Click2Disasters - The Titanic - Chapter 5

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>THE <i>TITANIC</i></p> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 5 - THE PASSENGERS</p> </div>  <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">Many members of New York’s elite society were on board for the historic sailing. Although J. P. Morgan himself could not make the trip, many of his friends did. John Jacob Astor IV (age 46), great grandson of the famous fur trader, was the richest man on board. He was also the most controversial since his young wife Madeline (age 18) was expecting a baby. Some folks thought the pregnancy came a little soon after <a href="http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/images/astor.jpg" target="_blank"><b>the Astors’</b></a> marriage.</p> <p><b><a target="_blank" href="http://www.titanic-titanic.com/titanic_titanic_-_first_class__41.shtml">Molly Brown</a></b> (later coined the "unsinkable") was not the only colorful personality on board. <b><a target="_blank" href="http://www.titanic-titanic.com/titanic_titanic_-_first_class__283.shtml">Isador</a></b> and <b><a target="_blank" href="http://www.titanic-titanic.com/titanic_titanic_-_first_class__284.shtml">Ida</a></b> Straus, owners of Macy’s Department Store, had been married many years and were devoted to each other. Later, after catastrophe descended on the ship, all three would demonstrate amazing calm and fortitude. So would <a href="http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/img_thm/gracieca.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Archibald Gracie</b></a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.titanic-titanic.com/titanic_titanic_-_first_class__142.shtml"><b>Ben Guggenheim</b></a> and <b><a target="_blank" href="http://www.titanic-titanic.com/titanic_titanic_-_second_class_16.htm">Lawrence Beesley</a></b>, a second-class passenger.</p> <p>Eva Hart, a 7-year-old English girl, was traveling in second class <b><a target="_blank" href="http://www.lva.lib.va.us/pubserv/vnp/titanic/eva.jpg">with her parents</a></b>, Esther, the mother, was troubled by all the outlandish claims that had been made about the new ship. Eva later recalled her mother’s comments:</p> <blockquote><font face="Times New Roman"><b><i>I don’t like this ship because a vessel called unsinkable was flying in the face of God.</blockquote></b></i></font> <p align="justify"><font face="arial, helvetica">Some of the passengers were emigrating to America. Frederick (age 40) and Augusta (43) Goodwin were traveling third-class with their six children (ages 6-16). <b><a target="_blank" href="http://www.titanic-titanic.com/titanic_titanic_-_third_class__238.htm">They</a></b> planned to set up a new home in Niagara Falls, New York. Accommodations for third-class (also called steerage) passengers, like the Goodwins, were functionally basic. Follow the link to an image of one of the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.newcastle-schools.org.uk/english/Titanic%20Intranet/images/3rdclasscabinbutt.jpg"><b>cabins</b></a>. On the other hand, compared to the price of a first-class ticket, their passage was relatively cheap.</p> <p>Many of these passengers, and their fellows, never made it to their final destinations. The general room for steerage passengers could have been the place where people, unable to get to the upper decks, breathed their last. </p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="the_titanic_ch4.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>     <a href="the_titanic_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER  </a>   <a href="the_titanic_ch6.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>