Mystery of Mary Sloan, Titanic Survivor

After the sinking of the Titanic, almost all of the survivors seem to have disappeared. Some apparently wanted to live out their lives in peace and did not want it known that they had survived the Titanic. For example, Harold Bride, the Marconi operator who became famous for sending out the SOS messages that the Titanic was sinking, afterwards kept it a secret that he was that famous man. When he died in 1956, it was reported to the coroner's office that one H.S. Bride had died, and the coroner inquired: Was that THE Harold Bride?

Another survivor, Violet Jessop, complained that nobody had asked her about the Titanic sinking and that she had been ignored.

Postcards from M. Sloane

Mary Sloan was a Titanic survivor who wrote letters to her family while she was on her way back to England on board the Lapland. After reaching New York, all of the Titanic crew members went back on the Lapland the next day except for those who were kept in the USA to testify before the US Senate and elsewhere.

What happened to Mary Sloan, after she returned to England on the Lapland, has remained a mystery. However, today I received an e-mail which may solve the mystery.

The e-mail contains four postcards which were written by someone with the same or a similar name to her sister or aunt Annie Sloane.

I have just posted the cards on my website as follows: http://www.anusha.com/marysloan.jpg http://www.anusha.com/maysloan.jpg

Here are two of the cards. They are from Belfast, Ireland. They are addressed to Mrs. William J. Gilliland (Annie Sloane), Alpine Avenue, Silverton, Hamilton Co., Ohio, US America and read:

"We are stopping for a fortnight. Glorious weather. All well M. Sloane"

"We are all well. Hope you got the Christmas number I sent you all right. Fine Weather here now. M. Sloane"

The other two cards are more difficult to read and are signed "May Sloane".

Silverton Ohio is just outside of Cincinnati. I have found Alpine Avenue on a map. The question is whether this is the same Mary Sloan who survived the Titanic.

Postcards from May Sloane

One clue which indicates that it is the same person is that in one place she is May Sloane and in another place she is Mary Sloane.

The Titanic survivor is also sometimes referred to as Mary Sloan and other times as May Sloan.

The Titanic survivor was from Belfast. This May Sloane was also from Belfast. Also, Mary Sloan, the Titanic survivor, had two sisters.

On the other hand, these postcards are signed Sloane, whereas the name of the Titanic survivor is spelled Sloan.

This difference is not important however, as these are alternate spellings of the same name and Annie and Mary both signed their names with and without the e at end.

On the other hand, if this is the same Mary or May Sloan, she seems to have been older than it was supposed that the Titanic Survivor was. This Mary or May Sloane died on January 13, 1926.

I also have a marriage certificate showing that the father of Annie Sloan was named Samuel Sloan (me?). This information was sent to me by the great-granddaughter of Annie Sloane.

I have just posted the marriage certificate at http://www.anusha.com/sloanmar.jpg and at http://www.anusha.com/maysloan.htm

Does anybody have any insight into this. What would be helpful would be if the letters which Mary Sloan, the Titanic survivor, wrote her sister while on board the Lapland can be found. If the letters can be found, we could determine if a person with the same handwriting wrote the letters to Mrs. William J. Gilliland.

Note that Annie Sloane was sometimes called Anna Sloan and William J. Gilliland later became known as William J Gillian.

Sam Sloan

Marriage Certificate of Annie Sloane daughter of Samuel Sloan to William J. Gilliland

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Contact address - please send e-mail to the following address: Sloan@ishipress.com