The BBC is one of several outlets reporting the death of Millvina Dean, the last survivor from Titanic. She was 97 years old. Read the BBC article here.

LisaP

It is poignant to note this woman's passing, almost 100 years after the event. Truly a life that saw and experienced many things.

Thanks for posting this Lisa. I am a bit of Titanic nut.

Dwayne

Thanks also go to BillyBuzzy and Bentnail, who posted links to related articles elsewhere on the site. Those threads were redirected here, as this is the first thread that had a response.

Rest in peace, Ms. Dean.

LP

How amazing that she survived. She definitely witnessed some fantastic history, which I doubt she realized at the moment. So sorry to hear of her passing.

I didn't know my ship history. There was a Brittanic built at the same time? At least I thought that was what I read in the paper.

Yes, pretty much. There were three sister ships, Olympic (1911), Titanic (1912) and Britannic (1915, keel laid 1911). Britannic ended up serving only as a hospital ship during WWI, and was sunk during one of her missions. Olympic had a long and successful career, making her last crossing in 1935, and was eventually scrapped.

LisaP

My grandfather and his brother tried to book passage on the Titanic but it was sold out so instead they came over to Canada later that year. Of course, being Irish immigrants, they would have been in the steerage section and likely would have perished.

It wasn't their time, thankfully. I couldn't believe they locked the doors on all those people.

Yes but even this ship was plagued with trouble though know as "Old Reliable."

She had a collision with the HMS Hawke off the Isle of Wight on September 20th 1911 ironically Captained by Edward Smith of the Titanic. Pulling resources from the Titanic to fix the Olympic and delayed Titanic’s maiden voyage from 20 March 1912 to 10 April 1912.

Then she had a second collision, this time with the Nantucket Lightship 117 on May 15, 1934 and the lightship sank with 4 casualties I believe.

The Olympic also has the distinction of being the only merchant ship to sink an enemy warship during the war when she rammed the German submarine U103 on 12 May, 1918

Thank you Edward K, I did not know those facts. Was Capt. Edward Smith at the controls of the Olympic when she collided with the Hawke?