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James Cameron knew exactly what he was doing when he made the movie Titanic; a made up love couple, but the rest of it as close to reality as possible. Exact details and real people. That's why we meet some of the most well known passengers in the movie: "the unsinkable" Molly Brown, the bandleader Wallace Hartley, the world's most rich man John Jacob Astor and others. Who were they ? And what happened to them in reality ?
Wallace Hartley
He played himself all the way in to death.
No one on Titanic is such a myth as the bandleader and violinist Wallace Hartley. For eternity he'll play "Nearer God..." while the proud ship sinks. That he and his orchestra of eight played until the end has most researchers agreed on. But which melody that was the last is unknown, but it can surely be the hymn "Nearer God..." Hartley was a Methodist and had many times said that he would play either that one or "O God, our help in ages past" if he once happened to be on a sinking ship. Wallace Hartley, 34 years was used to the sea. He had made several (nearly 70) trips over the Atlantic, always on the biggest and most luxurious ships. It paid well to play on those ships, but he had begun to consider a career on shore. He was newly engaged to Maria Robinson from Boston Spa, north of London and found himself away to often from the woman he loved. It was with a bit of reluctance that he was persuaded by the shipping company to make the trip with Titanic. He thought of this trip as a good chance to make connections for the future and went along. It would also be a great PR to play on the most modern ship on earth during its maiden voyage. In the moment of catastrophe Hartley and his orchestra showed the greatest of courage by playing comforting music to the terrified passengers onboard the Titanic. When his body was found in the ocean two weeks later he was still holding the violin case in his arms. In Colne he received a funeral worthy a hero. 30 000-40 000 people came to honor him. A bust was raised to he's honor, and of course; they played the hymn "Nearer God.."
Molly Brown
The unsinkable
She was an out-spoken "shrew". An outsider in first class. Her name was Margaret, but she was called Molly and later she received the addition: "the unsinkable". There's been both a musical and a movie made about her "The Unsinkable Molly Brown". Molly, 45 years was a bit overlooked by the lofty and superior fellow-travellers. She was new rich and not from an old, fine and wealthy family. But Molly had style, she wore a necklace worth about $200 000, had 13 pair of shoes to choose among in her luxurious cabin. She choose the Titanic in order to visit a sick relative at home in the US, and Molly had to interrupt her visit in the old world where she'd been visiting her daughter Catherine Ellen, who attended school in Paris. She had also been visiting Egypt and bought a lot of antiques. Molly's maiden name was Margaret Tobin. She was born in Hannibal, Missouri in 1867 and grew up under poor conditions. At the age of 18 she moved away from home to the gold miner town Leadville, Colorado to (as she said) find a job or a rich husband. In 1886 she got married to the gold miner James Brown, who she met during a picnic arranged by the church. He was 13 years older than Molly and not at all rich, but was hoping to become rich one day. Seven years later he found gold and became a wealthy man with a capital of nearly $3,5 million. Molly received a considerable part of this when they got divorced in 1909. At that time they were living in a nice villa in Denver, Molly found the life at home boring since she liked to travel and visited Europe several times, often with her son Lawrence.
Molly was sitting in lifeboat number six together with 24 other women and 2 men when Titanic went to the bottom. She was elegantly dressed in a black velvet dress. She lend her sable coat to a freezing fellow-passenger. There were plenty of room left on the lifeboat, for at lest 40 more passengers. For some abstruse reason it was lowered not even filled to the half. Molly grieved her forgotten necklace, but forgot this when she on a distance saw dying and screaming people everywhere in the water. Molly tried to persuade the commander on the lifeboat, Robert Hitchens to row back and save as many as possible. He refused with the explanation that the terrified people in the water would roll the boat over and they would all die. Molly didn't give up. A serious argument between her and Hitchens begun. Several hours later Molly and the others saw a rocket from an approaching ship. Hitchens told them they were wrong and that what they witnessed was a shooting star. By this time Molly threatened to throw him over board if they didn't row towards rescue. She took over the control on the lifeboat and commanded the women to row. Molly became famous after the catastrophe. "Simple Brown luck- we've always been lucky in our family" she said. She loved standing in the spotlight, but made sure that poor people that survived the Titanic received money to begin a new life. She became a woman advocate of feminism. Molly Brown died in 1932 from a apoplectic stroke, 65 years old. (Indeed, it is difficult to separate fact from fiction in Margaret Tobin Brown's life. Even her name has been fictionalized. The "Unsinkable Molly" was not called Molly in her lifetime. But Maggie loved publicity and her active imagination and theatrical flair helped perpetuate such stories. They became more exaggerated after her death)
Captain Edward J Smith
Was about to be retired.
Eward John Smith was called the captain of millionaire. He was experienced and charming. He had been serving the White Star Line since 1880, so he was the one who got the honour of taking the Titanic on her maiden voyage over the Atlantic. And he'd had the same glorious mission on Titanic's sister-ship Olympic. Smith had planned a retirement after sailing with the Titanic. He was 62 years old, married and had a child. He had been to sea his entire adult life, ever since he were a teenager and shipped on a sailboat for an adventurous trip around the world. No one knows why captain Smith allowed the Titanic to move in full speed ahead in the middle of the night despite the several ice-berg warnings. The answer to this mystery we'll never know since he took the answer with him to the depth. The captain followed the old tradition to stay on his ship till its destruction.
John Jacob & Madeleine Astor
The worlds richest man were onboard the Titanic.
The celebrity-couple number one on board were John Jacob Astor, 47 and his young wife Madeleine, 19. He was the richest man in the world. She was a pregnant teenager. In the society it were a scandal and the big topic of conversation. Despite his enormous fortune, about $60 million colonel John Jacob Astor were almost neglected by his friends. They could not accept that he divorced his wife Ava since many years, to marry a "child". The wedding took place in 1911, after some big problems finding a minister that was willing to marry them. The wedding trip went to Europe and Egypt, where they met Molly Brown who became their travel companion on the Titanic. Astor had inherited a fortune but also earned big money himself on real estate business. He was also an inventerer who had own patents on for example a tubine-engine and a bicycle brake. And this was not enough, among all of this he had also written a science fiction novel about life on Saturn and Jupiter. As a military person and gentleman he financed his own battalion during the Spanish-American War. His first wife were Ava Willing from Philadelphia. They had two children and had been married for ten years when Astor met and fell in love with young Madeleine Force.
At the Titanic they travelled according to style, in their own cabin with a personal servant, maid and nurse. Madeleine was 5 months pregnant and needed care. And of course she had brought her favorite dog Kitty. The colonel had paid about $53 300 (in toady's value) for all the tickets. After the collision with the iceberg, Astor made sure that his young wife made it onboard a lifeboat. He asked the commander if he could follow his wife on the lifeboat, but received a no and accepted it, lit a cigarette and threw down his gloves to Madeleine. John Jacob Astor died before Titanic sank, he was crushed by the first funnel when it broke and fell. When his body was found he had $2440 and £325 in his pockets. This would've been enough to buy 73 third-class-tickets on the Titanic. Madeleine survived and their son was born on August 14th, he was named John Jacob Astor V. Later he would be know as a playboy. Madeleine lived a good life on the inherited money and remarried twice. She didn't like talking about the Titanic, but said that she never could forget the sight of her dog Kitty walking around on deck, when she was sitting in her lifeboat. Two dogs from the ship survived, but not Kitty. Madeleine died in 1940.
Frederick Fleet
He sighted the iceberg
The look-out man onboard the Titanic had a huge responsibility in the darkness among the icebergs that night, but unfortunately Frederick Fleet didn't have any binoculars where he was sitting, 15 meters above deck. In some way, the binoculars had disappeared in Southampton. Fleet had less the half an hour left of his shift when he suddenly sighted something dark and threatning less than 500 meters away. "Iceberg right ahead" was his alarm to the bridge. Titanic avoided a frontal-collision with the iceberg but didn't make it unhurt. Several small holes were torn up under the water surface, too many to keep Titanic floating. Water in four sections would've been ok, but not in nine ! Fleet made it to a lifeboat, as a rower and continued his life on the sea till 1936 when he begun selling newspapers instead. He was married but still a lonely and sad person that preferred sitting by himself with a beer at the local pub in Southampton. His wife Eva died in 1965 and not long after her death Fleet hang himself in the garden.
Benjamin Guggenheim
Saved his mistress
He saved his mistress but died himself as a true gentleman. The notorius womanhunter Benjamin Guggenheim (father of Penny who established the famous museum in New York) took the catastrophe-message with a great calm. 47 year old Guggenheim travelled with the french singer Léontine Aubert, the latest of his many mistresses. They were served by a servant and a maid. When the lifeboats began to roll down, Guggenheim made sure that his mistress and the maid got onboard of one. After that he went to his servant and switched clothes to his tuxedo, to await death. "We've dressed up and are ready to die as gentlemen, give my love to my wife in New York", he said to steward that tried to make him put on a lifebelt. Unfortunately his mistress was referred to as mrs. Benjamin Guggenheim on the Carpathia, and on the dock Guggenheims wife waited and never heard the statement.
Sir Cosmo & Lady Duff
The words destroyed their life.
When Titanic broke in two and sank. The lofty lady Duff Gordon said to her secretary in lifeboat one: "There goes my nightgown". A really bad chosen expression at that time when 1500 people were lying in the freezing water, screaming for their lives. Her words came to follow her for the rest of her life. People in the lifeboat became furious with her: "People are dying, we've lost everything and your talking about a nightgown". Sir Cosmo tried to make the situation better by giving them some money, but this made it even worse. A reputation were spread in London that the couple bribed themselves to a place in a lifeboat. Sir Cosmo was cleared in a trial but the reputation remained and ruined more or less of the couples life. Lady Duff Gordon, who had been a successful designer with exclusive boutiques in London and New York went bankpruptcy. He died in 1931 and she in 1935.
Isidor & Ida Strauss
Ida refused to leave her husband.
Ida Strauss, 63 and her husband Isidor, 67 owners of the Macy department store in New York, were inseparable until death. Ida refused to leave her husband, even though he and several officers tried to persuade her to follow with a lifeboat. Eventually Isodor managed to trick Ida into entering one of the last lifeboats, by saying that he would follow. When he didn't follow, Ida stepped back up to the sloping deck of Titanic. She gave her fur to her maid in the lifeboat and said "I won't need this anymore". The last sighting of the couple were them hugging. They had been happily married for 41 years and had six children. Everytime they were separated they wrote eachother every day. That was true love. There's a monument over them in Bronx with the inscription: Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it".
Bruce Ismay
The owner survived.
I the movie Ismay orders captain Smith to speed Titanic up, and were an indirect cause to the catastrophe. No one know if this happened i reality, but Ismay had the authority to make that order. He was the leader of the board in White Star Line, the owners of Titanic, and a speeding record over the Atlantic would mean a lot of free PR. Ismay survived the sinking in one of the last lifeboats, which came to ruin his name and reputation forever. It was generally looked upon that he, just as captain Smith should have stayed on the ship. Left on the Titanic was his servant and secretary. Ismay was castigated in the magazines and forced to resign from the board. He was no longer welcome in the London society. He moved with his wife Florence to Ireland, where he died from a apoplectic stroke in 1937.
(Source: Swedish Newsmagazine Expressen, Sunday April 13th 1998, free translation by me from Swedish to English, please overlook the mis-spellings ;)
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