Mary Davis
Second Class Passenger
“She also told of seeing First Officers Murdock
commit suicide by shooting.”
According to Encyclopedia Titanica "Miss Mary Davis, 28, was born in London on 18 May 1883. She lived at 29 Fleet Lane, Newgate Street, London. Mary was travelling to visit her sister Mrs E. F. Langford of Tottenville, Staten Island, New York. She saved money for the voyage by working as a 'between maid' and vegetable cook in the London home of a 'titled lady,' ...Mary boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a second class passenger. She shared a cabin with Lucy Ridsdale." (8.)
After the iceberg collision, Davis was assisted into lifeboat no.13. According to The Sun of New York, Monday April 22, 1912:
"Miss Mary Davis of Tottenville, Staten Island" is described as simply "seeing First Officer Murdock commit suicide by shooting". There is no further detail. She also mentions being "shoved overboard, but was quickly rescued by one of the sailors who manned the boat... was unconscious when taken aboard the Carpathia and remained in that condition for many hours." There is no record of someone being shoved aboard after being in the lifeboat, so this is possibly an exaggeration on the part of the reporter or Miss Davis herself. The same article was also carried in the The Evening Star (Washington DC) April 22, 1912.
According to the New York Daily News, April 2012, Mary Davis survived the sinking, and later married and had one child. Davis lived to be older than any other Titanic survivor, dying in 1987 in Syracuse, New York at the age of 104."
Howver her accounts are not entirely credible and also lifeboat no.13 would not necessarily have availed her a clear view of the final events of Titanic's sinking, so her account should be treated with some caution.
Verdict:
