The lucky survivors of the Titanic spoke for years about their versions of the tragic event. Thanks to their memories, today we have, alongside official accounts, some completely unknown details about what happened in the final moments before the famous ship sank.
The Titanic was built to dominate transatlantic passenger transport at the beginning of the 20th century. It was owned by the White Star Line and was the largest passenger ship in the world. Due to its size, the most advanced technology installed on the ship, and the fanfare that accompanied it, it was called “unsinkable.”
All of this is well-known. However, from the testimonies of survivors in the years that followed, we learned some facts that are not widely known, including the answer to the question:
How many Serbs were on the Titanic?
According to data from the website “Encyclopedia Titanica,” there were 34 people from this region on the Titanic, all of whom were in third class. Except for Jozef Draženović from Hrastelnica, the bodies of the others were never found or identified.
Still, there were those who survived—Mara Banski, Ivan Jalševac, and his companion Nikola Lulić.
Lulić was a peasant child. He worked in the fields and helped his parents until he was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army. However, the story goes that this young man refused to serve in an army that wasn’t Serbian, so in 1902 he deserted.
Since he couldn’t return home, he went “in search of bread” to the distant and mysterious America. After years of working in a mine in Minnesota, Nikola returned to his hometown in the fall of 1911.
Life there, however, was still hard. Nikola couldn’t find a job, so his only option was to once again go abroad for work. A few fellow countrymen joined him on this journey to the “white world.” Fate would have it that the ship they chose was the Titanic.
Lulić later said the Titanic was like nothing he had ever seen before. It didn’t resemble a ship at all but a small, floating city. However, that “city” soon experienced a shock no one could have imagined.
Third-class passengers didn’t learn that the ship was sinking until water started entering their cabins.
There were 20 lifeboats on the Titanic, not enough to save over 2,000 passengers and crew members. The greatest outrage was caused by the fact that, in the chaos that ensued, many lifeboats were lowered into the water half-empty.
There are two versions of how Nikola was saved.
At one point, he found himself in the icy water. According to one version, he was wearing an officer’s cap, which is why he was pulled into a lifeboat.
A somewhat nobler version tells of him saving a child who had fallen into the water beside him. The child’s mother—a Norwegian woman—then reached out her hand and pulled him into the lifeboat.
This is how Nikola came to witness the technological marvel of the era sinking before his eyes. The “Carpathia,” the ship that came for the survivors, took him to New York.
After a short rest with relatives in Chicago, Nikola continued his journey and reached the mine in Minnesota.
He worked there until the end of World War I, and then returned home for good. He lived in the newly formed joint state until his death in 1962.
He was 79 years old.
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Source: Istorijski Zabavnik, Foto: Wikimedia Creative Commons