Mrs. Peter Reniff Research Paper

Mrs. Peter Reniff (Lillian) was the only rescued member of a group of eight travelers coming from England to America on the Titanic. Mr. and Mrs. Reniff were returning from a visit to England and bringing back her two brothers, Clifford and Ernest Jeffries, who have never visited America. She was 30 years old when she boarded the Titanic. According to Genealogy and Encyclopedia Titanica, the party boarded at Southampton, England, and their final destination was Elizabeth, New Jersey. They bought ticket number 3107 for 21 Pounds. The night of the tragedy was clear and chilly. Just after 11:00 PM, Mrs. Reniff went down to her cabin in second class. Then there was a horrible crash, and her husband and brothers rushed to the cabin to escort her to the deck. At first she thought there was no danger, but when she got on deck, she realized how serious it was. According to Encyclopedia Titanica, “People were hurrying back and forth. Orders were being shouted in all directions and the crew was busy, getting ready to launch the lifeboats. The first and second class passengers were calm in the face of the disaster but when the steerage passengers burst up from below, the scramble for places in the boats and

She was on lifeboat 12, one of the last boats to launch. About a half an hour after pulling away from the Titanic, it sank. (Newark News, April 19, 1912) Mrs. Reniff remembered the screams of the people still on the ship. On the lifeboat, it was bitterly cold and they were all miserable. Waves crashed over them and they were all soaking wet. They floated around for hours. At some point she fainted, and awoke to find herself on the Carpathia.
When she arrived in New York on the Carpathia, Mrs. Reniff went to live with her brother, Frederick Jeffries. She was in a state of near hysteria because of the tragedy. Mrs. Reniff was one of the lucky people that survived, but would carry the memory of that horrible night