Comments on: Last Titanic survivor dies

By: KI

KI — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:00:24 +0000

My husband’s grandfather was supposed to be on the Titanic. He would not have had the money to be on such a ship but because of a coalminer’s strike, there was some wheeling and dealing and he would have been onboard. As it was, he was too drunk to make the boat. The captain was a very punctual man and I understand that many were left behind if they were not there on time. So, my husband always says, that if it were not for a bottle of ale or two, he wouldn’t be here.

Interestingly enough, we met another woman in a former church who also had a female relative who missed the boat because the fellow she was with got drunk. Too many bars along the wharf, I guess.

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By: arcadia

arcadia — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 03:03:52 +0000

Titanic disaster stats broken down (albeit confusingly) by gender and class of ticket.

http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-statistics.html

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By: NJLawyer

NJLawyer — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 01:55:00 +0000

It was the Titanic that made my great grandmother think my grandparents were stupid for coming to the US right before WWI started. She thought a ship was just a beam of wood in water and why would you trust your life to it!

The Titanic story that always gets to me is the Navratil story about the father who took his sons away from their mother to get away from his mother-in-law, leaving enough money for the wife to follow alone. He told his oldest boy as he put them on a lifeboat some words to tell his mother, which he did when they figured out who the boys really were and returned them to France, and she went mad. He never told another living soul to the day he died. What a charge for a four year old to keep.

The stories of the Titanic show people at their worst but at their best, too. I hope they are always told.

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By: Mountaineer

Mountaineer — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:54:41 +0000

For another true story of heroism Google “The Birkenhead Drill.” (Maybe what Bob was referring to)

Men stood at attention until the lifeboats with women and children were out of sight.

Those were different times.

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By: Bob Buckles

Bob Buckles — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:39:47 +0000

#1 Sawgunner

I heard or read a story of a British troop transport full of Redcoats and their wives and children on the way to India. The ship started taking water during a storm. The officers drew up their men on deck, in ranks. None of them broke ranks as their families loaded up the lifeboats as the ship foundered.

I am tearing up as I type.

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By: Sawgunner

Sawgunner — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:10:55 +0000

I believe there is a Christian Men and Boys Titanic Society out there somewhere on the web. Beyond the TITANIC I can’t think of an act of sacrificial love that even comes close. The chaplains who linked arms in prayer as their WWII troop transport ship took a U-boat torpedo and went down do however come close.
I’ve always wanted to visit the memorial to the 4 chaplains. Men aboard the lifeboats testified that even as the frigid Atlantic waters rose around them the chaplains continued to pray

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