Margaret Tobin's The Unsinkable Molly Brown

The ‘Unsinkable’ Molly Brown

Although the world refers to her as Molly Brown, those who really knew her called her “Maggie”. Margaret ‘Maggie’ Tobin Brown became well known around the world for her actions during the Titanic tragedy when the press first dubbed her the “Unsinkable Molly Brown”. Margaret’s other achievements in her life a lot of times go unnoticed, but this woman led a very accomplished life. Margaret was born in Hannibal, Missouri to Irish immigrants John and Johanna Tobin in July of 1867. The Tobin’s had strong progressive views that valued education, so Margaret went to school until she was 13 years old when she began work in a factory stripping tobacco leaves at Garth’s Tobacco Company in Hannibal.

She booked an immediate passage back to New York on the first available ship: the ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic. After the ship struck the iceberg, Margaret worked tirelessly to help load women and children into the lifeboats and get them settled. Eventually, she was forced to board lifeboat 6. Aboard lifeboat 6, she organized women to handle to oars and attempted to dispel the gloomy spirits. When the crewman in charge of the lifeboat proved too cowardly to go back and help rescue those in the water, she threatened to throw him overboard. Though their boat did not go back to help those in the water, Margaret assumed command of the boat until it was picked up hours later by the Carpathia, which came in answer to the Titanic’s distress calls. Once aboard the Carpathia, she was able to console survivors who spoke little English through her knowledge of foreign languages. She also rallied first class passengers to donate money to the survivors who had lost everything in the tragedy and, by the time the Carpathia reached New York, she had helped found a Survivor's Committee and raised $10,000. She was surrounded by reporters when they docked and, when asked what attributed to her survival, she replied “Typical Brown luck, we’re unsinkable”, which earned her the nickname the ‘Unsinkable’