Titanic Narrow Escapes

Its 100 years since the ship Titanic sunk in April 1912, and I happened to read that Milton Hershey, of the American Chocolate Company had planned to sail on the boat, but didn’t due to illness. Is there an official list anywhere of the people, (or does anyone know any names of those who would be on the list), who didn'tsail on the Titanic’s maiden voyage even though they had tickets, why they didn’t sail, and what happened to them afterwards?

Others I know of were Edgar Selwyn, co-founder of Goldwyn Pictures in 1919, and Alfred Vanderbilt of the business family, who was drowned on the Lusitania in May 1915.


Edited by Sidney - 10-Apr-2012 at 16:04

No, not interested in fuelling a conspiracy theory. It was a terrible disaster.

Popular culture has been remembering all those people who sailed on the Titanic, as passenger or crew, and lost their lives, or lived through the trauma of the sinking and survived. I'm just curious about those who for some vaguery of fate just didn't go on board when they planned to - first class, second class, steerage or crew. What random event caused them not to board that boat, and what happened in their lives afterwards that might never have happened if they had sailed? Hershey didn't sail because his wife was ill, Selwyn didn't sail because he wanted to go to a play reading, I don't know about Vanderbilt.

There were surely others, but also others who claimed or had claims made for them which are unsubstantiated. I remember reading about a young boy who threw a tantrum when being taken on board and his family decided to postpone the trip, and they were all saved, as well as a story of a dream premonition that stopped another passenger from boarding. I don't recall the names, nor the reliability of the sources.

I've subsequently found this web-site;
http://bookofodds.com/content/view/print/662916
Which gives quite a few examples;
Miss Eva Wilkinson, assumed drowned on the Titanic, turned up at her mother’s house in 1927. She had missed her sailing and caught another boat to America. She served as a nurse in the Great War, and was captured by the Germans. (this sounds a bit odd - she must have known her family would be worried about her, and where was she between 1918-27?)
Thomas Hart, a fireman, got drunk and missed the sailing, but was also assumed drowned because an unknown person had stolen his papers and boarded in his place. He turned up at his mother’s house a month after the disaster, having been too embarrassed to appear before.
Colin MacDonald, Second Engineer, had a “hunch” about the ship and refused to board.
Several crew members failed to report, and three brothers named Slade were fired immediately before the sailing for drunkenness.
Fireman John Coffey deserted in Queenstown, Ireland.
50 people cancelled their reservations. J. P. Morgan had booked to sail on the maiden voyage, but business required him to remain in Europe. George Vanderbilt and his wife Edith cancelled their passage because of a superstitious feeling on the part of a relative.

(Plus the three people I mentioned earlier)


Edited by Sidney - 11-Apr-2012 at 13:31

Not everyone made it. Benjamin Guggenheim's servant chose to stay with his master, unwilling to leave when there were still women aboard

Isador and Ida Straus, co-owners of Macy's, stayed aboard.  Isador Straus refused to board a lifeboat while women and children were still aboard the Titanic, and Ida Straus refused to leave his side.

Of greater interest is the nurse who sailed aboard  of all three of the great White Start Liners, Olympic, Britannic and Titanic, and survived both the Titanic and Britannic sinkings.


Edited by Mountain Man - 30-Jul-2013 at 17:59