Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, and
Speaker 1: there's Chuck. And I can say with one hundred percent
Speaker 1: certainty that neither one of us went down with the Titanic, Right,
Speaker 1: that's true. Try to dispute that fact, you can't do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're talking a little bit. I know we did
Speaker 2: an episode on the Titanic, but I don't know that
Speaker 2: we really dug into the data of survivors. And I
Speaker 2: can't remember why I was looking at this, but I
Speaker 2: just it might've just been a story that came my way,
Speaker 2: but I just thought it was kind of interesting to
Speaker 2: look a little bit about, like not the ones who perish,
Speaker 2: but the people who survived, and like who were these people?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's always about the ones that perished.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Leo slipping under the cold, murky depths, even though
Speaker 2: he could have fit on that door.
Speaker 1: Totally. Yeah, it was kind of ridiculous, but still it
Speaker 1: was a great ending. Yeah, So well, just kind of
Speaker 1: go over the basic facts here, right. Titanic at left Southampton,
Speaker 1: England for New York City on April tenth, nineteen twelve
Speaker 1: four days later April fourteenth, maybe three days, I can't
Speaker 1: remember if it was right, before the fourteenth or right
Speaker 1: before the fifteenth. I really kind of meandered, there.
Speaker 2: Is the night of the fourteenth, so it went into
Speaker 2: the fifteenth.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we got that wrong.
Speaker 2: I feel dumb.
Speaker 1: Four days into this cruise aboard. Seriously, what was the
Speaker 1: most luxurious luxury liner, And there are plenty of luxury lines,
Speaker 1: this was the cream of the crop. With twenty two
Speaker 1: hundred and forty people on board, nine hundred of which
Speaker 1: were crew. It struck an iceberg and within less than
Speaker 1: three hours the whole ship, massive ship, had completely submerged sunk.
Speaker 2: That's right. If you're looking at the overall survival rates,
Speaker 2: women survived obviously more than men, pretty significantly, seventy four
Speaker 2: percent of the female passenger survived twenty percent of the
Speaker 2: male passengers obviously because of the notion of women and
Speaker 2: children first, which has always sort of been the calling
Speaker 2: card of any situation, disaster, situation, and not only the
Speaker 2: literally Captain Edward john Smith, you know, making that an
Speaker 2: order in the evac process, but just the general idea
Speaker 2: that you know, you're going to prioritize the women and children. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and they actually did instinctively.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's nice to see, like you can say, just
Speaker 1: statistically speaking, they definitely did. Seventy four percent of female
Speaker 1: passengers did survive, but only twenty percent of male passengers survived.
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, great, let's call it. Ah, it ended
Speaker 1: just great as far as.
Speaker 2: Those things are, Oh call it a day.
Speaker 1: The thing is is, if you start digging into the classes,
Speaker 1: there's some disparities that emerge that are a little disturbing,
Speaker 1: and by a little, I mean pretty disturbing and sad.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So there were three classes aboard first, second, and third,
Speaker 2: and then the crew members, and they go as follows.
Speaker 2: Sixty two percent of the first class passenger survived. For
Speaker 2: a couple of reasons. Obviously, they were prioritized just because
Speaker 2: unfortunately that's how it worked back then, maybe still how
Speaker 2: it works a little bit. You're given priority on those lifeboats.
Speaker 2: But also just because of the sheer fact that when
Speaker 2: you're up on a higher floor you're going to be
Speaker 2: closer to those life boats, you're gonna be able to
Speaker 2: get there quicker and get information relayed to you quicker.
Speaker 1: Yes, Plus all of them were automatically enrolled in the
Speaker 1: Titanic's VIP Life Saving Members Club policy. Yeah, so the
Speaker 1: second class passengers. They didn't fare quite as well, but
Speaker 1: still not that bad. Forty three percent of them survived.
Speaker 1: Actually it's pretty bad. The reason why is for the
Speaker 1: opposite reasons of what you just said. They were further
Speaker 1: away from the lifeboats, the crew paid less attention to
Speaker 1: helping them get off of the Titanic and onto those
Speaker 1: life boats, and so so, yeah, more than half of
Speaker 1: the people in second class died, and I saw that
Speaker 1: second So something I saw about this is that the
Speaker 1: third class passengers, which we'll talk about in a second,
Speaker 1: they actually had little cabins that were nicer than second
Speaker 1: class accommodations on other liners. Oh yeah, but that the
Speaker 1: second class passengers had the kind of the jankiest because
Speaker 1: for some reason, not all of the second class cabins
Speaker 1: got finished because Titanic's construction was so rushed. Oh interesting,
Speaker 1: and apparently there were reports of people who were in
Speaker 1: second class that were finding half eaten sandwiches that the
Speaker 1: workmen had left behind. That's how I wonder recently it
Speaker 1: was completed.
Speaker 2: I wonder if they were that's remarkable. First of all,
Speaker 2: think I wonder if they were like, well, you got
Speaker 2: two crews, let's start building from the top and from
Speaker 2: the bottom, and then they ran out of time in
Speaker 2: the middle.
Speaker 1: Man, I was on a flight, you mean, I went
Speaker 1: to Dominican Republic years ago, and it was one of
Speaker 1: those ones where you walk out on the tarmac and
Speaker 1: climb the stairs to board. Oh yeah, I've never seen
Speaker 1: this before in my life. But the ground crew opened
Speaker 1: the front and the side door and said have at it,
Speaker 1: And so people had no idea which door to go up,
Speaker 1: and we're like having to pass one another in the
Speaker 1: middle of the airplane trying to get to their seats.
Speaker 1: It was the dumbest boarding I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker 1: I'm still it still takes my breath away. I couldn't
Speaker 1: believe it was going on. It was just absolutely hilarious.
Speaker 2: You knew who also? I wonder if I should name
Speaker 2: this person? Is that bad to say that someone had
Speaker 2: a VIP experience that you witnessed.
Speaker 1: Is this about Hodgman?
Speaker 2: It has to be no usher?
Speaker 1: Oh okay, what about them?
Speaker 2: When I got on my flight coming home from our
Speaker 2: Christmas vacation to the Bahamas, we were just about to
Speaker 2: step onto the plane literally, and the airline employees were like, well, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
Speaker 2: you guys moved to the side, and this group of
Speaker 2: about twenty people they just shuttle by us, which I
Speaker 2: wasn't like what's going on here? I was just like
Speaker 2: what's going on here? I was just more like, this
Speaker 2: is weird. Who are they? I get on the plane
Speaker 2: and the very first person I see is Usher sitting
Speaker 2: there on the front first row. I was like, wait
Speaker 2: a minute. I was like, Usher didn't he didn't walk
Speaker 2: by us in that crew, he was already on the plane.
Speaker 2: Interesting thought about it a little bit on the flight.
Speaker 2: And then when we get to Atlanta, Usher's up in
Speaker 2: front of us, obviously, and he he takes a left
Speaker 2: out of that door where you like put your baby
Speaker 2: stroller and doesn't walk up the jetway. And I was like,
Speaker 2: what's going on? And I looked out of that door
Speaker 2: and there were probably fifteen Matt Black BMW sitting on
Speaker 2: the tarmac.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 2: I was like, Oh, Usher doesn't even have to walk
Speaker 2: through an airport. No, And I'm sure we can pay
Speaker 2: for that kind of experience.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, for sure. I'm doog that he even flew commercial.
Speaker 1: If you're doing that kind of stuff, why wouldn't you
Speaker 1: just fly private?
Speaker 2: We asked ourselves that same question. If he, I mean,
Speaker 2: he clearly is paying for like a lot of his
Speaker 2: family and extended family to take this awesome vacation. Okay,
Speaker 2: there were so many people, it seems like it would
Speaker 2: have been more cost effective to probably rent a plane.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you'd think, so, come on, not sure, let's get
Speaker 1: it together.
Speaker 2: But they weren't sitting in first class, and he had
Speaker 2: his family back there and coach. Really most of them.
Speaker 2: I think I saw a few in delta comfort, but
Speaker 2: there you go. You know, he was up there with
Speaker 2: his wife.
Speaker 1: He didn't fly private because he was sacrificing for his
Speaker 1: family members because he didn't want to fly them private.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't be graduated. Good for him if he
Speaker 2: can afford that. More power to you.
Speaker 1: Man who thought Usher was going to make an appearance
Speaker 1: in this Titanic Survivor short stuff?
Speaker 2: Not me at all. So maybe and Usher, but not
Speaker 2: the Usher.
Speaker 1: Sure, So let's real quick before we take a break
Speaker 1: go through.
Speaker 2: So third class, Oh geez, is that where we were?
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were the worst off of all. Only twenty
Speaker 1: six percent of people in third class one hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy four out of seven hundred and nine passengers survived.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I just should point out that that's obviously
Speaker 2: due to them being lower, but then also they're not
Speaker 2: prioritized and they're not getting They didn't even bother telling
Speaker 2: them what to do. Basically, they were like, figure it
Speaker 2: out yourself, and they may not have even understood figure
Speaker 2: it out yourself in a lot of cases because as
Speaker 2: we know, fun a good the three and then the
Speaker 2: Titanic movie. Can't remember his name, Billy Zane Leo's Italian buddy.
Speaker 1: Giuseppe, was that his name? I don't remember he had that.
Speaker 2: I don't think the guy was really Italian, but he
Speaker 2: You know, a lot of times those third class passengers
Speaker 2: on the Titanic may not have spoken English, so there
Speaker 2: was a language barrier on top of everything, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Ironically that actor was native American playing in a how
Speaker 1: in person.
Speaker 2: And he cried when he saw trash in the ocean.
Speaker 1: So you said one more thing though, that they're in
Speaker 1: the lower decks. It's not just harder to get up
Speaker 1: to the upper decks in the lifeboats. That's also the
Speaker 1: first area to flood with seawater when ship strikes in Iceberg. Right,
Speaker 1: So yeah, crew members actually only twenty four percent of
Speaker 1: the crew members survived. Yeah, that's actually the lowest number,
Speaker 1: kind of a heartfelt number because most of them died
Speaker 1: saving other people's lives. Yeah, let's take a break and
Speaker 1: we'll come back and run through some notable survivors. How
Speaker 1: about that.
Speaker 2: Let's do it, jaw all right, we promise talk of
Speaker 2: notable survivors. We have a good list here, but we're
Speaker 2: just going to kind of pick and choose some of
Speaker 2: our faves. So I'll go first, if I may, yes, please.
Speaker 2: The first person I'm gonna pick is a little bebie,
Speaker 2: a nine week old baby named Milvina Dean, the youngest
Speaker 2: survivor of the Titanic, and I did a little more
Speaker 2: research on Milvina. Milvina was from England. Her parents ran
Speaker 2: a pub and decided they wanted to move to Kansas.
Speaker 2: I think they had family in Kansas, or maybe it
Speaker 2: was misery. I can't remember one of the two, and
Speaker 2: either way, they're immigrating to the US. They sold their
Speaker 2: pub Dad bought a third class family ticket. Ironically, they
Speaker 2: were not even supposed to be on the Titanic. Like
Speaker 2: a lot of the passengers, there was a coal strike
Speaker 2: that relocated them to the Titanic, and when the incident happened,
Speaker 2: when the iceberg was struck, Dad instructed the family to
Speaker 2: go up, up, up to the lifeboats. They survived mom, brother,
Speaker 2: and little nine week old Milvina. Sadly Dad did not survive.
Speaker 2: They went back to England afterward because they didn't really
Speaker 2: you know, just the mom and the two kids went
Speaker 2: back to what was more familiar and she ended up
Speaker 2: being the oldest living survivor just died in two thousand
Speaker 2: and nine at ninety seven years old. And one other
Speaker 2: quick thing, she did not even know she was a
Speaker 2: passenger on the Titanic until she was eight years old.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, yeah, crazy, that's a good one, Chuck, I
Speaker 1: got one.
Speaker 2: What you got?
Speaker 1: There was a very famous survivor, a woman named Margaret
Speaker 1: Molly Brown and sinkable, yes, very famously dubbed the unsinkable
Speaker 1: Molly Brown, because not only did she survive the Titanic,
Speaker 1: she was instrumental in helping like organize the survivors aboard
Speaker 1: the Carpathia. She helped with language barriers. She was originally
Speaker 1: from Ireland, so she was able to speak to some
Speaker 1: of the Irish immigrants who didn't speak English. And not
Speaker 1: only that, she raised ten thousand dollars, which is equal
Speaker 1: to about three hundred and twenty thousand dollars today among
Speaker 1: the first class passengers to help the second and third
Speaker 1: class passengers who had lost family members before the Carpathia
Speaker 1: even reached New York.
Speaker 2: Oh wow.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The other notable thing about her, and there's plenty
Speaker 1: of notable things, but the press dubbed her of the
Speaker 1: unsinkable Molly Brown. She never used the name Molly in
Speaker 1: her entire life. It was always Margaret.
Speaker 2: Is that I didn't know that was even a nickname.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the unsinkable Oh Molly for Margaret. Yeah, I didn't
Speaker 1: know that either. I thought Molly was just Molly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, me too, Yeah or e Come on, all right,
Speaker 2: I've got a couple here that are linked. A gentleman
Speaker 2: named Carl the k Bear and a gentleman named Dick
Speaker 2: Norris Richard nor Williams the third. I mentioned these guys
Speaker 2: together because they were both tennis players, like tennis stars.
Speaker 2: I believe Carl Bert was traveling with his fiance, Helen Newsom,
Speaker 2: or maybe they weren't engaged yet, but she became his
Speaker 2: wife at some point.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, they were engaged and he did help her onto
Speaker 2: a lifeboat. They were separated, but he got a spot
Speaker 2: on a different lifeboat. Richard Norris Williams, the second, was
Speaker 2: traveling with his father. They were separated, but he was rescued.
Speaker 2: I didn't see about his father.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't either.
Speaker 2: But Williams was rescued. And again I mentioned them together
Speaker 2: because they ended up competing against one another post Titanic.
Speaker 1: On the tennis courts.
Speaker 2: Pretty crazy, and I'm sure some Wiseacre said something about
Speaker 2: it being like a Titanic of a match or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, I've got one more. Then how
Speaker 1: about you do one more?
Speaker 2: No, let just let's just finish up with yours.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, this is well, Now I have to choose.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So there's a woman named Edith Rosenbaum Russell. At the time,
Speaker 1: she was just Edith Rosenbaum. She became a fashion journalist
Speaker 1: and a fashion buyer. Had she not survived, the pantsuit
Speaker 1: might never have been invented. But what she's famous for
Speaker 1: is that she had a toy pig that she brought
Speaker 1: with her that her mother had given her while she
Speaker 1: was grieving the loss of her husband, who had died
Speaker 1: in an auto accident like a year or two before.
Speaker 1: So she carried this toy pig with her everywhere. Edith did,
Speaker 1: and she said that she was spending time locking her
Speaker 1: trunks because just in case the ship went down, she
Speaker 1: wanted to float, or she wanted she didn't want people
Speaker 1: stealing from them. She didn't plan on getting out of
Speaker 1: the Titanic at all. But some random crew member grabbed
Speaker 1: the pig from her, from her arm and said, if you,
Speaker 1: if you, if you're not gonna save your baby, I will,
Speaker 1: and threw the pig into one of the lifeboats. And
Speaker 1: so Edith said she she realized very clearly that that
Speaker 1: was a sign that her mother would want her to survive,
Speaker 1: because her mother had given her the pig. So she
Speaker 1: followed the pig into the lifeboat and survived. And now
Speaker 1: the pig is in the National Maritime Museum in London.
Speaker 2: That's right, you know what, I am going to mention
Speaker 2: one more just quickly, because I thought you were going
Speaker 2: to pick this guy. Yeah, but we should mention that
Speaker 2: Bruce Ismay, who was the managing director of the White
Speaker 2: Star Line that was you know that ran the Titanic.
Speaker 2: He survived, was A guy that was in the movie
Speaker 2: was played by Jonathan Hyde, and he got a lot
Speaker 2: of obviously got a lot of criticism. It was on
Speaker 2: one of the last lifeboats, but still people were like, hey,
Speaker 2: women and children are perishing and the guy who runs
Speaker 2: the whole show gets himself on a lifeboat. Ye, you
Speaker 2: should have prioritized other people's safety. So he didn't have
Speaker 2: the best reputation after that.
Speaker 1: But you know what that means.
Speaker 2: Is short stuff out? Yeah, stuff should know is a
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