The Mattapoisett Man Who Perished Aboard the Titanic

The RMS Titanic sank in the early-morning hours of April 15, 1912, with 710 survivors and over 1,500 that didn’t.

There were 2,223 people on board when the ship struck an iceberg and began its descent into the frigid waters of the North Atlantic, and 17 of those people hailed from Massachusetts – including one from the SouthCoast.

Francis Davis Millet was a painter, sculptor and writer who at the time of his death was a resident of East Bridgewater, but who had been born in Mattapoisett in 1848.

Millet had served in the Civil War as a drummer boy at the age of 15 and went on to live a fascinating life, detailed by the Mattapoisett Museum’s website.

Millet was later a news correspondent covering the Turkish War and earned medals for bravery and helping the wounded while covering it.

He was good friends with Mark Twain; in fact, Twain served as the best man at Millet’s wedding.

According to the Mattapoisett Museum, “Millet did not survive the sinking of the Titanic, he was last seen helping women and children into a lifeboat. The crew of the MacKay Bennett, a cable repair ship that was contracted to recover bodies left behind after the Titanic sinking, found his lifeless body. He was returned home and was laid to rest in Central Cemetery in East Bridgewater.”

Millet was 63 years old.

There is now a plaque mounted on the outside of 7 Water Street, where Millet was born.

Massachusetts Titanic survivors included First Class passengers Mrs. Caroline Lane Brown of Belmont; Miss Elizabeth Mussey Eustis of Brookline; Mrs. Lily May Futrelle of Scituate; Miss Madeline Newell and Miss Marjorie Anne Newell, both of Lexington; and Boston couple Mr. Edwin Nelson Kimball, Jr. and his wife Gertrude Kimball, making Mr. Kimball the only Massachusetts man to survive the Titanic.

Also surviving was Second Class passenger Miss Anna Sinkkonen, born in Finland but residing in Brighton, Massachusetts.

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Perishing that day were Massachusetts residents George Quincy Clifford of Stoughton; Lily Futrelle’s husband Jacques Heath Futrelle of Scituate; Herbert Henry Hilliard of Brighton; Milton Clyde Long of Springfield; John Edward Maguire of Brockton; Timothy J. McCarthy of Dorchester; Arthur Webster Newell of Lexington; and Walter Chamberlain Porter of Worcester.

No Massachusetts women perished aboard the Titanic.