Alden Caldwell

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Alden Caldwell
BornAlden Gates Caldwell [1]
(1911-06-10)June 10, 1911 [1]
Bangkok, Siam [1]
Died December 18, 1992(1992-12-18) (aged 81) [1]
Largo, Florida [1]
Parent(s) Albert Francis Caldwell
Sylvia Mae Caldwell

Alden Gates Caldwell (June 10, 1911 – December 18, 1992) was a survivor of the RMS Titanic, at only ten months. [2] [3]

RMS <i>Titanic</i> British transatlantic passenger liner, launched and foundered in 1912

RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1912, after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, more than 1,500 died, making it one of modern history's deadliest commercial marine disasters during peacetime. RMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat at the time she entered service and was the second of three Olympic-class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line. She was built by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. Thomas Andrews, chief naval architect of the shipyard at the time, died in the disaster.

Contents

Early life

He was born on June 10, 1911, in Bangkok, Siam (now known as Thailand), to Albert and Sylvia Mae Harbaugh Caldwell, who were Presbyterian missionaries [2] who taught at the Bangkok Christian College for Boys. [4] The couple decided to return to America, and on the journey home, they passed through Naples, Italy and learned that a steamship called the Titanic would soon go on its inaugural voyage from Southampton to New York City [2]

Bangkok Special administrative area in Thailand

Bangkok is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep. The city occupies 1,568.7 square kilometres (605.7 sq mi) in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand, and has a population of over eight million, or 12.6 percent of the country's population. Over fourteen million people lived within the surrounding Bangkok Metropolitan Region at the 2010 census, making Bangkok the nation's primate city, significantly dwarfing Thailand's other urban centres in terms of importance.

Thailand Constitutional monarchy in Southeast Asia

Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and formerly known as Siam, is a country at the center of the Southeast Asian Indochinese peninsula composed of 76 provinces. At 513,120 km2 (198,120 sq mi) and over 68 million people, Thailand is the world's 50th largest country by total area and the 21st-most-populous country. The capital and largest city is Bangkok, a special administrative area. Thailand is bordered to the north by Myanmar and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the southern extremity of Myanmar. Its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia and India on the Andaman Sea to the southwest. Although nominally a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, the most recent coup in 2014 established a de facto military dictatorship.

Bangkok Christian College

Bangkok Christian College (BCC)(Thai: โรงเรียนกรุงเทพคริสเตียนวิทยาลัย) is a private boys' school in the financial district of Si Lom, Bangkok. The school has a longstanding reputation as one of the most prestigious and highly selective schools in Thailand.

Aboard the Titanic

The family boarded the ship as second-class passengers. [2] On April 14, 1912, aboard the ship, Alden was fussy, and his parents handed him the keys to their trunk as a makeshift toy. They didn't realize that Alden lost the keys until the ship crashed into an iceberg that night and they were awakened by the crew. The Caldwells tried to get into their locked trunk to get Alden's coat out, but the keys were gone. The search for the keys proved fruitless, and the Caldwells had to wrap Alden in a blanket. They also had to leave their savings, $100 in American gold pieces, in the trunk. Because Sylvia was ill and couldn't hold Alden, Albert was encouraged by the crew to get aboard a lifeboat in order to hold the baby. Thus, Alden was credited with saving his father's life. [5]

Iceberg A large piece of freshwater ice broken off a glacier or ice shelf and floating in open water

An iceberg is a large piece of freshwater ice that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open (salt) water. Another name for iceberg is "ice mountain". Small bits of disintegrating icebergs are called "growlers" or "bergy bits".

The young "babby" Alden [6] and his parents escaped the Titanic on Lifeboat 13, and were rescued by the RMS Carpathia. [1] The family was one of the few families to survive the Titanic intact. [7]

RMS <i>Carpathia</i> passenger steamship known for her role in the rescue of survivors from the RMS Titanic

RMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson in their shipyard in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Master Alden Gates Caldwell
  2. 1 2 3 4 Kemp, Bill. "Bloomington family recalls surviving Titanic sinking". The Pantagraph. Retrieved 2008-04-13.
  3. ↑ Children of the Titanic - Surviving Children
  4. ↑ "Wife of State Farm Founder Dies at 80". Unidentified newspaper published 15 January 1965. Encyclopedia Titanica. 17 November 2012. Retrieved 17 November 2012. Mrs. Sylvia Mecherle, 80, ... was married to Albert Caldwell in 1909. The couple later taught at the Bangkok Christian College for Boys... En route home from assignment there, they boarded the liner Titanic on the voyage of 1912 ending in disaster. Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell and their 10-month-old son were among the survivors after the line rammed an iceberg and went down at sea. She came to Bloomington in the early 1920's and on January 8, 1944, was married to George J. Mecherle [founder of State Farm Insurance Companies].
  5. ↑ Julie Hedgepeth Williams, A Rare Titanic Family: The Caldwells' Story of Survival (Montgomery, Ala.: NewSouth Books, 2012), pp. 71, 74, 84-86.
  6. ↑ Allen Butler, Daniel. Unsinkable: The Full Story of the RMS Titanic. ISBN   978-0-306-81110-4.
  7. ↑ Williams, A Rare Titanic Family.

See also

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