Passengers of the Titanic
A total of 2,240 people sailed on the maiden voyage of the Titanic, the second of the White Star Line's Olympic-class ocean liners, from Southampton, England, to New York City.[1] Partway through the voyage, the ship struck an iceberg and sank in the early morning of 15 April 1912, resulting in the deaths of 1,517 passengers and crew.[2][3]
The ship's passengers were divided into three separate classes determined by the price of their ticket: those travelling in first class, most of them the wealthiest passengers on board, included prominent members of the upper class, businessmen, politicians, high-ranking military personnel, industrialists, bankers, entertainers, socialites, and professional athletes. Second-class passengers were predominantly middle-class travellers and included professors, authors, clergymen, and tourists. Third-class or steerage passengers were primarily immigrants moving to the United States and Canada.[4]
Ticket-holders who did not sail[edit]
Numerous notable and prominent people of the era, who held tickets for the westbound passage or were guests of those who held tickets, did not sail. Others were waiting in New York to board for the passage back to Plymouth, England, on the second leg of Titanic's maiden voyage. Many of the unused tickets that survived, whether they were for the westbound passage or the return eastbound passage, have become quite valuable as Titanic-related artifacts. Those who held tickets for a passage, but did not actually sail, include Theodore Dreiser, Henry Clay Frick, Milton S. Hershey, Guglielmo Marconi, John Pierpont Morgan, John Mott, George Washington Vanderbilt II, Edgar Selwyn.[34][35]