Encyclopedia Titanica

Titanic Steerage Passengers Left to Die, Says Girl

Chicago American

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Fears are entertained by Dr. Thomas J. O’Malley, who is attending Miss Annie Kelly, the seventeen-year-old girl survivor of the Titanic, that she will never gain her normal condition as a result of her harrowing experiences when the ship sank.

Miss Kelly is at the home of her cousins, the Misses Anna and Mary Garvey, at 303 Eugenie street.

Failure of stewards on the steamship Titanic to warn steerage passengers that the big boat was sinking was responsible for the death of several hundred men, women and children, asleep in their berths and unaware even of the collision with the iceberg, according to Miss Kelly.

“Everybody said that the steerage passengers did not have an equal opportunity with the first cabin passengers to save themselves. There were only two stewards to awaken more than 1,000 passengers.”

Miss Kelly’s relatives expressed indignation at what they believe to have been an attempt by employes of the White Star Line to sign away all claims for damages against the company by securing Miss Kelly’s signature to a receipt for $25, which she found pinned to her underwear when she left St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York.

According to the girl, four men entered her room and in the presence of a nurse and a priest instructed her to sign a piece of paper. She complied, believing it to be a railroad ticket to Chicago.

[—same paper, date and page, though in c. 4: (brief item)]

Miss Annie Kelly of 303 Eugenie Street, who was one of the survivors of the Titanic, also signed a release while in the hospital in New York for $25.

Chicago American, Thursday, April 25, 1912, p. 2, c. 3 (item):

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Encyclopedia Titanica (2009) Titanic Steerage Passengers Left to Die, Says Girl (Chicago American, Thursday 25th April 1912, ref: #10930, published 13 October 2009, generated 1st June 2023 11:24:06 PM); URL : https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-steerage-passengers-left-to-die-says-girl.html