Of the nearly 700 survivors of the Titanic, only one was Japanese. His name was Masabumi Hosono and he became known around the world as the “Lucky Japanese Boy”. However, he was quickly called a coward after there were rumors that he had boarded a lifeboat dressed as a woman so they would let him on first. Even though there was no proof of this, Hosono was extensively ostracized back in Japan and called dishonorable by his fellow countrymen.
Interestingly, upon the release of the 1997 film “Titanic”, Hosono’s family decided to publish a letter he had written to his wife in which he explained that he had been ready to go down with the ship until, at the very last minute, a member of the ship’s crew shouted there was room on a lifeboat for two more people, and he got onboard next to another man.
The 100-year Old Mystery of the "Unknown Child"
Out of the 1,500 plus people that died on the night of the crash, only 300 bodies were recovered. Among them was a child's body that was recovered from the water five days after the ship sank. Strangely, the little boy was mistakenly identified three times, and it took nearly 100 years to finally discover who he was after his shoes were donated to a museum and they ran DNA testing.
After being known as the "unknown child" of the Titanic for almost a century, the boy was identified as Sidney Goodwin. It was such a tragic moment for the rescuers that found him, that they decided to bury the little boy in a grave that would forever memorialize the 1,000-plus children that died that night. Even though his name is now known, Goodwin's family decided to leave his headstone as it was, reading "unknown child", in honor of all the children that were never found or identified.
The "Unsinkable" Molly Brown
One of the most famous survivors of the Titanic was a woman called Margaret Tobin, better known as Molly Brown. She became known as the "unsinkable" Molly Brown, and after surviving the crash, she went on to become a passionate philanthropist and activist.
Brown was a very vocal supporter of the suffrage movement and a major help to the Red Cross during WWI. She even ran for U.S. Senate, though unsuccessfully. Her character was portrayed by the beloved Kathy Bates in James Cameron's "Titanic".
The Famous Smokestacks
Every photo of the Titanic features the grand ship with four smokestacks. In fact, the smokestacks are what made the Titanic so distinctively recognizable throughout history. Funnily enough, only three of them actually served the purpose of carrying smoke out from the furnaces.
The fourth smokestack was for aesthetic purposes only, and some said ventilation. Next time you look at a photo of the Titanic, notice that only three of the smokestacks have smoke coming out of them.
The Lifeboat Drill That Never Happened
According to one survivor's testimony, there were lifeboat drills every Sunday on the Titanic. But strangely enough, on the last Sunday before the Titanic sank, on April 14th, 1912, the drill never happened.
To this day, it remains unclear why the drill never took place, and even though it would've possibly made no difference to the tragic outcome of the crash, it definitely wouldn't have hurt to have passengers do a drill 24 hours before the disaster.