This Actress Survived The Sinking Of The Titanic — And It Helped Her Win The Perfect Movie Role

The “unsinkable” Titanic lurches sickeningly as it smashes into a massive iceberg. It’s near midnight, and soon the ship will break in two before sinking to the bottom of the icy Atlantic. But there are survivors. One is the movie actress Dorothy Gibson, who is lucky enough to make it onto a lifeboat. And her harrowing true tale will soon help her win a very fitting movie role.

A titanic start

Gibson was on board the Titanic along with her mother Pauline. The two Americans had sailed to Europe in March 1912 for a vacation after Gibson had finished filming several movies. Then a cable arrived from the producer Jules Brulatour of the Eclair Moving Picture Company. The actress and her mother were in Italy at this point, but there was no time to wait for their return.

Conflict of interest

Brulatour’s message told Gibson that he’d secured her a multi-picture deal. He also asked her to come back to the States. The producer obviously had a professional relationship with Gibson, but there was more to it than that. The two were lovers, although Brulatour was almost 20 years Gibson’s senior — and married. Perhaps he had more than one reason to want her back in America...

What could go wrong?

So, Gibson and her mother traveled to Paris and booked tickets to sail across the Atlantic on the Titanic. The ship had set off from Southampton, England, at noon on April 10, 1912. Although her ultimate destination was New York City, the liner had a couple of stop-offs to make on the way in France and Ireland.

Time to board

The Titanic arrived at Cherbourg — a busy French port — at 6:30 p.m. that Wednesday. The two Gibsons boarded the ill-fated luxury liner that evening, and she sailed just after 8:00 p.m. Then the ship docked for what would be the last time at Queenstown in Ireland — now called Cobh — on the Thursday morning.

Extravagant dining

Gibson and her mother probably enjoyed the unashamed opulence that their first-class berth afforded them. For the richer passengers, there was a special lounge sumptuously kitted out in elaborate Louis XV style. The food was splendid, too. The first-class dinner menu on the night the ship sank included pate de foie gras, roast duckling, and peaches in Chartreuse jelly.

Not a care in the world

The successful young film star and her mother were probably living it up as they steamed across the Atlantic. They may have been celebrating, too, as Gibson was traveling home with a promise of plenty of work on the horizon. For a while, everything looked great for her — until, of course, tragedy struck.

Humble beginnings

Naturally, Gibson hadn’t always been rich and famous. She had seen tragedy before, too. Gibson’s father had been a Scotsman and mason called John A. Brown, but he had died a couple of months before his daughter’s first birthday. Her mother eventually remarried to John Leonard Gibson — giving the future star the surname she would use for the rest of her life.

Happily divorced

In 1910 Gibson married as well, to a pharmacist called George Henry Battier Jr. It seems the relationship was not a happy one, however, as the couple parted not long after the wedding and were divorced in 1913. At least Gibson’s professional life was looking a bit brighter. She was already forging a career as a performer and was slowly finding her way to Hollywood.

Her big break

Gibson was already earning parts in Broadway musicals as a dancer and singer. Then, in what must have seemed like a career breakthrough, the artist Harrison Fisher chose her as a model. Fisher was an accomplished illustrator and worked for many of the top magazines and high-circulation newspapers of the day. He was a very handy man to know.

Cover girl

In 1911 a Harrison illustration of Gibson appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. The actress — who appeared rosy-cheeked and with a beguiling pout — posed in a large brimmed hat with an extravagant white cockade. She then had another triumph with an appearance on the cover of Cosmopolitan. And sure enough, the glamour of the movies soon beckoned.

A true beauty

It helped that Gibson was deemed a great beauty. Randy Bigham described her allure in his 2014 book Finding Dorothy: A Biography of Dorothy Gibson, writing of her “big, heavy-lidded eyes and wide, curling lips.” Those beguiling features soon attracted the attention of movie makers, and Gibson eventually began to land small roles in various Hollywood films.

Leading lady

Those minor parts caught the attention of Eclair, which signed up Gibson as a leading lady in July 1911. And the actress went on to make a series of successful dramas and comedies, including Hands Across the Sea — a tale set during the American Revolution. She also starred in the romantic comedy The Easter Bonnet and the crime short Revenge of the Silk Masks.

A formidable talent

Bigham added that Gibson “received a great deal of publicity and excellent critical review for the movies in which she appeared.” She was even “considered [to be] one of the most promising new actresses upon her debut.” Yes, Gibson — scarcely into her 20s — was already a formidable talent with the potential for much more success.

Time for a break

But in the spring of 1912, it seems that Gibson had decided it was time for a break. With her mother, she headed for Europe on March 17. Then, three weeks later, she booked her return journey on the ill-starred Titanic after being prompted by Brulatour’s telegram. It was a decision she may have later come to regret.

Firsthand account

Gibson gave an interview a couple of weeks after she survived the Titanic catastrophe. And her account gives a real flavor of the normality that flipped to terror in the freezing Atlantic. Things were calm enough early in the evening of Sunday, April 14. Gibson and her mom had been aboard the ship for four days by this point, and the actress was playing cards with friends.

Breaking the rules

Gibson recalled, “Four of us had been breaking the rules of the boat by playing bridge on Sunday evening.” Two of her partners were New York bankers William T. Sloper and Frederick K. Seward. A steward then told the party that it was time to shut the lounge they were in. Gibson ultimately walked to her cabin and apparently reached it at around 20 minutes before midnight.

One big crunch

Gibson continued, “No sooner had I stepped into my apartment than there suddenly came this long drawn, sickening crunch. To find out what it might mean, I went back to the A deck... One of the officers explained that we had collided with an iceberg and that it would probably cause a slight delay... I went back to get my mother and at the same time picked up my sweater and coat.”

Just a slight delay?

Of course, we know that the collision with the iceberg resulted in much more than a “slight delay.” And Gibson herself seems to have understood that something was seriously amiss with the ship. Going back below, she roused her mother and picked up a coat and sweater before the two made their way up to the deck.

Boarding the lifeboats

With the help of two passengers, Gibson put on a life preserver, and she and her mother prepared for the worst. The actress later recalled, “Shortly after, we were ordered into the lifeboats. We did not want to obey, but as some men made my mother get in, of course I followed. The boat swung so on the davits that I had to jump in as it came towards me, and I remember that I fell all over myself as I slid down — down to the bottom of the boat.”

Pure panic

Gibson then described the panic and disorder dominating the Titanic. She explained, “The discipline of the crew was wretched, for nobody knew what to do. Many people refused to trust themselves to the lifeboats, and we were finally lowered down the side with only 26 aboard. That was the most perilous part of the whole adventure because first one end would drop, then the other. We were absolutely silent until we reached the waves.”

A death trap

The boat itself appeared to be something of a death trap, too. “Then we began to realize our plight,” the actress continued. “There was no plug in the boat, no light, no food, and not a single rower. Putting two men at lookout, the rest bent to the oars.” Now, she was to witness the Titanic’s ghastly demise.

Living a nightmare

“As soon as we were at a safe distance from the Titanic, we turned to watch the great liner settling gradually down into the water. It seemed like a nightmare,” Gibson vividly recollected. But it was no bad dream; the ship’s plight was only too real. And things were about to get a whole lot worse for her, the other passengers and crew.

Under the waves

Gibson witnessed the shocking final moments of the great ship’s existence as she inevitably foundered. “The lights flickered out, deck by deck, until the bow was quite submerged. Then with a lurch, the Titanic slid forward under the waves. Instantly there sounded a rumble like Niagara, with two dull explosions,” the actress explained. It must have been terrifying.

The sound of silence

But even that was not the end of the horror. Gibson said, “A pause of silence held everything and everybody spellbound until the stern shot back into sight and immediately sank again. Then there burst out the most ghastly cries, shrieks, yells and moans that a mortal could ever imagine. No one can describe the frightful sounds that gradually died away to nothing.”

Making it through together

Gibson’s card-playing friends Seward and Sloper also survived. And Sloper would go on to tell his own tale. In an account published by the Oceanographic Navigation Research Society, he wrote, “Luckily for both Seward and me, [Gibson] held onto my hand and demanded that we get into the boat with them. ‘We won’t go unless you do,’ she said.” The two men then climbed into the vessel.

Finally rescued

Sloper also gave an account of the RMS Carpathia’s rescue mission. She arrived on the scene at around 3:30 a.m. — little more than an hour after the Titanic had disappeared beneath the waves. The cruise vessel had picked up the stricken liner’s distress call, and it must have been a welcome sight. The boat had sailed through the night at full steam — covering 60 miles or so to reach the survivors.

Journey to salvation

Sloper recalled his remarkable journey to salvation, writing, “It took us an hour to awkwardly row our boat to the side of the Carpathia. During the hour we had been rowing, the sun came out of the ocean like a ball of fire. Its rays reflected on the numerous icebergs sticking up out of the sea around us. As we came alongside the Carpathia and our turn came to disembark, it didn’t take long for the 29 people in our boat to be assisted up the stairway, which had been lowered down the outside of the ship.”

Setting sail for New York

The Carpathia — carrying 705 Titanic survivors — then set a course for New York City and arrived there on April 18, 1912. A cheering crowd of thousands welcomed the ship as she entered the port. Six years later, Carpathia herself would sink off the coast of Ireland — the victim of a German U-boat torpedo during the hostilities of World War I.

One week later

What happened next to Gibson is almost too good to be true. Just days later, the young actress was on a movie set. Bigham described the scene in his biography, “She wasn’t really alone but standing on a contrived set, surrounded by her director and two cameramen who were advancing slowly toward her on a rolling dais. But the terror her face registered was genuine, as less than a week before this movie shoot, [Gibson] — wearing the same sweater — had actually survived the sinking of Titanic.”

A huge hit

The Eclair Moving Picture Company had spotted an unmissable opportunity. Who better to play a leading role in their hastily made feature Saved from the Titanic than Gibson? Not only did she appear in the film, but she also got a writing credit. And when the film was released a month later, audiences flocked to movie theaters. It was a huge hit.

Her swan song

Yet this Titanic movie — the first of many made over the years — was to be Gibson’s swan song. After making it, she seemingly never appeared on celluloid again. She instead spurned Hollywood to try her hand as an operatic singer — despite being one of the highest earners in American movies at the time. She appeared in 1915 at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House in a work called Madame Sans-Gene.

Descent into obscurity

After that operatic appearance, Gibson’s performing career seems to have descended into obscurity. But we do know a fair bit about her life. You’ll recall that at the time of the Titanic disaster, the star had been embroiled in an affair with the producer Brulatour. Well, this illicit romance was exposed by an unfortunate incident in 1913.

Bad publicity

Disaster struck when Gibson was out for a drive in New York. The car she was driving belonged to Brulatour, and she’d had an accident in it — killing a man in the process. And her affair with the movie producer emerged during the subsequent court case. This, of course, was catnip to the journalists of the day.

Unhappily ever after

The scandal that ensued apparently infuriated Brulatour’s wife Isabelle. She insisted on a divorce, which was finalized in 1915. This also left the field clear for Brulatour and Gibson to wed, which they eventually did. But it seems the couple did not find happiness once their relationship was official, as they separated a couple of years later.

A clean slate

After this episode — and the unpleasant publicity surrounding it — Gibson lived for a while in a Manhattan apartment. Then, in the 1920s, she moved to Paris with her mother — perhaps in an effort to finally wipe the slate clean. She was still in Europe, in fact, after the outbreak of World War II in 1939.

Switching sides

Gibson was later arrested for allegedly acting against the Italian regime and held in the grim San Vittore prison in Milan. Somehow, though, she managed to escape and made her way to Switzerland. There, she was questioned by an American consulate official called James G. Bell — who unflatteringly concluded that Gibson was not smart enough to have been a spy.

An incredible life

Yes, Gibson had an incredible life, however you dice it. After the war, she landed back in Paris — now liberated from German occupation. But, unfortunately, her time was drawing to a close. In February 1946 she sadly died of heart failure in the French capital. Her legacy lives on in her many movies — and her retelling of the events on board the Titanic.

Maiden voyage

The Titanic had been packed to the rafters with the cream of western society: aristocrats, socialites, and millionaire businessmen. Gibson was just one of the seemingly lucky folk who managed to get first-class tickets for that maiden voyage. But while it was celebrities such as Gibson, John Jacob Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim who made headlines when the ocean liner sank, the disaster affected many ordinary people, too.

Doomed liner

Bound for a new life in Canada, Eva Hart was only seven years old when she climbed aboard the doomed liner. By the time she reached New York, her father was dead — the victim of a tragedy that could have been prevented. And in the years that followed, she didn’t hold back when it came to what had gone wrong.

A damning message

To Eva, the people who wanted to disturb the wreck of the Titanic — and desecrate her father’s grave — were no better than savage pirates. And for those in charge of the ship, she had an even more damning message. Eva held those people responsible for her father’s death, and it seemed she just couldn’t forgive and forget.

Tragic history

Eva had been the only child of Benjamin Hart, a laborer, and his wife Esther. Tragically, she’d had several half-siblings from her mother’s first marriage, but none of them had survived into adulthood. And, sadly, that was just the beginning of the family’s misfortune.

A fresh start

At first, Eva spent her early years getting an education at a convent school in East London. But when the British economy began to struggle, the Harts’ quality of life deteriorated. Unwilling to see his family suffer, Benjamin came up with an idea: he would book passage across the Atlantic and seek new opportunities in the Americas.

Setting sail

Apparently, Benjamin’s brother had already made the move, beginning a new life in the Canadian city of Winnipeg. So, Eva’s dad decided to take his small family and join his sibling in the New World. Originally, he booked three places on the SS Philadelphia — a ship operated by the Inman Line.

A twist of fate

At one point, the Philadelphia was the fastest vessel of its kind to cross the northern Atlantic. But by the time the Harts decided to emigrate in 1912, it had begun to show its age. Benjamin was delighted, then, when a twist of fate saw them transferred to the most luxurious liner in the world.

Exciting upgrade

Due to an ongoing coal workers’ dispute, the Philadelphia could not sail as planned. As a result, the Harts were given passage on the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic, owned by the competing White Star Line. And after splashing out the equivalent of nearly $3,500 in modern-day money, they boarded the liner at Southampton as second-class passengers.

Unsinkable

At the time, the Titanic was arguably the most famous vessel in the world, lauded for its opulent interiors, “unsinkable” construction, and all-star passenger list. The prospect of sailing on such an illustrious liner would have made many travelers ecstatic. But not everyone was happy about the change in plan.

A premonition

“My father was so excited about it, and my mother was so upset,” Eva told historians decades on. “The first time in my life, I saw her crying… she was so desperately unhappy about the prospect of going.” Esther, it turns out, had experienced a premonition of sorts that had left her terrified to set foot on board the Titanic.

Flying in the face of God

“I so clearly remember my mother saying to my father, ‘Oh, this is the ship they say is unsinkable,’” Eva told the BBC in 1979. “My father said, ‘No, this is the ship that is unsinkable.’ My mother said, ‘Well, that is flying in the face of God, and that ship will never get there.’ And right up to boarding the ship, on the day of sailing, my mother begged my father not to go.”

Biggest ship afloat

But Benjamin would not be persuaded to abandon their trip, and Eva was soon caught up in the buzz of the occasion. Catching the boat train to the docks, she was amazed by the size of the Titanic — at the time the biggest ship afloat. And together, the Harts made their way to their second-class cabin, which would have most likely been somewhere between D and F decks.

Up all night

Still, even amongst the glitz and the glamor of the Titanic, Esther remained fearful of what she regarded as a blasphemous voyage. Eva recalled, “We went down to the cabin, and that’s when my mother said to my father that she had made up her mind quite firmly that she would not go to bed in that ship. She would sit up at night… She decided that she wouldn’t go to bed at night, and she didn’t!”

Life afloat

Aside from this strange habit, though, the Harts seemed to cope well with life at sea. Long after the disaster, a letter emerged that Eva’s mother had written on April 14, 1912 — four days out of Southampton, and just hours before disaster would strike.

Esther’s letter

In the letter, Esther explained that she had been ill the previous day, but that she was now well. In fact, she had accompanied her daughter to church that morning, where Eva had sung her favorite hymn. But even though the crew assured her that the crossing was calm, she wrote, she disliked the movement of the ship as it crossed the Atlantic.

Reaching New York

In an uneven hand, Esther wrote that the Titanic was due in New York on Wednesday morning — although there were rumors that they might make it before. There, she planned to send the note back to her family in England on board the liner, where it would no doubt make an interesting keepsake from the historic voyage.

Ice warnings

But, of course, the Titanic never made it to New York as planned. In fact, around the time that Esther was writing her letter, wireless operators on the bridge had already begun to receive alerts of ice in the water. Nevertheless, the powerful liner continued to plow forwards at great speed.

Awful collision

Then, at 11:40 p.m., lookout Frederick Fleet saw a huge iceberg looming on the horizon. But his warnings came too late, and the starboard side of the ship suffered a devastating blow. Several decks below, Esther was sitting in her cabin “wide awake and fully dressed” when a shudder was felt through the bowels of the ship.

Rushing onto the deck

It was her mother’s nervousness, Eva believed, that helped to save their lives. After the impact, Esther roused her husband, and together they took their daughter out onto the cold deck. Wrapped up in her father’s sheepskin coat, the girl woke to find the normally sedate atmosphere of the Titanic transformed.

A sad goodbye

Famously, the doomed liner was not carrying enough lifeboats for all of the passengers on board. But because Esther had been prepared, the Harts were able to reach the deck before the flow of passengers became overwhelming. Telling his daughter to be good, Benjamin placed her into a waiting vessel and waved goodbye.

A hero

According to one report, Benjamin was offered a spot alongside his wife and daughter in the lifeboat — probably due to their early arrival on deck. But, as Esther later explained, he refused it, giving up his seat to a nearby woman instead. In the days after the sinking, stories of such heroism would stand in stark contrast to the reported actions of the White Star Line’s J. Bruce Ismay.

The Titanic sinks

Tragically, neither Esther nor Eva would ever see Benjamin again. In the early hours of April 15, the Titanic disappeared beneath the waves, climbing the lives of almost every soul left on board. Out of 2,229 people, only around 700 survived. Even today, it remains one of history’s worst maritime disasters.

Finally taken to safety

Eventually, Esther and Eva were picked up by the RMS Carpathia and taken to New York City, where the press waited to greet the survivors. But without Benjamin, the Harts had no wish to remain in the New World. Not long after their arrival, they boarded another liner and sailed back to the U.K.

Burned into her brain

And the horrors of that fateful night would never leave Eva. Decades later, during another interview, she recalled how the image of the disaster had been forever burned onto her brain. “I saw that ship sink. I never closed my eyes. I didn’t sleep at all. I saw it, I heard it, and nobody could possibly forget it,” she said.

“Deathly, terrible silence”

“I can remember the colors, the sounds, everything,” Eva continued. “The worst thing I can remember are the screams. It seemed as if at once everyone had gone, drowned, finished… the whole world was standing still. There was nothing — just this deathly, terrible silence in the dark night with the stars overhead.”

Nightmares

Eva’s trauma was so great that she reportedly suffered from nightmares for many years after the sinking. But after her mother passed away in 1928, the 23-year-old decided to face her fears. Apparently, she booked herself a ticket on a ship bound for Singapore, determined to overcome her demons once and for all.

A grave message

After shutting herself in her cabin for several days, the story goes, Eva could finally sleep peacefully again. But she continued to speak out about her experiences on the Titanic for the rest of her life. And her grim recollections of the sinking were far from the gravest thing she had to say.

Avoidable deaths

Speaking to the BBC, Eva was adamant that the disaster could have been averted — and that human error, not nature, was responsible for her father’s death. “I’m convinced that as long as this world lasts there will be this avid interest in the Titanic,” she said, “because it is the one major disaster that has ever taken place in this world for which there was no excuse for one life being lost.”

A dreadful disaster

“The Titanic took two and a half hours to sink. The sea was calm. If there had been enough lifeboats, no one would have died,” Eva continued. “And I’m sure that the world reads about this and realizes it and will always look upon it as the most dreadful disaster and dreadful waste of life that ever took place.”

Placing the blame

Eva, it seems, blamed those in charge of the Titanic — men such as J. Bruce Ismay, who was managing director of the White Star Line. And she didn’t stop at calling them out, either. After the wreck of the liner was discovered in 1985, she became a vocal opponent of efforts to salvage the site.

Salvage operation

Two years after a French-American team found the wreck 12,500 feet beneath the surface, attempts were made to locate objects from the Titanic and bring them to shore. There, they soon became collectibles, with many going on to fetch tens of thousands of dollars at auction. But for Eva, the whole practice was rather too macabre.

Grave robbers

Speaking out against the salvage operation, Eva branded those responsible “fortune hunters, vultures, pirates, and grave robbers.” And when she found out about proposed plans to raise the wreck of the Titanic, she became even more enraged. To her, it was her father’s final resting place — and she wanted it to be left in peace.

Raising the Titanic

“I hope severely that they will never attempt to raise part of it,” Eva said in an interview for the 1994 documentary Titanic: The Complete Story. “I do hope they will remember this is a grave — a grave of 1,500 people who should never have died. And I don’t think you should go down there and rob graves… I’m very much opposed to it.”

Eva’s life

But despite the trauma she endured that cold April night, Eva went on to live a full and interesting life. Although she never had a family of her own, she traveled to Australia for a time, where she worked as a singer. Later, she returned to England, where she became an active member of the Conservative Party.

Helping the troops

When World War II broke out, Eva put on entertainment to keep soldiers in good spirits. And after the Blitz destroyed huge swathes of London, she busied herself passing out supplies to those caught in the chaos. For her work, she would later receive an MBE.

Testimony

But even though Eva was just seven years old when the Titanic sank, her memories of the disaster remain her greatest legacy. And her testimony has proven right on more than one occasion. For decades, she insisted that the great liner had split apart before it had disappeared beneath the waves — a version of events that was long contested.

She was right

When the wreck was finally located, though, it became clear that Eva had been correct all along. Similarly, she insisted that the SS Californian — a nearby ship that had not acknowledged the Titanic’s distress calls — had been within sight of the stricken vessel. Later, an investigation would confirm that the Californian had been far closer than the claimed 19 miles away.

Part of the Titanic community

Throughout her life, Eva remained active in the Titanic community. In 1982 she marked the 70th anniversary of the disaster by traveling to the U.S., where she met up with other survivors for a convention observing the milestone. And although she was in her 80s at the time, she participated in several further events before her death in 1996.

That poignant letter

But even that was not the end of Eva’s story. In 2014 the letter penned by Esther on board the Titanic sold at auction for approximately $200,000. It was said to have been found in the pocket of Benjamin’s sheepskin coat — a memento of the last moments before the Harts’ lives were irrevocably changed.