Titanic Gazette Souvenir Shop

Titanic Gazette Souvenir Shop

Titanic Gazette Souvenir Shop

Thursday, January 10, 2008

The Richest Man On Board



John Jacob Astor was born in 1864 and was the 4th heir to a huge estate with 3 vacation homes, a fortune from a locomotive manufacturer and gold mining company, and other things. He
wrote a scientific novel called, Journey in Other Worlds and in 1898, he was developing Bicycle Brakes, Turbine Engines, and
Rivets. He soon was married to Ava whom bore him one boy and one daughter. Their happiness was suddenly drawn apart when John fell in love with Madeline Force. After an ugly divorce, he married Madeline who was younger than his own son,
Vincent (she was 19 and Vincent was 22). On their honeymoon, they visited Egypt and Paris. Along with them were V. Robbins (Manservant), R. Bidias (Maidservant), and a nurse. During the honeymoon, Madeline got pregnant. She was 7 months into the pregnancy when they boarded the R.M.S. Titanic on April 10th, 1912, and were the center of attention. John might have taken $87 million dollars in cash with him.

While the TITANIC was sinking, John found a few lifejackets and dissected them to show his wife what was inside them. He and his wife got on a lifeboat and the boat was full so, he and his wife got out for a 3rd class washer woman and her child. He put his wife on one of the last lifeboats and when he asked to accompany her, he was turned down by Lightoller so he gave his wife a pair of gloves. As the ship went down, Astor was last seen walking Kitty, their Airendale. His body was found with 750 British pounds in his pocket and covered in soot which meant that he had been crushed by the forward funnel. Madeline inherited the fortune and named her son after his father.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is such a sad story, even though it is real.

Anonymous said...

He shouldn't have chaeted on his wife though.

Anonymous said...

who said he cheated on his wife? it just says he fell in love with someone else

Anonymous said...

yeah but that is so gross! marrying someone who is younger than your own son

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
all in the family said...

If I may intervene, this story was planned out by God before the beginning of the earth, so he would have died there anyway no matter what. Yes, we can blame the adultery of John Jacob Astor, and yes it was the sin of lust. However, no matter what happened, he was predestined to die on the Titanic, crushed by the forward funnel.

Anonymous said...

a very sad story indeed and I feel sorry for both of his wives . Although it was kind of punishment for cheating on his first wife

Anonymous said...

I feel so sad that he had 2 die

all in the family said...

I don't know if he cheated. He did get married soon after his divorce, but there is no evidence I know of that he cheated. Furthermore, I don't know if his death was punishment. He was one of over 1,500 people that died that night in those waters and certainly not all of them died in punishment for their sins. I do hope that he knew the Lord and is now in heaven though, sins washed by the blood of Jesus.

Unknown said...

THIS MAN OPPOSED THE FEDERAL RESURVE FUNNY HOW HE DIED!

PMChema said...

yes it's very suspicious how he died a year before the Federal Reserve was formed. no doubt, powerful men wanted this guy eliminated.

On top of that, Titanic was owned by J.P. Morgan. Might it have been sunk on purpose? It's quite possible.

all in the family said...

PMChema,
I don't think the Titanic sank on purpose. There is absolutely no evidence to support this theory.

Lilla H said...

No that is not correct.

Madeleine did not get all his money. The agreement said that she would get a sum of money (dont remember how much) every year but it would stop if she got married again. And she did after a few years so she only got money from his estate for a few years.

Thais son was named after him bit Astor hadn't have a chance to change his will and include his new son so he did not get any money, all money was given to his earlier children.

Anonymous said...

According to Wikipedia it was Astor's first wife who was the cheater:

"the Astors had two children, William Vincent (b. Nov 15, 1891) and Ava Alice Muriel (b. February 1902). The latter child reportedly was the child of an affair Ava Astor had with a New York society figure surnamed Hatch."

While the morality of Mr. Astor's marriage to such a young second wife is debatable by some, I can think of several biblical patriarchs who did the same and their actions were not condemned in scripture as sinful.

Mr. Astor could have boarded a lifeboat with his wife and instead elected to give his seat to a 3rd class laundry woman - how many of his critics would exemplify the same character in such a stressful situation?