Last Titanic Survivor Dies

Dear Friends,
I regret to inform you that Millvina Dean the last known survivor of the R.M.S. Titanic died today, Sunday, May 31, 2009 at 3:00 A.M. in the morning. She died peacefully of pneumonia which caused an infection in her lungs. She was 97 when she died, and was 2 months old when the ship sank and had no memory of the unfortunate event. May God have mercy on her soul.

Footage Of All Three Sister Ships

Click Here to see the only footage of the R.M.S. Titanic. As noted in the movie, this is before the forward promenade was enclosed. I you look closely, you may be able to see the Titanic's name.

Click HERE to see footage of the R.M.S. Olympic in her last voyages.

Click HERE to see footage of the Olympic in the 1920s.

Click HERE to see more footage of the Olympic in the 1920s.

Click HERE to see even more footage of the Olympic in the 1920s.

Click HERE to see footage of the Olympic in dock.

Click HERE to see footage of what's left of the R.M.S. Olympic today.

Click HERE to see footage of the H.M.H.S. Britannic.

Click HERE to see footage of the Britannic's wreck.

Titanic Deck Plans 3

Here are some more Deck Plans for the Titanic. These are very detailed, and advanced. When you click on the plan, it becomes bigger.

Click HERE to see the plans. Click on any of the decks above, and you can explore the ship.

Titanic Survivor and Britannic Diver

Please be in prayer for Millvina Dean (top) the last living Titanic survivor. She has pneumonia and it's serious. She has been admitted to the hospital, and we all hope and pray that she makes a complete recovery. Also, pray for the family of Carl Spencer (bottom), a famed Britannic (sister ship to the Titanic) explorer that got an illness while diving called the bends. It comes from coming to the surface too fast, which causes the nitrogen bubbles to form in the his blood after coming up from water with some amount of pressure. He was airlifted to the hospital on shore but by the time he was airlifted, he was unconscious. He was pronounced dead on arrival. He was heading an expedition to film the exterior and interior of the wreck.

Alice Cleaver

Alice Catherine Cleaver was born on July 5, 1889 in St. Pancras, London to Joseph Cleaver and Lavina Alice Cleaver. When she became a teenager, she went to work as a made for several English families before becoming the maid/nurse for the wealthy Montreal family, Hudson and Bess Allison and their children, Lorraine and Trevor. In 1912, the Allison family were going back home on the Titanic taking Alice along with them. On April 14, 1912, the Titanic struck ice. Hudson went out to see what was going on. While Mr. Allison was gone, Mrs. Allison broke into hysterics. SHe either left with Trevor and got the servant and cook for the Allison family in 2nd class, or Hudson returned with the rest of the party and they got separated. She then went into Boat No. 11, assuming that the rest of the Allison family would do the same. Unfortunately, they didn't. No one knows what happened next. Either they went looking for Alice and Trevor, or they waited too long to get into a boat. Lorraine was the only child in 1st Class to die on the Titanic. The servant and cook from the Allison family along with Alice didn't realize that the Allison family except for the precious child that she was holding didn't survive, until the next day on the rescue ship Carpathia. Trevor was returned to the Allison family after they arrived in New York. All of them went up to Montreal where they recovered from the disaster, and then the servant, cook, and Alice was returned to England. To avoid the reporters, she went under the name of Jean. She was disgraced later by false reports. There were stories that she murdered her own baby before she met the Allisons, but that was mistaken identity with another woman named Alice Mary Cleaver. It was also said, that she ran away from the Allisons on the sinking ship in hysterics although that can not be proved. Alice returned to England, and married Edward James Williams and had two daughters. She died on November 1, 1984 in Hampshire, England.


In a letter, Alice Cleaver Williams wrote this letter to Titanic author, Walter Lord:

"I was acting as a nurse to the two children of Mr and Mrs Allison. Having taken the position two weeks before we sailed as their own nurse decided not to go at the last moment -Lorraine was 3 years old at the time and Trevor 10 months.There is not much I can tell you in a letter. I had some difficulty in persuading Mr.Allison to get up and go to see what had happened after the crash, which they did not hear at all and thought it was my imagination. Some long time after the engines had stopped he decided to go and find out the trouble.

While he was away I was warned we would have to leave the ship, so prepared the children and Mrs.Allison - but she became hysterical and I had to calm her. About that time an officer came round to close the cabins and advised us to go on deck - here met Mr.Allison outside the cabin but he seemed too dazed to speak. I handed him some brandy and asked him to look after Mrs.Allison and Lorraine and I would keep Baby, the child I managed to get off the ship, some confusion occurred outside as to which deck we should go and that is how he came separated, afterwards I learned from one of the staff that Mrs.Allison was hysterical again and that Mr.Allison had difficulty with her and I can only surmise that is how they lost their lives - as there was plenty of room in the lifeboats because people refused to leave thinking it was safer on the ship."

The Refuge of Few

(Here's an example of what it would have looked like)

Click HERE to see footage from the 1997 video on what happened to Collapsibles A and B

Collapsible A was one of the collapsible lifeboats that was on top of the Officer's Quarters towards the bow just behind the Bridge on the Starboard side. It was in fact, one of the 4 lifeboats that weren't supposed to be there but since it was the outdated rule that a steamer of 10,000 tons and over should carry 16 lifeboats. However, the rule didn't change and the steam ships got bigger. The Titanic was so big, that with the addition of 4 Collapsibles, the was only enough for half. Collapsibles A and B were placed on the roof of the Officer's Quarters to provide more room for the passengers on the Boat Deck. The reason it was called a collapsible lifeboat, was because half of the sides were actual wood while the other half could be raised because it was made of canvas. The Titanic struck an iceberg of April 14, 1912. The damage was so great, that it began to sink. All the lifeboats were lowered and the water was creeping closer to the boat deck. Officers Murdoch and Moody worked and freed Collapsible A from the roof using oars as a ramp (since they were there to ease the passengers and no one thought that they would be taken down). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl50X86kgMU reached the Boat Deck, but the crewmen started to put the lifeboat on the davits. Then, the Titanic surged downward causing Collapsible A to drift off. After a cutting the ropes, it drifted away. The side canvases were not drawn up, so the rushing sea swamped the lifeboat half full of water. Just as Collapsible A clears the Titanic, the forward funnel collapsed and caused the dozen people rough seas. Famed tennis player R. Norris Williams gave his account, of what happened in his experience. He said that he and his father were swimming towards Collapsible A when the forward funnel collapsed, killing his father and narrowly missing him. He was on the side of A for several minutes until he was able to be pulled aboard. The water was 28-29 degrees F, so not many people survived. Out of the dozen men, few survived. It was in fact, the lifeboat with the fewest survivors. One thing that helped R. Norris Williams from dying of exposure like most of his companions, was his now waterlogged fur coat. Later, 5th Officer Lowe picked up those that were left and left three bodies in the boat. It then set out alone, to be picked up a few weeks later by the Oceanic with the bodies still in there. One was identified as Thompson Beatie. The others were unrecognizable and didn't have any identity on them. Nothing is currently known about what happened to Collapsible A nor the other lifeboats after they were returned to England and disappeared.

In Memory of a Titanic Explorer

Ralph B. White award winning cinematographer and Titanic explorer, died on February 4, 2008. He was with Dr. Robert Ballard when he discovered the wreck in 1985 and he was in the IMAX movie Titanica, where they went down and recovered artifacts. He also went down to the wreck when an expedition was sent by the History Channel to figure out how the Titanic broke in two. In searching for more evidence, he went down to the sister ship Britannic for comparisons (which by the way, Simon Mills owner of the Britannic is making arrangements to open it up for an underwater museum). He has made 35 dives in all to the Titanic. In 1996, he helped with the lighting on the submersibles when James Cameron went down to the wreck for his movie (which led James Cameron to be able to go deeper into the ship than anyone and explore the Reception Room on D Deck). He also did many other things at sea like swim with sharks, dive in the Arctic to a 153 year old wreck, and did a search for the Loch Ness Monster. According to his wishes, Ralph White was cremated and his ashes were taken to space and scattered to all 7 continents.