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Mr Ramon Artagaveytia - Titanic First Class Passenger

Ramon Artagaveytia was a 71-year-old first class passenger travelling alone aboard Titanic from Europe where he had been visiting his nephew in Berlin, Germany. Joining the ship at Cherbourg, France, he is said to have intended to spend some time in the United States before making his way home to Argentina. The Titanic disaster was not the first maritime disaster he was caught up in.

Ramon Artagaveytia was born in Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay, on 14th July 1840. His father was also named Ramon, while his mother was named Maria. At the time of the sinking of Titanic he was noted as a resident of Argentina and has been described as being a businessman.

At age 31, at Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 23rd December 1871, Ramon boarded the paddle steamer America bound for a crossing across the River Plate to Montevideo, Uruguay. In the early hours of the morning of 24th December, while reported to have been within 25 miles of Montevideo, those abord suddenly heard a loud explosion within the ship, said to have been caused by a burst steam pipe. Initially there seems to have been little concern with regard to the passengers aboard, with the passengers being encouraged to return to bed. However, around half an hour later the ship quickly fell into horrible chaos with fire uncontrollably spreading around the ship. Those aboard were forced into the water; it seems only one lifeboat was able to manage to be launched from the ship. Newspaper reports from the time indicate that around 200 people were aboard the ship at the time of the fire, and that in total around 87 survivors including around 20 likely rescued in the lifeboat. Ramon was amongst those rescued; he had jumped overboard into the water.

40 years later, on 10th April 1912, Ramon boarded the maiden voyage of Titanic when she called at Cherbourg, France. Sadly, he was not amongst the survivors of Titanic disaster on April 15th 1912; his body was recovered from the sea later in April 1912 by the CS MacKay-Bennett.

Within the 1912 reports of the recovery of the victims of Titanic held within the Nova Scotia Archives, Ramon was estimated to have been 60 years old and was noted to have grey hair and was described as being bald. It was noted he wore a blue overcoat, blue suit and a white dress waistcoat. Amongst the items listed as being within his possession included a watch, comb, knife, 27:0:0 in gold, a $20 gold piece, $64 in notes.

On 18th June 1912 he was buried within his native homeland, Uruguay, at the Central Cemetery of Montevideo.

Related pages - Titanic's First Class Passengers, All Titanic Pages

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