Back in 1912, the Titanic was considered a groundbreaking landmark in the history of transportation and technology. No ship built before it was as technologically advanced or as aesthetically luxurious. This led many people to believe that such a piece of machinery was virtually unsinkable. However, there was one passenger that not only disagreed with this, he actually predicted an “appalling disaster”.
The passenger was Charles Melville Hays, the president of the Grand Trunk and Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Companies. Obviously, Hays was extremely knowledgeable when it came to transportation technologies, and when learning more about the Titanic’s construction, he had reservations about how safe it actually was to “build bigger and faster ships”. Unfortunately, Hays was not only right, he was also one of the 1,500-plus people that died in the water the night of the crash.
A Bowler Hat That Was Right Where They Left It
In 2012, James Cameron wrote an article for National Geographic in which he recounted his experiences when exploring the Titanic's wreckage. Among a myriad of things, each one telling a story about a particular passenger, he encountered a bowler hat that belonged to a man named Henry Harper.
The hat was found in Harper's D Deck cabin, inside the ruins of his closet, exactly where he left it, as if untouched by time. Harper was an American businessman and one of the few survivors of the Titanic.
Charles Joughin Owes His Life to Two Bottles of Whiskey
The most hard-core fans of the 1997 film "Titanic" will surely remember a scene where a man is briefly, but quite unforgettably, shown chugging down a flask of alcohol before going in the water as the ship is sinking. This character is based on Charles Joughin, one of the cooks aboard the RMS Titanic, that became famous for grabbing two bottles of whiskey as the ship sank.
Thanks to the copious amounts of alcohol in his body, Joughin survived in the frigid waters of the Northern Atlantic ocean for at least two hours, which is incredible considering most people died from hypothermia within 15 minutes. Joughin was able to survive long enough to wait for the next lifeboat to come around, and so became one of the Titanic's survivors.
Out of the 1,500 People That Died, Only Four Were First-Class Women
Out of the more than 1,500 people that lost their lives the night of the sinking, only four of them were women from the first-class section. The number is quite astounding considering that, in the third class, 89 women died. And so did 387 men.
This may have been due to the fact that third-class passengers were confined to the bottom part of the ship, while first-class were on the top decks. Therefore, when it came to boarding the lifeboats, first-class passengers were much closer and had direct access. Also, women and children were urged to board the lifeboats before anybody else, which would explain the very low death toll of first-class women.
The Woman That Refused to Leave Her Dog Behind
One of the four first-class women to survive was Ann Elizabeth Isham. Shockingly, the reason Isham didn't survive that night was that she refused to leave her pet dog behind. According to reports, Isham had already boarded a lifeboat that was ready to set sail when she suddenly realized she wasn't allowed to take her Great Dane with her. She immediately jumped out of the boat and stayed behind with her dog.
Once the ship had gone down and an official search party was scavenging the waters looking for survivors, they found a woman with her arms wrapped around a large dog; there was speculation that this was Ann Isham, but it was never confirmed.