Edgard Samuel Andrew was a young passenger on board Titanic and one of the two Argentines on board Titanic, along with Violet Constance Jessop.
Background and early life[]
Edgard Samuel Andrew was born on March 28, 1895 on the El Durazno ranch, near the city of Río Cuarto, in the south of the province of Córdoba, owned by the landowner Ambrosio Olmos – who died in 1906 and left it in the ownership of his wife, Adelia Maria Harilaos de Olmos. His father, English immigrant Samuel Andrew, had settled there with his wife, Annie Robson, during the 1870s; both originally from Whitby, Yorkshire. They had eight children, of whom Edgard was the youngest. Samuel Andrew was the first administrator of the El Durazno ranch, succeeding him in that position, after his death, his son Wilfred. Part of Edgard's family now resides in Villa General Belgrano.
In 1911, at the age of 16, Edgard traveled to England to study engineering.
Edgard's older brother, Silvano Alfred, had been the first of the Andrews to leave the ranch to study in England. He spent a year at Whitby and more than six years at Stockton, where he studied marine engineering at the technical institute and became an expert shipbuilder. When he returned to Buenos Aires he entered the navy. In 1911, Alfredo, at the age of 28, was sent to the United States, at the request of Admiral Manuel Domecq García, to inspect the construction of Argentine warships. First, he was in Quincy (Massachusetts), where the Rivadavia ship was manufactured. Later he moved to New Jersey, where the battleship Moreno was being built. In 1912 he fell in love with a rich widow named Harriet Fisher, much older than him, for whom he would abandon his military career and Argentine citizenship to stand out as an executive in the mechanical industry, becoming director of the firm "Fisher & Norris Anvil Works". ", supplier of the Department of Defense of the United States.
Alfredo invited his brother Edgard -who was 12 years older- to his wedding in Trenton, New Jersey, and even to live with him in the United States.
Edgard was engaged to Josefina "Josey" Cowan, also the daughter of British immigrants, residents of Belgrano and a year older than him. Shortly before leaving for the United States, she sent him a letter announcing that she was traveling from Buenos Aires to see him.
Edgard, saddened by losing the opportunity to meet again, wrote to her from Bournemouth, two days before leaving on the Titanic, on April 8, 1912: "You cannot imagine how sorry I am to leave without seeing you and I have to leave and there is no other choice. ". In the same letter, which is on display framed in a house in Martínez, in the northern part of the province of Buenos Aires, the third paragraph reads: "Imagine Josey that I am embarking on the largest steamer in the world, but not I am not at all proud, because at this moment I wish that the Titanic was submerged at the bottom of the ocean".
Titanic[]
What sealed Edgard's fate was a coal guild strike. Indeed, because of it, the White Star Line canceled the other transatlantic trips to prioritize the Maiden Voyage of the Titanic. Andrew had a ticket to New York on the Oceanic, scheduled to set sail on April 17, 1912, but before the trip was cancelled, he changed it to be on the Maiden Voyage of the RMS Titanic, the largest and most luxurious passenger ship of the early twentieth century, which sailed from the port of Southampton, England, bound for New York, United States, For him it was much more expensive since he had to pay 12 pounds for a Second Class berth. It was April 10, after noon when Andrew was aboard.
Shortly after, Edgard bought a postcard of the ship to send to his brother Wilfred, at the El Durazno ranch. He wrote it in the reading room and shipped it from Queenstown, Ireland, the last port before crossing the ocean. That postcard, which today is kept in the hands of Roberto Pasoli, Wilfred Andrew's grandson, says: "From this colossal ship I have the pleasure of greeting you. Today I will arrive in Ireland, where I will spend a few hours. I will premiere it on its first trip to this great ship. Signed: Edgard". Both letters were received a month later.
Titanic sank in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean 2 hours and 40 minutes after she had collided with a large iceberg at 11:40 P.M. on the night of Sunday, April 14, 1912. On April 15, the captain started the evacuation when he knew the ship would sink, but the evacuation was not properly organised nor were there enough lifeboats, which caused the death of more than 1,500 people. Edgard was one of them and his body was never found.
Edwina Troutt[]
Edwina Celia Troutt, nicknamed Winnie, a 27 year old servant from Bath, England, received her life jacket the night of the sinking from her Argentine tablemate. The shipwreck left her with great emotional upheavals and for almost 40 years she did not speak about it. But then she became a celebrity, largely as a survivor of the Titanic. She was married three times, spent most of her life in California and died in 1984, five months after her hundredth birthday and a year before the wreckage of the sunken Titanic was found.
Edgard was ten years younger. There was a relationship of camaraderie between them, cemented from Southampton -where they both took the Titanic because they could not board the Oceanic- in the intense coexistence of life on board. With Winnie, Edgard exercised courtesy for the last time. Among Edgard's brothers, nephews and great-nephews, it was always said that he gave her his life jacket and then jumped into the water. His body was never found. Winnie confirmed the family version when she began to speak publicly about the tragedy. She said that the Argentine passenger already had his vest on, but when he encountered her on the staircase, he saw her nervousness. Thus he gave her the vest and later threw himself off the ship.
Items[]
In April 2001 a few of Edgar's belongings were salvaged from the wreck of Titanic by RMS Titanic inc., the company infamous for bringing up many items of what was practically a massive sea grave. They came across his suitcase with a book in it and the items were put into restoration.