Incredible true story of forgotten Titanic hero: Socialite's courageous mission to rescue passengers on the ill-fated ship

Daily Mail​

19-05-2025

It's a tragic story that we all likely believe we know rather well - especially thanks to the box office hit that is the Titanic movie.
Yet beyond Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater's ill-fated journey and Leonardo DiCaprio 's timeless good looks lies a hidden tale that should command just as much attention.
The RMS Titanic calamitously sank after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean during its maiden voyage in April 15 1912.
It departed Southampton for New York City just five days earlier carrying around 2,200 passengers, some of them the wealthiest in the world - but as we famously know, not everyone made it.
However one moneyed woman did, and the story of her selfless deeds in the hour of disaster is perhaps as striking as any told in a Hollywood blockbuster.
Margaret Brown was a wealthy American socialite who boarded the Titanic as a first class passenger at Cherbourg, France, the vessel's first stop after leaving Southampton.
Ironically her bravery on the doomed ship posthumously earned her the nickname 'The Unsinkable Molly Brown'; her actions so revered that her life was later celebrated in a 1960 Broadway musical of the same name.
Those in the know have hailed Margaret for her courageous attempts to rescue fellow survivors that night, despite the undertaking threatening her own safety.
Her character was brought to life in the 1997 global smash by Academy-award winning actress Kathy Bates, now 76.
Her portrayal of the real life heroine revealed her as a key component in both Jack Dawson - played by Leonardo Di Caprio - and Rose DeWitt Bukater's - played by Kate Winslet - ill-fated love story.
The mother-of-two, at the time married to rich American mining engineer James Joseph Brown, fondly known as JJ Brown - selflessly lent a hard up Jack her son's tuxedo so he could make a glowing first impression on the apple of his eye, Rose, in the film.
Surviving passengers and tales alike have described Margaret as a kind-hearted soul, and as one of the few people from the upper class carriage that refused to discriminate against the lower class.
But this barely scratches the surface of Margaret's remarkable actions on the historic ship.
In the early hours of April 15, 1912, the mammoth ship owned by British company White Star Line struck the towering, nearly 100ft high iceberg, beginning the Titanic's catastrophic floundering.
The instant chaos was certain and unimaginable, but the formidable philanthropist quickly leapt into action.
Margaret focused on getting as many people as possible onto lifeboats, willing to face the chilling danger of the deep to save others.
Margaret herself was eventually placed in lifeboat number six, where she helped to keep spirits up as the surviving passengers awaited their unknown fates.
Her courage in the face of calamity is to many insurmountable - she reportedly put her foot down and insisted that her lifeboat return to search for other survivors and board them immediately.
The lifeboat's sailor Robert Hichens was tasked with heeding her plea however the two argued fiercely about his hesitance to to return to the scene of the disaster.
Margaret was reportedly steadfast and threatened to throw Hichens overboard if he failed to return to help others.
Although Hichens never acquiesced her command, her selflessness and compassion at a time when others would've likely been shaking in their boots has rendered her an icon of the Titanic.
So who was Margaret before she became 'The Unsinkable Molly Brown?
By the end of her life, she was a known socialite, traveller and philanthropist - but her humble beginnings are a far cry from the Margaret Brown the world grew to know.
Born Margaret Tobin on July 18 1867 near the Mississippi River in Hannibal, Missouri, Margaret grew up in a progressive environment at the behest of her parents.
Irish immigrants John and Johanna Tobin arrived in the US in the 1880s following the first period of industrialization in America and encouraged their daughter to attend school and get an education, revealed tribute site Mollybrown.org.
Along with her brother Daniel, the family grew up as part of the working class, and by age 13 she left school to enter the job trade full time.
Her and her brother moved to Leadville, Colorado, where Margaret found work at a department store and deepened her religious roots by becoming active in the Catholic community.
She later worked in soup kitchens and worked with charities, where she observed first hand the struggles of migrants like herself, as well as the poor - perhaps this experience planted the seeds of the charitable woman she would later become.
Not long after her travails in Colorado, she met a hard working mining engineer by the name of James Joseph Brown.
The two hit it off immediately and after enjoying a summer romance, the couple tied the knot on September 1, 1886. Together they had two children, Lawrence Palmer Brown and Catherine Ellen Brown, fondly called Helen.
But married life was tough, as though her skilled husband toiled heartily to bring in wages, his earnings were uninspiring.
A financial crisis in the US dubbed the Silver Crash would unexpectedly turn things around - the devastating economic period was caused by a significant drop in the value of silver.
And although it left uncertainty and poverty in its wake, it was a fertile environment for a new gold discovery.
Margaret's husband struck gold - literally - when he stumbled on the precious metal after a series of research and explorations while working for Little Johnny Mine.
Overnight Margaret and her husband were millionaires. The pair expanded their burgeoning empire by purchasing property and travelling the globe to countries like Japan, India and Russia.
Though it brought them much pleasure, Margaret couldn't shake off the stark imagery of the homelessness and turmoil she had witnessed back home.
She started working with reformers including Ben Lindsey, best known for his polarizing creation of the first juvenile court system in west Mississippi, to advocate for better conditions and city improvements.
The creature of leisure continued to balance social life with her philanthropic efforts and in 1912 she left for Paris to visit her daughter Helen and attend a party by wealthy American magnate, John Jacob Astor.
During the trip she received word that her eldest grandchild, Lawrence Palmer Brown Jr. had fallen ill and so she sought travel back to the States; the next available ship was called the RMS Titanic.
As fate would have it Helen had meant to accompany her mother on the doomed ship but at the last minute she headed to London with friends.
Margaret booked a solo first class ticket and boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg, France, expecting to arrive in New York in a matter of days.
It has been widely reported that Titanic captain, Edward John Smith - who tragically went down with the ship - was sent numerous warnings about ice near the ship's path but consequently forged ahead. Four days into the journey the Titanic struck ice.
RMS Titanic tragically sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912 after a collision with an iceberg, killing an estimated 1,517 of the 2,224 people on board within a mere three hours.
In an interview with the Newport Herald shared by mollybrown.org Margaret gave her account of what happened that night.
'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'.
She told the publication that confusion spread instantly and that orders to board lifeboats were chaotically shouted at passengers.
When lifeboat six was lowered Margaret was instructed to get inside and sail with other survivors to safety.
The RMS Carpathia was the survivors' saving grace - the Cunard passenger steamship became part of maritime history when she answered a distress call from the Titanic and saved some 700 people from sinking.
However Margaret was reportedly unsettled by the fact that her lifeboat was yet to reach full capacity and in that moment decided to do something about it.
She ordered sailor Robert Hichens to return to the sinking ocean liner and pick up more victims.
Amongst the confusion, a back and forth ensued and it's believed that Hichens refused, resulting in Margaret threatening to throw him overboard if he didn't comply.
While Hichens sailed on eager to get lifeboat six to further safety, Margaret found other ways to help.
She distributed supplies such as blankets to those aboard the Carpathia and consoled the many who had lost fortunes, family and hope.
She went further by raising money for poorer passengers, and beseeched fellow wealthy survivors to join in her efforts. By the time the Carpathia had reached New York, Margaret had raised a whopping $10,000.
The mother-of-two continued her charitable efforts long after the famous crash.
She helped victims of the 1914 Ludlow Massacre - a mass killing by anti-striker militia during the Colorado Coalfield War - and later assisted with organizing the International Women's Rights conference in Rhode Island the same year.
During World War I, Margaret also worked in France with the Red Cross and later the American Committee for Devastated France to help wounded French and American soldiers.
In 1932, she was awarded the French Legion of Honor for her selfless acts.
Long before this in 1909, her and husband James Joseph Brown had legally separated owing to strains caused by differing interests.
Margaret's social calendar and philanthropy were passions unshared by her husband and so the two grew apart, although it is rumoured they remained married on paper until her death.
J.J. Brown died age 67 in September 1922, while Margaret passed away in her sleep on October 26, 1932, at age 65.
In 1971, her former Denver, Colorado home was turned into a museum called the Molly Brown House Museum.
A 19th-century riverboat attraction, called the the Molly Brown Riverboat, was also constructed at Disneyland Paris.