Charlotte Drake Cardeza

Charlotte Drake Cardeza (April 10, 1854 – August 2, 1939) was a survivor of the RMS Titanic disaster of 1912.^[1]

Early life and Titanic

Charlotte Wardle Drake was born on April 10, 1854. Her father, Thomas Drake, was a British textile manufacturer. From 1874 to 1900 she was married to James Warburton Martinez Cardeza, with whom she had one child, Thomas Drake Martinez Cardeza. In 1912 she and her son were returning to their home in Germantown, Pennsylvania, USA on board the RMS Titanic, and boarded in Cherbourg. Charlotte was a lover of big game hunting, as well as animal protection and she and her son were returning from a safari in Africa and a visit to Thomas' hunting reserve in Hungary. Charlotte and Thomas left the sinking ship in Lifeboat #3.

Charlotte was accompanied on the Titanic by her son, Thomas, and staff Anna Ward and Gustave Lesuer, all of whom survived. The Cardeza entourage brought fourteen trunks, four suitcases, and three crates of baggage. Mrs. Cardeza would later file a detailed claim to the value of £36,567 for their loss. They stayed in the most expensive suite on Titanic (B-51-53-55), featuring two bedrooms, a sitting room, and a private fifty-foot promenade.^[2][3]

After Titanic

Returning to Germantown, Pennsylvania, Mrs. Cardeza kept to her peripatetic ways, only settling down at Montebello in the late 1930s. She died of heart disease.

Montebello

Montebello was later demolished and turned into a parking lot.

References