Marjorie Newell Robb, the oldest living survivor of the sinking of the luxury liner Titanic 80 years ago, has died, the Titanic Historical Society said Saturday. She was 103.
Robb, who late in life frequently spoke to various groups about her experiences the night the supposedly unsinkable Titanic went down in a collision with an iceberg in the North Atlantic, died Thursday in Westport where she made her home, society official Don Lynch said.Robb was born Feb. 12, 1889, in Lexington and was the daughter of Arthur W. Newell and Mary Greeley Newell. Her father was the president of the Fourth National Bank of Boston when he took his two daughters, Marjorie and Madeleine, on a tour of Egypt and the Holy Land in 1912.
They boarded the Titanic in France on April 10 for the voyage back to the United States.
The Titanic, the largest ocean liner in the world, sideswiped an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912.
Newell placed his two daughters in a lifeboat as the liner slowly slipped beneath the surface. His last words to them were, "It seems more dangerous for you two girls to get in that boat than to remain with me."
Newell was among the more than 1,500 people who died in the disaster. Only about 750, mostly women and children, survived. The Titanic's life boats had space for only 1,178 people and there were 2,224 people aboard the liner.
In a news release announcing Robb's death, the Titanic society said that contrary to what was reported at the time of Robb's 100th birthday, she was not in the same lifeboat as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown."
Her mother was so stricken with grief she never asked her daughters about the sinking and forbade them to mention the subject in her presence.
The family maintained silence about the sinking until Mrs. Newell's death in the late 1950s, also at the age of 103.
While in her 90s, Robb spoke frequently to groups about the disaster, including conventions of the Titanic Historical Society.
The society said funeral services will be private and asked that her family's request not to be contacted by the news media be respected.
A widow since the 1960s, Robb had four children but the Titanic Society said it did not know if any were living.
In one of the greatest maritime disasters in history, the British White Star liner Titanic sank on its maiden voyage. The 46,000-ton ship, the largest and most luxurious afloat, had a double-bottomed hull with 16 watertight compartments. Four compartments could be flooded without endangering the ship, making it "unsinkable."
The ship was traveling at 22 knots - later judged too fast for conditions - when shortly before midnight it struck an iceberg. Five of the watertight compartments flooded and the ship began to sink at 2:20 a.m. April 15.
Scientist Robert Ballard led a U.S.-French team that found the Titanic Sept. 1, 1985. It had drifted to a point 370 miles south of Newfoundland.