Alfred Nourney was a Dutch-born German gentleman and a passenger aboard Titanic.
Early life[]
He was the son of the widowed Adele Wolff. He was born in Nijmegen on 26 February 1892.
Titanic[]
He was one of the few that upgraded to another cabin, like Eleanor Cassebeer. He used a pseudonym to travel, Baron Alfred von Drachstedt, when boarding Titanic in Cherbourg as a Second Class passenger. He was 20 years old at the time.
His request to a purser to be transferred to a First Class cabin was granted, largely because of his supposedly aristocratic status. Prior to his voyage, he had purchased expensive items, including clothes, jewelry, walking sticks, two sets of toilet articles and a fountain pen, in order to support his pretense of belonging to the rich folk. After the transfer he stayed in cabin D-38.
He sent one telegraph via the wireless to his mother in Köln, and another to a female friend or perhaps girlfriend, a certain Miss Jakonska.
On the night of April 14, 1912, he was playing bridge with Henry Blank and William Greenfield in the First Class Smoking Room. When Nourney first sensed a disturbance, he briefly left to investigate, but returned to continue playing. Minutes later, they became aware of the situation and boarded lifeboat 7 without difficulties, lowering away at 12:25 A.M. While the others were rowing, he sat motionless, smoking cigarettes. He also carried a pistol which he used to fire gunshots into the air through the night. They were rescued by the RMS Carpathia at 5:10 A.M.
While on board the Carpathia, Nourney didn't behave anything like a gentleman. Just after lunch, he went to the Smoking Room and made himself comfortable on a pile of blankets, which were to be distributed amongst the survivors. Some young women entered the room and noticed him. One of them pulled away the uppermost blanket, making Nourney roll onto the floor. As everyone applauded the woman, he disappeared.
Upon disembarking on April 18 in New York City, he said he had lost all his money on the Titanic and wished to quickly return to Europe. He returned to France and then to Köln in Germany, where his mother lived.
Later life[]
During the 1920s, he was a salesman for Daimler-Benz AG, and he competed in motorsports. He settled in Bad Honnef, Germany, where he became an honorary member of the "Rot-Weiss" Tennis Club. He married and had two daughters.
In 1960, he shed light on his experience on the sinking during an interview that was conducted by the German TV Süddeutscher Rundfunk. He told about the sound of the 1500 people in the water struggling for their lives. It had daunted him and left a life-long impression on him. To him it was like a siren.
Nourney died on November 15, 1972, and was the last remaining adult male that had been a passenger in Titanic's First Class.