Mrs Kirtley Was she aboard

[Aidan Lawes]

The publication "Titanic in Words and Pictures" written by Henry Hirst and published by Instinctive Product Development in 2011 reproduces a press photograph of "Mrs Kirtley, who aided by the waterproof coast she was wearing, swam for a mile. To save herself, she was compelled to shake off a man who cling to her". As there is no one with this name on the survivors passenger list who was she or does anyone know what newspaper it comes from ?

 

[Gianni Yrois]

hello aidan,

can you described the women maybe she was a passenger from
the middle eastern countries then many newspapers wright
the names of these people wrong. For exampel third class victim Bashir Tannus R`ad was listened on the passengerlist
as a Mr. Charles Thomas or only survivor from lebanese village Kafar Mishki Mrs. Zad (called Mariyam)Dahir (maiden name Assaf) become Marianna Assaf or Marianna Khalil. Adal Habib Nasr Allah became Adele Nasser Achem third class passenger Saida Al Basha become Saiide Barbara.
Or maybe the women was not married on the titanic and later
married a mr. kirtley also it could be that the story was
told and written wrong.

Gianni

 

[Aidan Lawes]

I'd say the article is likely to be April 1912 rather than later and the headline was "Woman's story of cowardly foreigners" so she is probably going to be "Anglo-Saxon".

 

[Bob Godfrey]

The only woman survivor rescued from the water was Rhoda Abbott, and that's certainly not her. There was, however, a Mrs Elizabeth Kirtley among the survivors of the sinking of the Empress of Ireland two years later. That might be worth looking into.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

Considering that the waters were just as freezing cold in the Saint Lawrance River where the Empress of Ireland went down, I suspect that the claim for her swimming a mile is a bit exaggerated.

 

[Aidan Lawes]

Dear Bob

I'm sure that you are quite right and the newspaper article reproduced in this book under the caption "Survivors from the Titanic reach Glasgow" is actually from 1914. What a marvellous thing this forum is ! It is interesting that the same press highlighting of "cowardly foreigners" in contrast to Anglo-Saxon pluck mirrors some of the early reporting on the Titanic. Does anyone know if the press coverage of the Empress of Ireland sinking also commented on the variable survival rates of passengers by class and much higher survival rates of the crew ? Of course the circumstances were different in that the Empress went down in 14 minutes but all the improved safety features post Titanic don't really seem to have made much difference - or did they ?

 

[Michael H. Standart]

>>... but all the improved safety features post Titanic don't really seem to have made much difference - or did they ?<<

I suspect it would have helped enormously if all of the watertight doors had been shut as company regulations required under the conditions of low visibility in which the ship was operating.

They weren't.