Weird Stories from The Titanic You May Not Have Heard Of

Everyone knows the story of the sinking of the Titanic, but less people know about her many famous and interesting passengers. Come learn with me about some strange and remarkable tales from the night the unsinkable ship... sank.

I'm on TikTok @ kazrowe

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Sources

Titanic, A Very Peculiar History By Jim Pipe

Black Man on the Titanic: The Story of Joseph Laroche By Serge Bile

What Happened To The Only Black Family On The TITANIC by Zondra Hughes for Ebony, June, 2000

[pocketsizeforyourtravelcon]

As far as the French orphans, the older of the two boys actually died in 2001. He lived the majority of his life in Montpelier, France and became a professor of philosophy. He was one of two survivors who got to watch the 1997 James Cameron film.

[whiimskers]

My favorite story from the Titanic is of Arthur West. He got his wife and two daughters, one daughter being an infant on to a lifeboat. Then he doubled back saying he had to get something.
His last act before perishing was getting a warm thermos of milk for his daughter. His wife kept the thermos on the mantle for the remainder of their lives.

[terev.]

Seems like early Hollywood had a habit of making films about catastrophic events and hiring survivors to play in them. Armenian Genocide survivor Aurora Mardigian was cast to play herself in the film based on her memories of the genocide, I can only imagine how traumatizing that was. For her, it was a chance to tell the world the truth, but her mental health suffered hugely

[l.g.]

One fact about Dorothy Gibson’s Titanic film that has always stuck with me is the fact that she wore the same outfit that she wore DURING THE SINKING. Apparently she was extremely distraught while filming and was experiencing a lot of trauma.

[oomflem]

One fascinating thing about the Titanic is the overlooked stories of the many, many Arab passengers on board. Apparently everyone at the time just assumed anyone remotely ethnic-looking was Italian, so the accounts of surviving second and third class passengers of the disaster described virtually everyone they encountered from the Third Class as generic “Italians, ” when in fact there were only eleven Italian passengers in third class, vs somewhere between 140 and 165 from the Arab world, who got clocked as Italian steerage passengers in the survivor accounts. Accounts that describe specific lifeboats as “full of Italians” can be matched with the accounts of Arabic-language survivors in those same boats (at the time, the Ottoman Empire had not yet been broken up into the modern countries of the Middle East, so it is easiest to classify these passengers by language). The Dream and the Nightmare: The Story of the Syrians who Boarded the Titanic by Leila Salloum Elias, which draws on passenger lists from Arabic newspapers and oral accounts from Lebanese villages, created a revised account of the number of passengers from the Ottoman Empire left out of English records. If these revised totals are correct, Arab passengers- predominantly Arab Christians from villages in what is now Lebanon- may have been the single largest group by nationality in third class, and the third or fourth largest on board after Brits, Americans and the Irish.

I am NOT saying there was a big intentional conspiracy here to whitewash the Titanic- but it sort of happened accidentally. Most of the survivors whose stories were passed down to us were obviously from the first and second class, so their impressions of who made up the third class have been transmitted down into pop culture. The Titanic was a far more global and international disaster than we often think. I highly recommend Elias' book to anyone with an interest in Titanic scholarship, for a very different international view of the disaster. The survivor accounts are absolutely fascinating.

[ssoomee]

As a Haitian woman, I'm really grateful that you mentioned that Joseph Laroche was a Haitian man. I knew of his story for several years now, but many people like to only talk about him being black, not about his nationality. 🇭🇹 I love your channel and all the work you put into your videos, I'm always learning something new! ❤

[beckyginger]

Can I just! All the content creators respecting the strike, mentioning it and not crossing the picket, its just really nice to see

[עידןזונשיין]

Great video, but as a former field medic I feel obliged to correct the story about the drunk guy. Alcohol expands blood vessels, making you feel warmer for a bit, but drastically quickening the effects of hypothermia.
If he survived, what kept him warm was likely a mix of body fat, muscle, and the body heat from 2 hours of continuous paddling. Drinking alcohol 100% hurts your chances of surviving in extreme cold

[Victorinya_Valentine]

Charles being too drunk to die is frankly amazing

[SConArt]

When I was in the 6th grade, right when Titanic mania hit. My computer teacher brought in a special guest; her grandmother, who was a child on the Titanic. It was mind boggling hearing her first hand experiences of that night, mostly of being cold and scared.

[nanamiharuka]

The Titanic wreckage is an underwater grave and should be treated and respected as such and not treated as simply a tourist attraction. Caitlin Doughty of Ask a Mortician here on YouTube did a great video on underwater graves a couple *years ago.

[mckayleepugmire]

I have no sources for this, but I once heard of a Titanic employee whose job was to own and care for a cat for pest control on the ship. According to the story, the cat ran away as they were boarding, and by the time the guy found her the boat had already left. When the news about the accident arrived he decided that cat had saved his life and pampered her and her kittens for the rest of their lives out of gratitude.

[edisonlima]

I got all the more respect for the tragedy of the Titanic after learning about the sinking of the S.S. Arctic.
The Arctic was a ship that suffered a huge collision, in 1853, and as it began to sink, the captain, the stewardesses and some of the tripulation fought in vain to have the female passengers and children into the life boats. Every time, the male passengers and some men in the tripulation would overun the women and children, throw them into the sea and destroy the boats fighting to get abord.
A young sailor tried in vain to sign for help, and when the captain asked him to give up and try to save himself, answered: "Tell them that when the time came, at least one man remained at his post". He died there.
Meanwhile, the stewardesses kept the water pumps that the crew had abandoned manually working for as far as they could to give the others a chance, their hands cut and bruised bleeding profusely. They all died there, too.
During the last hours, the captain and the remaining passengers couldn't do anything to try and save anyone, because they spent their entire time fighting the MANY men who turned into sexually assaulting the women aboard during the sinking, many of which has been left by fathers and husbands who had taken the boats.
The captain lost his entire family in those last monents.
When the few survivors (no woman or children) were finally rescued, it was a HUGE scandal and those who had survived by overtaking the boats, as soon as they learned there had been surviving witnesses, booked away to Canada.
There is a reason "women and children first" being (mostly) respected during the sinking of the Titanic is such a big deal.

[pathemeleski]

I expected you to include Masabumi Hosono, the only Japanese survivor of the Titanic. He had been prepared to die on board when a call went out from one lifeboat that there was room. He got in and survived, only to be vilified in his home country for nor dying honorably in the sinking. The rest of his life, he was called a coward and was pretty miserable.

[PieOfEpicness]

The parents doing what they could to save their children hit me the hardest. I'm not crying, you're crying. I don't even want to imagine how hard it was for the parents that knew they couldn't do anything.

[lemonanddrip]

My ancestor was on a titanic, he left London to go move to be with his parents. He was a second class passenger and was only on the titanic because the st.Louis was too late in booking. He was on life boat number 9! This is a letter he wrote of his experience “I jumped up, put on light clothing and went up on deck. The steam was blowing with a deafening noise. I did not see the iceberg myself. I talked to the officers and the Captain ordered us to get the ladies. I ran down, got more clothing and went to Miss Wright. She had got up and was out on the deck. There were no more women to go and I asked the officer if there was any objection to my going in that boat. He said ‘No, get in’ and I was the last one in. I think it was the third from the last to go on that side. It was No. 9 and we had to get away fast. Besides other boats going down there was danger from the sinking boat. I cannot describe the sinking in any other way than to say that it was like the noise from a football field, not loud like a shout of victory, but hushed as though there was canvas over it... There were two loud noises as she went down. It was like as if all the cargo went from one side of the ship to the other all at once. It may have been bursting of the boilers or the vessel breaking itself in two. I don’t know. It seemed to me that we all should go down. As she sank I saw her looming up more clearly just as on a lantern slide when they are bringing a picture into focus.”

[Titanic_]

Coal fires on ships at the time were a pretty common occurrence, the ships were after all carrying thousands of tons of the stuff. The story of the fire wasn't covered up by the White Star Line as it wasn't even worth writing about before the disaster. Coal fires also weren't raging infernos threatening to engulf ships in flames, they were usually small sections of smoldering coal which could be contained very easily. Also regarding the smudge on the hull, it only appears in 2 photos of the ship when she is very close to the shore and since Titanic was a brand new ship the fresh coats of paint on her hull would've been very reflective. The smudge is therefore a reflection of the shore.

When it comes to Louis and Lola we do actually know who they were and what happened to them after the sinking. Their real names were Michel and Edmond Navratil, they were 3 and 2 years old respectively. After their return to France with their mother they lived a pretty happy life, Michel went to university and became a professor of psychology, while Edmond became an architect and interior designer. In the Second World War Edmond joined the French Army, but was captured as a prisoner of war. He managed to escape, though he sadly died aged only 43 in 1953 from poor health as a result of his time as a prisoner. Michel on the other hand lived a very long life and died in 2001 at the of 92, he was the last male Titanic survivor.

[edgeofsevnteen]

For anyone wondering, the countess of Rothes was in the movie. She was introduced early on, but she’s also the one that came out of her room and said “excuse me, why have the engines stopped? I felt a shudder” and the steward responds “I shouldn’t worry madam, we’ve likely thrown a propeller blade. That’s the shudder you felt. May I bring you anything?”

[Me-iqse]

I find learning about the people on the Titanic so interesting, even if it is horribly depressing. I think it's important to learn about tragedies like these.

[the_real_Kurt_Yarish]

The idea that alcohol consumption warms the body is a myth; consuming alcohol can cause the skin to flush with blood and create the illusion of warmth, but this draws blood out of deeper tissue within the body somewhat and so could actually make you colder. Charles' intoxication aided him moreso that it dulled his senses and protected him from shock, allowing him to maintain movement as he treaded water which staved off him freezing to death. This may also explain why he felt warmer in the water; he was no longer treading water once in the boat and so was not warmed by his physical activity.