Tragic Tale of the Last Titanic Survivor: Boarded at 9 Weeks Old, Avoided Movies Due to Painful Memories
Not only the image of a large, luxurious ship sinking in the vast ocean or many lives left in the cold, but even the lucky survivors have become a topic of concern.
In particular, the story of the youngest passenger and the last survivor of the Titanic disaster, Ms. Millvina Dean, also received a lot of attention even though more than a century has passed since the tragedy. .
The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 shocked the world
Fateful train
It is known that Millvina Dean (1912 – 2009) and her whole family set foot on the fateful ship when she was only 9 weeks old. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Dean family was supposed to cross the Atlantic on another White Star Line ship, but a strike caused their original trip to be canceled. Instead, the White Star Line offered them third-class tickets on the Titanic.
On April 14, 1912, the Titanic hit an iceberg and subsequently sank. Millvina, her mother and 2-year-old brother were lucky to survive, but her father and many other men in the third class compartment did not have time to get on the lifeboat.
Mrs. Millvina lies on her mother’s lap (left) and lifeboat number 10 carried her and her child to the mainland after the Titanic sank (right)
“I think it was my father who saved us. A lot of other people thought the Titanic would never sink, and they didn’t care,” she shared.
Luckily surviving the shipwreck, Millvina Dean and her mother stayed in the US for a few weeks and then boarded a ship to return to England. The story of the Titanic’s youngest passenger also received a lot of attention from the media at that time. Even when they returned to England, there were so many people waiting to welcome them that the police had to intervene.
“People knew what this family had been through so they lined up to hold baby Millvina, the youngest survivor on the Titanic. To keep order, an officer of the ship ordered that no one could holding the baby for more than 10 minutes.” – The Los Angeles newspaper published.
She was the youngest passenger on the Titanic when the tragedy occurred
Never watch “Titanic”
Notably, Ms. Millvina did not have many memories of the tragedy she experienced until her mother told it to her when she was 8 years old. She also did not speak up and share much about the sinking of the Titanic until the ship’s remains were found at the bottom of the ocean in 1985 along with some of her family’s memorabilia.
“No one knew about me and the Titanic, to be honest, no one cared. But then they found the wreck and after they found the wreck, they found me.” – Millvina Dean said.
Over the decades that followed, Millvina attended many exhibitions, conferences and events related to the Titanic. She also went to many different schools to tell her life story.
She has never once seen the legendary movie Titanic
In 2006, Ms. Millvina began living in a nursing home. To help cover expenses, several items used by her family on the Titanic were auctioned by her and brought in $53,906. In addition, James Cameron and “Titanic” stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio also donated thousands of dollars to Millvina nursing home in 2009, the year Mrs. Millvina passed away.
However, Ms. Millvina admitted that she had never seen the blockbuster movie “Titanic” by director James Cameron, released in 1997. Sharing the reason, she said she was worried about what it would cause her to witness. that her father endured in his last moments.
Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph in May 2009, a few weeks before her death, she admitted: “Because that’s the ship my father died on. Although I don’t have many memories of him, don’t know much about him.” about him but I will still be emotional.”
