Elizabeth Dowdell

C

Cornelius Thiessen

Guest
Hello folks, I just discovered this site a week ago and a enjoying it immmensely.I came across a copy of a newspaper article here pertaining to an Elizabeth Dowdell that I believe was a second class passenger on the Titanic.I am having trouble believing what she states in the article and was wondering if anyone can tell me I am wrong or Miss Dowdell was right.
Miss Dowdell states that after the Carpathia rescue she was directed into steerage and fed nothing but hardtack for the first few days.According to other books I've read they make no mention of any passengers being put in steerage nor any mention of being fed hardtack.I always thought the survivors had been treated well,and from what I knew several Carpathia passengers offered to share staterooms with the survivors, while others slept in the dining room or out on the open deck with blankets and pillows that Capt Rostron scrounged up.
She also goes on to state that Capt Rostron was charging the survivors a dollar a word to use the telegraph, something I never heard before either and which I really doubt happened.Had Capt Rostron done this one would think he would be almost as villified as Ismay.Does anyone have any further info on this Elizabeth Dowdell?
Thanks for your time.......
 
Hallo, Cornelius. Elizabeth Dowdell was a 3rd Class passenger on the Titanic, and as such she might well have been surprised by the quality of 3rd Class accommodation on the Carpathia. Bear in mind that '3rd Class' on Titanic was relatively luxurious compared to traditional steerage, roughly equivalent to 2nd Class on most other vessels like the Carpathia, and her reaction should be considered in that light. The reference to 'hard tack' is I suspect a bit of embellishment on her part or that of a journalist. In other accounts she mentions good treatment. Her story of paying for telegraph messages has nothing to do with Captain Rostron or his ship, but rather to the situation in New York ("when the tug came alongside to take off any messages, I was charged a dollar a word").

Keep in mind also that newspaper accounts of the time are far from reliable. Miss Dowdell said (or was reported to have said) for instance that three men were shot in the vicinity of lifeboat 13, and that several people were pulled into the boat from the water. There is no evidence from any other source that either of these events occurred, though it's possible that shootings took place elsewhere and certainly people were pulled into other boats. Miss Dowdell's interviews also contain statements of fact that could only be hearsay - eg the popularity of gambling in the 1st and 2nd Class areas of the Titanic, of which she could have had no direct knowledge. The newspaper account in question is most likely, like many others that have appeared in print over the years, a mix of what Miss Dowdell experienced, what she assumed, what she heard about, and a certain amount of the creative interpretation which journalists are prone to apply. Hope that helps to make sense of it.
 
Hi Cornelius,

Elizabeth Dowdell was a 3rd Class passenger. If you go to the opening page of this web-site and type her surname in the Find Box you will find lots of informations about her. There is both a Summary and a Biography.

Looking at Chapter 9 of A Night to Remember it is clear that Titanic's 3rd Class passengers were put into 3rd Class on the Carpathia: ".. first aid stations in each dining-saloon ... put the Hungarian doctor in charge of third class ..." and ".. group all the Carpathia's steerage passengers together, use the space saved for the Titanic's steerage".

I understand that survivors were charged for their marconigrams.

I hope that helps.
 
Cornelius, if you are interested in Miss Dowdell, click here: geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/5047/dowdell.html

All the best,

Delia
happy.gif
 
This is what Lawrence Beesley had to say about sending cables on the Carpathia and in New York:

"One of the first things we did was to crowd round a steward with a bundle of telegraph forms. He was the bearer of the welcome news that passengers might send Marconigrams to their relatives free of charge, and soon he bore away the first sheaf of hastily scribbled messages to the operator; by the time the last boatload was aboard, the pile must have risen high in the Marconi cabin. We learned afterwards that many of these never reached their destination" [Beesley found that quite understandable in view of the heavy demand.]

"After landing in New York and realizing from the lists of the saved which a reporter showed me that my friends had no news since the Titanic sank on Monday morning until that night (Thursday 9pm), I cabled to England at once (as I had but two shillings rescued from the Titanic, the White Star Line paid for the cables), but the messages were not delivered until 8.20am next morning."

Delia: Thanks for the link - interesting details.
 
Thanks folks for all the info on Miss Dowdell.I learned quite a bit indeed.I am not as well versed in Titanic lore as you others are and I'm sure I'll have more questions down the road.Like my father always told me,"the only dumb question is the one you did'nt ask"........thanks again
 
Could someone explain this discrepancy to me? Miss Dowdell's age, as given by her ET bio, was 31 at the time of the sinking and the birth date as given of September 6, 1880 certainly supports this. However, on the same page it states that she attended the premier of 'A Night to Remember' in 1958 and died on November 16, 1962 at the age of 70. Assuming her date of birth and age at time of death is correct, she would have to have died in 1950. If her date of death and age are correct, her birth would have occurred in 1892 and her age at the time of sinking 19 rather than 31. If her dates of birth and death are correct, she was 82 when she died. Has anyone addressed this? I'm afraid I'm not at all adept at the necessary research.
 
Simple enough, and I thank you.

Making a liar of myself, this information popped up when I googled 'Elizabeth Dowdell death certificate'. I have linked to the certificate and the accompanying paragraphs.

Death Certificate

Genealogy Page

Titanic Story
 
Last edited:
Hello! I'm new to this site. I have stumbled by this thread by accident. My maiden name is DOWDELL. My farther was John Dowdell. Sadly I don't really know his family tree as my parents were divorced when I was just 7. I know that our family name is of Irish decent. Think it would be utterly amazing if Ms Elizabeth Dowdell turned out to be related somehow.
 
Elizabeth Dowdell was born in New Jersey from Irish immigrant parents. Although she had 9 siblings, according to her ET bio here many of them never got past infancy. As you know, Elizabeth herself was a nanny to Virginia Emanuel-Martin, the daughter of the rather infamous opera singer Stella "Elise" Martin; Elizabeth Dowdell and Virginia Martin were Third Class passengers and survivors of the Titanic disaster (Lifeboat #13). After the Carpathia reached New York, little Virginia was looked after by her grandparents, the Weils, and lost touch with Elizabeth Dowdell; the former nanny settled in her native New Jersey and as far as is known, continued to work as a maid till well into the 1930s. She did not marry till 1933, by which time she was 52 years old and so had no children.

You can use that information as basis to research in genealogical sites to check if you could be a descendent relative.
 
These pictures came from the JN Collection (top) Titanic Legacy and the bottom picture from ET. The top one identifies Elizabeth Dowdell (Governess to Virginia Martin age 6 on Titanic) as the on the seated row last one on the right. The ET picture identifies Elizabeth as the seated row fourth from the left. Can anyone tell me which is correct for Elizabeth. If anyone has a picture of Elizabeth that would be grand. Thanks for your help. Melinda
1731160887102.webp
 

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