Eva Hart | |
|---|---|
 Hart in 1993 | |
| Born | (1905-01-31)31 January 1905 |
| Died | 14 February 1996(1996-02-14) (aged 91) Chadwell Heath,London, England |
| Known for | Being a surviving passenger of the Titanic and one of the last to recall the event. |
| Parent | Esther Hart (mother) |
Eva Miriam Hart (31 January 1905 – 14 February 1996) was an EnglishTitanic survivor and one of the last remaining passengers to recall the sinking ofRMS Titanic on 15 April 1912. She was seven years old at the time of the disaster, travelling as a second-class passenger with her parents, Benjamin and Esther Hart. Her father perished in the sinking; Eva and her mother were rescued byRMS Carpathia and returned to England shortly after arriving inNew York.
Born inIlford, Hart became a prominent voice in Titanic history, known for her vivid recollections and outspoken advocacy for maritime safety. She was awarded an MBE in 1974 for public and political service and remained active in public life until her death in 1996.
Eva Miriam Hart was born on 31 January 1905 inIlford,Essex (now part ofGreater London),England, to a Jewish father and a Christian mother.[1] Her parents were Benjamin Hart and his wifeEsther (née Bloomfield). Eva was their only child. Esther had been previously married and had nine children from her first marriage. Eva was educated at St. Mary's Convent (later St. Mary's Hare Park) inGidea Park, London. In early 1912, Benjamin decided his family would emigrate toWinnipeg,Manitoba, Canada. He was influenced by his brother, who already lived there, and by economic recessions in England at that time, in his decision to emigrate.
Eva was seven years old when she and her parents boardedTitanic as second-class passengers on 10 April 1912. They had been booked on theSSPhiladelphia, but a coal strike atSouthampton that spring kept her from sailing and many of her passengers were transferred toTitanic. Eva's mother allegedly felt uneasy aboutTitanic and feared that some catastrophe would happen; thehubris of calling a ship unsinkable was, in her mind, flying in the face of God.[2] With such fear, Eva's mother slept only during the day and stayed awake in their cabin at night fully dressed.[3]
Eva was sleeping whenTitanic struck aniceberg at 11:40 pm on 14 April. Her mother was awake at the time and felt "a slight bump". She immediately asked her husband to investigate the disturbance and he reluctantly left the cabin. Upon his return, he alerted her and Eva to the collision and, after wrapping Eva in a blanket, he carried her to the boat deck. Eva's father placed his wife and daughter inLifeboat No. 14 and told her to "be a good girl and hold Mummy's hand".[2] It was the last thing he ever said to her and the last time she ever saw him; he perished in the sinking and his body, if recovered, was never identified.
Eva and her mother were rescued the following morning by the rescue shipRMSCarpathia. Soon after arriving inNew York City on 18 April, Eva and her mother returned to England, because her mother never wanted to set sail for New York in the first place. Eva was plagued with nightmares and upon the death of her mother in 1928, when Hart was 23, she confronted her fears head-on by booking a ticket on a passenger ship heading toSingapore, upon which she locked herself in her cabin for four straight days until the nightmares went away.[2]
In April 2012, an audio walking guide toTitanic memorials inSouthampton was produced, featuring audio clips of Hart talking about her experience. The guide takes the listener on a walking route around Southampton, whereTitanic set sail on her maiden voyage. Being seven years old at the time of the sinking, she maintained several vivid memories:
We went on the day on the boat train. I was 7, I had never seen a ship before. It looked very big. Everybody was very excited. We went down to the cabin and that's when my mother said to my father that she had made up her mind quite firmly that she would not go to bed in that ship. She would sit up at night. She decided that she wouldn't go to bed at night and she didn't! One fact about the beautifulTitanic is that some said theTitanic was 'unsinkable' but now it went world wide that theTitanic has sunk and there were an estimated 700-1,500 survivors."I saw that ship sink," Hart said in a 1993 interview. "I never closed my eyes. I didn't sleep at all. I saw it, I heard it, and nobody could possibly forget it. I can remember the colours, the sounds, everything... The worst thing I can remember are the screams. It seemed as if once everybody had gone, drowned, finished, the whole world was standing still. There was nothing, just this deathly, terrible silence in the dark night with the stars overhead.[2] Hart recalled hearing theship's band playing "Nearer My God to Thee" as the ship succumbed to the ocean.[4]
Hart had several jobs during her life. She was a professional singer in Australia, aConservative Partyorganiser, and amagistrate. As a volunteer in theSecond World War, Hart organised entertainment for the troops and distributed emergency supplies to people afterThe Blitz. She was a member ofSoroptimist International of East London until her death in 1996, serving as club president during 1970–71 and as a member for 34 years.
In the1974 New Year Honours List, Hart was appointed aMember of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) "for political and public services in London."[5] It was presented to her by theDuke of Kent during theThree-Day Week.
Hart frequently criticised theWhite Star Line for failing to provide enough lifeboats for all aboardTitanic: "If a ship is torpedoed, that's war. If it strikes a rock in a storm, that's nature. But just to die because there weren't enough lifeboats, that's ridiculous."[2] The official report of the British Inquiry suggests, however, that additional boats would not necessarily have made any difference; the crew did not properly launch all of the boats it had in the available time, and there was no boat drill and no advance information given to the crew on what should be done in the event of emergency.[6]
Hart insisted in interviews that the ship had broken in half,[7][8] a widely debated rumour that was later proven to be true after the discovery of the wreck site byRobert Ballard in 1985. She was also adamant regarding the controversy surroundingSSCalifornian, a ship that was only a few miles fromTitanic and yet failed to respond to distress rockets and calls for help.[9] Hart claimed the vessel was less than 10 miles (16 km) fromTitanic, not 19 miles (31 km) as was previously believed:
I saw [theCalifornian]. It was terribly close...I didn't see a ship nineteen miles away. I saw a ship that was so close; and they said at the time it was less than nine miles away, [and yet] now they're trying to say it was nineteen... I saw it you know, and it wasn't just 'lights on the horizon' – you could see it was a ship. And I saw our rockets being fired, which that ship must have seen. Well, this inquiry says that they did see it but they didn't think it was a portent of danger. I would have thought in the middle of the Atlantic in the middle of the night that rockets must mean trouble.[10]
When salvaging efforts at the wreck site began in 1987, Hart was quick to note thatTitanic was a gravesite and should be treated as such. She often decried the "insensitivity and greed" and labelled the salvagers "fortune hunters, vultures, pirates, and grave robbers."[11] InTitanic: The Complete Story, she stated:
I hope severely that they will never attempt to raise part of it. I do hope they will remember this is a grave – a grave of 1,500 people who should never have died, and I don't think you should go down there and rob graves and I'm very much opposed to it.
Hart remained active inTitanic-related activities well into her 80s. In 1982, she returned to the US and joined several other survivors at aTitanic Historical Society convention commemorating the 70th anniversary of the sinking. She participated in three more conventions in 1987, 1988, and in 1992.[citation needed] In 1994, she wrote an autobiography,Shadow of the Titanic – A Survivor's Story, in which she described her experiences aboard the ship and the lasting implications of its sinking. On 15 April 1995, the 83rd anniversary of the disaster, she and fellow second-classTitanic survivorEdith Brown dedicated a memorial garden plaque on the grounds of theNational Maritime Museum in London.[12]
Hart died from cancer on 14 February 1996, at a hospice in London, two weeks after her 91st birthday. Her death left eight remaining survivors. In her memory, near to where she lived in Japan Road, is a pub called "The Eva Hart."[13]
Hart's connection to theTitanic and her active involvement in later years made her popular in numerous forms of media, including mentions innon-fiction books, museums andexhibitions.
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