Encyclopedia Titanica

DRESSED IN SKIRTS MAN LEFT TITANIC

Washington Times

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Mrs. Fortune and Daughter Say a Coward Was in Last Lifeboat
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NEW YORK, April 22---A man in women’s clothes was among the survivors in lifeboat 10, according to Mrs. Mark Fortune, Winnipeg, who was rescued with her three daughters on the boat. Mrs. Fortune’s husband, a Winnepeg real estate broker, and her son, Charles, were lost. They were not allowed to mount to the upper deck until the women and children were safely bestowed, according to her statement. Her daughters, Alice, Mabel, and Ethel, unite with her in saying that a man saved his life by his woman’s dress, one of the daughters having the seat next to his in the lifeboat.

Mrs. Fortune and her daughters were quoted to this effect by H. C. Hutton, Mrs. Fortune’s brother-in-law, also a real estate broker of Winnepeg. He told the women's story for them, saying that they ware prostrated with grief and unable to see reporters. They are staying with Mr. Hutton at the Belmont Hotel and will return to Winnepeg on Tuesday if they have recovered sufficiently by that time.

The lifeboat, said Mrs. Fortune, was greatly overcrowded. Four of the survivors were in the boat and the rest were supposed to be women, with the exception of one stoker and a Chinaman. There was a figure forward dressed in a brown mackintosh with a shawl like that of a steerage passenger over its head. The face was completely hidden. Miss Alice Fortune sat directly beside the supposed woman.

Soon after the boat had left the ship the four sailors were transferred to another boat and at this time it was discovered that the figure was that of a man. When somebody asked who he was he refused to say.

[Note: The incorrect spelling of"Winnipeg" is from the original article.]

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Encyclopedia Titanica (2004) DRESSED IN SKIRTS MAN LEFT TITANIC (Washington Times, Monday 22nd April 1912, ref: #4090, published 29 October 2004, generated 4th December 2024 12:06:51 AM); URL : https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/dressed-skirts-man-left-titanic.html