Strokes of Luck – 5 Famous Passengers who Nearly Boarded the Titanic

When people think of the Titanic and its dramatic sinking in 1912, they inevitably imagine those unfortunate passengers who went down with the ship. Numbering over 1,500, they represented the majority of passengers aboard.

Some of the deceased were well-known personalities, not that the devastating iceberg cared about that. Nevertheless, their stories form an attention-grabbing part of this maritime disaster.

But what about those famous individuals who missed out on the fateful journey? Who read the headlines with a chill in their hearts? Here are 5 notable names who escaped the all-encompassing tragedy…

5. Guglielmo Marconi

They don’t come much bigger than the man credited with inventing radio. Nobel Prize winner Marconi’s life nearly came to an icy end when an offer to board RMS Titanic came his way. The high profile maiden voyage needed stars of Marconi’s calibre. Fortunately for him he didn’t accept.

A 2017 Mental Floss article writes, “Though his family was anxious to try the luxury liner, Marconi opted to sail for the U.S. three days earlier. He had a lot of work to do, and he preferred the stenographer on the earlier ship, the Lusitania.”

Without radio to communicate with, the fate of those on the Titanic would have taken an even darker turn. A reported 700 souls or more were rescued through the Italian’s invention. 3 years later he narrowly avoided another sinking, this time of the Lusitania. It was hit by a German u-boat, though thankfully after he’d disembarked.