The Titanic set sail on its maiden voyage from Southampton on April 10, 1912, with 2,240 passengers and crew on board. On April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg, she broke apart and sank to the bottom of the Atlantic ocean, taking with it the lives of more than 1,500 passengers and crew.
Among the survivors were established writers and those starting out on their literary journey. Here are a few:
Jacques and May Futrelle (United States)
Jacques Futrelle was a successful American mystery writer best known for “The Thinking Machine,” a series of detective stories featuring Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, a brilliant logician who solved complex mysteries with his superior intellect, often considered an American version of Sherlock Holmes for his deductive prowess and analytical methods. Futrelle had been vacationing in Europe with his wife, May Futrelle, also a writer, known for her bestselling novel Secretary of Frivolous Affairs. When the ship struck the iceberg, Jacques refused a place on a lifeboat, insisting May go instead. He perished in the disaster, and My Lady’s Garter, one of his last novels, was published after his death.
William Thomas Stead (United Kingdom)
A prominent British journalist and editor, William T. Stead was known for pioneering investigative journalism and for his social advocacy. He was controversial, idealistic, and deeply interested in spiritualism. Eerily, Stead had written several stories predicting maritime disasters, including a fictional account in which a ship sinks because of insufficient lifeboats. He was enroute to the United States to attend a peace congress when the Titanic went down. His death was widely mourned in journalistic and reformist circles across the world.
Helen Churchill Candee (United States)
An American author, feminist, and interior decorator, Helen Churchill Candee was best known for her books How Women May Earn a Living and The Tapestry Book and Decorative Styles and Periods. She was traveling alone, returning from Europe where she had been researching architecture. Candee survived the disaster and later wrote an essay about her experience titled Sealed Orders, which offers a rare firsthand literary reflection from a female survivor. Known for her poise and presence of mind during the sinking, she was injured while boarding a lifeboat but lived to continue her writing and advocacy.
Colonel Archibald Gracie IV (United States)
A writer and amateur historian focused on the American Civil War, Archibald Gracie boarded the Titanic in Europe after a holiday. He survived the sinking by clinging to an overturned collapsible lifeboat and later documented his experience in exhaustive detail. His book The Truth About the Titanic, published posthumously in 1913, remains one of the most cited firsthand accounts of the disaster. Gracie died just months after the shipwreck, reportedly due to complications from the ordeal. The Truth About the Titanic is currently available under the title Titanic: A Survivor’s Story.
Lawrence Beesley (United Kingdom)
Though not widely known at the time, Lawrence Beesley was an English science teacher and author who survived the Titanic and went on to write The Loss of the Titanic: Its Story and Its Lessons, published in June 1912. His account, calm and analytical, was widely read and praised for its clear-headed approach. He continued teaching and writing for many years, contributing a valuable survivor’s perspective to the historical record.
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