Stories of Families Who Died or Survived When The Titanic Sank
The Sinking of the Titanic
The infamous luxury liner set sail for New York from Southhampton, England with stops in Cherbourg, France and Queenstown, Ireland. The ship hit an iceberg at 11:40pm, April 14th, 1912 and sank at 2:20am, April 15th.
Casualties and Survivors:
- 1,343 passengers and 885 crew members were on board.
- 832 passengers and 685 crew members died.
- 706 people survived.
The Legacy of Titanic Passengers
Those who experienced the shipwreck over 100 years ago are all gone now, but their stories have been written down and recorded. There are first-hand accounts from interviews with survivors in newspapers and television documentaries. All of this information, including the stories of many passengers who died, is now freely available on the internet.
By reading their individual stories, we can also feel their pain, terror and utter despair as they tried to escape from the ship. Through these memories, the legacy of the many passengers who died on that terrible night will always be alive.
From these accounts, it's hard not to feel like we know some of the families who died in the tragedy. We can read about their reasons for boarding the ship, like immigrating to America with the hope of a better life. Some second-class passengers were returning from business trips in Europe, and some newlyweds were using the voyage as part of their honeymoon.
Priority of Passengers Based on Class
Passengers were divided and prioritized by first, second, and third-class accommodations, respectively. Each passenger's access to designated areas of the ship depended on their class. Therefore, first and second-class passengers had a better chance of reaching the lifeboats.
Most of the deaths were men as the officers in charge of loading the boats prioritized women and children. Some boys as young as ten and eleven were left on board with their fathers as their mothers and sisters were lowered down from the sinking ship.
The Spedden Family From America
Douglas Spedden was six years old when he was a first-class passenger on board the Titanic. He was traveling with his very wealthy parents and their two servants. In a famous photograph, you can see him aboard the ship with his father, Frederic Spedden, and his nanny, Elisabeth Burns.
The Photographs of Father Browne
This iconic photo was taken by an Irish priest, Father Browne, who had boarded the ship at Southampton. He was a keen photographer and set about photographing the passengers and crew on his short journey. He received his ticket to board the Titanic as a gift, but he got off the ship at a stopping point in Queenstown before the accident. This is why his famous photos still survive today.
The Spedden Family and Their Servants all Survived
The family was interviewed about what happened on board when the iceberg hit the Titanic, and how they got into Lifeboat 3. Douglas’s nanny told reporters how he reacted when he was in the lifeboat and when the rescue ship, the Carpathia, finally came to save the survivors.
The tragic part of this family story is that Douglas died just two years later in a terrible car accident. Frederic and Daisy Spedden were devastated and never got over the loss of their only son.
The Goodwin Family from England
Mr. and Mrs. Goodwin and their six children, Lillian (16), Charles (14), William (11), Jessie (10), Harold (9), and Sidney (less than two years old) all died in the shipwreck.
On Board
Frederick and Augusta Goodwin and their six children were from London. They left England on the Titanic as immigrants to start a new life in America. They boarded in Southampton as third-class passengers.
Frederick was a qualified electrical engineer and had been offered a job in New York. His brother, Thomas, and his sister were already living there. They secured a rental home and took weeks preparing and furnishing the house for the family’s arrival.
Third-Class Accommodation
As third-class passengers, the family was excluded from designated areas of the ship. This led to many deaths of third-class passengers, including women and children. They were not told of the danger of the ship sinking until it was too late and most of the lifeboats were already gone.
Even when the third-class passengers were aware of the terrible danger, most of the families were trapped in their cabins and third-class areas which were segregated by doors and barriers. The doors to the first and second-class areas were either manned by the crew or kept locked. The only way to get to the lifeboats was through the first-class areas.
As soon as the lifeboats were being prepared, the Captain gave the order that the second-class passengers were allowed to enter the first-class accommodation to reach the decks and lifeboats.
The Segregation of Third-Class Men
Another reason so many third-class women and children didn't make it to the lifeboats was because of the segregation of men in third-class accommodations. All adult males and older male children stayed in rooms separate from their families.
The Titanic hit the iceberg at 11:40 pm, meaning many of the mothers and young children were asleep in their cabins on the stern side. Their husbands and older sons were in the opposite part of the ship, on the port side. Any single men were also kept separately and were not available to help any mother escape with her young children and babies.
This was the case for the Goodwin family on that terrifying night. There is no record of what happened to them in the last hours of their death. We do not know if Frederick Goodwin and his sons managed to get to the rest of their family before they died. I hope they did.
The Rice Family From Ireland
Mrs. Margaret Rice and her five young children boarded the Titanic in Queenstown. She was a widow and was returning to her home in Washington.
Here children were Albert (10), George (8), Eric (7), Arthur (4), and Eugene (2). Margaret was a very young child when she immigrated to Canada from Athlone, Ireland with her family. She met and married William Rice at age 19, and they went back to Canada.
The family later moved to Washington, but William died in an accident at work a few years later. Margaret received compensation from the company and bought a house in Washington, but in her grief, she decided to make a long visit to her hometown in Ireland with her sons. After over a year in Ireland, she finally felt strong enough to return home to America via the Titanic. but only Margaret’s body was recovered.
Google Earth and The Titanic
The wreck of the Titanic lies at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Using the Google Earth app, you can navigate around a 360 degree 3-D model of the ship and view real images of the ruins. You can feel the eerieness of what is left of this magnificent vessel and the passengers who were trapped in its many corridors and cabins.
Sources
Master Robert Douglas Spedden by Encyclopedia Titanica
Douglas Spedden - Find a Grave Memorials
Robert Douglas Spedden - Memorial
Douglas Spedden by Jeff Rickman Green- Wood Historian Blog
Mrs Margaret Rice - Encyclopedia Titanica
The Athlone Titanic six who never came home.by Deirdre Verney. Independent
Mr Frederick Joseph Goodwin Encyclopedia Titanicia
The Unknownd Child Wikipedia
The Goodwin Family Died on the Titanic by Tim Malton
The Irish Aboard Titanic by Senan Molony
A Night to Remember by Walter Lord.
Titanic by Peter Thresh.
Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition by Judith Geller.
Spirit of the Titanic by Nicola Pierce.
Discovering Titanic - The story of the most famous ship wreck by Ben Hubbard
A girl Aboard the Titanic : a Survivor's Story / Eva Hart by Ron Denney.
On Board RMS Titanic : Memories of the Maiden Voyage by George Behe.
Down with the Old Canoe : Cultural History of the "Titanic" Disaster by Steven Biel.
The Titanic Diaries by Anthony Cunningham.
Great Disasters : Great Catastrophes Of The Twentieth Century by John Canning.
Titanic: In A New Light by Dr Joseph MacInnis.
Titanic : The Tragic Story of the Ill-fated Ocean Liner by Rupert Matthews.
Titanic: The Unsinkable Ship and Halifax by Alan Ruffman.
Titanic Belfast Museum
Southampton's Titanic Story
Titanic Experience Cobh
Nova Scotia Museum Halifax
Titanic Historical Society Museum
Questions & Answers
Why did the captain of the Titanic stay on board as it sank? Why did he not save himself?
No one can say for sure. But I would imagine he was busy trying to organise the lifeboats and save as many passengers as possible. His body was never found.
Helpful 9When did the last Titanic survivor die?
The last survivor of the Titanic disaster died on May 31, 2009 in Southampton, England. She was Millvina Dean and was 97 years old.
Helpful 7
Comments
Does anyone think about the shame brought upon Captain Smith and his family and subsequent generations of his family who were scarred by this and had to burden this guilt and kept is as a family secret. My uncle several generations was one of them who still carried the guilt.
I just found out my great great uncle john james borebank lost his life on the titanic! Now I’m hooked on getting as much info as possible
It's very thrilling to read about these people from the Titanic. A wealth of knowledge and voted up
What about the Black family on The Titanic?
I fell sorry for the people that died
Titanic plan on display at the Titanic Belfast museum The massive longitudinal sectioned plan of Titanic that was used during the British Board of Trade's inquiry into the tragedy is now on display at Titanic Belfast.I have seen lot a storage about titanic.http://www.the-titanic.com
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hello , i loved your stories, so interesting , with much research.thank you so much! i live near the henry ford museum in michigan usa ,(near detroit) at this moment they are having the titantic exibit until sept. it is the largest exibit of its kind , with artifact from the ship buried for all these years ... i was there last week , it was spectacular , seeing actual papers, suitcases , dishes ,jewlery, replicas of the rooms and even the grand staircase and the stories of the people who lived and died , many 2nd and mostly 3rd class were on that ship because there was a coal strike and most coal was being used in the titantic and so ppl were being bumped from other ships for passage on the titantic , very very interesting how a coal strike would be the reason so many died because they change their passage ....unbelievable.. i feel so lucky to have seen this exibit!!! les from detroit.
I enjoyed reading your account of the sinking of the Titanic. I learned some additional information . I was shocked to discover how many children from 3rd class perished when reading the passenger list for the Titanic. It makes you wonder who gave the order for the doors from 3rd class to be locked.
My great great uncle died on the titanic and I have a great obsession with it, this was a great read.
Wow......Im a 11 year old girl and I just found that fascinating. It really inspires me alot watching and reading about the Titanic its so sad.
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Thanks for the interesting hub. The personal stories bring home the tragedy.
I've never heard of "A Night To Remember," but I'll have to get it now and tell you what I think! Thanks for the recommendation!
What a tragic event! I remembered Titanic when I heard about the recent cruise accident (in Italy?). Are you going to watch Titanic 3D?
A great hub with lots of info. Good show
This is a great story about the Titanic.
its so good
Wow, it is visible through your hub that how much hard work you made to write this. I think a lot of research through various articles is necessary, and videos are excellent stuff. Lot of myths are there about the time between iceberg collision and sinking, but the article that i read one or two witnesses said that warning and the crash were almost instantaneous. 37 seconds became generally accepted as the time between the first warning and the collision. Anyway sad history but like your hub. My vote up and awesome!
Just the research that went into this hub is amazing, let alone the actual information gleaned from reading it. Thank you.
Really amazing.
Seems you have researched a lot on your HUB. Might say your HUB is fabulous. It really provides information of that huge happened. Thanks for your information. Keep it up.
A great researched hub with jewels of unique information regarding a historical event .....incidentally today is 14th April, the day Titanic had hit an iceberg with a bang.....and exactly in a year's time this event will be one century old.....Thanks.
Great and very interesting research.Thank for sharing and for have put these videos!
Great research and details of families and how they fared. Fascinating stories.
WOWWWWWWWW... In one word i can say .. its excellent. .. GREAT RESEARCH.... THUMBS UP ....
Wow, what stories - and your photos and videos are great!! Voted up and awesome!
I am fascinated by the reports about the titanic and the devastation. What a horrible way to go. I cannot imagine having to say goodbye knowing my husband was going to die. The terror and heartbeak of knowing you child was going to die is unimaginable. Great article. Rated up and awesome.
"Titanic April 1912 3rd class passengers survivors died Ist 2nd ship maiden voyage iceberg sinking sank"
The hub is rich in content, full in research, research oriented with pictures of the actual scenes.
The hub is a record of a great human misery nearly a century back.
The food for thought is that despite such a huge devastation there were dead as well as survivors. Life and death are in the control of God Almighty.
How bravely the death was faced is remarkable. human efforts have not stopped thereafter, rather more and more efforts were made to improve the voyage.
It is the struggle of the past people that train of life has reached in the modern era with blessings of science and technology and we must use it for the betterment of mankind and not for the harm of mankind.
May God bless all everywhere.
Such devastationa and loss willl never be forgotten. Thanks for your research and details.
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