People Who Missed The Boat

Here were a few of over 20 people who changed their plans to not sail on Titanic. 

Theodore Dreiser, Novelist

Born: August 27, 1871 in Terre Haute, Indiana

Died: December 28, 1945 age 74 in Hollywood, CA

Theodore Dreiser

The novelist, Theodore Dreiser was planning on returning from his first European holiday aboard the Titanic.  But his publisher talked him out of the plan, and persuaded him that taking another ship would be less expensive.

Dreiser was at sea aboard the liner Kroonland when he heard the news about Titanic. He recalled his reaction the following year in his memoir, A Traveler at Forty: “To think of a ship as immense as the Titanic, new and bright, sinking in endless fathoms of water. . .”

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Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of wireless radio

Born: April 25, 1874 in Bologna, Italy

Died: July 20, 1937, Rome, Italy, age 63

Guglielmo Marconi

Marconi was the inventor of wireless telegraphy and the winner of the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He was offered free passage on Titanic but three days earlier, he had taken the Lusitania which he preferred.  It has been said that all those who were saved on Titanic were saved through the invention of one man - Marconi. If not for wireless telegraphy, no one would have known Titanic was in trouble and in need of assistance. 

Although Marconi preferred the Lusitania and escaped the fate of Titanic by changing his plans, he was aboard the Lusitania again in 1915 when it was sunk by a German U-boat. Marconi survived and lived until July 20, 1937 when he died at the age of 63 . 

Milton Snavely Hershey, Chocolate Empire

Born: September 13, 1857 in Derry Township, PA

Died: October 13, 1945, age 88 in Hershey, PA

Milton and Kitty Hershey

Hershey, Pennsylvania, Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar, Hershey’s Kisses, Hershey’s Syrup, all have one thing in common. If not for Milton Hershey, they would not be in existence. 

After spending the winter in France, Milton Hershey planned to sail home on the Titanic.  He wrote to the White Star Line in December 1911 and included a $300 check as a 10 percent deposit toward the cost of his stateroom.  However, business back home beckoned, and he and his wife Kitty booked passage on the German Liner, Amerika, because it was sailing earlier. The Amerika was one of the ships who sent the Titanic warnings that there was ice in its path. Hershey lived to the ripe old age of 88 and died in 1945.  He and his wife Kitty established the famous Milton Hershey School for orphaned children. It was later expanded to include children from families of adversity.

J. Pierpont Morgan

Born:  April 17, 1837 in Hartford, CT

Died:  March 31, 1913 in Rome, Italy

J P Morgan, then a 74-year-old financier, was scheduled to travel on the RMS Titanic but he canceled at the last minute and stayed in France a few more days.

J P Morgan

The White Star Line was part of Morgan's parent company International Mercantile Marine Company.

 J. Bruce Ismay was the director of White Star Line and International Mercantile Marine Company. Morgan had his own private suite on RMS Titanic with access to a private promenade deck.   When he decided not to go, he gave it to J. Bruce Ismay who was the director of White Star Line and International Mercantile Marine Company. 

   

 

Henry Clay Frick

Born:  December 19, 1849 in West Overton, PA

Died:  December 2, 1919, age 69 in New York City

Henry Clay Frick

Henry Clay Frick was owner of Frick Coke Company and co-owner of US Steel with Andrew Carnegie. He was also a business associate of J.P. Morgan. He canceled his passage on the Titanic when his wife sprained her ankle and had to be hospitalized in Italy.

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