The Lucky and the Lost

More than half the children aboard Titanic died in the sinking, calling into question the notion of “women and children first.”

In The Lucky and the Lost: The Lives of Titanic’s Children, historian John Boileau tells the stories of the children who fortunately escaped in lifeboats and those who tragically did not. It also examines the heart-breaking circumstances of the victims’ deaths as well as the fascinating stories of survivors’ lives.

Uniquely, The Lucky and the Lost tells the stories of ten yet-unborn children whose mothers survived to give birth. This includes the children of Madeleine Astor, wife of John Jacob Astor—the richest man to perish in the disaster—and Juliette Laroche, wife of Joseph Laroche, the only Black man onboard, as well as the stories of twenty-three Lebanese children onboard, another largely unknown feature of the disaster.

The Lucky and the Lost includes compelling stories of survivors in later life (an aspect not included in most Titanic books) and the lasting effect the sinking had on them. With forty black-and-white images as well as numerous maps and illustrations, The Lucky and the Lost offers the most complete accounting to date of the fates of the children aboard the doomed ocean liner.