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Michel Navratil

Michel Navratil

Michel Navratil was a French philosophy professor who was one of the last survivors of the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 14, 1912. He, along with his brother, Edmond Navratil, were known as the "Titanic Orphans," having been the only children rescued without a parent or guardian. He was three years old at the time of the shipwreck.

Early Life[]

Michel (Jr.) was born on June 12, 1908 in Nice, France to Michel Navratil, a tailor and Slovak immigrant to France, and Marcella Caretto, an Italian, whom he had married in London, United Kingdom on 26 May 1907. His younger brother, Edmond, was born on 4 March 1910.

The marriage was troubled, and in early 1912, his parents separated. The boys were put into temporary care, while judges decided who would get custody. They spent Easter Monday with their father, who did not return them at the end of the day. Michel, who was about to be served with a bankruptcy notice, decided to emigrate to the United States before the notice was served, taking the boys with him. After buying White Star Line tickets in Monte Carlo, they travelled to England where they boarded the RMS Titanic.

Titanic[]

Michel, Edmond, and their father boarded the Titanic at Southampton, United Kingdom on April 10, 1912, as second class passengers. For the journey, using a stolen passport, Navratil assumed the alias "Louis M. Hoffman", and the boys were booked as John and Fred. On board the ship, he led passengers to believe that 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.

After the collision with the iceberg at 11:40 pm on April 14, 1912, Navratil and another man went into the cabin to wake his two sons up. Michel Sr. placed Michel and Edmond in Collapsible D, the last lifeboat successfully launched from the ship. Michel, although not quite four years old at the time, later claimed to remember his father telling 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." Their father died in the sinking, and his body was recovered by the rescue ship, CS Mackay-Bennett. In his pocket was a revolver. Because of his assumed Jewish surname, he was buried in Baron de Hirsch Cemetery, Halifax, a Jewish cemetery in Nova Scotia, Canada.

While in Collapsible D, Michel was fed biscuits by first-class passenger Hugh Woolner. When the rescue ship RMS Carpathia arrived at the scene, he and Edmond were hoisted to its deck in burlap sacks. Since they were toddlers and spoke no English, they could not identify themselves and were soon referred to as the "Titanic Orphans". French-speaking first-class passenger Margaret Hays cared for them at her house until their mother could be located, which occurred as a result of newspaper articles which included their nicknames. She sailed to New York City and was reunited with them on 16 May 1912. She took them back to France aboard the RMS Oceanic.

Later Life[]

Michel attended college and in 1933 Navratil married Charlotte Lebaudy Blanc, and they later had two daughters, Elisabeth Navratil and Michele Navratil. He went on to earn a doctorate and became a professor of philosophy. Throughout his life, he maintained that his brush with death at such a young age, coupled with the loss of his father, strongly influenced his thought processes.

In 1987, he travelled to Wilmington, Delaware to mark the 75th anniversary of the sinking. It was his first visit to the United States since 1912. The following year, he joined ten fellow survivors at a Titanic Historical Society convention in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1996, he joined fellow survivors Eleanor Shuman and Edith Brown on a cruise to the location of the wreck, where attempts were made to bring a large portion of the hull to the surface. On 27 August 1996, before his return to France, he travelled to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada to see his father's grave for the first time.

Death[]

Navratil lived the remainder of his life near of Montpellier, France. He died on 30 January 2001, at the age of 92, preceded in death by his mother and brother. After the death of Alden Caldwell in December 1992, Navratil was the last male survivor of the Titanic sinking.

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