Interesting Facts and Tidbits

* Michel Navatril was posing under the alias of "Mr. Hoffmann" aboard the Titanic. The reason he had done this was because he had kidnapped his children from their mother and was taking them to the United States to start a new life, hoping she would never find them. Edmund, just two years old, and Michel, not quite four, had been passed through by Mr. Navatril to be placed in a lifeboat. As he let go of Michel's hand he said, "Tell your mother that I love her." After the boys docked in New York on the Carpathia, it was hard to figure out who these boys were since they had been going under the assumed name of "Hoffmann." When they were finally known to be the "missing Navatrils", they were eventually reunited with their mother.

* John Jacob Astor was the richest man aboard the Titanic. By the beginning of the 20th century, the Astor's owned some of the most expensive real estate in the world, including the Astoria Hotel in New York, where coincidently, was also the location of the U. S. Senate Hearings after the Titanic tragedy. It is assumed that John Jacob Astor was killed by the fallen forward funnel. When his body was recovered, it was covered in soot.

* The Titanic had actually met the Board of Trade regulations for lifeboats aboard the Titanic. Though the Titanic was said to be "unsinkable" they still had to comply with the regulations-Any ship over 10,000 tons must carry 16 lifeboats with the capacity of 5,500 cubic feet, that is, space for 550 people, plus enough rafts and floats to equal 75% of the capacity of the lifeboats. For the Titanic, this meant that there was a capacity of 9,625 cubic feet, room for 962 people. Actually, the Titanic had exceed the regulations since they had added 4 collapsible lifeboats. With the collapsibles and the 16 lifeboats, that gave the Titanic a capacity of 11,780 cubic feet and enough room for 1,178 people. Nobody seemed to realize however that the Titanic could carry over 3,000 people, leaving the lifeboats, eventhough they exceed regulations, not enough for all aboard. Unfortunately, the regulations were written for ships half the Titanic's size and were never updated.

* By a way of comparrison, an agent at Cunard was asked how much a one way passage in the finest suite available on the Queen Elizabeth II would be. The answer: Just over $15,000 for a four day voyage. The titanic's suite would have gone for $80,000 in todays money, $65,000 more than the Queen Elizabeth II.

* Although Arthur Ryerson wasn't aware of it, there was another Ryerson aboard the Titanic as well: a dining saloon steward by the name of William E. Ryerson. The two men were actually distant cousins although no one really knows for sure if either man knew the other was aboard or if they even knew of eachother.

* There were a number of people not scheduled to travel on the Titanic on April of 1912 however the coal strike docked many ships and passengers who were scheduled to travel on those ships were transferred to the Titanic to meet their fate.

* In 1912, helm orders were still given by the earliest days of sail, that is, by the direction the tiller bar was pushed in order to turn the ship, not the directon the rudder was turned. Murdoch's order of "hard a starboard" meant that the wheel would be turned to the right which caused the big rudder motor to turn to the right, making the rudder pivot left. It wasn't until the mid-1930's that the helm controls were set up for the wheel and the rudder to move in the same direction.

* A red sidelight or "running light" is shown on the port (left) side of a ship. A green light or "running light" is shown from the starboard (right)side of a ship.

* During his testimony for the U.S. Senate inquiry, Lowe described every man who tried to force his way into a lifeboat or to try to stow away in one, as an "Italian." The defamation of character on Italians that statement gave-that all Italians were cowards aboard the Titanic, was so degrading, that the Italian ambassador to the United States demanded-and received-a written apology from Lowe.

* Major Archibald Butt who was aboard the Titanic and also perished, was a military aide to President William Howard Taft.

* When Titanic sailed, it had left behind five stokers who had gone ashore to visit a nearby pub and didn't make it back to the ship on time.

* There was a J. Dawson aboard the Titanic in April 1912. His name was James Dawson. (When James Cameron made his movie "Titanic", he did not know of this man. Jack Dawson was a fictitious name made up by Cameron. It was not intended to sound similar to James Dawson.) James was a coal trimmer who had signed on in Southampton. His body was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean as body #227 and is buried at the Fairview Cemetary.

* The body of a blonde hair little boy, approximately 2 years old, had been picked up on April 20th by the Mackay-Bennett. The seamen aboard the Mackay-Bennett was reduced to tears. When word got out about this little boy, the city's heart went out to him. No one had known him and no one had come forward to claim the body. Captain Lardner and the crew of the Mackay-Bennett had requested, and was granted, responsibility of the boy and were granted permission to sponsor the boys funeral and burial service. The St. George's Anglican Church where the boy's service was held was filled with mourners as well as crowds of people waiting outside to pay their respects as well. After the service, six men from the Mackay-Bennett carried the small white coffin to the waiting hearse which then drove it to the Fairview Cemetary. He was laid to rest with the rest of Titanic's lost souls. A few years later a gravestone was placed over the little boys grave with the inscription: "Erected to the memory of an unknown child whose remains were recovered after the disaster to the Titanic, April 15,1912" Eventually, he would be indentified as Gosta Leonard Paulson, who had sailed from Southampton with his mother, two sisters and a brother. Although his sisters and brother were never found, coincidently his mother is buried only a few feet away from him.

* One of the Titanic's lookouts-George Symons brought to the attention of Officer Lightoller that the binoculars were nowhere to be found. Lightoller promised to look into it immediately but could not find them anywhere or anyone who knew where they could be. Actually, the binoculars were aboard but nobody knew it at the time. There had been a last minute reshuffling of the officers on the Titanic and the officer responsible for the binoculars was no longer on the ship. Officer William M. Murdoch was originally assigned to chief officer but his limited experience with large ships concerned Capt. Smith so he asked for Henry Wilde, his chief officer aboard the Olympic. Murdoch was bumped down to first officer which meant that Lightoller, originally first officer, was bumped down now to second officer. The man Lightoller replaced, David Blair, was left behind in Southampton. For some reason, Blair had ordered the binoculars to be removed from the crow's nest and locked in a locker in his cabin. The shuffling of officers was at the last minute with Wilde arriving just hours before they sailed. In the confusion, Blair either forgot to tell someone he had locked the binoculars in his cabin or whoever he told had forgotten about them and therefore nobody knew where they were.