Late on the night of April 14, 1912, and into the wee hours of the following morning, the RMS Titanic operated by the White Star Line was claimed by the Atlantic Ocean. Around 1,500 passengers and crew members perished, while 706 survived the icy waters that fateful night.
More than a century later, the Titanic disaster remains a human interest story of significant popularity; however, as the years slip by and no survivors remain, the stories of the Titanic tragedy, its sinking, the victims, and survivors become lost and forgotten. Or do they?
Creative searching of NewspaperArchive.com allows you to immerse yourself in these incredible stories of the past. Vivid in-the-moment accounts paint a picture of the disaster as it unfolded days and weeks later.
Many newspapers of the time carried stories of the “local” survivors from the tragedy. The Indianapolis Star showcases Harry Homer and his shock caused by the disaster, which prompted him to take a break to Texas before returning home to Indianapolis. The article also includes his sister’s poignant account and illustrates how frightening and frustrating it was for family members because of the conflicting reports and lists of survivors and dead. This newspaper includes one of those lists for its readers.
An incredible article from The Atlanta Constitution tells of the Titanic’s Marconi radio operator that stayed with the ship until the end and then jumped in the frigid water. The story is told by someone on the overturned lifeboat with the man. It’s chilling to read the account told firsthand.
Occasionally the stories told in between the pages of these newspapers are beyond belief. In the Middletown Daily News, a young woman survivor engaged for seven years had been aboard the Titanic to meet her betrothed in New York. They were wed in St. Vincent’s Hospital as she recovered. Another incredible story is one from an Italian woman that claimed two Titanic “orphans” were her children. Allegedly, her husband stole the children and took off with his mistress for America.
An edition of the Urbana Daily Courier interviewed the last survivor onboard the Titanic before it went down. The young man of eighteen years recounted his harrowing experience when the ship collided with the iceberg and the minutes and hours afterward.
Titanic survivors that lived into the 21st century have been a popular topic in the news. Lillian Asplund was a young child of six when she lost half her family on the voyage. As the last American survivor, her story resurfaced again when she passed away in 2006.
Millvina Dean was the last Titanic survivor to pass away in 2009 at the age of 97. Millvina was only two months old in 1912 at the time of the voyage. She was one of the lucky passengers to make it onto a lifeboat. Word has it she was wrapped in a sack and lowered to a lifeboat. Her mother and brother also survived, but her father did not. A year before she passed, Millvina was forced to sell her Titanic mementos to afford her nursing home care.
To relive the disaster through stories of survivors is an experience that will leave a lasting impression on you for years to come.
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