A TITANIC TALE!

    FRIDAY, APRIL 15TH.
      A TITANIC TALE!

   On this date 104 years ago,
at approximately 2:20 in the
morning, the RMS Titanic broke
in half and sank to the bottom of
the Atlantic ocean!
    Anyone who know me knows
I have become obsessed with
the story of the Titanic since I
solved a mystery about the ship
back in 1972.
     That's the year I learned about
a Wilkes-Barre woman who had
survived the sinking. And she
agreed to do an interview with
me!
      Mrs. Thelma Thomas was
being escorted to the United
States by her brother-in-law
Charles. She was to join her
husband who operated a produce
company in Wilkes-Barre. Her
infant son was with her as well.
     After Titanic struck the
iceberg Charles carried the baby
as he tried to get Thelma and her
son to a lifeboat. In the confusion
they became separated.
     For two days Thelma believed
her baby boy and brother-in-law
were dead. But while in a Hospital
in New York City she learned that
several children had been saved.
One of them was her baby!
       Unfortunately Charles
perished.
        Two days after my recorded
interview, April 15th., 1972, I
was watching the Today show
when another Titanic survivor, Mrs.
Edwina Troutt , said she was handed
a baby while sitting in a lifeboat!
         Suspecting this was more
than just a coincidence I called
NBC and told them about Mrs.
Thomas. An official there
arranged for Mrs. Troutt to
call Mrs. Thomas. Mrs. Troutt
described the blanket in which the
baby was wrapped and it was the
same one Mrs.Thomas had placed
around her child!
       I had solved the mystery as
to who had rescued the baby boy.
       And yet, I keep learning more!
       Just YESTERDAY, while scanning
one of my many books on Titanic,
I came across a report by a
magazine correspondent who was
on board and was taking notes as
the ship was being evacuated.
       One paragraph reads......
"A man with a heavy Middle
Eastern accent came running up to
Edwina Troutt clutching an infant
in his arms. He frantically told her
he didn't want to be saved but would
she take his nephew, which she did,
getting into boat 16."
       We now know that brave man
was Charles Thomas!
        The infant nephew he saved
was Essid who was three-months-
old when Titanic foundered. He
died of pneumonia when he was
just 20!
        I think I'll be linked with
the story of Titanic as long as I
live. Hope I keep learning...and
that all of your NEWS is good!

(Pictured below: Mrs. Thelma Thomas,
Charles Thomas, Mrs. Edwina Troutt,
and the only know photo of Essid Thomas.)