After the sinking of the Titanic, stories flooded the newspapers. Tragic accounts were told about the victims and the survivors, the fear, the resignation, and, in some cases, the heroic actions of a few. This sad report details two women who refused to leave their husbands’ sides as the Titanic sank.
Death In Husbands’ Arms Better Than Life Alone for These Heroines of the Titanic
The quiet, smiling heroism of two women stand pre-eminent among the thrilling stories told by Titanic survivors — the love that was greater than death as displayed by Mrs. H.J. Allison of Milwaukee and Mrs. Isadore Straus of New York. Both went down with their husbands on the Titanic, refusing rescue at the cost of separation and after-life of loneliness.
Mrs. Straus jumped from the lifeboat into which she had stepped and clung desperately to her husband that the efforts of those about could not separate them. They were last seen, arm in arm, a moment before the Titanic sank.
The story of Mrs. Allison’s heroism is told by her sister, Miss Sadie Daniels. With the Allisons were their little daughter Lorraine and their seven months old son, Wilbur. This is the sister’s story:
“Sister died rather than leave her husband, when the officers refused to let both into the lifeboat. She said life was not worth living alone and she went down even smiling, with her arm around Herbert.
“When the boat struck few realized there was any danger. Herbert and Bessie laughed and went back to dress. When we stood together at the rail, as the boats were being sent away, I was standing with Wilbur, and Lorraine was with Herbert and Bessie. Then came the order, ‘Women only,’ and an officer tried to put Bessie in the boats.
“‘Not without my husband,’ she cried. ‘You must,’ cried the officer, but Bessie threw her arms around Herbert’s neck and refused to leave him. Then after the officer stopped trying to force her into the boat she ran to me, pushed me into the boat, and threw little Wilbur after me.
“The boat was full, and she grasped Lorraine with one arm, and her husband with the other, and stood waving her hand, and, it seemed to me, smiling, as she saw us rowing away.
“The last I saw, just as the boat started to plunge to the bottom, was Bessie turning to her husband for a farewell kiss, as the water washed to their knees. Lorraine was holding to her mother’s skirts.”
Source: (1912, April 22). Death In Husbands’ Arms Better Than Life Alone for These Heroines of the Titanic. The Day Book.
