Titanic Survivor Stories

The custom of the day was for men to stand back and let women and children board the lifeboats first.  Many first class gentlemen resigned themselves to their fate.  If we break down the Titanic survivors in order of class, 60% of first class passengers survived, a total of around 200. In second class, 120 people were saved which amounts to 42% of all second class passengers.  In steerage there were 174 survivors which is equivalent to a quarter of all those on board and within the crew, 214 were rescued, amounting to 24% of the total number.

The last survivor of Titanic was a lady called Milvina Dean.  Milvina was just nine weeks old when she was rescued from Titanic and was 97 when she died.  Coincidentally she died on the 98th anniversary of Titanic’s launch.  The last Titanic survivor was travelling to America with her mother, father and brother.  They were emigrating to Kansas City where her father was going to run a tobacconist’s shop.  Milvina’s father, Bertram who was just 25 years old, was lost in Titanic’s sinking. He had felt the impact of the iceberg and had told his wife to go up on deck with the children. After being brought to New York on Carpathia, the remaining Dean family returned to England.  Her mother did not talk about the Titanic disaster until Milvina was 8 years old. Milvina lived in and around Southampton for most of her life and in her later years, she spent much of her time answering letters from Titanic fans around the world, signing autographs and receiving visitors.