A Japanese survivor was shunned in his home-country. They included in textbooks as an example not to follow.
I will not doubt your intelligence by retelling you the story of this tragic crossing for the umpteenth time. You saw the movie.
On the other hand, let us go over what you probably do not know; all these little-known stories, these astonishing anecdotes, and these disturbing coincidences that lie behind the incredible story of the Titanic.
You shouldn’t be alive
Masabumi Hosono was the only Japanese aboard the Titanic, and he didn’t hesitate to jump into one of the last lifeboats.
Back in Japan, the man lost his job and was described as a coward by the press. His country considered his attitude as a betrayal of the samurai spirit of self-sacrifice that was considered the national ideology of Imperial Japan.
His name was even included in school textbooks as an “example not to be followed.” Hosono lived the rest of his life in shame.
The premonitory novel
In 1898, Morgan Robertson published a novel telling the story of the sinking of a ship.
The name of his ship was the Titan. It measured 244 meters for 70,000 tons (the Titanic, 269 meters for 66,000 tones), three propellers, and could reach speeds of 24 to 25 knots (like the Titanic).
In the book, the Titan could accommodate 3,000 people, including the crew, and there were not enough canoes, but no one cared because the Titan had been declared unsinkable.
In Robertson’s novel, the Titan hits an iceberg on a cold night.
The fourth fireplace
The one closest to the Titanic’s stern was a fake. It only had an aesthetic function (to give the impression of power) and only emitted kitchen fumes.
It was used as a storage room, and the ship’s employees stored the deckchairs there.
There were no binoculars
The lookouts did not have binoculars, although they had requested them several times.
But, this indispensable tool, which could have enabled the iceberg to be seen earlier, was nowhere to be found. They seem to have been forgotten in Southampton!
Eye test for everyone
Following the sinking of the Titanic, the White Star Line gave its crews vision tests. This forced Herbert Pitman, the ship’s third officer, a survivor of the disaster, to give up his career as an officer, becoming a ship’s marshal.