Molly Brown
Margaret/Maggie ("Molly") Tobin Brown
also known as Mrs. J J Brown
and crowned by the U.S. press as:
"The Unsinkable Molly Brown"
She literally went from rags to riches when her husband hit it big while mining for silver. She claimed she was sucked into a cyclone and fished with Mark Twain. We know the silver mine story was true, but most other tales about Molly were of her own fabrication or not refuted when these tall tales were told about her in the press.
Molly and JJ (both parents of them were irish immigrants) met in 1886 and after a brief courtship they were married on September 1, 1886.
JJ was 31 years old and Molly had just turned 19. They lived in Leadville in a small, two-room log cabin. The following year Molly gave birth to her first child Lawrence Palmer Brown and two years after that Molly gave birth to her second and last child, Catherine Ellen.
A few years later, JJ Brown started mining to search for more silver deposits. After a year of mining JJ hit it big. The mother lode of silver deposits. The Browns were not poor any longer and Molly had plans to spend that money to help out her family, raise her children properly and she worked endlessly to shed her old shell and become the society matron she had dreamed about since she was a little girl.
In 1912, Molly was on one of her many European tours when she received word that her grandson was ill. Molly made immediate plans to return to America after receiving the bad news. She booked passage on the first ship to America which happened to be the Titanic.
Molly's description of the night of April 14th when Titanic struck the iceberg were printed in various newspapers around the country:
"Anxious to finish a book, I stretched on the brass bed, at the side of which was a lamp. So completely absorbed in my reading, I gave little thought to the crash that struck at my window overhead and threw me to the floor. Picking myself up I proceeded to see what the steamer had struck. On emerging from the stateroom, I found many men in the gangway in their pajamas...All seemed to be quietly listening, thinking nothing serious had occurred, though realizing at the time that the engines had stopped immediately after the crash and the boat was at a standstill."
Molly claimed she never feared for her personal safety. "If the worst should happen, I could swim out." Molly was never given the chance to find out. "Suddenly I saw a shadow, and a few seconds later, I was taken hold of, and with the words 'You are going too,' was dropped fully four feet in the lowering lifeboat."
Once in lifeboat No. 6 she discovered that there were about 14 women in the boat and one man. The one male occupant in the boat was the ship's Quartermaster Robert Hitchens. "He was shivering like an Aspen," Molly remarked. He "burst out in a frightened voice, and warned us of the fate that awaited us, telling us our task in rowing away from the sinking ship was futile, as she was so large that in sinking she would take everything for miles around down with her suction, and if we escaped that the boilers would burst and rip up the bottom of the sea, tearing the icebergs asunder and completely submerge us."
As lifeboat No. 6 was being lowered, someone yelled up to the ship that there was only one seaman in the boat. Major Godfrey Peuchen-Vice Commander of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club volunteered and swung himself down into the boat which contained only 28 passengers.
Peuchen was the only male passenger allowed to enter a lifeboat that evening by Officer Lightoller.
Immediately after entering the boat, Peuchen began to order Hitchens around. He told Hitchen to give one of the women the tiller so he could do some rowing. Hitchens refused and their bickering continued. Disgusted with both men, Molly demanded that the women be allowed to row to keep warm. Hitchens tried to stop her, but Molly told him he would be thrown overboard if he attempted to stop her. Both men eventually gave in and Molly took control of lifeboat No. 6. She had the women rowing and distributed her furs and other clothing to the freezing passengers. Rumors had it that Mrs. Brown took most of clothes off, leaving her only in a corset, toting a pistol. No one has been able to substantiate this part of the story.
A few hours later, boat No. 6 along with the other Titanic lifeboats were picked up by the steamer Carpathia. To the horror of both Carpathia's crew and Titanic's survivors, only 705 people were pulled from the sea. Once on board, Molly helped organize rescue efforts. Her knowledge of foreign languages enabled her to successfully aid the immigrant passengers. Molly also helped raise money for destitute victims. Before they reached New York, nearly $10,000.00 was pledged.
Upon leaving the Carpathia in New York, Mrs. Brown was surrounded by reporters and was asked to what she attributed her survival. "Typical Brown luck," she replied, "We're unsinkable."
In Denver, her estranged husband, JJ Brown was heard to comment, "She's too mean to sink."
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