maggie b.:
Xina,Thanks for sharing. Brave indeed to get back on another boat. I think sitting in that ocean in the dark while the ship sank and the chaos and screaming went on would have been among the worst of the experiences. I don’t blame your aunt at all for sleeping with a light on. An how weird that all that untrue information is floating around out there about her. Just shows how careful we have to be with “documented facts”.

Well, it has always been an interesting part of my life. And the women on that side of my family are all feisty, brave women. And on the other side as well. I am surrounded by strong, strong women. Yes, the untrue facts about her and a picture that wasn’t her..in a published book, was shocking. I don’t know why the author would do that. I have the book at my cabin, and have been tempted to throw in in the trash, but keep it anyway. It is very strange.

RobinB:
!I always thought that the true stories about the passengers and crew were much more fascinating than any of the fictionalized versions (sorry, James Cameron!).

I agree. The true stories are far more interesting than anything we dream up. I find the story of Ida and Isidor Straus to be the most romantic tale ever told of Titanic, even if it is only one line. “I will not be separated from my husband. As we have lived, so will we die, together.”

xina: No, not a diary, but they remembered her reaction to it. She was my great aunt. She was 21..first class passenger. She is quoted in a couple books saying that she wouldn’t get in the lifeboat and an officer said…Don’t waste time, let her go. She had been visiting her aunt in England and was traveling alone. I was very interested in the Titanic movie, just to get a feel of what she must have gone through sitting in a little boat in the darkness of the ocean and watching the ship sink with all the screaming and chaos going on around her. She insisted on sleeping with a light on for years. She had a full life, but died with several fluffy cats in her mansion in California. She also went back to England to visit her aunt, on a ship of course, and took acting lessons there. Brave of her to get on a boat again.

Xina,

Thanks for sharing. Brave indeed to get back on another boat. I think sitting in that ocean in the dark while the ship sank and the chaos and screaming went on would have been among the worst of the experiences. I don’t blame your aunt at all for sleeping with a light on. An how weird that all that untrue information is floating around out there about her. Just shows how careful we have to be with “documented facts”.

xina: No, not a diary, but they remembered her reaction to it. She was my great aunt. She was 21..first class passenger. She is quoted in a couple books saying that she wouldn’t get in the lifeboat and an officer said…Don’t waste time, let her go.

xina, many years ago, I read “A Night to Remember”, Walter Lord’s definitive book about the Titanic, and I remember that quote! You’re right about your great-aunt being brave enough to get on another ship!

I always thought that the true stories about the passengers and crew were much more fascinating than any of the fictionalized versions (sorry, James Cameron!). Aside from the movie based on Lord’s book, the best visual presentation I ever saw was on A&E back when it was a classier network. It was a two-part documentary and in an interesting twist of karma, David McCallum was the narrator. One of his earliest acting jobs was as the junior radio operator on the Titanic, Harold Bride, in the movie “A Night to Remember”! The real Harold Bride barely survived the disaster; he was one of the last people rescued.

xina: I had a relative on The Titanic, so I’ve heard about it my life and how my relative survived and what her life was like as a result of it.
My favorite ship board romance has to be Beast, by Judith Ivory. I adore that book.

xina,

Wow! That is both scary and fascinating. Did your relative leave a diary or any partiicular stories about how she survived? Feel free to share as much as you are comfortable with :-0

On the flip side the WORST shipboard romances I ever read were two by Karen Robards: “Sea Fire” and “Island Flame”. Horrid characters, idiotic plots and all the bad romance cliches you could ask for. And yet I finished both of them–I suppose it’s the psychology of motorists who slow down to look at a bad car accident!