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What happened to the survivors of the “Titanic?”

© Neal West

The survivors of the "Titanic" lived on of course, some happily, some unable to come to terms with the horror they have witnessed. Though not all of the names you see here were in the series of articles I've written here, they may be familiar to you if you've read any of the many books on "Titanic" that are on the market

Jack Thayer would graduate from the University of Pennsylvania and made a name in banking. He later returned to his college as vice-president. However, despondant over the death of his son in WW2 and the events of the "Titanic," he took his own life in 1945 at the age of 40.

Madeleine Astor, widow of John Jacob Astor, gave birth to a son who was named after his father. She also inherited a $5,000,000 trust fund and the use of homes on 5th Avenue and in Newport for as long as she remained single. She gave up her fortune to marry William Dick of New York and had two more sons. She then divorced Dick in 1933 to marry an italian prize fighter. This marriage also ended in divorce five years later. She died in Palm Beach Florida in 1940 at the age of 47.

Joseph Boxhall, Fourth Officer of the "Titanic," gained a command with the Royal Navy but never made captain in the merchant service. He left the sea in 1940 and acted as technical advisor to the 1958 film, "A Night to Remember." After his death in 1967 (or 1963, "Unsinkable" and "Titanic-An Illustrated History differ in the year), his ashes were scattered on the ocean near where the "Titanic sank.

Harold Bride, the surviving Marconi Wireless man, could never cope with his celebrity. In 1913 he left Marconi and vanished (Titanic- AIH, says he was a wireless operator on a small steamer during WW1) until a private investigator discovered that Bride died in a Glasgow Hospital in 1956 after a life as a traveling salesman. He is said to have covered his tracks so well that his own family did not know his true identity until after his death.

Frederick Fleet, the lookout who detected the iceburg, left the merchant service in 1936. He then worked for Harland & Wolff's Southampton shipyard. He was then a night watchman for a railroad. Finally, reduced to selling newspapers on a Southhampton street corner, he took his own life in 1965.

Col. Archibald Gracie was the first serious historian of the "Titanic." Corresponding with other passengers, he wrote a book, "The Truth About the Titanic." Unfortunately, the ordeal of the sinking was too much for him, he passed away in December 1912, just as his book was going to press.

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