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Titanic Survivor’s Stories Are As Dramatic As The Sinking

Aimee Heidelberg December 14, 2023 28 min

A young boy with long hair and a wide collar, and a lifeboat from Titanic. — Frank Goldsmith as a young child (l) and a collapsible lifeboat from Titanic, possibly the one carrying Frank Goldsmith. Public domain.

First Class Passengers

Olympic's first class smoking lounge and grand staircase, similar to Titanic's design. — Olympic’s smoking room (l) and Grand Staircase (r), near duplicates of the ones installed on Titanic, c. 1910 – 1914. Public domain.

Titanic‘s first class were used to luxury. The White Star Line provided luxuries and amenities even these experienced travelers could appreciate. They had a Turkish bath and a world class swimming pool, something that had only been offered on ships since 1906 on the Adriatic. First-class passengers had a choice of the dining room, a la carte restaurant, or the Café Parisian.

There were abundant stewards and stewardesses to help with everyday needs, whereas the second and third classes had limited stewards to share. But that luxury wouldn’t help them on April 14^th. Out of the three hundred and twenty-four first class passengers on Titanic, one hundred twenty-three perished in the cold ocean. Two hundred and two survived the disaster. Their accounts would fill the society pages of newspapers due to their celebrity status, unlike the second- and third-class passengers, whose accounts were much less publicized.