Titanic Survivor Ruth Becker (Blanchard) - Interview
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- Ruth Becker (Blanchard), a second-class passenger on the Titanic, tells of how she escaped the sinking Titanic along with her mother and younger brother and sister, the scene on the rescue ship, Carpathia, and their reception upon arrival in New York.
This video is pieced together from clips of the same interview source used in the documentaries, Titanic: Death of a Dream and Titanic: The Legend Lives On (1994, A&E Networks), and Titanic: The Survivors Story (1997, Channel 7 Australia). The original date of the interview is unknown.
Read the full annotated transcript of this interview: titanicarchive...
Film Sources:
- A Night to Remember (1958), dir. Roy Ward Baker / The Rank Organisation
- S.O.S. Titanic (1979), dir. William Hale / EMI Films
- Titanic (1996), dir. Robert Lieberman / Konigsberg / Sanitsky Company
- Titanic (1997), dir. James Cameron / Paramount
- Titanic (2012), dir. Jon Jones / ITV
About Titanic Archive:
Titanic Archive is dedicated to digitally preserving the cultural memory of the RMS Titanic disaster and the stories of those who sailed on her tragic maiden voyage.
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Her voice sounds just like the older rose in the movie !
@@shirleypoplo-ej7lz Funny I was JUST thinking that as I saw this.
@@shirleypoplo-ej7lz that's what I thought!!
Only just noticed that plus her name is same as Roses mum
@@shirleypoplo-ej7lz so true
Yes. The same accent.
I'm obsessed with this damn ship!
@@ajrwilde14 same, I have been since I was 15. 38 now lol. Got my interested too lol
Suppose you were one of the survivors. What about that night would be the one thing you would most likely always remember? What would haunt you?
Ruth was actually pretty close to death. She forgot to mention it, but she got into Lifeboat 13, and just as it touched the water, the bilge pumps tangled the lifeboat in its falls, pushing it straight under Lifeboat 15. Terror ensued on both lifeboats, as lifeboat 15 was about to be accidentally lowered onto 13. All the passengers on both boats were *SCREAMING* at the top of their lungs at the officers on the boat deck, “STOP!!!! *STOP LOWERING!!!!* STOP LOWERING!!!!” But they couldn’t hear them over the commotion on deck. Fireman Frederick Barrett, who is on board the lifeboat with Becker, pulls out a switchblade and frantically saws at the tangled falls trying to cut the lifeboat free. Several others also carrying pocket knives help. Less than 3 feet away from being crushed, the falls finally cut, and the people push off the Titanic’s hull with their oars, getting them just out of the way of Lifeboat 15 in time. That must’ve been traumatic for Ruth. Can you imagine being stuck in that boat, with another one about to come down on top of your head, all passengers shrieking, terrified?
@TheAbnormalShrimp her family was put into boat 11 she was in boat 13 they had gotten separated
TheAbnormalShrimp Really. I just saw on a research website that she was in Boat 13 with Frederick Barrett.
@TheAbnormalShrimp if you listened too her tell the whole story, she said her little brother and sister where put into Boat 11, and her mother. there was no room for her in boat 11, so she went to the next boat and asked if she could be let on (Boat 13)
Frederick Barrett 😇😎 One of true unselfish, unsung heroes on board that fateful night.🙏👍🤔🏆
This should have more likes
So poignant how she breaks down when she mentions her mother having been looking for her on the Carpathia. The relief of finding her family must have been overwhelming.
Also how she cries for the women at the railings of the Carpathia whose husbands never came.
Her testimony is so interesting.
Yeah and imagine the husbands having to kiss their wife and kids goodbye and remaining strong for them knowing they'll never see them again. Those were some of the bravest men that ever lived.
You can still hear the grief in her voice, all these long years later.
I didn't hear any grief. Just a selfish old dirt bag that left people to die.
Ruth Becker, I have a respect to you, You are a Hero ❤
She’s a survivor.
@@WilliamPotts3 she was. There are no more survivors from Titanic alive today. It's a treasure to have these interviews.
I just couldn't imagine the women's grief, in that horrible, tragic moment, that realization that their husbands weren't coming back. So freakkng sad. 😢
Imagine how the husband's felt watching the loves of their life rowing away forever. They had to act like everything was OK even though they were absolutely crumbling inside. Even the wealthiest men were classy to the end. Some said they wouldn't dare catch a lifeboat until another man did first.
One of the most realistic accounts.
Realistic? She was there!
@@canuckprogressive.3435 Fr, this comment section is eating away at my brain cells.
Maybe because it’s real.
@@canuckprogressive.3435 I think they meant detailed 😂
".....and the women were all standing at the rail, waiting for their husbands to come, in later boats...and they never came "
Jesus I hope this lovely woman has found some peace because it's pretty clear she sees that scene over and over, even 50 years later. That poor women.
What an absolute treasure this woman is. God bless her.
@@3UZFE Amen
She died at the age of 90 and her ashes were scattered where the ship sank.
8:00, the raw emotion there...
You can hear her grief.
I got to meet her cousin about the same time James Cameron's movie came out. She and her husband came into my shoe department at Sears at the Lake Square Mall in Leesburg, FL. It kept bugging me, I had seen her face and didn't know where, then I remembered TITANIC:Death of a Dream that A & E did in 1994. I came back out and told her who she reminded me of. When she told me that she was Ruth's cousin I was floored. It was as if I was seeing Ruth. Her and her husband lived on Race Track Road in Lady Lake then. She was really nice, in January 1998, we talked about the movie. She was glad i got to see it.
@@mrslinarcos I know Micro Racetrack Road! I grew up going to that mall and still watch movies there! Wow, that’s amazing!
3 minutes late from return from my lunch break. I am literally on the edge of my seat listening to this lady.
Ruth Blanchard. A pretty young 14 year old girl faced many frght filled hours alone on that horrific night. What heartfelt relief when finally reunited with her family.🙏😔😇 8:59
@@randolphstephenson she was 12
Yeah, some mother she had 🙄
She said they had brandy to warm them up. I hear that a lot in the old classic films
0:29 There's that lie again "The ship has water-tight compartments, it can't sink". It wasn't true, obviously. I am sure the engineers weren't telling that lie, it had to have come from White Star.
Her mother left her on the Titanic?!?! Wow.
I was thinking the same thing - she totally ditched her!
That's what I said and before that she was about to send her back for blankets. Lmao.
They didn’t realise that the ship was actually sinking. Hardly anybody did. Not until the last moments.
well to be fair most of them didn't realize how bad it was at first
She would have seen none of those white paneled dining saloon because she was a second class passenger
Wonder if she is related to Gypsy Rose Blanchard
What a great video. Amazing to have this quality footage. 112 years today. Thinking of everyone affected on this anniversary.
well all the scenes are from a night to remember and James Camerons titanic ..there's no video evidence that shows the actual ship in 1912 out for NYC..there's I think 2 famous clips of titanic in port, but there short
one photographer took lots of pics before he got off in Ireland and after the ship sank his pics were very sought after, he made lots of $$ selling them copies for newspapers and such...but it's great there's alot of survivors recollections
Lol the footage isnt of the Titanic.
My comments were relating to the footage of the survivor interviews 😅
Why did her mother not insist she go with her and her siblings into the lifeboat? I wouldve sat her on my lap if i were her mother...bless her heart, i cant imagine what they all went through
Her story is one of the first ones I heard
Ruth Becker is a Hero ❤
The heroes are the ones(mostly men) who helped save lives while risking their own.
Her family were missionaries in India! Heroes because they left luxury life in the states to share the gospel with Heathen Hindus early 20th century!
7:23 She looks like Catherine Zeta-Jones.
@@ThunderPants13 That is her, it's footage from the Titanic miniseries from 1996.
BACK IN THE EARLY 60's i worked after classes (at Franklin High School in Livonia Michigan) with an English teacher named Audry Becker (who was in her late-ish 30's or early 40's at the time, I think) whose close family had survived the Titanic's sinking. I believe it was her family, not her, who survived. I've often wondered is Mrs. Audry Becker had ever been interviewed about what she recalled? I was very interested in the whole story of the Titanic even back then, having read A NIGHT TO REMEMBER as an early age, and seeing a live-tv dramatic depiction of the sinking in the later 50's on Playhouse 90 or a show similar to that.
Mrs. Becker---my student co-op supervisor at the time---was a wonderful person. I really enjoyed the year I worked with her in the school's in-house tv and audio-visual department. I wish I had stayed in touch with her/often wondered what happened to her. COULD SHE HAVE BEEN RELATED TO RUTH BECKER SHOWN HERE?
I wonder how many people might have lived if they weren't lied to when the accident first happened
Remarkable story!
I remember reading about her in 3rd grade, When we were working on a titanic unit in my classroom, and we read the children's book about her written by Dr. Robert Ballard... She really did give one of the more realistic accounts. It has stuck with me for many years.
@@mikeg8375 I read that same book when I was in 4th grade, Ruth's story is what sparked my interest in the Titanic
Why does her voice sound like old Rose from the movie? (I wrote this not seeing shirleypoplo-ej7lz's comment, sorry)
Sadly she doesnt mention the break up.
there's a doc called titanic a question of murder I think that's the name...and in that one she says the boat broke in half, and in another doc..it's like she's being interviewed in a room as if she's in a courtroom and she said it broke in half then ... Eva Hart said she saw it break in half aswell
I think when it broke in half some ppl just thought it was sliding down into the water. mid section goes down breaks and the stern came back to the normal position and when the front broke off it went back up in the air.. I always found it strange that all these ppl couldn't agree on the fact of the ship breaking ...
@@ArronP Not really, eyewitness reports are not very reliable. Look for example at 9/11 when everyone in the beginning said it was a small plane. Now add panic, chaos and darkness into the mix. The brain can surprisingly be selective what it sees.
Breakups are sometimes hard to discuss.
@@myshepspud1 LOL! Truth is people were confused about what they witnessed that night. Some clearly saw the ship break in two, others were in a lifeboat where the angle didn't clearly show the separation.
Those who were on the stern when the ship broke heard the various dramatic, associated sounds, eg the roar of thick steel separating, and the various contents of the ship dropping down into the bow of the ship as it sheared off and sank. Gravity, and the Ocean, are twin forces of incredible power.
She was in one of the earlier boats and they had rowed away from the ship so by the time the break up occurred she would be a considerable distance away.
I watch far too much rubbish on this app.
It is videos such as this, that
'sober me up'
Incredible! God Bless you Ruth.
🇺🇸 🇬🇧 💐
Ruth becker
Rose buckater
R and b common ?
One of the most striking things to me is how different the Titanic survivors looked in old age. They wore normal everyday clothes, lived in normal houses with normal decorations. A far cry from the extravagant upper class lifestyles depicted in Titanic movies. Even in the 1997 movie, Rose turned into a normal grandma living in a middle class house after growing up in detached opulence. What happened to all their wealth?
Nothing happened, they just changed with the times like everything else.
@@Anurania Ruth Becker was a second class passenger
Back then they couldn’t sue for millions
@@Anurania income tax
Income tax didn't come in properly until 1914.
What movie is on background ?
A Night To Remember
Wow, she sounds like movie Rose
Great observation! I wonder if that was Cameron's intention? Maybe he had the cast watch some of these survivor interviews for insights on how to play the characters.
and they never came...
Can't believe she was born in the same village as me - Guntur
Why would her mother leave her on the Titanic alone???
🙏🙏🙏🚩🚩🚩🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳
This was so sad what happened to the people on the Titanic and 1,500 people died due to the sinking and the water was so cold and it was 28 degrees and Carpathia saved all of the people and it was so sad what happened to these people and God rest those souls. Especially the people who died on Titan when they wanted to see the Titanic***
What is that shot of the stern at 43 seconds from?
The shot is from the 2012 Titanic miniseries by Julian Fellowes
Not her mama left her 😂
✨✨✨
😭
Rowed away as fast as they could...hearing the screams for help....Yeah I bet she was. Some things never change.
Her lifeboat was full there was little they coukd of done
Her mother left her on the ship?
Her mother was the last one they would let on that particular lifeboat (after she had to beg to get on with the younger children). So Ruth had to get on the next boat.
She didn’t have much choice
Must've been a rich lady didn't lose anyone really.
You could hear very early on in her story that she was rich or first class because of the way she addressed the Steward and how they were the first people in the room at the top ready to go on the lifeboats. Plus they were the furthest away when the ship sank
She was a second class passenger. 100% of second class children survived, as did most of the women. The lifeboat she left in was launched relatively late in the sinking. The reason they were so far away was because her boat rowed away as fast as they could, as you can hear in this interview.
She was 12 years old ,2nd class and left in one of the last lifeboats at around 1:40 (lifeboat 13) she didn’t loose her dad bc he stayed in India to finish his work and his wife and kids went on the titanic so ofc they were able to get into lifeboats .
Она из второго класса, а у второго класса был удобный выход на шлюпочную палубу, даже лифт второго класса шел туда напрямую, в отличие от первого класса, и выходил как раз у дальних шлюпок. Неудивительно, что они быстро сориентировались. Их счастье.