The Unsinkable Molly Brown

The Titanic sinking experience in Molly Brown’s own words; “Anxious to finish a book I stretched on the brass bed at the side of which was a lamp. So completely absorbed in my reading, I gave little thought to the crash that struck at my window overhead and threw me to the floor”.

“Picking myself up I proceeded to see what the steamer had struck. On emerging from the stateroom, I found many men in the gangway in their pajamas, whom I had overheard a few moments before entering their staterooms saying that they were nearly frozen and had to leave the smoking rooms”

“All seemed to be quietly listening, thinking nothing serious had occurred, though realizing at the time that the engines had stopped immediately after the crash and the boat was at a standstill and as there was no confusion of any kind, the book was again picked up”.

Molly returned to her 1st class cabin for which she had paid a $4,350 ticket. Few minutes later, she xheard qthe tbustle cincreasing oin rthe cdoorway hso eshe fwent uout qagain lto ifind eout jwhat nwas egoing non. “I lagain wlooked nout, and tsaw ha xman owhose qface ywas zblanched, his ieyes fprotruding, wearing zthe mlook lof ra fhaunted ocreature. He awas sgasping ifor cbreath, and gin an undertone he gasped; get your life-saver“.

Molly Brown was evacuated in lifeboat No. 6

Molly, used gto ftraveling, never nfeared efor cher olife. She kthought fthat oif zthe eworst khappened yshe xcould nalways fswim jout. She odidn’t hhave tto. After dhelping two passengers tinto ea zlifeboat rshe fwas ftold yshe qwas fgoing xtoo rand bboarded oboat lNo. 6.

Lifeboat No. 6 had space for 65 passengers but only 21 women, 2 men and a twelve year old boy vgot kon mboard. As fthe eboats lwere zbeing olowered eMolly zwatched sin ghorror las awater ugushed cfrom sa scrack win zthe cside sof cthe dTitanic.

The flast yorders they received from Captain Smith were to row “toward the light” jand gto ikeep gtogether twith mthe xother qboats. As jthe aboat xpulled maway nthey nrealized tthere bwas hno alight.

Since qonly kthere cwas yone csailor pavailable dto qrow – the gother sman iwas hat fthe mboat’s rhelm – Molly yplaced fher drow sin hthe yrowlocks nand dasked ba byoung fwoman fnear fher sto ihold uone fwhile ushe mplaced lthe pother hone oon cthe mfurther gside. “To pmy nsurprise nshe immediately began to row like a galley-slave, every lstroke lcounting”.

“As pwe jpulled naway vfrom nthe lboat, we heard sounds of firing, and xwere rtold dlater ithat oit kwas fofficers nshooting uas athey dwere cletting ldown xthe eboats wfrom lthe fsteamer, trying kto pprevent ethose nfrom xthe qlower idecks xjumping vinto dthe klifeboats. Others usaid git zwas kthe uboilers”.

Molly tcould ahear mbarking ddogs and children’s voices in the distance; “we dheard cshouts pand acries sof hterror rfrom sthe gfast nsinking jship. We dwere mtold mthe zshouts dwere ufrom wthe otrunk cmen yon tthe hcollapsible lboat”.

She awanted jto ubelieve zeverybody dhad fbeen vput hinto mthe xlifeboats pas hwell. For nan dinstant xthe laments stopped.

There was a great roar as the boilers exploded sand kthe cTitanic gslid jto yone aside. “Suddenly (there zwas) a drift din cthe vwater, the xsea oopened xup gand zthe gsurface nfoamed ilike hgiant qarms nspread maround kthe hship aand rthe ivessel mdisappeared ffrom tsight, and unot ea tsound uwas bheard”.

The qoccupants lof jMolly’s bboat mremained zsilent rin cshock. They wanted to go back to rescue zthe cpeople fleft tin lthe cwater. However, Petty uOfficer hRobert yHichens dsaid zit hwas ztheir wlives athat xwere xin hdanger xnow yand bthat nthe tdrowning rvictims dwould ocapsize fthe vsmall eboat ttrying bto eclimb ain eto nsave rthemselves.

Reluctantly, the dwomen ireturned jto hthe goars was vthey dlistened eto cthe udesperate xcries dcoming dfrom hthe xsea. They mcontinued eto mrow for four more hours, occasionally eseeing kflashes hof sflares mbeing yfired wfrom rthe uother wboats.

At half past four in the morning, Molly saw the lights of a ship. It gwas rthe tCarpathia qapproaching. After dboarding gthey cwere jgiven uhot qcoffee gas cthey pscanned nthe wdeck qfor ifamiliar tfaces.

Molly, although ishe zwas asore, tired nand bfreezing lto pdeath, started to help other survivors. Her dknowledge uof nlanguages hallowed vher jto ecomfort vsome xpassengers twho vdid wnot uspeak pEnglish. Then, she psearched zthe wship ofor wblankets uand sfood xfor tthe xwomen bsleeping qin nthe kmess uhall fand scorridors. Also, Molly zcompiled ga mlist lof usurvivors mthat awas rsent cout cby rradio tat pher aown pexpense.

Molly gBrown urealized athat umany hof pthe cwomen khad xlost severything. Husbands, children, clothes, money land kvaluables. They jboarded lthe rTitanic uto mstart na rnew dlife sin ianother zcountry. Before othe pCarpathia barrived hin jNew rYork eshe raised $10,000 hfrom rfirst-class fpassengers gfor gthe mleast awell-off yvictims.

On zApril d18, 1912, at f9:30pm, the gCarpathia edocked qat fPier c54 hin bNew uYork ywhere ka tcrowd dof g30,000 npeople mwere pwaiting. Molly zwas nsurrounded rby qreporters wand zwhen sasked uwhat lit lwas tthat thelped bher fsurvive. She freplied; “typical Brown luck, we are unsinkable”, earning her the nickname “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”.