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Titanic's youngest survivor completely refused to watch James Cameron's movie

Home> Film & TV> News

Published 17:55 1 Sep 2023 GMT+1

Titanic's youngest survivor completely refused to watch James Cameron's movie

Millvina Dean and her family were travelling on the Titanic to the US to start a new life

Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers

In 1912, Millvina Dean was just a baby when she boarded the Titanic.

On 10 April, the ship set sail from England and made its journey across the Atlantic and towards New York City.

Dean, who was just two months old at the time, and her family weren't actually supposed to be on the vessel in the first place, having booked tickets for another of White Star Line's fleet.

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However, after a coal strike cancelled the trip, they were moved onto the Titanic instead.

According to the New York Times, the Deans were heading for Missouri, where they were going to be reunited with her father's cousin, who owned a store in Kansas City.

They had sold up the pub they'd owned back in England before making the trip.

Sadly, however, like so many others making that same journey, Dean and her family never made it to the States.

The Titanic set sail from England on 10 April, 1912.
Getty

On 14 April, at around 11.40pm, the ship struck an iceberg, which tore a large hole in its side, allowing water to flood in.

In less than three hours, the 'unsinkable' ship had fallen beneath the waves.

And while Dean, her mother, and older brother survived, her dad died with countless other third-class men who weren't able to get the lifeboats.

Dean, the youngest survivor, never spoke about that night until 1985, when they found the Titanic's wreck.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 2002, she said: "I think it was my father who saved us.

"So many other people thought the Titanic would never sink, and they didn't bother. My father didn't take a chance."

He assured his wife at the time, that he would 'be along later'.

She told the Belfast Telegraph: "My mother would never speak of it, because it was her husband and they were only married four years. He was strikingly handsome. I didn't know anything about it until I was eight years old.

Millvina Dean was just two months old when she boarded the Titanic.
Xavier DESMIER/Contributor

"And then my mother got married again. That's when I first heard about the Titanic, and about my father going down, everything like that."

And while she can't remember being on the Titanic or its sinking, Dean said she could never bring herself to watch James Cameron's 1997 movie.

She said it would just be too hard.

"Because that's the ship on which my father went down," she said. "Although I didn't remember him, nothing about him, I would still be emotional. I would think: 'How did he go down? Did he go down with the ship or did he jump overboard?"

In 1997, Dean managed to finally make the trip to New York, crossing the Atlantic in the Queen Elizabeth II.

She passed away in 2009, aged 97. She was the last living passenger of the Titanic.

Featured Image Credit: Xavier DESMIER/Contributor/20th Century Studios

Topics: US News, UK News, Titanic

Dominic Smithers
Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers is the News/Agenda Desk Lead, covering the latest trends and breaking stories. After graduating from the University of Leeds with a degree in French and History, he went on to write for the Manchester Evening News, the Accrington Observer and the Macclesfield Express. So as you can imagine, he’s spent many a night wondering just how useful that second language has been. But c'est la vie.

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@SmithersDom

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