A Moving Story of 2 Babies From the Titanic Who Were Miraculously Rescued in the Last Boat

On April 10th, 1912, Titanic started its first and last voyage. 4 days later, the crew received messages about clusters of icebergs. The liner hit one of them that same night, on April 14th. The Titanic sank in 2 hours and 40 minutes, and only a few people were rescued — 710 out of 2,000 passengers. Among the survivors were 2 babies that were later called the “Titanic Orphans.” One of them was eventually the last male survivor of the Titanic sinking.

The parents got divorced several years after the babies were born.

Michel Marcel Navratil was born on June 12th, 1908, in Nice, France, and his brother Edmond Roger was born on March 5th, 1910. Their mother was an Italian woman named Marcella Caretto and their father was Michel Navratil, who immigrated to France from Slovakia and worked as a tailor. The couple got married in 1907.

Marcella and Michel’s marriage wasn’t easy. At the beginning of 1912, they broke up. The boys were put in temporary custody until the judges decided which of the parents would raise them. Ther spent the 1912 Easter holidays with their dad. He was supposed to return then, but Michel decided to move to the US and took the kids with him.

The father traveled with the kids under fake names.

In Monte Carlo, Michel bought tickets to travel on the Titanic for him and his kids for 26 pounds. He decided that he and the children should travel using fake names. He named himself Louis M. Hoffman, and the boys were booked as John and Fred.

Soon after buying the tickets, the Navratils went to England, and on April 10th, they boarded the Titanic at Southampton as second-class passengers. On the ship, the father told everyone he was a widower. He let the boys out of his sight only once, when he allowed a French-speaking woman, Bertha Lehmann, to watch them for a few hours while he played cards.

The boys were in the last lifeboat.

After hitting the iceberg, Michel and another man went into the cabin to wake his two sons up. He took them to the deck, but almost all the lifeboats were full already. When Second Officer Charles Lightoller ordered a locked-arms circle of crew members around the boat so that only women and children could get through, Michel passed the boys through. The sons were placed in a small lifeboat. It was one of the last boats.

The older of the 2 brothers, Michel, wasn’t even 4 years old, but he said he remembered the last phrase his father told him: “My child, when your mother comes for you, as she surely will, tell her that I loved her dearly and still do. Tell her I expected her to follow us, so that we might all live happily together in the peace and freedom of the New World.” Michel Sr remained on Titanic.

Michel and Edmond were the only unidentified kids among the survivors.

The boys couldn’t speak English and couldn’t tell anyone anything about themselves. When the French Consul asked them questions, they just said “Oui,” and, like many children, were interested in toys. They were never identified on the rescue ship Carpathia, and their relatives didn’t show up. They were soon referred to as the “Titanic Orphans”.

French-speaking first-class passenger Margaret Hays cared for them at her house in New York until their mother could be located.

Soon, the boys were reunited with their mother.

At the same time, across the Atlantic, Marcelle was frantically looking for her children. She had already realized that their father had disappeared with them. But she had no idea they were on board the Titanic.

The reporters who were writing about the Titanic in newspapers released a few pieces about the boys. Some time later, the articles reached Europe. Marcelle saw one of them and immediately recognized her kids.

She went to New York, identified the boys, and finally reunited with Michel and Edmond on May 16th, 1912, one month and one day after the rescue. They went back to France on Oceanic, another White Star Line ship.

One of them became an architect, and the other became a philosophy professor.

Michel Jr went to college, earned a doctorate and became a professor of philosophy. In 1933, he married a fellow student, Charlotte Lebaudy-Blanc, and they later had two daughters, Elisabeth and Michele. Throughout his life, he said that everything that happened to him when he was young, together with losing his father, really affected him, and he often thought about Michel Sr.

Michel’s younger brother, Edmond, worked as an interior decorator and then became an architect and builder. He also married. He passed away when he was 43. 10 years later, their mother, Marcelle, died.

Michel was the last male Titanic survivor.

In 1987, for the first time since 1912, Michel went to the US. There, in Wilmington, Delaware, he attended the 75th anniversary of the sinking. The next year, he joined ten fellow survivors at a Titanic Historical Society convention in Boston, Massachusetts.

In 1996, Michel went on a cruise to the place where Titanic got wrecked with 2 other survivors, Eleanor Shuman and Edith Brown. The latter met director James Cameron and received a special screening of the film. Michel wanted to see the film at home. His daughter Elisabeth later recalled that he was deeply touched by the film, and he hoped his father did not suffer for too long in the icy waters.

Michel spent most of his life in France, where he passed away at the age of 92, on January 30th, 2001. For 9 years, he was the last male survivor of Titanic.

If the Titanic was rebuilt, would you risk going on a cruise?