Which Titanic survivors have you met?

[Arun Vajpey]

I could not find a suitable thread to merge this with and so posted it here.

Have you actually met any of the Titanic survivors and if so who and under what circumstances?

I have met three in the 1990s; Edith Haisman (nee Brown), Eva Hart and Millvina Dean in Southampton during the annual Titanic conferences. I believe that the first time was in April 1994.

 

[Mike Spooner]

I have meet Dot Kendel the daughter of Edith Brown who was 15 years old in lifeboat No14. Dot tells me the stories of her mother went through. Freezing cold and could not stop shivering from the cold and the fear of never seeing land again. Hands to there ears to block out the ones screaming out for help in the freezing cold water.
The book TITANIC The Edith Brown Story is quite a moving story to.

 

[Arun Vajpey]

I recalled one interesting point. Brian Ticehurst of the British Titanic Society once told me in the mid 1990s that Eva Hart vaguely recalled some talk about ice among some adults on the night of Saturday 13th April 1912. She was too young at the time to understand the subject but apparently clearly recalled that it was the night before the ship actually collided with the iceberg. This was after my only meeting with Ms Hart and so I do not know anything more.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

By the time I was in a position to meet survivors, there were no longer any survivors to meet. I know some of their direct descendants, having met them at the Pigeon Forge conferences which Bill Willard has been organizing every year. Some of them are friends of mine.

 

[Arun Vajpey]

By the time I was in a position to meet survivors, there were no longer any survivors to meet. .

I'm surprised. I always got the impression that you were one of the older guys....like me.

 

[SmileyGirl]

I could not find a suitable thread to merge this with and so posted it here.

Have you actually met any of the Titanic survivors and if so who and under what circumstances?

I have met three in the 1990s; Edith Haisman (nee Brown), Eva Hart and Millvina Dean in Southampton during the annual Titanic conferences. I believe that the first time was in April 1994.

That’s lovely. What did they say to you? I always felt a bit frightened of Eva, she seemed so stern. I would have been nervous to speak with her

Millivina Dean always seemed like a sweetheart.

 

[Arun Vajpey]

That’s lovely. What did they say to you?.

Well, Mrs Haisman was not talking much to anyone by the time I met her, if you know what I mean. I met Millvina Dean a few times over the 1990s and yes, she was very nice. But as she was only 10 weeks old at the time of the Titanic disaster, she was not in a position to contribute anything from that point of view. Eva Hart was the most interesting and seemed amused by her status as a Titanic survivor. You understand that there were 4 of us in the group - 2 Germans, my Finnish friend Juha Peltonen and yours truly and she was talking collectively to us. I recall that Ms Hart alluded to how the Titanic's lights seemed dazzling as viewed from 'outside' - which we took to mean from a lifeboat. The problem was that we were talking to an 89 year old lady trying to express her memories as a 7 year old to a group of other adults. It was not easy, especially as she mentioned about her lost father a few times on that day.

 

[SmileyGirl]

Aaw, well it was lovely that you met them all. I can’t really remember anything from 7 but I guess if I had experienced something so terrible and awesome it would stay in my memory.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

I'm 59 years old. I was 40 when first signed on with ET. When I was born, survivors who were still around were thick as fleas. By the time I retired from the Navy, there were several left, all of them were very old, and only one or two even had the blurriest possible memory of the ship.

If some of you guys have Facebook, I don't really keep any secrets. My friends include researchers and expedition members, enthusiasts and also some relatives and even descendants of the people who were lucky enough to make it to New York alive. When you listen to their stories, you can see how something which is a historical abstract to the rest of us still effects them to this day. To people like Shelley Binder, Ilya Murdoch McVey, Julie Hedgepath Williams, Dr. Douglas Willingham, Cliff Ismay, and Helen Banzinger, it's family history and it's personal.

Whenever I'm dealing with Titanic, I make a point of being very mindful of that.

 

[Arun Vajpey]

By the time I retired from the Navy, there were several left, all of them were very old, and only one or two even had the blurriest possible memory of the ship.

That is a problem for our generation, I mean people who are 50+ now and so had a greater chance of having met Titanic survivors. Those like Eva Hart were too young at the time to have constructive memories and survivors who were 20+ at the time of the disaster were too old by the time the likes of you and I got around to meeting them.

One survivor whom I wish had not died prematurely is Jack Thayer. He came across as an intelligent and resourceful 17 year old and had he not committed suicide in his 40s, could have been a wealth of useful information in the 1960s and 70s when there would have been greater likelihood of TV interviews and documentaries.

Speaking of survivors, are there any transcripts of Kate Gilnagh's TV interviews? Better still, are they in any Titanic documentary?