Mary Conover Lines
Mary Conover Lines was a passenger on the Titanic.
Background[]
Mary Conover Lines was born July 27, 1895 in Mount Vernon, state of New York, as the daughter of Doctor Ernest H. Lines and Elizabeth Lindsey James. Her father was President of the New York Life Insurance Company. The Lines family had lived for many years in Paris, France, and Mary was educated in both Paris and Italy.
Titanic[]
In April 1912, Mary and her mother were traveling to the United States to attend her brother's graduation from Dartmouth College. Mary and her mother boarded RMS Titanic at Cherbourg as First Class passengers and occupied cabin D-28. Her father, Dr. Lines had actually booked for Titanic as well, but at the last moment, press of business caused Dr. Lines to remain in Paris. This may have saved his life.
On Saturday 13 April, the two ladies had just finished lunch in the First Class Dining Room on D-Deck. They had made a habit of stopping for coffee in the adjoining reception room following their meal. After she had taken a seat, Captain Smith and Bruce Ismay came and sat at a table nearby and began discussing the possibility of having the last boilers lit. Her mother recognized Mr. Ismay from several years back when they had both lived in New York, and she confirmed his identity with her table steward.
Miss Lines and her mother became alarmed when the ship stopped and the noise of steam being vented out could be heard. During the sinking, an officer tied lifebelts on Mrs. Lines and her daughter, saying: "We are sending you out as a matter of precaution. We hope you will be back for breakfast." Lines was rescued in lifeboat 9.
After the sinking[]
They would have their breakfast was on Carpathia instead, after she and her mother were picked up by the Cunarder. Later in life, Mary Lines said that two things stuck in her memory about that night. One was the intense cold and the other was the cries of those in the water, which slowly faded as the hours went by.
On Carpathia, her mother was giving a cabin however Mary was forced to sleep on the floor, together with a girl of her age. Mary sent a letter to her Parisian school friend on April 16, Helen M. Iselin, to tell everything that happened. Mary attended a girl’s school, Cours Fénelon. The letter was in French.
Later life[]
In 1919, Mary married to Sargent Holbrook Wellman. They settled in Topsfield, Massachusetts, where they had a daughter and two sons.
On 23 November 1975, after having suffered from a stroke, Mary Conover Lines died at her home in Massachusetts, aged 80.