Last Titanic survivor's ashes scattered at sea

October 25, 2009 01:37:00 PM

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Friends and relatives of the last survivor of the Titanic gathered on Saturday to scatter her ashes at the point where the ill-starred ocean liner set sail in April 1912.

Elizabeth Gladys Dean -- who died on May 31, aged 97 -- was only nine weeks old when the "unsinkable" liner hit an iceberg on its maiden transatlantic voyage, drowning 1,517 of its passengers and crew.

Her partner Bruno Normanis, 87, scattered her ashes from a launch off berth 43-44 at Southampton, the port city on England's south coast from where the Titanic set sail for New York.

"We had her for 97 years and we feel lucky for that," said David Hill of the British Titanic Society. "It was a very moving ceremony and the sun shone on her right at the end."

Dean was the youngest passenger on the Titanic when her family boarded the luxurious ship at Southampton, travelling steerage to a new life in Kansas where father Bertram Frank hoped to open a tobacconist shop.

She survived -- after being bundled up in a sack and put onto a lifeboat -- as did her mother and brother. Her father was among those who perished in the frigid Atlantic waters.

Following the disaster, Dean returned with her family to Southampton, where she spent most of her life. She was never told what had happened until she was eight years old.

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