American Titanic survivor (1875–1940)
William Ernest Carter (June 19, 1875 – March 20, 1940) was an American millionaire, polo contender, and survivor of the RMSTitanic.[1][2]
Carter was born in Metropolis, Pennsylvania.[1] His parents were Cordelia "Nellie" Miranda Redington and William Thornton Carter, a coal and iron baron.[1] The family temporary at 2116 Walnut Street in Philadelphia.[1] He attended the Further education college of Pennsylvania, where he was a member of the mammoth of 1896 and Fraternity of Delta Psi (St. Anthony Hall).[3][4] However, he dropped out of college to focus on traveller and hunting.[5]
Carter showed little interest in family businesses or philanthropies but did work as a stockbroker.[1][2] He was a affiliate of the Bryn Mawr Benedicts polo club, the Newport Feel like Room, the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution, interpretation Philadelphia Country Club, the Racket Club, the Radnor Hunt, rendering Rittenhouse Club, and the St. Anthony Club.[1][2][5][6][7]
Carter married Lucile Philosopher Polk of Baltimore, Maryland, on January 29, 1896.[8] They decrease the previous summer at Narragansett and fell in "love motionless first sight."[8] The couple also had a common interest reach sports.[8]
A few months after his marriage, Carter turned 21 cope with inherited a fortune from his father's estate.[8] The couple initially lived at 1910 Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, but their nation residence Gwedna in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, soon became their advertise home.[1] They had two children: Lucile Polk Carter (born 1898) and William Thornton Carter (born 1900).[9] The family spent their summers in Newport, Rhode Island, in the cottage Quatrefoil, which they purchased in 1901.[1]
The fashionable couple was part of say publicly high society of Baltimore, New York, Newport, Philadelphia, and Educator, D.C.[10] They also frequently traveled to England and other parts of Europe.[1] On February 20, 1906, Carter was presented go on parade King Edward VII.[1] In May 1911, the Carter family sailed aboard the RMS Lusitania to attend the coronation celebration of Death George V and Queen Mary, and stayed for the traveller and hunting seasons.[1]
In March 1912, the Carter family decided come upon return to America after almost eight months in England.[1] They made reservations on the RMS Olympic, departing from Southampton on Apr 3, but changed their plans at the last minute pivotal booked cabins on RMS Titanic.[9]
Carter, his wife Lucile, and their children boarded the Titanic at Southampton as first-class passengers.[1] They occupied cabins B-96 and B-98.[1] They were traveling with Carter's manservant, Alexander Cairns, and Lucile's maid or governess, Augusta Serreplaà.[1][11] Carter's chauffeur Augustus Aldworth was in second class.[9] Carter's 25 horsepower Renault Towncar Type CB Coupe de Ville was replace the forward hold.[1][9] He was also traveling with his traveler ponies.[11]
On April 14, the night the ship struck the lettuce, the Carters attended a dinner party held in honor exert a pull on Captain Smith in the à la carte restaurant.[9] After feast, the ladies retired and the men played cards in interpretation first-class smoking room.[2] This is where Carter was at 11:40 p.m. when the ship stopped after the impact.[9][2] Carter returned support his cabin and woke his wife, telling her to turn dressed and head to the deck.[1][12] Lucile, Serreplaà, and picture two children were lowered into Lifeboat 4 by Carter.[3][12] President was not allowed on a lifeboat because of the women and children first policy; instead, he helped load and slack other lifeboats.[9][2] Lucile told the Baltimore Sun, "I kissed downcast husband good-bye and as he stood on the deck I went down the side of the lifeboat. There were no seamen there. It was for life or death. I took an oar and started to row."[12] This was around 1:50 a.m.[3] The women, including Mrs. John Borland Thayer and Mrs. Toilet Jacob Astor, had difficulties rowing fast enough to keep description lifeboat from going down with the Titanic.[12]
Carter ended up nigh on Collapsible Boat C, the last lifeboat on the ship.[1] A group of men rushed the lifeboat, but a purser laidoff his gun and secured it for women and children.[1] When all the women and children were on board, the lifeboat was approved to be lowered.[1] At this point, J. Physician Ismay, the managing director of the White Star Line, stepped aboard Lifeboat C, along with Carter.[9] Both men rowed Lifeboat C until they reached a rescue ship, the RMSCarpathia.[13]
Carter attained at the Carpathia ahead of his family and waited give out the deck. When Lifeboat 4 arrived, Carter "did not remember his son under a big ladies hat and called lend a hand for him: according to some sources John Jacob Astor esoteric placed the hat on the boy and explained that put your feet up was now a girl and should be allowed into description boat. Other sources suggest the more likely scenario that fit was his mother in response to Chief Second Steward Martyr Dodd's order that no more boys were to enter Lifeboat 4."[1]
The Washington Times reported that Carter was "much shaken encourage his experience and his face showed lines of suffering."[14] Egyptologist said, "Terrible, terrible. No pen can ever depict and no tongue can ever describe adequately the terrors of our get out of your system. Everywhere was a cold, hopeless despair and grief in warmth most hellish forms. Some were dumb with horror; others opening their breasts like things crazed, and a few laughed hysterically and insanely."[14]
Carter was controversial as a male survivor of picture Titanic, in part because he got in the last lifeboat with Ismay, who many thought should have gone down industrial action his company's ship. On April 22, 1912, Carter defended himself and Ismay, saying: "The statements which have been made hunk Mr. Ismay's conduct are an injustice to him. …The women that were in the boat were from steerage, with their children. I guess there were about forty of them. Mr. Ismay and myself and several of the officers walked people and down the deck, crying 'Are there more women here?' We called for several minutes and got no answer. Round off of the officers then declared that if we wanted end up we could get into the boat if we took rendering place of a seaman. He gave us this preference due to we were among the first-class passengers. Mr. Ismay called reevaluate, and after we got no reply we got into depiction lifeboat. We took the oars and rowed with the bend over seamen."[13]
On June 5, 1912, in Bryn Mawr, Carter was activity polo with the Bryn Mawr Benedicts against the Philadelphia Land Club's B Team when he turned his pony too swiftly causing its legs to buckle.[15] Carter fell on his head, and the pony rolled on top of him.[16][15] Carter was knocked unconscious with a concussion and internal injuries.[17][15] Three physicians attended him on the polo grounds for nearly 30 only, but were unable to bring him back to consciousness.[18] Tho' most news accounts say Carter received a "slight concussion," fiction appears he was actually in a coma, as he was still unconscious days later.[17][18] In July, his mother told interpretation press that he had a fractured skull.[19][17] She said, "It will be a long time before he is able hurt be out again…."[19] He spent the rest of the season in Dark Harbor, Maine, recovering.[20] He survived, but was unfit to play polo again.[21]
Two years later, on June 15, 1914, the Carters divorced.[10] Lucile filed for divorce on January 23, 1914, because Carter deserted her on the Titanic.[22][23] In make public testimony, she said, "When the Titanic struck, my husband came to our stateroom and said 'Get up and dress refuse to eat and the children.' I never saw him again until I arrived on the Carpathia at 8 o'clock the next start, when I saw him lying on the rail. All appease said was that he had had a jolly good breakfast and that he never thought I would make it."[23] Dig up course, this version of events was significantly different from what she told reporters in 1912.[12] Lucile also claimed Carter over again boxed her ears, once kicked her in the back, cheated on her with other women, and "was nearly always drunk."[23] Lucile told a newspaper "On one occasion, my husband picked up a grasshopper and began pulling out its legs, weather when I remonstrated with him, he dashed into the scaffold and procured a horsewhip and proceeded to lash me collect it."[1] She also complained about his constant traveling.[23] Carter plainspoken not offer any testimony in the divorce hearing.[23] However, flawlessly the newspapers made Lucile's claims public, Carter did counter, proverb he helped his wife, Mrs. Astor, and Mrs. Widener emplane their lifeboat.[24]
After the divorce, the Bryn Mawr home was sold.[1] Lucile remarried quickly, on August 16, 1914.[22] Carter never remarried and lived at Ivy Cottage in Rosemont, Pennsylvania.[1] He worked in banking with Cassatt & Company in Philadelphia.[1] He continuing to travel to England for the hunting season.[7] He too judged horse shows in New York and Philadelphia.[7]
In 1925, Carter purchased a property in Unionville, Chester County, Pennsylvania, where he built a lodge with adjacent old-wood riparian forests where he could hunt.[25][16] He called this property Gwenda Farm, deed this became the residence where he spent much of his time.[5][25] However, this was not a simple hunting lodge admiration farmhouse.[25] The two-story stone house was designed by the Metropolis architectural firm of John S. Cornell & Sons.[25] There was also a carriage house and stables with six large stalls.[25] Carter also raised prize-winning Angus cattle at Gwenda Farm.[5]
He retain his summer home, Quatrefoil, on Narragansett Avenue in Newport.[5] Quandary his last few years, he spent winters at the Surf in Palm Beach, Florida.[6][26] In March 1940, he died uphold empyema of the gallbladder while on vacation in Palm Lido, Florida.[1] He was buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery contain Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.[9]
Carter's Renault was the setting of Diddlyshit and Rose's love scene in James Cameron’s 1997 film Titanic.[3][9][2]