Reminiscing Titanic – Survivor Margaret Devaney
James Cameron’s Avatar has gotten people remembering the last major film the director had made before coming up with the said SciFi film. Titanic was the blockbuster hit that took over the world thus imprinting in each of our memory the story of Jack and Rose. With this, a mashed up trailer was made creating a said sequel to this story Titanic Two the Surface by Robert Blakenheim aka Derek Johnson. This was followed by another sequel to the sequel trailer Titanic 3: Never Let Go by Margaret Devaney, however please take note that this Margaret is just a pseudo inspired by the real Margaret: a true to life survivor of Titanic.
Margaret Delia Deveney shows that she was around 19 or 20 when she boarded Titanic at Queenstown. She came from Kilmacowen, County Sligo, Ireland, which she decides to leave to settle in New York where a brother and two sisters living. She entered Titanic as a third class passenger with two friends coming from the same hometown: Maria Delia Burns and Kate Hargadon.
In the interview she took in 1973, she gave a background check of the night Titanic came in collision with the iceberg. She recalled an older male friend had alerted her and her two friends about the disaster and decided to investigate it at the aft deck. Upon confirming they went back to their cabins to claim their lifejackets unfortunately the gate to the Second Class was locked which made them decide to climb the ladder from the Arf Well deck to the said class’ station.
Along the way one of the girls went seasick and decided to stop. The other friend stayed to wait with their sick friend while Margaret proceeded to check for a boat, intending to return for them after she had located one. Unfortunately, when she got to the top, the commotion got her pushed inside the boat which made her unable to return for her friends. As the boat was about to be lowered it got caught on the ship’s rivet. To help get them loose, Margaret lent the man in-charge of the boat, her pocket knife to cut the collapsible free.
After her rescue, tenant screening traces Margaret to have lived in New York and got married to John Joseph O’Neil in 1919. They later on relocated to New Jersey and had six children (one of them, Helen, presently living in Clifton, New Jersey).
Margaret frequently gave interviews about the Titanic as background check. She was one of the survivors who attended the premier night of the film A Night to Remember in its New York premier.
After her husband died, Margaret moved to Clifton, New Jersey. At the age of 82, on June 12, 1974, she passed away and was buried in Holy Name Cemetery, New Jersey.
At present the knife which was used help the boat let loose is but one of the relics she kept from Titanic incident. Together with her ticket which was kept in the pocket of her sweater which she was wearing that night, and the flag which was given to her by the man in charge of the boat she was in-given to her out of gratitude while they were in the Carpathia-Margaret’s descendants still keeps them as treasures from the Night that changed millions of lives.
Margaret’s legacy and her story, along with those who survived the tragedy, will always be remembered and kept hold. She may not be the Margaret who made the second trailer of the so called sequel to the sequel, but that alone is proof that she was part of something that made people realize how should be appreciated every second of one’s life.
