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Rhoda Mary Abbott was a Third Class passenger on the RMS Titanic. She was the only female passenger to end up in the ocean during the sinking and survive.

Biography[]

Rhoda Mary Hunt was born on January 14, 1873 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, to Joseph and Sarah Hunt. She was Christened on October 5 of that year in Ludgershall, Buckingham, England. While growing up, she had two siblings; Thomas and Lucy.

In 1881, Rhoda and her siblings were living in Willesden, Middlesex, England. They were lodging at the home of Ziller Wells.

In 1891 she was living with her family in Chelsea, Kensal Town with her mother and sister.

Immigration to the United States[]

Rhoda immigrated from St. Albans to the United States in 1894, arriving in Providence, Rhode Island

In early 1895, she married a professional boxer named Stanton Abbott (who had been born in London, but immigrated to the US in 1893). Stanton would become the middleweight boxing champion of the United States.

Stanton and Rhoda had two sons, Rossmore Edward Abbott and Eugene Joseph Abbott. She loved being a wife and mother, caring for her sons as they grew up. The family were members of Grace Episcopal Church in Providence, Rhode Island were they were living in 1900.

Unfortunately, by 1911, Stanton and Rhoda had grown apart and they filed for a divorce.

After going to England on the Olympic, the Titanic's sister ship, she stayed with her widowed mother. Pretty soon, Abbott's two sons became homesick so they decided to return to New York. Rhoda's Baptist church provided the Third Class tickets for the Titanic. At 39 years of age, she boarded the ship in Southampton with her sons.

On April 14, the family was already asleep when the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg. On April 15, at 12:15 A.M, they were alarmed by a steward to put on life jackets and go up to the ship's main deck. After waiting in line to follow other Third Class passengers to the deck, Abbott and her sons waited at the Second Class Saloon area. Even though only women and children were allowed past the gate, Abbott's sons were able to accompany their mother to the lifeboats.[1]They finally arrived when one of the final remaining lifeboats, Collapsible C, was already being loaded around 1:45 A.M. When it was her turn to enter the lifeboat, she realized that her sons would be denied a spot, and refused a place in the lifeboat, so stepped back.[1]

Right after Titanic's bridge took a steep dive and went under, Rhoda and her sons jumped from the Boat Deck. Her grip on her sons released and she frantically tried to find them. When she lost hope, somebody from Collapsible Lifeboat A grabbed her and pulled her aboard. She could not see her sons. Seconds later, boat A was swamped and almost all the passengers were thrown out. An hour later, lifeboat 14 found them and helped them board. There was a lot of room because Lowe had distributed the passengers of his lifeboat to others. All the people who died were immediately thrown off. Soon after that, the people on lifeboat 14 saw the Carpathia. When they were rescued, Rhoda was put into special care for her leg injuries from the cold sea. She was the only woman to physically survive in the icy cold waters after the Titanic sank.

Aboard Carpathia[]

Aboard the Carpathia, Rhoda was given a makeshift bed. Her new friend, who she met on the ship, Amy Stanley cared for her, both soothing her injuries and comforting her over the loss of her sons.

Amy Stanley later recalled:

"We were very close since we were on the Titanic together. And her stateroom had been near mine. I was the only one that she could talk to about her sons because I knew them myself. She told me that she would get [sic] in the lifeboat if there hadn't been so many people around. So she and her sons kept together. She was thankful that [the] three of them had stayed with her on that piece of wreckage. The youngest went first then the other son went. She grew numb and cold and couldn't remember when she got on the Carpathia. There was a piece of cork in her hair and I managed to get a comb and it took a long time but finally we got it out."

When they arrived in New York, Rhoda was sent to St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan, New York. She was one of the last survivors to be discharged. For the rest of her life, she would have respiratory problems and serious asthma as a result of the Titanic disaster.

Later Life[]

As a result of the sinking of the Titanic, Abbott had respiratory problems, including severe bouts of asthma, for the rest of her life.[2] She was not able to deal with the loss of her sons, and grieved for months. On 16 December 1912, she married longtime friend George Charles Williams, and the couple settled in Jacksonville, Florida.[2] By 1928, they had returned to England to settle Williams' father's estate in London. Abbott took care of her husband until his death in 1938. For the remainder of her life she tried to immigrate back to America, but was always refused.

Abbott died in London of heart failure as a result of hypertension on 18 February 1946, she was 73.

In Popular Culture[]

Titanic (1997)[]

20200719 092111

Rhoda Abbott sits next to Caledon Hockley on Collapsible A

20200719 054131

Rhoda Abbott fell to the sea briefly

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Rhoda Abbott, Caledon Hockley and the other occupants of Collapsible A wait for their rescue

Screenshot 20200708-005106 YouTube

Rhoda Abbott on the Carpathia with the lonely girl that Hockley found.

Rhoda Abbott makes an appearance in James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster 'Titanic', while Caledon "Cal" Hockley is attempting to board Collapsible A. He gives her the little girl that he used to gain entry into the boat (as the "women and children only" protocol was still being enforced). She's briefly fell to the water but pulled aboard again by Cal and another man.

As she is the only surviving woman in Collapsible A, much like Abbott's actual story of survival. She's later reappears in Carpathia's deleted scene, having apparently taken in the little girl (who was presumably orphaned).

  1. 1.0 1.1 "The Mystery of Rhoda Abbott Revealed". encyclopedia-titanica.org. Encyclopedia Titanica. http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/rhoda-abbott.html. Retrieved April 16, 2012. 
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