picked up by the Carpathia, including Laura Francatelli (second right).

Laura Mabel Francatelli, a 30-year old secretary from London, reflected later on the dramatic arrival of Carpathia: "Oh at daybreak, when we saw the lights of that ship, about 4 miles away, we rowed like mad, and passed icebergs like mountains, at last about 6:30 the dear Carpathia picked us up, our little boat was like a speck against that giant. Then came my weakest moment, they lowered a rope swing, which was awkward to sit on, with my life preserver 'round me. Then they hauled me up, by the side of the boat. Can you imagine, swinging in the air over the sea, I just shut my eyes and clung tight saying ‘Am I safe,?’ at last I felt a strong arm pulling me onto the boat.... "


3. Charlotte Collyer

Passengers lucky enough to have been picked up by Carpathia arrived in New York City days later and started a frantic search for their loved ones, desperately hoping they too had been saved. Collyer, a second-class passenger who was 31 years old, later described her panicked search for her husband: "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."


4. Lawrence Beesley

Lawrence Beesley and a fellow passenger in Titanic's gymnastic room.

Lawrence Beesley, a young widower and science professor in London, left his young son at home to board Titanic, hoping to visit his brother in Toronto. At left is a photo of . Just nine weeks after the tragedy, Beesley published the famous memoir The Loss of the S.S. Titanic. The book contained stern recommendations for avoiding further tragedies. He also had a powerful reason to be skeptical about certain superstitions: "I shall never say again that 13 is an unlucky number. Boat 13 is the best friend we ever had."


5. Florence Ismay, wife of J. Bruce Ismay, Chairman of the White Star Line

Florence Ismay in her wedding photo.

White Star Chairman Bruce Ismay boarded a lifeboat to safety and was criticized by many for his decisions regarding Titanic. A letter from his wife, Florence, reveals the relief she felt upon realizing he had made it through the disaster alive: "...Only a week ago today... I watched that magnificent vessel sail away so proudly. I never dreamt of danger as I wished her Godspeed... I know so well what bitterness of spirit you must be feeling for the loss of so many precious lives & the ship itself that you loved like a living thing. We have both been spared to each other, let us try to make our lives of use in the world."


6. Eva Hart

Eva is pictured standing on the quay in New York after the disaster.

Eva Hart was seven years old at the time of the Titanic disaster. A second-class passenger with her parents, Eva lost her father in the tragedy. She went on to live a vibrant life, and spoke frequently about the sinking of Titanic and her approach to life. "People I meet always seem surprised that I do not hesitate to travel by train, car, airplane or ship when necessary. It is almost as if they expect me to be permanently quivering in my shoes at the thought of a journey. If I acted like that I would have died of fright many years ago—life has to be lived irrespective of the possible dangers and tragedies lurking round the corner."

(via Biography.com)

Saved From the Titanic: Faces of Survival and Despair in One Photograph

Both survived the sinking of the Titanic.

The utter despair in Charlotte Collyer’s eyes are apparent as she looks away from the photographer. Daughter Marjorie with her youthful eyes, stares hauntingly straight into the lens of the camera. The unknown future had to weigh heavily on these two survivors minds.

This is Marjorie Lottie Collyer, age 8, of Bishopstoke, Hampshire, England.

From the same photograph, this is Marjorie’s mother, Charlotte Collyer, age 30 also of Bishopstoke, Hampshire, England.

There is something strikingly modern in Marjorie’s face and expression. She looks so similar to so many children you see today.

Here is the entire photograph of Charlotte and Marjorie Collyer sitting together in June 1912.

A Titanic White Star line blanket drapes Charlotte’s lap as the two sit on a porch swing in Payette Valley, Idaho.

Harvey Collyer, Charlotte’s husband and Marjorie’s father, went down with the Titanic, one of over 1,500 people who perished on April 15, 1912.

Harvey Collyer had sold his grocery business and the family was headed from England to New York aboard the Titanic and then on to Idaho where he intended to start a fruit farm. Harvey also hoped a change of climate would help his wife’s fragile health. When the Titanic sank, Harvey was holding all of the family’s savings in his wallet.

After being rescued by the Carpathia, mother and daughter stayed briefly in New York and then made their way out to Idaho. Charlotte was determined to follow through on her husband’s dream of beginning anew in America.

Charlotte was paid for her first-hand account of the sinking of the Titanic by the San Francisco Call newspaper. Her description of the sinking is considered one of the most graphic and touching among all the survivors who told their stories. Soon donations poured in to the newspaper to help support mother and daughter.

“I don’t remember very much about the first few days of the voyage. I was a bit seasick, and kept to my cabin mod of the time. But on Sunday, April 14, I was up and about. At dinnertime, I was at my place in the saloon, and enjoyed the meal, though I thought it too heavy and rich. No effort had been spared to serve even to the second cabin passengers on that Sunday the best dinner that money could buy. After I had eaten, I listened to the orchestra for awhile; then, at perhaps nine o’clock, or half-past nine, I went to my cabin.

I had just climbed into my berth when a stewardess came in. She was a sweet woman, who had been very kind to me. I take this opportunity to thank her; for I shall never see her again. She went down with the Titanic.

“Do you know where we are?” she said pleasantly. “We are in what is called The Devil’s Hole.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“That it is a dangerous pert of the ocean,” she answered. “Many accidents have happened near here. They say that icebergs drift down as far as this. It’s getting to be very cold on deck, so perhaps there’s ice around us now!”

She left the cabin, and I soon dropped off to sleep. Her talk about icebergs had not frightened me; but it shows that the crew were awake to the danger. As far as I can tell, we had not slackened our speed in the least.

It must have been a little after ten o’clock when my husband came in and woke me up. He sat about and talked to me, for how long I do not know, before he began to make ready to go to bed.

And then, the crash!”

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