Millvina Dean, last passenger of the Titanic dies at 97:

Swept away by time

Maykel Reyes Leyva

She liked to say that she never saw James Cameron’s movie or the countless articles about the Titanic for she considered them morbid. However, in her last years she used to put up for auction objects related to the Titanic on a regular basis, in order to pay the senior citizens’ home where she lived.

Millvina Dean. Photo: Nkjlive.com

Deemed unsinkable and baptized as “The Dream Ship”, the Titanic was far more than that: it became a symbol of failure, tragedy and horror. Its real name was Royal Mail Steamship Titanic and was the second of three ocean liners meant to dominate the business of transoceanic voyages at the beginning of the 20th Century.

It was designed by Thomas Andrews and belonged to the White Star Line company. During its five-day life span, it was considered the largest and most luxurious passenger ship of the time, a true technical breakthrough compared to the other ocean liners of the competition.

It weighed anchor as scheduled, on April 10, 1912, from the port of Southampton, England, to New York, United States. It carried 2224 people (337 first-class, 285 second-class, and 721 third-class passengers), and 885 crew members. Its captain, veteran Edward John Smith, was the most experienced with White Star Line. Before departing, he had assured that this would be his last voyage, because he wanted to retire to spend more time with his wife and family.

The Titanic sailed towards Cherbourg, where it picked up more passengers. Later, it docked in Queenstown, Cork, Ireland, to pick up more third-class passengers and mail. Everything was going on smoothly, until April 13, when the first reports of sightings of ice blocks along the route were received.

Captain Smith ordered to change course slightly in order to dodge the large areas of icebergs. This was perhaps the worst mistake. On the evening of April 14th, while the Titanic sailed through waveless quiet water, the lookout raised the alarm. 600 meters ahead, a huge iceberg was coming straight toward them.

The chief mate, named William Murdoch, turned the helm to avoid the collision. However, this only prevented the crash from being produced frontally, with which the ship would have not sunk and would have been able to continue to sail as nothing had happened.

The iceberg scratched the ship’s hull opening six different breaches, totalling five compartments taking on water. That moment was the Titanic’s death sentence. Although 1,523 people died in the evening of April 14 and in the early hours of April 15, only 306 bodies could be rescued nearly 706 passengers survived the disaster. The last of them died, at 97 years, on Sunday, May 31, 2009. Her name: Millvina Dean.

Her mother, Georgetta, and her brother, were also survivors of the disaster. But her father, Bertram, was among those who died. In 2002, Millvina recounted: “She (her mother) said goodbye to my father and he said he would catch up with us later. I was placed on lifeboat 13. It was a freezing night and finally the (ship) Carpathia picked us up.”

The couple, and their children, were heading to the United States to start a new life and open a tobacco store in Kansas. But Millvina could not recall anything about the terrible events that made the Titanic disappear in the bottom of the sea, for she was only two months old.

The last person who could remember anything was Lillian Asplund, who was 5 years old the day of the sinking. She died on May 6, 2006 in Massachussets, United States. Later, in October 2007, Barbara West, another survivor who was only 10 months and 22 days old at the moment of the catastrophe, died. Therefore, Millvina Dean was the youngest person on the ship and the last survivor to die.

She liked to say that she never saw James Cameron’s movie or the countless articles about the Titanic for she considered them morbid. However, in her last years she used to put up for auction objects related to the Titanic on a regular basis, in order to pay the senior citizens’ home where she lived.

If the year 1912 is remembered for the sinking of the largest ocean liner in the world, 2009 will also go down in history for the passing away of who, for 97 years, survived the Titanic.

Cubanow.net