Shadows of the Titanic

A blog dedicated to RMS Titanic, her passengers & crew, and the stories she still tells today. We will occasionally write our own articles & research, & we welcome Asks & Submissions as well! Enjoy our biography project where we are writing detailed profiles of each passenger and crew member!
This blog was created by Tanya, a History & Maritime Studies major, minor in Archaeology and pursuing a wreck-diving certification with her degree. She is a member of the Titanic Historical Society and dreams of a career in preserving underwater artifacts, specifically from Titanic, and opening her own museum & historical society in New York.
Jeni is co-owner of this blog. She is an Anthropology and History major, who does tours in the New York metro area and helps with research. She also focuses on fashions throughout history and social history.
Although this blog mainly focuses on Titanic, other things ship-related in history will be posted.

Posts tagged with People.

In regards to my biographies…

Someone had asked about my sources and if I accept submissions.

If you have any information, images or documents about a passenger that you would like to share with me to be included in a biography I will gladly accept it. I only ask that this information be reliable(if you could provide me with a source to make it easier for me to check as I do with all information I’d appreciate it). If you would like to be given credit let me know.

All my information is taken from various sources. I will not write anything without checking multiple sources first, including birth/death certificates if available, and any other documentation about a person. I use websites, books, census information, news reports, etc as well as ancestry/geneology websites to check information.

In many cases there are contrasting accounts, dates or information about a person, in which case I usually point out both or all of the possibilities if just one is not considered fact. I also understand that every source has their own way of reiterating information and stories can be changed with a few words here and there, and so I do my best to combine all of them into as efficient and sensible a post as possible.

If you have any corrections for or disagreements with my information let me know! Or if you have any further questions about a passenger I will try my best to answer!

In regards to how I’m going about the passengers: By class and last names in alphabetical order.

Thanks! =)

(Source: 1912rmstitanic)

3 months ago

Miss Kornelia Theodosia Andrews

[No photo available]
Status: Survived (Lifeboat #10)
Class: First
Age: 63
Ticket: #13502
Cabin: D7
Born: 8/12/1849 (some sources say 1848 but ‘49 is listed on her death certificate)
M.S.: Single
D.O.D.: 12/4/1913
Travelling With: Anna Hogeboom(sister), Gretchen Fiske Longley(niece)
Buried: Hudson, NY

Daughter of Robert Emmet and Matilda Fonda Andrews, Kornelia Thoedosia Andrews was born in Hudson, New York in 1848. She was a leader in society and charity works, and a graduate of Oberlin College of Ohio (as stated by the New York Times in 1913, however the college itself cannot find records of her attendance). She was a manager of the Hudson City Hospital since its organization, and in 1912 she was the hospital’s Vice President.

On the night of the sinking, Kornelia was up in bed reading, while her sister Anna and niece Gretchen were sleeping when Titanic struck ice. She claimed that she knew the ship had struck an iceberg due to the pieces of ice coming through the porthole. The crew had told the ladies there was no immediate danger and so they returned to bed. It wasn’t until a little while later when the ladies inquired about the situation again due to commotion in the corridor that they were told to report to the boat decks with lifebelts on.

Three lifeboats lowered before the ladies got in due to their refusal to separate from one another. Eventually they all were seated in lifeboat #10. Kornelia was very critical of the men allowed in their lifeboat, and describes her experiences,

“We had one sailor, and then any man who could row was allowed to get in and so a Chinese and an Armenian got in, saying they could row, but they could not, so Gretchen assisted the sailor on one side and two or three women on the other, until her hands were frozen stiff…There was Mr. Thayer, president of the Pennsylvania railroad. Mr. John Jacob Astor, having to wave farewell to his beautiful wife, Major Butt and hundreds of others, who probably knew there was no hope for them. We have never seen them since…We were a mile away from the Titanic when there was a great explosion. It appeared to me as if the boilers had blown up and the Titanic had been lifted up amidships and broken in half. This is the way it appeared to me…and then, my dear the screams and the shrieks as 1000 of the steerage went down, and I suppose, the crew and officers and all the Americans. All my life I will hear those shrieks….Here on the Carpathia we see all the time such sad things. Nearly every other woman is weeping for husband or son, and it is all past description.

I have had three staterooms offered me, but there are others who need them much more, and so we slept on the floor in the library with 20 or 30 others, babies crying because both parents were lost, and others because their mothers were gone…The icebergs all around made the water and air intensely cold, and those long, long hours of agony, nearly 10 hours in mid-ocean, women crying all around because they felt so sure their husbands and brothers would not be saved. One woman had two little ones. Her husband and three others were not with us and we have never heard of them. And now, I could not tell you in weeks the sad, sad, stories around us.”

Kornelia also reported of an officer in their boat flicking a lit match at them causing a stir among the women. They were rescued by the Carpathia and eventually returned to their homes in Hudson, NY. After the sinking Miss Andrews filed a claim for $480.50 with the White Star Line. She passed away in 1913 in Hudson, NY from pneumonia.

(Source: 1912rmstitanic)

3 months ago 4

Status: Survived (Lifeboat #3)
Class: First
Age: 47
Ticket: #19952
Cabin: E12
Born: 10/20/1864
M.S.: Married to Mrs. Florence “Flora” Makley Anderson
D.O.D.: 11/23/1951
Travelling With: None
Buried: Woodlawn Cemetery, NY

Mr. Harry Anderson was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, and moved to the United States in his youth. He became a Wallstreet stockbroker and lived in New York’s Upper West Side. In 1912 he was returning from a business and pleasure trip in England.

Mr. Anderson left in Lifeboat #3, one of the first boats to leave the ship. He returned to New York on the Carpathia.

In 1926 he married Florence Makley, born in 1881 and previously married to a Joseph Mory Daggett who died from a short illness in 1916. The couple had no children. He was commodore of the New York Athletic Club’s yacht division, and later in life was a member of the Larchmont Yacht Club.

Florence passed away on 12/7/1937. Mr. Anderson passed away at the age of 87 in New York at New Rochelle Hospital with no surviving relatives. He was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in NY.

(Source: 1912rmstitanic)

3 months ago1

Mrs. Bessie Waldo Allison (Daniels), Helen Loraine Allison and Hudson Trevor Allison
Status: Lost(body unidentified), Lost(body unidentified), Saved(lifeboat #11)
Class: First
Age: 25
Ticket: #113781
Cabin: C22, C24, C26
Born: 11/14/1886
M.S.: Married to Mr. Hudson Joshua Creighton Allison
D.O.D.: 4/15/1912
Travelling With: Hudson Joshua Allison(husband), Helen Loraine Allison(daughter), Hudson Trevor Allison(son), Alice Catherine Cleaver(nursemaid to Trevor), Sarah Daniels(lady’s maid to Bess) [All on same ticket] [Different ticket and in second class - Amelia Mary Mildred Brown(cook) and George Swane(chauffer)]

* (see earlier post for information on her husband, Mr. Hudson JC Allison)

Born Bessie Waldo Daniels in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the youngest daughter of Arville Daniels and Sarah McCully. She married Mr. Hudson JC Allison in 1907. They had a daughter Helen Loraine (2 years old born 6/5/1909) and a son Trevor(11 months old born 5/7/1911). The Allisons were on their way home to Canada from a family trip to Europe, and traveled with 4 employees.

The Allisons were dining companions with Major Arthur Peuchen, and on the night of April 14, Bessie took her daughter Loraine into the dining room so she could see how “pretty” it was.

When the ship struck ice, Mr. Allison went up to check on the situation. Unknown to the family, Alice Cleaver, baby Trevor’s nursemaid, had already left her cabin and headed for the boat deck with the baby. She was put into lifeboat #11 with Trevor. The Allisons went up to the deck, where Bessie and Loraine were put into a lifeboat. Mr. Allison left before their lifeboat was lowered in order to search for baby Trevor. However, Bessie refused to leave without her baby or her husband, nor would she leave Loraine behind, so she took Loraine and left the lifeboat. (This is the general account, however another account states that the entire family including Trevor and Alice went up to the boat deck together, and that Alice and Trevor were lost in the commotion and found another lifeboat, so Mr. Allison went to look for them and Bessie refused to leave).

It is stated that the family’s chauffeur George Swane, who saw Alice, Trevor, and another of the family’s employees to the lifeboat, found the family and informed them of Trevor’s safety, but by the time the information came to them, it was too late. They were last seen on deck smiling. Bessie is 1 of only 4 first class women who perished in the sinking, and little Loraine being the only child in first or second class to perish.

Trevor was the only family member to survive. He was given to Mr. Allison’s brother George and wife Lillian by Alice in New York. Trevor returned to Canada with them and was raised by them. At the age of 18 in 1929, Trevor died from food poisoning after being on holiday visiting family.

4 months ago

Mr. Hudson Joshua Creighton Allison
Status: Lost
Class: First
Age: 30
Ticket: #113781
Cabin: C22, C24, C26
Born: 12/9/1881
M.S.: Married to Bessie Waldo Allison (featured to the right in photograph above)
D.O.D.: 4/15/1912
Travelling With: Bessie Waldo Allison(wife), Helen Loraine Allison(daughter), Hudson Trevor Allison(son), Alice Catherine Cleaver(nursemaid to Trevor), Sarah Daniels(lady’s maid to Bess) [All on same ticket] [Different ticket - Amelia Mary Mildred Brown(cook) and George Swane(chauffer)]

A wealthy Canadian stockbroker, Hudson Allison was born in Chesterville, Ontario, Canada. Son of Jesse Rose Allison and Phoebe Johnston. Hudson Joshua Creighton Allison had 3 siblings: Margaret, George and William “Percy”. Nicknamed “Hud”, he worked for a time as a clerk in Chester Casselman’s General Store in Chesterville, but at 19 his Uncle George Frank Johnston hired him to head the junior division of the brokerage firm in Montreal. He was later sent to Buffalo and worked as an insurance agent for his Uncle at Sun Life and New York Life. He later opened an office in Winnipeg.
During one of his trips back to Montreal he met Bess Waldo Daniels, and married her later that year in 1907. He and his wife were devoted Methodists, teaching Sunday school, bible classes and lay preaching. In 1909 their daughter, Helen Loraine was born, and a son two years later in 1911, Hudson Trevor.
In 1911 Hudson also started the building of a new house for his wife Bess in Westmount, Quebec. Horses being one of his biggest pleasures, he also started the Allison Stock Farm near Winchester, Ontario. He stocked the barns with imported livestock worth over $100,000.
In early 1912, the family sailed to England for a director’s meeting of the British Canadian Lumber Corporation, of which Mr. Hudson was a member. While there, they had son Trevor baptized and took a trip to the Scottish Highlands where Mr. Hudson bought 2 dozen horses for their farm, as well as furniture, and they recruited 4 household staff.
The Allisons sailed back on Titanic with friends, occupying 3 cabins, C-22 for Mr. & Mrs. Allison, C-24 for Sarah Daniels and Loraine, and C-26 for Alice Cleaver and little Trevor. The two other employees traveled second class as they were not needed on the trip.
Mr. Hudson Allison did not survive the sinking. It is believed that he, his wife and daughter spent their time looking for baby Trevor, who had already gotten onto a lifeboat with Miss Cleaver without their knowledge.

4 months ago13

Miss Elisabeth Walton Allen
Status: Survived
Class: First
Age: 29
Ticket: #24160
Cabin: B5
Born: 10/1/1882
M.S.: Single
D.O.D.: 12/15/1967
Travelling With: Mrs. Edward Scott Robert(Aunt), Miss Georgette Alexandra Madill(cousin), and Robert’s maid Emilie Kreuchen (on same ticket)

Miss Allen was the daughter of George W. Allen and Lydia McMillan. She was engaged in 1912 to Dr. James Beaver Mennell, a British physician. She was returning home to St. Louis, Missouri to gather her belongings in order to move to England in June of that year. Miss Allen survived the disaster, being seated in Lifeboat #2. After the sinking she filed a claim for $2,427.80 against the White Star Line for the loss of her personal property. Afterwards she stated “We slipped what trinkets we had into our coats but most of our valuables were in the pursers safe. We had only a few trunks because we were merely on our way home from winter in London, and expecting to go back in June”.

Miss Allen returned to England and married James Mennell in July of 1912 in a double wedding with her sister. She died at the age of 85 in her home in Tunbridge Wells, England.

“…There came a slight jar, and the engines stopped. We looked out of the porthole but could see nothing and we concluded it was some small accident and we would be moving on in a few minutes. But my aunt put her dress on over her night clothes and we sat down again to wait.
A few minutes later there was a knock on the door and Mrs. Robert’s maid rushed in to tell us that there was water in the baggage room which was on the same tier with her berth down below. She was more or less hysterical but she is inclined to be that way, and we thought nothing of it. We told her to go back to bed, She had hardly gone when she came running back to tell us that the water was now running into her room. We concluded then that something must be wrong.”

4 months ago6

Marconi wireless telegram sent to Dorothy Gibson from Jules E. Brulatour reads: “Will be worried to death till I hear from you what awful agony”

Telegram sent to Jules E. Brulatour from Dorothy Gibson reads: “Safe picked up by Carpathia dont worry”

Gibson, was a silent film actress, returning to New York on the Titanic from a 3 week tour through Europe. At the time of the sinking, both Jules, 42, (a wealthy and prominent figure in the early movie industry) and Dorothy, 23, were married to other people, having a secret affair. Dorothy had hoped the trip to Europe would be enough to make her lover realize his feelings for her and be ready to marry her.

Exactly one month after the sinking, produced by Brulatour, the first Titanic film was released, starring none other than Dorothy Gibson. The film was a silent one reel film, in which Dorothy plays a fictional version of herself, wearing the same dress she wore the actual night of the sinking. During the making of the film, Gibson had a nervous breakdown on set. The 10 minute film no longer survives today.

Soon after the release of the film, Saved from the Titanic, Dorothy walked away from the film industry. In Spring of 1913, Dorothy was involved in a fatal car accident in which she lost control of her car and hit a married couple walking on the sidewalk, killing the woman’s husband and causing severe injuries to the woman. Dorothy paid the woman the amount of $4,500 as a court ruling.

On 6 July 1917, Dorothy and Jules were both legally separated from their former attachments, and married. But their marriage was short lived and they divorced only a few years later. Jules remarried in 1923, humiliating Dorothy, causing her to take an indefinite trip to Europe. She thoroughly enjoyed herself for years, up until World War II, during which she regretfully allied herself with the Fascist movement. Free travel was now difficult and even though she could, she never wanted to make the return trip to America due to her still present fears of the night of the sinking.

In 1944 she was arrested and taken to a Nazi concentration camp. She was later smuggled out by a double agent, who passed her off as a Nazi sympathizer and spy. She was interrogated by the American consul, and deemed “too stupid to have been a genuine spy”.

In 1946, after years of traumatic experiences and high blood pressure, Dorothy Gibson died of a heart attack at the Ritz hotel in Paris on February 17.

(Source: 1912rmstitanic)

1 year ago 3

titanicrealtime:

Violet Jessop - Stewardess.
Violet boarded the RMS Titanic as a stewardess on April 10, 1912.

At 2:20am, bow-down, the ship broke in two and sank almost immediately. Violet described in her memoirs that she was ordered up on deck, because she was to set a good example to the foreign-speaking people, where she watched as the crew loaded the lifeboats.

She was later ordered into lifeboat 16, and as the boat was being lowered, one of the Titanic′s officers gave her a baby to look after.
The next morning, Violet and the rest of the survivors were rescued by the RMS Carpathia.

According to Violet, while on board the Carpathia, a woman grabbed the baby she was holding and ran off with it without saying a word.

After retiring in the 1950’s Violet claimed to have received a telephone call, on a stormy night, from a woman who asked if she saved a baby on the night that the Titanic sank.
“Yes,” Violet replied. The voice then said “I was that baby,” laughed, and hung up.

Her friend, and biographer John Maxtone-Graham said it was most likely some children in the village playing a joke on her. She replied, “No, John, I had never told that story to anyone before I told you now.” To this day, if another baby was actually saved is unknown.
Records indicate that the only baby on lifeboat 16 was Assad Thomas, who was handed to Edwinda Troutt, and later reunited with his mother on the Carpathia.
The unlikeliness of the same incident happening twice on the same boat, along with the fact that Violet never told anyone, until the 1970s, leads to serious questions about the veracity of Violet’s baby saving story.

Violet Jessop died of congestive heart failure in 1971.

(via everythingrmstitanic)

1 year ago43

Let’s start off this blog with a man we all know & love.

Thomas Andrews (7 February 1873 – 15 April 1912).
Born: Comber, Northern Ireland.
Married: Helen Reilly Barbour in 1908
Children: Elizabeth Law Barbour Andrews (born in 1910)
Ticket No: 112050
Cabin No: A36

Andrews’ uncle Lord Pirrie, was the principal owner of Harland & Wolff in Belfast, Ireland. When he was 16, Andrews started out as an apprentice in the company for five years, working his way up and eventually moved up to become managing director & head of design & drafting department. Andrews was the lead designer for RMS Titanic. He was head of the 9 man Guarantee Group that sailed on Titanic on her maiden voyage, making critiques & notes for improvement on the ship & helping out the crew with difficulties. He knew the ship better than anyone, it was not only the pride and joy of Belfast, but his as well. Andrews was a well-liked man by all who knew him. He originally requested to have as many as 64 lifeboats on board the ship, but was overruled. His wife & daughter were left at home in Belfast while he sailed on Titanic. In his last letter to his wife, he expressed satisfaction with the ship, stating “The Titanic is now about complete and will I think do the old Firm credit tomorrow when we sail”.

When Titanic hit an iceberg on 14 April 1912, Andrews hardly noticed the collision, and only heard of it when Captain Smith sent a message requesting his presence. Andrews toured the ship with Captain Smith, & finally gave the grave news that the ship would sink in no more than 2 hours. He spent the last hours of his life searching the decks for passengers, advising them to go up on deck and put lifebelts on. He knew the ship did not have enough lifeboats for everyone on board, so he urged as many people as he could to get in the lifeboats to fill them. He was last seen in the first class smoking room by the painting “Plymouth Harbor”, his lifebelt next to him, staring at his ship.

Andrews’ father received a telegram on 19 April 1912, “INTERVIEW TITANIC’S OFFICERS. ALL UNANIMOUS THAT ANDREWS HEROIC UNTO DEATH, THINKING ONLY SAFETY OTHERS. EXTEND HEARTFELT SYMPATHY TO ALL.” His body was never found.

1 year ago7