The incredible story of Rhoda Mary Abbott, the only female passenger who went down with the Titanic and survived that partly inspired Kate Winslet’s character in the film
It is about Rhoda Mary Abbott, a real-life survivor of the Titanic disaster who partly inspired Kate Winslet’s character in the 1997 film. Here are some more details and facts about her story:
– Abbott was born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in 1873. She moved to the United States in 1896 and married Stanton Abbott, a middleweight champion boxer. They had two sons, Rossmore and Eugene, but divorced in 1911.
– Abbott decided to return to America with her sons in 1912 after a brief stay in England. They boarded the Titanic as third-class passengers in Southampton on April 10.
– On the night of April 14, when the ship hit an iceberg, Abbott and her sons were alerted by a steward and made their way to the second-class saloon area. There, they waited for a chance to get on a lifeboat.
– When they reached Collapsible C, one of the last lifeboats, Abbott realized that her sons would not be allowed to board because they were too old. She refused to leave them behind and stayed on the ship with them.
– As the Titanic sank, Abbott was thrown into the freezing water. She tried to hold on to her sons, but they slipped away from her grasp and died. She managed to swim to Collapsible A, which was partially submerged, and climbed on it with other survivors.
– Abbott was rescued by the Carpathia and taken to New York. She suffered from severe frostbite and had to have both legs amputated below the knees. She later moved to London, where she lived until her death in 1946.