Selma Augusta Emilia Asplund

Titanica

• Name: Mrs Selma Augusta Emilia Asplund (née Johansson)
• Titanic survivor
• Born: Friday 10th October 1873
• Age: 38 years
• Nationality: Swedish
• Marital Status: Married to Carl Oscar Vilhelm Gustafsson Asplund
• Last Residence: in Alseda Småland Sweden
• 3rd Class passenger
• First Embarked: Southampton on Wednesday 10th April 1912
• Ticket No. 347077 , £31 7s 9d
• Destination: Worcester Massachusetts United States
• Rescued (boat 15)
• Disembarked Carpathia: New York City on Thursday 18th April 1912
• Died: Wednesday 15th April 1964
• Cause of Death: Intestinal Obstruction
• Buried: Old Swedish Cemetery Worcester Massachusetts United States
• Reference: https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-lifeboat-15/ Life Boat No. 15
• Reference: https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-deckplans/ R.M.S. Titanic deck plans

Mrs Carl Asplund (Selma Augusta Emilia Johansson), 38, was born on 10 October 1873. The wife of Carl Asplund she boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a third class passenger with Carl and their children: Filip Oscar, Clarence Gustaf Hugo, Carl Edgar, Lillian Gertrud and Edvin Rojj Felix. They were travelling from Alseda village, Småland, Sweden to 151 Vernon St. Worcester Massachusetts.

Selma, Lilian and Felix were rescued in lifeboat 15 but the rest of the family perished.

In Worcester a collection was started after the disaster for Selma and her children from which Selma would receive a monthly sum.

Selma died on 15 April 1964, the 52nd anniversary of the sinking. Selma's sister Elin Carlson died in 1966 at the age of 91.

Documents

• The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Certificate of Death
• Worcester Telegram, 17 April 1964, Obituary

References

• Claes-Göran Wetterholm (1988, 1996, 1999) Titanic. Prisma, Stockholm. ISBN 91 518 3644 0

Contributors

• Phillip Gowan, USA
• Leif Snellman, Finland
• Claes-Göran Wetterholm, Sweden

Travelling Companions (on same ticket)

• Master Edvin Rojj Felix Asplund
• Mr Carl Oscar Vilhelm Gustafsson Asplund
• Master Carl Edgar Asplund, (Twin)
• Master Filip Oscar Asplund
• Master Clarence Gustaf Hugo Asplund
• Miss Lillian Gertrud Asplund
• Reference: Full text- https://archive.org/details/truthabouttitani00grac/page/n6 "The Truth About the Titanic" by Colonel Archibald Gracie, IV 1913 pp. 296-299

BOAT NO. 15.*

Br. Rpt., p. 38, places this next to last lowered on starboard side at 1.35. No disorder in loading or lowering this boat.

Passengers: All third-class women and children (53) and Men: Mr. Haven (first-class) and three others (third-class) only. Total: 4.

Crew: Firemen: Diamond (in charge), Cavell, Taylor; Stewards: Rule, Hart. Total: 13.

Grand Total (Br. Rpt., p. 38) : 70.

. INCIDENTS

G. Cavell, trimmer (Br. Inq.) :

The officer ordered five of us In the boat. We took on all the women and children and the boat was then lowered. We lowered to the first-class (I. e. A) deck and took on a few more women and children, about five, and then lowered to the water. From the lower deck we took In about sixty. There were men about but we did not take them In. They were not kept back. They were third-class passengers, I think — sixty women, Irish. Fireman Diamond took charge. No other seaman In this boat. There were none left on the third-class decks after I had taken the women.

S. J. Rule, bathroom steward (Br. Inq.) : Mr. Murdoch called to the men to get Into the boat. About six got In. "That will do," he said, "lower away to Deck A." At this time the vessel had a slight list to port. We sent scouts around both to the starboard and port sides. They came back and said there were no more women and children. We filled up on A Deck — sixty-eight all told — the last boat to leave the starboard side. There were some left behind. There was a bit of a rush after Mr. Murdoch said we could fill the boat up with men standing by. We very nearly came on top of No. 13 when we lowered away. A man, Jack Stewart, a steward, took charge. Nearly everybody rowed. No lamp. One deckhand in the boat, and men, women and children. Just before it was launched, no more could be found, and about half a dozen men got in. There were sixty- eight in the boat altogether. Seven members of the crew.

J. E. Hart, third-class steward (Br. Inq., 75) : Witness defines the duties and what was done by the stewards, particularly those connected with the steerage.

Pass the women and children up to the Boat Deck," was the order soon after the collision. About three-quarters of an hour after the collision he took women and children from the C Deck to the first-class main companion. There were no barriers at that time. They were all opened. He took about thirty to boat No. 8 as it was being lowered. He left them and went back for more,' meeting third-class passengers on the way to the boats. He brought back about twenty-five more steerage women and children, having some little trouble owing to the men passengers wanting to get to the Boat Deck. These were all third-class people whom we took to the only boat left on the starboard side, viz., No. 15. There were a large number already in the boat, which was then lowered to A Deck, and five women, three children and a man with a baby in his arms taken in, making about seventy people in all, including thirteen or fourteen of the crew and fireman Diamond in charge. Mr. Murdoch ordered witness into the boat. Four men passengers and fourteen crew was the complement of men; the rest were women and children.

When boat No. 15 left the boat deck there were other women and children there — some first- class women passengers and their husbands. Absolute quietness existed. There were repeated cries for women and children. If there had been any more women there would have been found places for them in the boat. He heard some of the women on the A Deck say they would not leave their husbands.

There is no truth in the statement that any of the seamen tried to keep back third-class passengers from the Boat Deck. Witness saw masthead light of a ship from the Boat Deck. He did his very best, and so did all the other stewards, to help get the steerage passengers on the Boat Deck as soon as possible.

Titanic Survivor. Born Selma Augusta Emilia Johansson in Smaland, Sweden, she emigrated to the United States where she met and married Carl O. Asplund, also a native of Sweden, in 1896. The couple settled in Worchester, Massachusetts where Filip Oscar was born in 1898, Clarence Gustaf Hugo in 1902, twins Lillian Gertrud and Carl Edgar in 1906. In 1907, the family returned to Sweden due to family issues. Another child, Edvin Rojj Felix, was born there in 1909. In 1912, the family traveled to Britain where they booked third class passage aboard the Titanic for their return to the United States. Selma claimed to have been awakened by the collision with the iceberg. She woke her husband who, after a survey of above decks, decided it would be best to wake the children and prepare for the worst, dressing them and finding life belts for them. On the boat deck the family waited together, before five year old Lillian and three year old Felix were taken and loaded into life boat 15. Selma said she would prefer to remain with her husband who in turn urged her aboard the life boat, saying the children should not be alone. Once in the life boat, she watched her husband and three remaining sons run towards the other side of the deck. She never saw them alive again. The survivors in life boat 15 were picked up by the RMS Carpathia about four o'clock in the morning. Her husband's body was eventually recovered, but not those of her sons. The diminished family returned to Worchester, Massachusetts on April 20, having lost everything in the disaster. Worcester rallied around the family raising a collection that was held in trust for them in order to provide them with an income. For the rest of her life, she refused to speak of the disaster, thinking it was wrong to do so. She succumbed to an intestinal obstruction in hospital, a few hours after being admitted at age 90, on the 52nd anniversary of the sinking.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Sep 8 2019, 15:14:44 UTC