- The Titanic — billed as an unsinkable ship —hit an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912.
- Over 1,500 people died in the maritime disaster, while 705 individuals survived.
- A number of the victims and survivors were famous people.
The Titanic is one of the most famous tragedies in maritime history.
And a number of its victims and survivors were quite famous too.
The ocean liner, which sank off the coast of Newfoundland on its maiden voyage to New York City, was billed as the paragon of luxury travel. As a result, many prominent individuals decided to book a trip on the doomed ship.
Some of the ship’s most famous passengers included a top fashion designer, one of the wealthiest men in the world, and a famous British countess.
For the most part, most of the well-known people on board were first-class passengers. Researcher Chuck Anesi crunched the numbers, breaking down the demographics of the survivors. He found that 97.22% of the 144 female first-class passengers were rescued, while only 32.57% of their 175 male counterparts were saved. Ultimately, he found that male second-class passengers fared the worse in terms of survival, with only 14 out of 168 making it out alive. The total survival rate for women was 74%, while the male survival rate was 20%.
Here are 12 of the most famous victims of the Titanic disaster— and 11 prominent people who survived:
DIED: John Jacob Astor, millionaire
Millionaire John Jacob Astor was a member of the prominent Astor family and helped build the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City. He was also an inventor, a science fiction novelist, and served in the Spanish-American War.
Astor was traveling with his wife Madeleine in Europe when she became pregnant. To ensure the child would be born in the US, the couple booked a trip home on the Titanic.
He was last seen clinging to the side of a raft. His wife survived the disaster.
Astor was worth nearly $87,000,000 at the time — $2.21 billion in today’s dollars. He was the richest passenger onboard the Titanic.
SURVIVED: Archibald Gracie IV, historian and author
Gracie achieved prominence in the wake of the Titanic disaster due to his meticulous and detailed account of the tragedy.
The historian and Alabama native, who’d written a book on the American Civil War’s Battle of Chickamauga, was returning from a European vacation on the Titanic.
He was woken up when the ship crashed into an iceberg. After escorting a number of women to the lifeboats, Gracie helped other passengers evacuate the ship.
When the ship sank, Gracie surfaced beside an overturned lifeboat. He managed to climb on top with a number of other men, and they spent much of the night balanced there.
The historian was one of the first Titanic survivors to die after being rescued, passing away on December 4, 1912 at the age of 54. Gracie’s final words reportedly were “we must get them all in the boats.”
DIED: W. T. Stead, investigative journalist
Stead was a highly influential editor who, in an uncanny twist, may have foreseen his death on the Titanic.
As the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, the newspaperman published an explosive and controversial investigative series about child prostitution. He is credited with helping to invent investigative journalism.
A devoted spiritualist, Stead also established a magazine dedicated to the supernatural and a psychic service known as Julia’s Bureau.
He also penned a fictional story in 1886 that bore an unsettling resemblance to the real-life events of the Titanic.
“How the Mail Steamer Went Down in Mid Atlantic, by a Survivor” tells a story of an ocean liner that sinks in the Atlantic. In the story, only 200 passengers and crew members of the original 700 people on board survive the disaster, due to a lifeboat shortage.
According to Biography.com, Stead didn’t hang around on deck as the Titanic sank. He spent his final hours reading in his cabin.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
Source: FS – All – Entertainment – News
12 famous people who died on the Titanic — and 11 who survived