Last American Titanic Survivor Passes Away

According to the AP, the last American survivor of the Titanic, Ms. Lillian Gertrud Asplund, passed away last Saturday, in Worcester Massachusetts, at the age of 99. Ms. Asplund was also the last survivor, at five years old, that was old enough at the time of the disaster to have any memories of the event. Two other survivors in the U.K. were, at 10 months and 2 months old, too young at the time.

Titanic just before her Maiden Voyage in 1912

Ms. Asplund lost her father and three brothers, including a twin brother, in the disaster. Her mother and one younger brother survived with her. The family was traveling as third class passengers on their way back from Sweden to Worcester.

Hmmm, that’s kind of interesting. For a while I was a Titanic buff and read everything that I could find on the subject. I’m a great fan of the movie made from Jack Lord’s book “A Night to Remember,” but only a lukewarm fan of Carpenter’s "Titanic."

The Titanic is the ultimate “hubris” story even though the White Star Line never actually said the ship was unsinkable. The Titanic was designed to survive the worst catastrophe that anyone could conceive of, a collision near the bow which flooded any three forward compartments. I’m sure if Thomas Andrews, the designer of the Titanic and her sister ships the Olympic and the Britannic, had conceived of a collision which ruptured five compartments as actually occurred, he would have tried to take that situation into account.

There are a lot of myths surrounding the Titanic, starting with the myth that if there had been enough lifeboats, things would have been different. I doubt it. The ship sank about two hours after impact and they barely had enough time to get the boats they had off the ship. They never did manage to get the collapsible lifeboats to the davits and had to try and float them off. A second myth relates to the idea that they were trying to establish some sort of speed record on the maiden voyage. Not terribly likely. Speed was the selling point of the Cunard Line with the fast Lusitania and Mauritania to back it up. The White Star Line pitched luxury and was happy with ships that could go at a modest 21 or 22 knots as opposed to the 25 or 26 knot pace of the Cunard steamers.

The Britannic as a hospital ship in 1915

Of the three sisters, Olympic, Titanic and Britannic (nee Gigantic) only the Olympic ever completed a transatlantic voyage. The Britannic was impounded by the British government prior to her maiden voyage and commissioned as a hospital ship during WW I. After serving less than a year, she struck a mine in the Aegean Sea and went down.

The Olympic decked out in "dazzle paint" camouflage in 1918

The Olympic, the oldest of the three, had a speckled career that started with a collision with the British warship the HMS Hawke in 1911. She served as a troop transport during WW I and earned the nickname "Old Reliable" from the American troops that she ferried to and from the war in Europe. On May 12, 1918, she rammed, and sank, the German U-Boat U-110. This is the only known sinking of a U-Boat by a merchant ship, and a passenger liner no less. After the war, the Olympic returned to the transatlantic service and in 1934 had another collision, this time with the Nantucket Lightship, killing seven of the lightship’s crew. She remained active as a passenger liner until 1935 when she was sold for scrap.

As a very weird side story, Ms. Violet Jessop survived the Titanic sinking and then was assigned as a nurse to the Britannic. Boarding Titanic’s sister ship must have given the lady shivers. Then imagine how she felt when the Britannic went down with her on board! Yup, this poor lady was a survivor of both the Ttitanic and the Britannic disasters.