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Thursday, Apr 15, 2004

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National

The Titanic survivors from Guntur

By A. Saye Sekhar

VIJAYAWADA, APRIL 14. It was on April 15, 1912, exactly 92 years ago, that the Titanic struck an iceberg in the Atlantic, a little past midnight. That turned out to be a Black Sunday for hundreds of people. Those who survived would never have forgotten the horrendous experience.

And now, the Indian connection. Four people who travelled from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh had boarded the Titanic. All of them survived.

Allen Becker, an American Lutheran minister, was working in Guntur. He had come to India with his wife, Nellie E. Baumgardner, son Luther and daughter Ruth. Two children, Marion and Richard, were born to the couple while in India. Luther died in 1907. Richard, who was born in 1910, fell ill a couple of years later, which forced Nellie to return to the U.S. along with the children. Her husband was to join them later.

The family set out on the journey on March 7, 1912 and reached London via the Suez Canal on April 5, a Good Friday. They went to Southampton and boarded the Titanic for the voyage to America.

Nellie, for sure, was apprehensive while boarding the huge ship, which was on its maiden journey. But then, the water-tight compartments of the ship were meant to keep the vessel afloat indefinitely even if a calamity struck. But matters turned out to be otherwise.

Nellie had to beg to be allowed into a lifeboat with Marion and Richard, while she sent Ruth to fetch blankets from their cabin, six flights down from the deck. Ruth boarded another lifeboat and finally met her mother and siblings in a rescue ship named Carpathia.

Thus reunited, they reached New York on April 19 and later to Benton Harbor in Michigan eventually.

Allen Becker completed his missionary work in Guntur and joined them a year later. Numerous references to the story of the family that survived the disaster figure on the Net today.

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