When the legendary ship Titanic began to sink one fateful night on April 14, 1912, its crew tried to save as many women and children as possible. The men were expected to remain on board, and 1,352 of them obeyed the order, disappearing forever into the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean, to enable their wives and children to survive. Dickinson Bishop was not one of those people.
Dickinson Bishop was a wealthy American businessman and first class passenger on the Titanic. The boat trip from Britain to New York was actually the end of his four-month honeymoon with another surgeon, Helen, whom he married after his first wife and wealthy heiress, Mary, died in childbirth.
The couple was in their chambers in first class when they felt the blow. Due to the position of the cabin, they were one of the first to go on deck when the evacuation began, writes the portal Listverse
Helen and Dickinson Bishop were aboard the lifeboat No. 7, the first to be lowered into the icy waters of the Atlantic. A few hours later, and after more than 1,500 people, including the Titanic, disappeared forever in the depths of the ocean, the boat picked up the ship Carpathia, which took the Bishops and other survivors to New York.
Controversial testimony and crazy excuse
In an interview with a newspaper made immediately after disembarking, Helen Bishop said that she heard on deck how someone said that newlyweds had an advantage in boarding and that her husband and she found themselves in the boat they were in so quickly because of that. three young married couples. However, during the official hearing, she did not mention this story again. On
the other hand, her husband had an even more incredible excuse. Asked how he was rescued from so many women and children left on board, Dickinson Bishop came up with a "perfect" excuse - he said he accidentally tripped, fell and landed right in the lifeboat.
He kept the story even when during the official hearing held due to the investigation and the sinking of the Titanic, I almost gave up. Namely, to the question: "Who told you to get into the lifeboat?", Bishop answered: "One of the officers, he helped me climb." Then, probably realizing what he said, he tried to get out: "Actually… I fell into the boat."
Dickenson also claimed that he never heard that women and children should have an advantage, and he supported that with the fact that there were 12 other men in the boat next to him.
Fate has found a way to take revenge
In the days after the accident, the tabloids fought over the story of how the Bishops survived the Titanic. There were even rumors that Dickinson boarded a boat disguised as a woman, although there was never any evidence for this.
On the other hand, the Bishops did not have much luck after that. In December of the same year, Helen gave birth to a boy, but he died two days later. In November 1914, they had a major car accident. Dickenson was only slightly injured, but Helen had such a serious head injury that doctors were forced to resort to an experimental technique and implant a metal plate to heal her skull.
After all these accidents and gossip that did not stop, Dickenson and Helen divorced in early 1916. Helen accused her husband of cruelty and drunkenness and received alimony of $ 100,000. As for Dickens, less than two months after the divorce and only two days before Helen's death, he married for the third time, again to the wealthy heiress Sydney Boys. He was married to her until her death in 1950. After that, he lived in seclusion in Ottawa, Ilionois. He died of a heart attack in 1961.
Nice article