A Rare Titanic Family: Julie Williams Talks About Her Family’s Survival

Atlanta, GA. –  For one hundred years, the story of the RMS Titanic has fascinated people around the world: the unsinkable ship that sank on its maiden voyage, taking the lives of 1,514 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. One of the 710 survivors was author Julie Williams’ great-Uncle Albert. Her book, A Rare Titanic Family, is her family’s story of survival.

   Join us Monday, June 11^th at 7pm as Julie Williams tells the fascinating story of Albert and his young family who were saved from drowning on the Titanic by a combination of luck, pluck, Albert's outgoing nature, his wife Sylvia's illness, and their infant son Alden's helplessness. Their detailed story of the short life of the Titanic and their lucky rescue aboard the ill-starred Lifeboat 13 has never been fully told in Titanic literature.

   “Albert Caldwell was my great-uncle, Williams explains. “He was 26 years old when he survived the Titanic on April 15, 1912, along with his wife, Sylvia, and infant son, Alden. I knew Albert well -- he lived to be 91 and told me the story of the Titanic dozens of times. I had long heard how he and Sylvia were missionaries in Siam, how they toured Europe on their way home to the United States, and how they wound up on the Titanic. Over many tellings, I heard about Albert's tour of the beautiful ship, the Caldwells' harrowing rescue on Lifeboat 13, their agony at hearing the screams of the people who could not be saved, and the scary night on the Atlantic as they waited to be rescued.”

    The event is co-sponsored by the Society of Georgia Archivists and ACappella Books. Copies of A Rare Titanic Family will be available for purchase and signing.

     For more information, call 404-865-7109.