Local Links to the Titanic Disaster April 17

The North Berrien Historical Museum invites the public to a presentation on southwest Michigan connections to the Titanic this spring.  In April 1912 the massive and luxurious steamship RMS Titanic, during her maiden voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, hit an iceberg and sank.  The disaster took the lives of 1,517 people while just 705 were rescued.  The focus of this slide show presentation in Coloma will be on the survivors and policy consequences of Titanic’s sinking that had significant ties to southwest Michigan.  “Local Links to the Titanic Disaster” will be held on Tuesday, April 17 at 7pm.  The program is free to attend and refreshments will follow.

Ruth Becker in 1912, a Titanic survivor who
later was a teacher in Berrien County for 20 years.

Titanic passengers to be discussed include the Becker family, a mother and three children bound for Benton Harbor.  Two parties on the ship were traveling to Dowagiac: the Bishops, a wealthy newlywed couple, and the Touma (Thomas) family, a mother with two children immigrating from Syria to join her husband here.  Senator William Alden Smith of Michigan, who led the U.S. investigation in to the tragedy, was a Dowagiac native.  The aftermath of the Titanic disaster also impacted ships on the Great Lakes by forcing new maritime laws about lifeboat capacity and wireless telegraphy.

This April 17 program will be presented by Tracy Gierada from the North Berrien Historical Museum and Jennifer Quail from the Museum at Southwestern Michigan College.  While at the North Berrien Historical Museum, visitors can also view the new exhibit “Shipwrecks of the Berrien County Coast.”  For more information, call the museum at (269) 468-3330 or visit our website www.NorthBerrienHistory.org.