Real people. Real lives interrupted. These are not characters in a film.

Isidor Straus co-owned Macy’s department store. He was 67. His wife Ida was 63. They had been married for 41 years. When the lifeboats were being loaded, Ida was offered a seat. She refused to leave her husband. Isidor was offered a place because of his age, but he refused to go before younger men. Witnesses reported Ida saying: ‘I will not be separated from my husband. As we have lived, so will we die — together.’ They were last seen sitting together on deck chairs as the ship went down. Their bodies were never recovered. Their memorial in New York reads: ‘Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.’

Thomas Andrews was the managing director of Harland and Wolff shipyard and the ship’s chief designer. He was 39 years old. He sailed on the maiden voyage to observe the ship’s performance and note improvements. After the collision, he was the first to understand the ship was doomed. He told Captain Smith: ‘She will sink in an hour to an hour and a half.’ He spent his final hours helping passengers put on life jackets and directing them to the boat deck. He was last seen in the first-class smoking room, staring at a painting of Plymouth Harbor. His life jacket lay unused on a table beside him.

Margaret Brown was 44 years old, the wife of a Colorado mining magnate. She boarded Lifeboat 6 and immediately clashed with Quartermaster Robert Hichens, who was in charge of the boat. Hichens wanted to row away from the ship. Brown wanted to go back for survivors. She threatened to throw him overboard. Brown organized the women to row, keeping them warm and moving through the freezing night. The newspapers called her ‘The Unsinkable Mrs. Brown’ — a nickname she reportedly disliked. She later raised money for the families of victims and testified at the Senate inquiry.

Frederick and Augusta Goodwin were traveling from London to Niagara Falls, New York, with their six children: Lillian (16), Charles (14), William (11), Jessie (10), Harold (9), and Sidney (19 months). They were a working-class family emigrating for a fresh start. All eight perished. Only the body of Sidney, the baby, was recovered — but he could not be identified at the time. He was buried in Halifax as ‘The Unknown Child.’ In 2007, DNA testing identified him as Sidney Leslie Goodwin. His grave is one of the most visited in the Fairview Lawn Cemetery.

Harold Bride was 22 years old and the junior wireless operator. He and senior operator Jack Phillips kept transmitting distress signals until the very end — even after Captain Smith released them from duty. Phillips died in the water. Bride survived by climbing onto an overturned collapsible lifeboat. His feet were severely frostbitten. When Carpathia arrived, Bride dragged himself to Carpathia’s wireless room and helped transmit survivor names for hours. His account to the New York Times, published days later, remains one of the most important primary sources about the sinking.