Titanic Survivor Ruth Becker (Blanchard) - Interview

Ruth Becker (Blanchard), a second-class passenger on the Titanic, tells of how she escaped the sinking Titanic along with her mother and younger brother and sister, the scene on the rescue ship, Carpathia, and their reception upon arrival in New York.

This video is pieced together from clips of the same interview source used in the documentaries, Titanic: Death of a Dream and Titanic: The Legend Lives On (1994, A&E Networks), and Titanic: The Survivors Story (1997, Channel 7 Australia). The original date of the interview is unknown.

Film Sources:
- A Night to Remember (1958), dir. Roy Ward Baker / The Rank Organisation
- S.O.S. Titanic (1979), dir. William Hale / EMI Films
- Titanic (1996), dir. Robert Lieberman / Konigsberg / Sanitsky Company
- Titanic (1997), dir. James Cameron / Paramount
- Titanic (2012), dir. Jon Jones / ITV

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[shirleypoplo-ejlz]

Her voice sounds just like the older rose in the movie !

[ajrwilde]

I'm obsessed with this damn ship!

[logangreger]

Ruth was actually pretty close to death. She forgot to mention it, but she got into Lifeboat 13, and just as it touched the water, the bilge pumps tangled the lifeboat in its falls, pushing it straight under Lifeboat 15. Terror ensued on both lifeboats, as lifeboat 15 was about to be accidentally lowered onto 13. All the passengers on both boats were *SCREAMING* at the top of their lungs at the officers on the boat deck, “STOP!!!! *STOP LOWERING!!!!* STOP LOWERING!!!!” But they couldn’t hear them over the commotion on deck. Fireman Frederick Barrett, who is on board the lifeboat with Becker, pulls out a switchblade and frantically saws at the tangled falls trying to cut the lifeboat free. Several others also carrying pocket knives help. Less than 3 feet away from being crushed, the falls finally cut, and the people push off the Titanic’s hull with their oars, getting them just out of the way of Lifeboat 15 in time. That must’ve been traumatic for Ruth. Can you imagine being stuck in that boat, with another one about to come down on top of your head, all passengers shrieking, terrified?

[toddkurzbard]

You can still hear the grief in her voice, all these long years later.

[Knappa]

So poignant how she breaks down when she mentions her mother having been looking for her on the Carpathia. The relief of finding her family must have been overwhelming.
Also how she cries for the women at the railings of the Carpathia whose husbands never came.
Her testimony is so interesting.

[UZFE]

What an absolute treasure this woman is. God bless her.

[BlueandGrayDivision]

Ruth Becker, I have a respect to you, You are a Hero ❤

[queencerseilannister]

I just couldn't imagine the women's grief, in that horrible, tragic moment, that realization that their husbands weren't coming back. So freakkng sad. 😢

[SoraLover]

3 minutes late from return from my lunch break. I am literally on the edge of my seat listening to this lady.

[mrslinarcos]

I got to meet her cousin about the same time James Cameron's movie came out. She and her husband came into my shoe department at Sears at the Lake Square Mall in Leesburg, FL. It kept bugging me, I had seen her face and didn't know where, then I remembered TITANIC:Death of a Dream that A & E did in 1994. I came back out and told her who she reminded me of. When she told me that she was Ruth's cousin I was floored. It was as if I was seeing Ruth. Her and her husband lived on Race Track Road in Lady Lake then. She was really nice, in January 1998, we talked about the movie. She was glad i got to see it.

[randolphstephenson]

Ruth Blanchard. A pretty young 14 year old girl faced many frght filled hours alone on that horrific night. What heartfelt relief when finally reunited with her family.🙏😔😇 8:59

[ceeg]

What a great video. Amazing to have this quality footage. 112 years today. Thinking of everyone affected on this anniversary.

[messiahford]

She said they had brandy to warm them up. I hear that a lot in the old classic films

[kmalcolm]

the women were all standing at the rail, waiting for their husbands to come, in later boats...and they never came "

Jesus I hope this lovely woman has found some peace because it's pretty clear she sees that scene over and over, even 50 years later. That poor women.

[zyloproductions]

Her story is one of the first ones I heard

[mikeg]

I remember reading about her in 3rd grade, When we were working on a titanic unit in my classroom, and we read the children's book about her written by Dr. Robert Ballard... She really did give one of the more realistic accounts. It has stuck with me for many years.

[Vanessa-okys]

Her mother left her on the Titanic?!?! Wow.

[RSEFX]

BACK IN THE EARLY 60's i worked after classes (at Franklin High School in Livonia Michigan) with an English teacher named Audry Becker (who was in her late-ish 30's or early 40's at the time, I think) whose close family had survived the Titanic's sinking. I believe it was her family, not her, who survived. I've often wondered is Mrs. Audry Becker had ever been interviewed about what she recalled? I was very interested in the whole story of the Titanic even back then, having read A NIGHT TO REMEMBER as an early age, and seeing a live-tv dramatic depiction of the sinking in the later 50's on Playhouse 90 or a show similar to that.
Mrs. Becker---my student co-op supervisor at the time---was a wonderful person. I really enjoyed the year I worked with her in the school's in-house tv and audio-visual department. I wish I had stayed in touch with her/often wondered what happened to her. COULD SHE HAVE BEEN RELATED TO RUTH BECKER SHOWN HERE?

[Anurania]

One of the most striking things to me is how different the Titanic survivors looked in old age. They wore normal everyday clothes, lived in normal houses with normal decorations. A far cry from the extravagant upper class lifestyles depicted in Titanic movies. Even in the 1997 movie, Rose turned into a normal grandma living in a middle class house after growing up in detached opulence. What happened to all their wealth?

[ThunderPants]

7:23 She looks like Catherine Zeta-Jones.