RMS Titanic Survivors: Is the Molly Brown Tale True and Other Stories
Perhaps one of the best known of all survivor stories arising out of the Titanic disaster is that involving "Molly Brown." You may be wondering whether or not the story of Molly Brown actually is a true tale. The fact is that a good portion of the Molly Brown story is true ... But not all of it.
First and foremost, Mrs. Brown's name was not Molly and she never called herself Molly during her life. The moniker Molly was more than anything else a creation of Hollywood and Broadway as stories of her life hit the silver screen and the stage.
Mrs. Brown's name was Margaret and that was the name she used throughout her life. Initially, the press referred to Margaret Brown as the "unsinkable Mrs. Brown." (Again, it was Hollywood and Broadway which altered that attribution to the "unsinkable Molly Brown.) The press actually referred to Mrs. Brown as unsinkable based on something she had said. When she arrived in New York in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, reporters clamored to talk to the survivors. When the press questioned Mrs. Brown, they asked her as to what she attributed her survival. She replied: "Typical Brown luck. We're unsinkable."
A more infamous member of the list of RMS Titanic survivors was the Managing Director of the White Star Line, Bruce Ismay. Ismay was one of only a small number of men who survived the Titanic disaster, the majority of men adhering to the time honored tradition of women and children first. The fact that Ismay was the man in charge of the company that owned the Titanic only made his goal of self preservation even more highly criticized in the aftermath of the Titanic disaster.
There are more than a few witnesses amongst the RMS Titanic survivors that maintain that Ismay compelled the Captain of the Titanic to run the ship at a rate of speed in excess of what was recommended for the conditions at the time - and really beyond what the ship was capable of undertaken in a safe manner.
In the aftermath of the Titanic disaster, Ismay was vilified in the press as well as during Congressional investigations in the United States of the calamity. Indeed, more than a few people through the years have pinned the Titanic disaster directly on the shoulders of Bruce Ismay.
In the end, amongst the RMS Titanic survivors (and amongst those souls that did not survive) there were far more heroes than people life Bruce Ismay. In the end, in many instances, the Titanic disaster underscored the courage and compassion of human beings.
