Tag: Ireland

Photos: Dreamstime.com — using RF stock, my interpretation of the ship and female passenger and of course, the little pig.

Since I’m sitting at my computer in lovely, old scarlet velvet slippers, yoga pants, and a sweatshirt, it’s time to remind myself that once upon a time I wore high heels, sexy jeans, and crop tops. And before that, glam dresses with sequins.

Like this photo of me at the end of this post. Check it out. Look at those strappy silver stilettos, will you? 

I love dressing up and adore the fashions of the era, marveling how First Class Ladies wore corsets under their nightgowns when they got into the lifeboats. So every year in April I go through my Titanic memorabilia, put on a pretty dress and my white lace-up boots with the pretty embroidery and listen to the novel I wrote about the Titanic, The Runaway Girl, and embark once again on the journey from Ireland on the Ship of Dreams sans corset. 

On the Titanic.

Hard to believe it’s 114 years ago today the grand ship Titanic left Queenstown.

So in honor of the souls who perished that night and those who survived, here is a lesser known story about the Titanic.

And the little pig on board.

According to the New York Herald on April 19, 1912: Five women saved their pet dogs and another woman saved a pig, which she said was her mascot.

The reporter goes on to say that she didn’t know how the woman cared for her pig aboard the Titanic, but she carried it up the side of the ship [the Carpathia, rescue ship] in a big bag.

Good Lord, how did the pig get into the lifeboat? Squealing, wiggling, I imagine… maybe not.

Was the little pig traveling first class?

In a word, yes.

More about this intrepid little piggy and the important part it played in the sinking of the Titanic later. First, you can’t get away from pigs and the Titanic.

In the Julian Fellowes’ mini-series Titanic, a passenger in third class isn’t happy about traveling steerage to New York. She tells her husband that her daughter said their Irish Catholic family is like six little pigs packed into that cabin, all trussed and bound for market.

They’re not the only Irish aboard the ship with pigs on their mind.

Ava O’Reilly, the heroine in my historical romance, THE RUNAWAY GIRL nearly doesn’t make it on board the ship because of a pig.

Ava runs away from the grand house where she is in service after she is wrongly accused of stealing a diamond bracelet. The law is after her, but she has one chance to escape.

The Titanic.

Will Ava make it on board the Titanic before she sails? Only by the skin of her teeth.

Does she see the pig during the crossing?

Few passengers did because the cute little pig with the curly tail was the lucky mascot of Miss Edith Russell.

She loved to wind up its tail and it would play a lively musical tune similar to a two-step called Maxixe.

You see, the pig was musical pig.

The reporter on the Carpathia didn’t know the real story behind Miss Russell’s pig. How it was given to her after she survived a horrific motorcar crash. She promised her mother it would never be out of her sight. When she realized the Titanic was sinking and she’d left her mascot in her cabin, she sent the steward to retrieve her lucky pig.

Still, Edith was hesitant to get into a lifeboat. When a seaman tossed her pig into a boat (believing it was a baby wrapped up in a bag), Edith insisted on getting into the boat, too. Its nose was gone and its legs broken, but Edith and her little pig escaped in lifeboat no. 11.

Overcrowded with sixty-eight passengers (nearly one-third were children), Edith realized her little pig could comfort others as it had her. She wound up its tail so it would play music for the children. Most of the little ones stopped crying as the pig’s sparkling musical notes calmed their fears.

Its furry, white-gray body wet with sea spray.

Its cute grin giving them hope they would be saved.

It was the little Titanic pig that could.

Thanks for stopping by!

~Jina

The Runaway Girl

Buy Links:

Amazon:

US https://amzn.to/30yll8P

UK https://amzn.to/2NCqTty

Audible https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084MM1D4R

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/album/3A08bcsCeI6LHWRQTmAM30

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-runaway-girl-jina-bacarr/1135653540?ean=9781838893736

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-runaway-girl-1

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-runaway-girl/id1492269132

PS check out TITANIC AND ME, my story behind the story on the BOLDWOOD BOOKS Blog.

Once upon the ship of dreams… me dressed as a first class lady

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