The story of the Titanic is one of the best known and most tragic events in maritime history. On her maiden voyage in 1912, the Titanic, which was hailed as the largest and most luxurious ship of its day, struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic, causing the loss of more than 1,500 lives. The stories of those who traveled aboard the liner are as diverse as they are heartbreaking.
One of them is that of the orphans of the Titanic: two children who managed to survive the crash. Iker Jiménez has had in Horizonte the testimony of Carine Bouillon, the granddaughter of the eldest of the brothers. This woman has shed some light on this story of survival, which is actually that of a kidnapping on the most famous ocean liner of all time.
As Bouillon has recounted, the two little ones "were more or less kidnapped by their father" to start a new life in Chicago after losing custody. To get to the United States without major problems, they had false identities.
At the time of the accident, Michael Navratil, using the identity of Louis B. Hoffman, put his children, Lolo and Momon, in a lifeboat and told them that he would join them shortly. He did not survive the sinking. The children, who responded to the names of Michel and Edmond Navratil, ages 4 and 2 respectively, were left in the care of the French consul, who was in charge of locating her mother and bringing her to the United States.
As Bouillon has recounted, the mother did not take too long to appear thanks to the dissemination of a photograph in all the newspapers of the world: "Through the New York Gerald and the French consulate, which was very active, since the children spoke French, dissemination was made of your photo". However, the woman had to pass numerous tests to confirm that she was her mother and not the impostor.
The life of the two brothers was disparate. Edmond, the youngest, died at the age of 43 while fighting in the French Army during World War II, while Michel completed his university education, earning a doctorate and becoming a professor of Philosophy. Bouillon's grandfather died on January 20, 2001 at age 92, making him the oldest person to survive the shipwreck.
