Titanic Survivors
JJA...@webtv.net
personally? Thank You
Geri and Brian
>personally? Thank You
We have a relative of one of the Finnish girls who goes to our church. (I
wrote down her name, but can't find the paper I wrote it on.) Our pastor
mentioned the relative once, which is why I know this, but we have not pursued
this any further.
Geri
(Chip out the iceberg to reply.)
~~~~~~~~~~
"I only talk seriously on the first Tuesday in every month, from 4PM to 7PM."
JJA...@webtv.net
on the last surviving Titanic survivors. Does anyone have any current
info?
Andrew and Rebecca Hall
The following was posted to this newsgroup in March 1998 by Jonny Geber.
Although it was unknown at the time, Louise LaRoche had already died; her
family did not announce her death for some weeks following, not wanting to
get caught up in the TITANIC-mania peaking just about then. That leaves five
survivors; AFAIK all are still living today.
--------------> AH
_____________________________
Subject: About the survivors left
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 22:12:46 +0100
From: "Jonny D. Geber" <ge...@ebox.tninet.se>
Organization: Algonet/Tninet
Newsgroups: alt.history.ocean-liners.titanic
Here´s an account about those who are still alive that I wrote some time
ago.
Lillian Gertrude Asplund
On her way to USA was five years old Lillian Asplund with her parents, Carl
and Selma, and siblings Filip, 13 years old, Gustav, nine years old, Carl
Edgar, five years old and Felix, three years old.
The family was originally Swedish, but Carl and Selma had both lived in
USA for a long time, and they got married there. Nevertheless, they decided
to move back to Sweden with their children Oscar, Gustav, Carl Edgar and
Lillian. When their last child Felix was born in 1909, they chose to
emigrate to Worcester in Massachusetts, USA again. The oldest son Filip was
very anxious to move back, and Carl thought that it would be best if they
all went so that the family would not scatter. That was the reason why they
were onboard the Titanic on 15 April 1912.
They got their cabin by the stern of the ship, as all the families in
third class did.
Carl did not like the drinking in third class, and he said to Selma that
"it is a terrible noise here onboard. Since we left England, they have not
done anything else but drinking and dancing and playing cards. If this will
end happily would be remarkable, and if we'll get ashore after this journey,
I believe that it will be our last Atlantic crossing."
When the Titanic collided with the iceberg, the whole family was
sleeping. The incident awakened only Selma. She woke up Carl who quickly got
dressed and went up to deck to examine what was wrong. He was back not long
afterwards. He and Selma thought that it would be best if they told the
children to get up and get dressed. While Selma helped them get dressed,
Carl looked for the lifebelt. Since they were in a four-bed cabin, he could
not find enough lifebelts for all seven of them, but then he got atleast one
more from a crew-member. Carl, Selma and the three oldest children put them
on. Selma held Felix in her arms and took Lillian by the hand, while Carl
was looking after the other children, and they went up to deck.
Selma and Carl were determined to die together when they realized that
most of the lifeboats had already left the ship. However, suddenly somebody
from the crew snatched Lillian and Felix from Selma and threw them into
lifeboat no four. The officer that took the children wanted Selma in the
lifeboat too when he heard voices from the lifeboats shouting, while Lillian
and Felix were crying, "Bring the children´s mother down. Take their mother
in the boat too!". Selma did not want to leave the rest of the family, but
in some way or another she was pulled into the lifeboat. She saw how Carl
took Filip, Gustav and Carl Edgar, and ran to the other side of the ship to
find a lifeboat there.
Selma, Lillian and Felix were the only ones from that family to sur-vive
the dis-aster. Carl´s body was la-ter recov-ered and bur-ied at the Swedish
cemetery in Worcester, the city were Selma and her children later went to.
Lillian is today 92 years old, and is still living in Massachusetts.
Eliza Gladys Milvina Dean
Born on 21 May 1911 she became the youngest survivor. She travelled in third
class, and was saved in life-boat C. With survivor Edith Brown Haisman she
opened the exhibition "The Wreck of the Titanic" in 1994 at the National
Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Her home today is England.
Louise Laroche
She was three years old when she survived the Titanic. Booked in second
class and saved in lifeboat C. She live in France today.
Michel M. Navratil
He was two years old and rescued with his brother Edmond, aged four, in
collapsible D, the last lifeboat to be lowered from the Titanic.
Both children were travelling with their father Michel Navratil to New
York where they would hopefully begin a new life. Mr Navratil boarded
Titanic under the name Louis Hoffman, and he told every fellow passengers he
met in second class that his children´s mother was dead. However, she was
actually living in Nice, France. Navratil had kidnapped the children after
his divorce with his wife Marcelle. The children were supposed to spend
Easter with their father, but when Marcelle came to take the children with
her back home, all three of them had disappeared.
Onboard the Titanic, Mr Navratil almost never let the children out of his
sight. A few exceptions were when he once played cards in the smoking room,
and when he let a Swiss young woman, Bertha Lehmann, babysit for him a
couple of hours.
Navratil managed to bring his children to a lifeboat. The last thing he
said to his oldest child Edmond was:
"My child, when your mother comes for you, as she surely will, tell her that
I loved her dearly and still do. Tell her that I expected her to follow us,
so that we might all live happily together in the peace and freedom of the
New World."
In New York a woman named Margaret Hays, which knew French, took care of the
children.
The press noticed the children and called them "the orphans of the
Titanic". The news about them reached France where their mother could
recognize them. Titanic´s shippingcompany White Star Line immediately
arranged so that they could reunite them.
Mr Navratil´s body was found. In his pockets were there a fully loaded
revolver.
The survivor child Michel got married in 1933 while he was studying
philosophy at a university. He eventually got a doctorate and became a
professor in psychology. He is now retired in France.
Winnifred Vera Quick VanTongerloo
She was eight years old when she was onboard the Titanic. She travelled
second class, and was saved in lifeboat no 11. Her residence today is
Michigan, USA.
Barbara J. West
She was three and a half years old and travelled in second class. She lives
in England today.
Sources
Ballard, Robert D.: VI FANN TITANIC. Streiffert & Co. Bokförlag, Stockholm,
1987
Gardiner, Robin och Van der Vat, Dan: The Riddle of the Titanic. Weidenfeld
and Nicolson, London, 1995
Lynch, Don och Marschall, Ken: TITANIC AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY. Madison
Press, Ontario, 1992
Tibballs, Geoff: THE TITANIC. Carlton Books, 1997
Wetterholm, Claes-Göran: TITANIC. Rabén Prisma, Stockholm, 1996, andra
upplagan
Judy Kendal
Andrew and Rebecca Hall <tig...@phoenix.net> wrote in message
news:D9F4966E0E02AA41.C768E111...@lp.airnews.net...
> JJA...@webtv.net wrote:
>
> > I am looking for the most current up to date information
> > on the last surviving Titanic survivors. Does anyone have any current
> > info?
>
> The following was posted to this newsgroup in March 1998 by Jonny Geber.
> Although it was unknown at the time, Louise LaRoche had already died; her
> family did not announce her death for some weeks following,
I often wondered if there could be one or two more survivors still alive,
who maybe didn't want to be identified. I suppose we'll never know that.
About a year ago on Red Rose Radio a disc jockey played THAT record and
afterwards said that the sports commentator Keith Macklin knew a male
survivor who still was alive and lived on the west coast of Lancashire
(somewhere like Lytham). I totally disregarded it because the only male
survivor alive is Monsieur Navratil. I wish I'd contacted Keith Mackilin to
find out who he meant.
Judy
Andrew and Rebecca Hall
> I often wondered if there could be one or two more survivors still alive,
> who maybe didn't want to be identified.
That's always possible, although we have had on this newsgroup alone mentions
of several cases of people claiming to be survivors who clearly weren't. I
suspect phony survivors have outnumbered real ones since 1912.
> About a year ago on Red Rose Radio a disc jockey played THAT record and
> afterwards said that the sports commentator Keith Macklin knew a male
> survivor who still was alive and lived on the west coast of Lancashire
> (somewhere like Lytham). I totally disregarded it because the only male
> survivor alive is Monsieur Navratil. I wish I'd contacted Keith Mackilin to
> find out who he meant.
Can you still contact him? If it is (was) a real unknown survivor, that
would be a significant discovery. If it's another fraud, it ought to be
exposed as such.
-------------> AH
______________________________________________
What were their names, tell me,
What were their names?
Did you have a friend
On the good Reuben James?
Phillip Gowan
<I often wondered if there could be one or two more survivors still alive,
who maybe didn't want to be identified.>
There is only one real possibility--a little Finnish boy named Wiljo (or Viljo)
Hamalainen (later changed to Hamlin). His family disappears from early Detroit
city directories and I've been unable to track down what became of him. All
other "young" survivors have been accounted for and all are dead except the
five known survivors.
Of course there is the question of the Titanic pregnancies--those women who
were pregnant on the Titanic--and whether their children should be considered
survivors (they were Helen Bishop, Mary Marvin, Madeleine Astor, Marion Kenyon,
Hannah O'Brien, Adele Nasr, Kate Phillips (Marshall), Eloise Smith, Maria
Backstrom, Ada West, Argene del Carlo, and possibly Ethel Beane). The last,
Mrs. Beane, gave birth on January 10, 1913 to an infant who was either
stillborn or died the same day--and that was exactly nine months from the date
of Titanic's launch.
Of the others, the children born to Mrs. Bishop, Marvin, Astor, Kenyon,
O'Brien, Nasr, Smith, Backstrom, and West are positively known to be dead. The
children of Kate Phillips and Argene del Carlo are living to the best of my
knowledge.
Judy Kendal
> Andrew and Rebecca Hall <tig...@phoenix.net> wrote in message
> news:D9F4966E0E02AA41.C768E111...@lp.airnews.net...
KDAD40
>Of course there is the question of the Titanic pregnancies--those women who
>were pregnant on the Titanic--and whether their children should be considered
>survivors (they were Helen Bishop, Mary Marvin, Madeleine Astor, Marion
>Kenyon,
>Hannah O'Brien, Adele Nasr, Kate Phillips (Marshall), Eloise Smith, Maria
>Backstrom, Ada West, Argene del Carlo, and possibly Ethel Beane)
Add to that list widowed Second Class Passenger Juliette Laroche, whose son
Joseph Lemercier Laroche was born 17 December 1912; he passed away 17 January
1987, leaving a widow and three children. (Source: Geller, "Titanic Women and
Children First")
Reg Pitts
KDA...@aol.com
Phillip Gowan
Paris suburbs.
Phil