Anna Louisa Andrews
Anna Louisa Hogeboom was a First Class Passenger on Titanic.
Early life[]
Anna Louisa Andrews was born on May 5, 1860 as the daughter of Robert Emmet Andrews (1819-1901), a lawyer and later judge, and Matilda Scudder Fonda. She was their youngest child. She first married Percival Cadby in 1884 and they had 3 children. Sadly the marriage didn't last long as he deceased in 1888 at the very young age of 27. She later got remarried in New York in 1898. Her second marriage was to John Clinton Hogeboom who was a lawyer like her father.
Titanic[]
She had been travelling in France and Italy since November 1911, and was returning to Hudson on the Titanic with her sister Cornelia Theodosia Andrews and niece Gretchen Fiske Longley. The three embarked in Cherbourg. Anna took cabin D-11.
On the night of April 14, Gretchen and Anna Louisa were asleep while Cornelia was reading. Anna woke up when the collision happened. Mrs. Hogeboom later told that she saw ice crystals apparently deposited through open portholes. Upon asking a steward what was the matter, the ladies were reassured and told to go back to bed but the continued commotion outside their cabin caused them to stir again. She asked another steward about what was going on, and he informed her that the ship was in danger and that they should report to the ship's main deck with their life preservers. Anna, Gretchen and Cornelia Andrews dressed up, put on their fur coats, and headed to the Aft Port Boat Deck.
The first three boats the ladies tried to get into had no room for them so they waited for the fourth boat, which turned out to be lifeboat 10, and were helped to get in: "[...] Discipline on the Titanic, It was good in a way... No one rushed and no one crowded. We waited for the fourth boat and slowly went down seventy-five feet to the water.The men made no effort to get into the boat.When we pulled away we saw them all standing in an unbroken line on the deck..." recounts Anna Andrews.
Once the boat reached the water, its occupants noted a lack of capable sailors. Anna recalls that "two male passengers, an Asian and an Armenian, couldn't row and several women, including my niece Gretchen, got on the oars."
From her vantage point in the lifeboat, Anna Louisa was amazed at how far the Titanic's bow had settled in the water. Later, he described the explosions, which he attributed to the explosion of the boilers. Then the ship's lights went out and the ship broke in two.
Anna commented that the sounds of those fighting in the water were horrific. As time passed and the screaming subsided, Anna saw a lot of ice all around and an ice field in the distance that was about a mile long.
When they were rescued by the RMS Carpathia, the three girls were kind enough to refuse to stay in a cabin as they felt their were other people who needed it more because of their worse conditions. Instead, they decided to sleep in one of the saloons instead.
Because she was dressed only in a nightgown and a fur coat, Anna suffered from the cold and had nearly lost her voice by the time she arrived in New York. When they got there, Anna Andrews, her sister and her niece made their way to Mrs. Roberta Arthur Flack (Anna and Cornelia's sister) in New Jersey.
Later life[]
After the disaster, Anna continued to travel. Her 1922 passport describes her as having a fair complexion, a round face with gray eyes, and graying brown hair. A distinguishing feature was a scar on her left cheek, which was the result of a dog bite.
Anna Louisa lived the rest of her life in Chatham, Columbia, New York and she died there in 1947 at the age of 87. She was buried at Cedar Park Cemetery in Hudson, as was her sister Cornelia.