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Cornelia Vanderbilt’s life contains two fortuitous changes in travel plans that led her and her family to escape tragedy. The first involved a trip she took with her parents, George and Edith.Â
In 1912, George, Edith and Cornelia were booked on the maiden voyage of the Titanic. But a week before they were set to leave, George abruptly canceled their trip and rebooked for passage on the Olympic, which was departing Southampton a week earlier.Â
Billed as “the ship that couldn’t sink,” the Titanic sunk into the icy waters of the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912, after crashing into an iceberg. Of the 2,224 people on board, 1,514 died. Statistics reveal that almost 70 percent of the men traveling in first class perished in the sinking. Because of this, it can be speculated that if George Vanderbilt had been on board, he very likely would have died. The estate did suffer a loss in the Titanic tragedy, though: Mr. Vanderbilt’s personal valet, Edwin Charles Wheeler (aka Fred), was on board the ill-fated ship as a second-class passenger.
The reason for the Vanderbilts’ abrupt change from the Titanic to the Olympic is up for speculation. The New York Times published an article on April 30, 1912, claiming that Edith Vanderbilt’s mother, Susan Dresser, persuaded the couple not to sail on a maiden voyage. This was debunked, however, because Mrs. Dresser died in 1883. Two other possible theories: George may have decided to sail on the Olympic to join his niece, Edith Shepard Fabbri, and her family, who were booked on the ship. Or the Vanderbilts may have worried about being delayed in the United Kingdom because of a continuing coal strike that was blamed for preventing some ships from sailing. Whatever the reason, it proved a stroke of good luck.
The second brush involved a flight her two sons, George and William, were to take in 1943. Cornelia’s two sons were fortunately bumped off a plane flight. At the time, the Cecil brothers were headed back to England from their Swiss boarding school, but the VIP status of a movie star changed the plans. The star was Leslie Howard, who played Ashley Wilkes in “Gone with the Wind.” He was traveling with his manager, Alfred T. Chenhalls, and they took over the seats previously held by the Cecils. British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) Flight 777-A took off from Portela Airport in Lisbon on its way to Whitchurch Airport near Bristol, England. It never made it. German forces shot down the plane over the Bay of Biscay.
