Short Stuff: Titanic Survivors! | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW
[Music]. hey and welcome to the short stuff I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and I can say. with 100% certainty that neither one of. us went down with the. Titanic that's true mhm try to dispute. that fact you can't do it yeah we're. talking uh a little bit I know we did a. episode on the Titanic but I don't know. that we really dug into the data of. survivors and I can't remember why I was. looking at this but I just it might have.
just been a story that came my way but I. just thought it was kind of interesting. to to look a little bit about like not. the ones who perish but the people who. survived and like who were these people. yeah it's always about the ones that. perished. yeah Leo slipping under the uh the cold. murky depths so blue even though he. could have fit on that door. totally yeah it was kind of ridiculous. but still it was a great ending yeah so. uh well just kind of go over the basic.
facts here right Titanic it left. Southampton England for New York City on. April 10th. 1912 4 days later April 14th maybe three. days I can't remember if it was right. before the 14th or right before the. 15th I really kind of meandered there I. think it was the night of the 14th so it. went into the 15th okay we got that. wrong I feel dumb four days into the um. into this Cruise aboard seriously what. was the the most luxurious luxury liner.
and there are plenty of luxury liners. this was the cream of the crop uh with. 2240 people on board 900 of which were. crew uh it struck an iceberg and within. less than three hours the the whole ship. massive ship had completely submerged. sunk that's right uh if you're looking. at the overall survival rates uh women. survived obviously more than men pretty. significantly uh. 74% of the female passeng survived 20%.
of the male passengers obviously because. of the the notion of Women and Children. First which is always sort of been the. the calling card of any situation uh. disaster situation uh and not only the. literally Captain Edward John Smith you. know making that in order in the Evac. process but just the general idea that. you know you're going to prioritize the. women and children yeah and they. actually did instinctively yeah it's. nice to see like you can say just.
statistically speaking they they. definitely did 74% of female passengers. did survive but only 20% of mail. passengers survive so you're like oh. great let's call it a day it ended just. great as far as those things go call it. a day the thing is is if you start. digging into the classes there's some. disparities that emerge that are a. little disturbing and by a little I mean. pretty disturbing and sad yeah so there. were three classes aboard uh first. second and third and then the crew. members.
and they go as follows um. 62% of the first class passengers. survived um for a couple of reasons. obviously they were prioritized just. because unfortunately that's how it. worked back then maybe still how it. works a little bit uh you're given. priority on those lifeboats but also. just because of the sheer fact that when. you're up on a higher floor uh you're. going to be closer to those lifeboats. you're going to be able to get there. quicker and get information relay to you.
quicker yes plus all of them were. automatically enrolled in the Titanic's. VIP life saving members Club. policy yeah so the second class. passengers um they didn't Fair quite as. well but still not that bad 43% of them. survived actually it's pretty bad um the. reason why is for the opposite reasons. of what you just said they were further. away from the lifeboats MH the crew paid. less attention into helping them get off.
of the Titanic and onto those lifeboats. and so so yeah more than half of the. people in second class um died and I saw. that second so something I saw about. this is that the third class passengers. which we'll talk about in a second they. actually had little cabins that were. nicer than second class accommodations. on other liners oh yeah but that the. second class passengers had the the kind. of the jankiest because for some reason. not all of the second class cabins got.
finished because Titanic's construction. was so rushed oh interesting and. apparently there were reports of people. who were in second class that were. finding half-eaten sandwiches that the. workmen had left behind that's how. recently it was completed I wonder if. they were that's remarkable first of all. thank you uh I wonder if they were like. uh we got two Crews let's uh start. building from the top and from the. bottom and then they ran out of time in. the middle man I was on a flight you. mean I went to Dominican Republic years.
ago and it was one of those ones where. you walk out on the tarmac to and climb. the stairs to board oh yeah I've never. seen this before in my life but the the. ground crew opened the front and the. side door and said have at it and so. people had no idea which door to go up. and were like having to pass one another. in the middle of the airplane trying to. get to their seats it was the dumbest. boarding I've ever seen in my life I'm. still it still takes my breath away I. couldn't believe it was going on it was.
just absolutely hilarious you know who. also I wonder if I should name this. person is that bad to say that someone. had a VIP experience that you witnessed. uh is this about Hodgman it has to be. no uh. Usher oh okay what about him when I when. I got on my uh flight coming home from. our our Christmas vacation to the. Bahamas uh they we were just about to. step onto the plane literally and the. the airline employees were like like. whoa whoaa whoa whoa whoa you guys move.
to the side and this group of about 20. people they just shuttle by us which I. wasn't like what's going on here I was. just like what's going on here I was. just more like this is weird who are. they I get on the plane and the very. first person I see is Usher sitting. there on the on the front first. row Benjamin Franklin I was like Usher. didn't uh he didn't walk by us in that. crew he was already on the plane. interesting thought about it a little. bit on the flight and then when we get.
to Atlanta um ushers up in front of us. obviously and he uh he takes a left out. of that door where you like put your uh. baby stroller mhm and doesn't walk up. the jetway and I was like what's going. on and I looked out of that door and. there were probably 15 matte black BMWs. sitting on the tarmac oh neat I was like. oh Usher doesn't even have to walk. through an airport no and guess you. could pay for that kind of experience oh. yeah for sure a Gog that he even flew.
commercial if you're if you're doing. that kind of stuff I I why wouldn't you. just fly private I that we asked. ourselves that same question and if here. I mean he clearly is paying for like a. lot of his family and extended family to. take this awesome vacation okay uh there. were so many people it seems like it. would have been more cost effective to. probably rent a a plane yeah you'd think. so come on not sure let's get it. together but they weren't sitting in. first class he had his family back there. and Coach really most of them hilarious.
I think I saw a few in in Delta Comfort. but there you go you know he was up. there with his wife he fly private. because he was sacrificing for his. family members because he didn't want to. fly them private yeah I don't begrudge. it good for him if he can afford that. more power to you man who thought Usher. was going to make an appearance in this. Titanic Survivor short stuff not me at. all so um maybe an usher but not the. Usher sure so let's real quick before we. um take a break go through so third. class oh geez is that where we were yeah.
they um were the worst off of all only. 26% of people in third class 174 out of. 709 passengers survived the rest dead. and I um just should point out that. that's obviously due to them being lower. but then also they're not prioritized. and they're not getting they didn't even. bother telling them what to do basically. they were like figure it out yourself. and they may not have even understood.
figure it out yourself in a lot of cases. because as we know forar a good friend. in the Titanic movie can't remember his. name Billy Zayn Leo's Italian buddy uh. jeppi was that his name I don't remember. he had that I don't think the guy was. really Italian but he uh you know a lot. of times those third class passengers on. the Titanic may not have spoken English. so there was a language barrier on top. of everything right yeah ironically that. actor was Native American playing an. Italian person right and he cried when.
he saw trash in the ocean so you said. one more thing though that they're in. the lower decks it's not just harder to. get up to the upper decks in the. lifeboats that's also the first area to. flood with seawater when it when a ship. strikes an iceberg right so yeah yeah uh. crew members actually only 24% of the. crew members survived and that's. actually the lowest number kind of a. heartfelt number because that most of. them died saving other people's lives. yeah uh let's take a break and we'll. come back and run through some notable.
survivors how about that let's do. [Music]. it Stu you. [Music]. should all right uh we promis talk of.
notable survivors uh we have a a a good. list here but we're just going to kind. of pick and choose some of our faves so. I'll go first if I may yes please uh the. first person I'm going to pick is a. little BB a nine-week old baby Nam uh. Milena Dean the youngest survivor of the. Titanic and I did a little more research. on Milena uh Mila was from uh England. her parents ran a pub and decided they. wanted to move to Kansas uh I think they.
had family in Kansas or maybe it was. Missouri I can't remember uh one of the. two and either way they were immigrating. to the US they sold their Pub uh dad. bought a third class family ticket uh. ironically they were not even supposed. to be on the Titanic like a lot of the. passengers there was a coal strike that. relocated them to the. Titanic uh and when the incident. happened when the iceberg was struck dad. instructed the family to go up up up to.
the. lifeboats um they survived uh mom. brother and little 9we old Mila uh sadly. dad did not survive uh they went back to. England afterward because they didn't. really you know just the mom and the two. kids went back to what was more familiar. and she ended up being the oldest living. uh Survivor uh just died in 2009 at 97. years old and one other quick thing uh. she did not even know she was a.
passenger on the Titanic until she was. eight years old oh wow yeah. crazy um that's a good one Chuck I got. one what you got uh there's a very. famous Survivor a woman named Margaret. Molly Brown the unsinkable yes very. famously dubbed The Unsinkable Molly. Brown because not only did she survive. the Titanic she was instrumental in in. um helping like organize the survivors. aboard the Carpathia she helped with. language barriers uh she was originally.
from Ireland so she was able to speak to. some of the Irish immigrants who didn't. speak English um and not only that she. raised. $10,000 uh which is equal to about. $320,000 today among the first class. passengers to help the second and third. class passengers who had lost family. members before the Carpathia even. reached New York oh wow yeah the other. notable thing about her and there's. plenty of notable things but. the Press dubbed her The Unsinkable.
Molly Brown she never used the name. Molly in her entire life it was always. Margaret is that I didn't know that was. even a nickname yeah the unsinkable. Molly oh Molly for Margaret yeah I don't. I didn't know that either I thought. Molly was just Molly yeah me too yeah or. E uh come on all right I've got a couple. here that are linked uh a gentleman. named Carl with a K bear and a gentleman. named uh Dick Norris Richard Norris.
Williams III uh I mentioned these guys. together because they were both tennis. players like tennis stars uh I believe. Carl bear was traveling with his uh. fiance Helen Nome uh or maybe they. weren't engaged yet but she became his. wife at some point yeah uh no they were. they were uh engaged okay and he did. help her onto a Lifeboat uh they were. separated but he got a spot on a. different Lifeboat uh Richard Norris. Williams. II um was traveling with with his father.
they were. separated uh but he was rescued I didn't. see about his father yeah I didn't. either uh but Williams was rescued and. uh again I mentioned them together. because they ended up uh competing. against one another post Titanic on the. tennis court is that nuts pretty crazy. and I'm sure some wiseacre said. something about it being like a Titanic. of a match or something yeah I'm sure. yeah um I've got one more and then how. about you do one more no let's just. let's just finish up with yours oh okay.
this is a shorty well now I have to. choose um okay so there's a a woman. named Edith rosenbom Russell at the time. she was just Edith rosenbom she became a. fashion journalist and a fashion buyer. had she not survived the pants suit. might never have been invented but what. she's famous for is that she had a toy. pig that she brought with her that her. mother had given her while she was. grieving the loss of her husband who had. died in a a auto accident like a year or. two before so she carried this toy Pig. with with her everywhere Edith did um.
and she said that she was spending time. locking her trunks cuz just in case the. ship went down she wanted him to float. or she want she didn't want people. stealing from them she didn't plan on. getting out of the Titanic at all but. some random crew member grabbed the pig. from her um from her arm and said if you. if you if you're not going to save your. baby I will and threw the the pig into. one of the lifeboats and so Edith said. she she realized very clearly that that.
was a sign that her mother would want. her to survive because her mother had. given her the pig so she followed the. pig into the Lifeboat and survived and. now the pig is in the uh National. Maritime Museum in London that's right. that neat uh you know what I am going to. mention one more just quickly because I. thought you were going to pick this guy. but we we should mention that Bruce Isme. uh who was a managing director of The. White Star Line uh that was you know. that ran the Titanic uh he survived it. was a guy that in the movie was by. Jonathan Hyde and he got a lot of.
obviously got a lot of criticism uh it. was on one of the last lifeboats but. still people were like hey women and. children are perishing and the guy who. runs the whole show gets himself on a. Lifeboat uh you should have prioritized. other people's safety so he he didn't. have the best reputation after that no. but you know what that. means short stuff out yeah. stuff you should know is a production of.
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