Agreed!By the way, these supposed "docudramas" do more harm than good to the public perception of the Titanic disaster, by perpetuating old, long-debunked myths, and by creating and proliferating new ones!
We will never know for certain of course, but I have often tried to reconstruct that scene in my mind. Anna Hamalainen had baby Wiljo with her and so Martta was following with a "suitcase" or bag. How big was that bag and what part did it play in Martta missing the boat? Anna reportedly said that when Wiljo and she got on Lifeboat #4 she expected Martta to follow but when the Anna looked up a few moments later, Martta was still standing on the deck with the crowd, holding the bag. The boat started to lower immediately afterwards without her.It's doubtful that Miss Hiltunen was trapped in a cabin, as her traveling companion Mrs. Hamalainen testified that Martta accompanied her and her son to the upper decks, with Mrs. Hamalainen carrying the baby and Miss Hiltunen carrying the mother's satchel. Somehow they got separated, but it's highly unlikely Miss Hiltunen returned to her cabin.
If she also thought that #4 was the last available lifeboat - she might not have known about Collapsible C being lowered around the same time on the starboard side or even that there was one more boat - Collapsible D - on her own side. Even if Martta had remained where she was without trying her luck on the starboard side, surely she would have found a place in Collapsible D when it was loaded some 10 minutes later? It was fitted to the same davits as #4 and was not completely full when lowered. As a woman in a crowd mostly of men, she would definitely have been allowed on board D has she been anywhere in the vicinity. The fact that she was not on that boat suggests that she had left the boat deck by then.
But there is another possibility - remember that one of the surviving crew (was it Steward Edward Brown?) recalled that there were about five women waiting for Collapsible A, on the starboard side. Martta might somehow have found her way there - and may well have been one of those five women - perhaps also with Edith Evans, Rhoda Abbott and her two boys, and maybe even the elusive Ann Isham!
As low in the water as the decks were getting by the time Boat #4 was lowered, I just can't imagine Martta would have considered returning to her cabin.
I think they would have been panicking a bit but as Sam Halpern superbly illustrates in his book, the Titanic was only about 10 degrees down at the head as late as 02:15 hours and since the tilt of the decks was so slow over the previous two and a half hours, many passengers on the ship mistakenly believed that it would remain afloat after all, at least till help arrived. Therefore, they would be forgiven to have chosen to remain on board, even in the warmth of their cabins. It was about a minute or so afterwards that the ship lost its horizontal stability and lurched forward, creating that "huge wave" that rushed up the deck. It was probably around the same time that Gracie saw that "mass of humanity" rushing up from below decks. But many would not have had time to rush-up and so would have remained trapped in their cabins. Perhaps Marta Hiltunen or even Quigg Baxter for that matter were among them.I think a number of passengers were inside the ship at least until her final moments and with "no evidence of panic" they probably were not aware the Titanic was really going to sink.
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If there's five women waiting there, we may never know about who they were. We know Rhoda Abbott and Edith Evans were almost certainly among them, but from what I've seen Ann Isham was last seen on the starboard side near Peter Dennis Daly. So, based off that, she'd probably be there too. Ida Strauss is ruled out, she was not trying to save herself after all. That leaves Martta, Bessie Alison, and dozens of others. It could be Bessie Allison obviously, or Martta, or another woman entirely.Actually, wasn't Collapsible D fitted to the same davits as #2? However, it was lowered from the Boat Deck, one deck above, so Martta might have missed it.
But there is another possibility - remember that one of the surviving crew (was it Steward Edward Brown?) recalled that there were about five women waiting for Collapsible A, on the starboard side. Martta might somehow have found her way there - and may well have been one of those five women - perhaps also with Edith Evans, Rhoda Abbott and her two boys, and maybe even the elusive Ann Isham!
As low in the water as the decks were getting by the time Boat #4 was lowered, I just can't imagine Martta would have considered returning to her cabin.
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