Eva Hart

2018-01-23T11:23:53Z

145.103.245.49: /* Aboard Titanic */

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2016}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Eva Hart
| image = Eva Hart.jpg
| birth_date = {{birth date|1905|1|31|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Ilford]], [[London]], [[England]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1996|2|14|1905|1|31|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[Chadwell Heath]], [[London]], England
| death_cause = Cancer
| parents = Benjamin Hart and Esther Bloomfield
}}
'''Eva Miriam Hart''' [[Member of the Order of the British Empire|MBE]] (31 January 1905 – 14 February 1996) was a survivor of the [[Sinking of the RMS Titanic|sinking of the RMS ''Titanic'']] on 15 April 1912.

==Biography==

===Early life===
Hart was born on 31 January 1905 in [[Ilford]], [[London]], [[England]] to Benjamin Hart and [[Esther Hart (Titanic survivor)|Esther Bloomfield]]. She was their only child. Her mother had been previously married and had several children from her first marriage who died young. Eva was educated at St. Mary's Convent (Later St. Mary's Hare Park) in [[Gidea Park]], London. In early 1912, Benjamin decided to take his family and emigrate to [[Winnipeg, Manitoba]], where he planned to open a drugstore.

===Aboard ''Titanic''===
[[File:Benjamin, Eva and Esther Hart.jpg|thumb|Eva's father Benjamin (who disappeared aboard the ''Titanic''), herself and her mother [[Esther Hart (Titanic survivor)|Esther]]]]
Hart was seven years old when she and her parents boarded the ''[[RMS Titanic|Titanic]]'' as second-class passengers on 10 April 1912 at [[Southampton, England]]. They had originally been booked on a ship called the ''[[USS Yale (1888)|Philadelphia]]'' but the coal strike at Southampton that spring kept it from sailing and many of her passengers were transferred to the ''Titanic''. Almost instantly, her mother felt uneasy about the ''Titanic'' and feared that some catastrophe would happen. To call a ship unsinkable was, in her mind, flying in the face of God.<ref name=nyt>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE1D81239F935A25751C0A960958260 Eva Hart, 91, a Last Survivor With Memory of Titanic, Dies], New York Times, 16 February 1996</ref> With such fear, she slept only during the day and stayed awake in their cabin at night fully dressed.<ref>[http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/441/ Biography], Encyclopedia Titanica</ref>

Eva was sleeping when the ''Titanic'' struck the iceberg at 11:40 pm on 14 April. Her mother was awake at the time, and felt "a slight bump." She immediately asked her husband to investigate this, and he left the cabin. Upon his return, he alerted her and Eva to the collision, and after wrapping her in a blanket, he carried her to the boat deck. He placed his wife and daughter in [[Lifeboats of the RMS Titanic#Boat 15 (port)|Lifeboat No. 14]] and told Hart to 'be a good girl and hold Mummy's hand'.<ref name=nyt/> It was the last thing he ever said to her and the last time she ever saw him.

She and her mother were picked up by the rescue ship [[RMS Carpathia|RMS ''Carpathia'']] and arrived in [[New York City]] on 18 April. Her father perished and his body, if recovered, was never identified.

[[File:Unknown woman, Eva and Esther Hart returning to England after the sinking of the Titanic.jpg|thumb|left|Eva and Esther Hart (center and right) upon their return to the United Kingdom after the sinking of the ''Titanic''.]]

Soon after arriving in [[New York City|America]], she and her mother returned to the [[United Kingdom]] and the latter remarried. She was plagued with nightmares and upon the death of her mother in 1928 when Hart was 23, she confronted her fears head on by booking a ticket a passenger ship heading to Singapore, and locking herself in her cabin for four straight days until the stewardess made her get on the deck and the nightmares went away.<ref name=nyt/>

===Memories of ''Titanic''===
In April 2012 an audio walking guide to ''Titanic'' memorials in Southampton, Hampshire, was produced featuring audio clips of Hart talking about her experience. The guide takes the listener on a walking route around Southampton, where the ''Titanic'' set sail on her maiden voyage.

Being seven years old at the time of the sinking, she maintained several vivid memories.

"We went on the day on the boat train. I was 7, I had never seen a ship before. It looked very big. Everybody was very excited. We went down to the cabin and that's when my mother said to my father that she had made up her mind quite firmly that she would not go to bed in that ship. She would sit up at night. She decided that she wouldn't go to bed at night and she didn't!"

"I saw that ship sink," she said in a 1993 interview. "I never closed my eyes. I didn't sleep at all. I saw it, I heard it, and nobody could possibly forget it." "I can remember the colors, the sounds, everything," she said. "The worst thing I can remember are the screams." "It seemed as if once everybody had gone, drowned, finished, the whole world was standing still. There was nothing, just this deathly, terrible silence in the dark night with the stars overhead."<ref name=nyt/> "The band played one version of 'Nearer My God to Thee' of which there are three and the one they played was the one that was played in church." "I never closed my eyes at all – I saw that ship sink. And I saw that ship break in half."<ref name="youtube.com">Hart, Eva, perf. Eva Hart Speaks About Her Memories of The Titanic . . Survivor Interview . Film. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD5J43Z9AWI&feature=related>.</ref>

===Career===
Hart worked several jobs throughout her life. She was a professional singer in [[Australia]] and a [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] [[organizer (party)|organizer]], and also served as a magistrate. Hart, as volunteer work, provided World War II soldiers with entertainment and distributed emergency supplies to people after bombings in London.

===Outspoken criticism===
Hart was one of the most outspoken survivors concerning the ''Titanic'''s lack of sufficient lifeboats and of any salvage attempts of the ''Titanic'' after its discovery in 1985 by [[Robert Ballard]].

She commonly criticised the [[White Star Line]] for failing to provide enough lifeboats for all aboard the ''Titanic''. "If a ship is torpedoed, that's war," she once said. "If it strikes a rock in a storm, that's nature. But just to die because there weren't enough lifeboats, that's ridiculous."<ref name=nyt/> Given the incompetence of the captain and crew, however, in loading and lowering the boats (e.g. the last [[Lifeboats of the RMS Titanic|lifeboat]] was not launched until 2:00 a.m., or 20 minutes before the ship sank, additional lifeboats might not have been any help.

Hart was vocal in interviews about the ship having broken in half,<ref>Clark, Roger, Pres. "The Way It Was | Eva Hart." Perf. Eva Hart. BBC: 11 April 1987. Television. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/titanic/5058.shtml>.</ref><ref>Groom, Barbara, rep. "Today | Eva Hart, Titanic Survivor." Perf. Eva Hart. Today. BBC: 22 December 1983. Radio. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/titanic/5055.shtml>.</ref> a widely debated rumor that was later proven to be true after the discovery of the wreck site. She was also adamant regarding the controversy surrounding the [[SS Californian|SS ''Californian'']], a ship that was only a few miles from the ''Titanic'' and yet failed to respond to distress rockets and calls for help.<ref>Donnelly, Judy. The Titanic Lost... And Found. 1st ed. New York, Toronto: Random House, 1987. 22–23.</ref> Hart claimed the vessel was less than ten miles from ''Titanic'', not nineteen as was previously believed. <blockquote>"I saw that ship (the ''Californian''). It was terribly close...I didn't see a ship nineteen miles away. I saw a ship that was so close; and they said at the time it was less than nine miles away, [and yet] now they're trying to say it was nineteen... I saw it you know, and it wasn't just 'lights on the horizon' – you could see it was a ship. And I saw our rockets being fired, which that ship must have seen. Well, this inquiry says that they did see it but they didn't think it was a [[Portent (divination)|portent]] of danger. I would have thought in the middle of the Atlantic in the middle of the night that rockets must mean trouble."</blockquote> <ref name="youtube.com"/>

When salvaging efforts began in 1987, she was quick to note that the ''Titanic'' was a gravesite and should be treated as such. She often decried the "insensitivity and greed" and labelled the salvors "fortune hunters, vultures, pirates, and grave robbers."<ref>Elia, Ricardo. [http://www.archaeology.org/0101/etc/titanic2.html Titanic in the Courts], Archaeological Institute of America</ref> In ''Titanic: The Complete Story'', she stated: <blockquote>"I hope severely that they will never attempt to raise part of it. I do hope they will remember this is a grave - a grave of 1,500 people who should never have died, and I don't think you should go down there and rob graves and I'm very much opposed to it."</blockquote>

==Later life==
Hart remained active in [[RMS Titanic|''Titanic'']]-related activities well into her 80s. In 1982, she returned to the [[United States]] and joined several other survivors at a [[Titanic Historical Society]] convention commemorating the 70th anniversary of the ''Titanic'' sinking. She participated in three more conventions in 1987, 1988, and in 1992. In 1994, she wrote an autobiography, ''Shadow of the Titanic – A Survivor's Story'', in which she described her experiences aboard the ship and the lasting implications of its sinking. On 15 April 1995, the 83rd anniversary of the disaster, she and fellow second-class ''Titanic'' survivor [[Edith Haisman|Edith Brown]] dedicated a memorial garden plaque on the grounds of the [[National Maritime Museum]] in [[London]].<ref>[http://www.euronet.nl/users/keesree/night.htm That Fateful Night] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001205174300/http://www.euronet.nl/users/keesree/night.htm |date=5 December 2000 }}, Euronet</ref>

==Death==
Hart died on 14 February 1996 at her home in [[Chadwell Heath]], two weeks after her 91st birthday.<ref name=nyt/> Her death left eight remaining survivors. In her memory, a [[Wetherspoons|Wetherspoon's]] [[Public House|Pub]] in [[Chadwell Heath]] is named 'The Eva Hart'.

==Popular culture==
[[File:Hart Titanic letter 01.jpg|thumb|Letter written by Eva and her mother Esther, to Eva's grandmother, on the night of the sinking. It was auctioned in April 2014 for the price of £119,000. It only survived because it had been placed in Benjamin Hart's jacket and was given to her to keep her warm. It is reported to be the last written communication from the RMS Titanic.]]
Hart's connection to the ''Titanic'' and her active involvement in later years made her popular in numerous forms of media, including mentions in [[non-nonfiction]] books, museums and [[exhibition]]s.
* Several Titanic [[Documentary film|documentaries]], including ''[[Titanica]]'' in 1995, feature interviews with Hart.<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105601/ Titanica (1995)], Internet Movie Database (IMDb)</ref>
* ''Shadow of the Titanic'', published by Chadwell Publishers in 1994, is the biography of Hart written by Professor Ronald C. Denney in collaboration with her. Various republications have been released since its first publication, with minor changes.<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Titanic-Eva-Hart/dp/1874529299 Shadow of the Titanic], Amazon.com</ref>
* ''Eva and Little Kitty on the Titanic'', is a children's book published by Sidsel Media in 2012, based on Hart's account of the disaster.<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/Eva-Little-Kitty-Titanic-ebook/dp/B007W1PM58 Eva and Little Kitty on the Titanic], Amazon.com</ref>
* James Cameron's 1997 film [[Titanic (1997 film)|''Titanic'']], features a scene where a father says to his daughter, "You hold Mommy's hand and be a good little girl"; this is a reference to Hart's father, Benjamin, who spoke the same words the night of the disaster, when she was put into a lifeboat. An interview with her was also included in a behind-the-scenes documentary about the 1997 film.<ref>IMSDb. [http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Titanic.html Titanic – a screenplay by James Cameron], Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb)</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Hart family (Titanic)}}
*[http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/eva-hart.html Eva Hart] at [[Encyclopedia Titanica]]
*{{Find a Grave|13999122}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120131062958/http://citysteps.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index Eva Hart] at [[Citysteps audio guides]]

{{RMS Titanic}}
{{Titanic last survivors}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hart, Eva}}
[[Category:RMS Titanic's crew and passengers]]
[[Category:1905 births]]
[[Category:1996 deaths]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in England]]
[[Category:People from Ilford]]
[[Category:RMS Titanic survivors]]

Wikipedia - Benutzerbeiträge [de]

Eva Hart