Woman Who Survived The Titanic Soon Had To Answer For Her Behavior The Night Of The Sinking
It’s a cold spring evening on the Atlantic Ocean as the RMS Titanic speeds towards New York, eight of its ten decks crammed with passengers from all walks of life. In one particularly elaborate stateroom, Lady Duff-Gordon is woken by a sinister rumbling sound. The ordeal that follows will forever damage her reputation — and put her behavior under the world’s spotlight for months to come.
The Duff-Gordons
Today, there are some names that will forever be associated with the ill-fated maiden voyage of the Titanic: John Jacob Astor, Captain Edward John Smith, the “Unsinkable” Molly Brown. But it was renowned fashion designer Lady Duff-Gordon and her husband, Cosmo, who dominated headlines in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.
Questions
As women and children piled into lifeboats — and men gallantly went down with the ship — the actions of some of the Titanic’s richest passengers were called into question. But what really happened in the early hours of April 15, 1912? And were the Duff-Gordons truly guilty of the accusations that were slung their way?
Lucy Christiana Sutherland
Born in June 1863 in London, England, Lucy Christiana Sutherland, later Lady Duff-Gordon, had an eventful early life — although nothing could have prepared her for the drama she would later encounter. Tragically, her father died when she was just an infant, prompting her mother to cross the Atlantic and settle in the Canadian province of Ontario.
A sinister omen
Then in 1871 Lucy’s mother remarried, and she and her sister Elinor returned to Europe, this time moving to Jersey in the Channel Islands. A few years later, a ship in which the girls were traveling ran aground in the English Channel. And although both of them survived, it was perhaps an omen of what was to come.
