Margaret Bechstein Hays & The Kidnapped "Titanic Orphans"

Margaret Hays

Margaret Bechstein Hays was born in New York city on 6 December 1887 and was a 1st class passenger on the RMS Titanic. She and her dog Bebe survived the ship's sinking, escaping on lifeboat no. 7. Following the disaster, she cared for two small children - known in the press as the "Titanic Orphans" - in her New York City home until their distraught mother came from France and claimed them. It transpired that they had been kidnapped by their father after a marriage breakdown, and all three had been traveling on the Titanic under assumed names, which made it much harder to trace their mother.

Margaret Bechstein Hays was 24 years old when she boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg. She was accompanied by Olive Earnshaw and Lily Potter who occupied first class cabin C-54. Gilbert Tucker, a handsome 31-year-old Cornell University graduate had originally travelled with his parents and sister to Europe, but he left them to head home earlier than planned in order to spend more time with Margaret and join her on the Titanic. He occupied cabin C-53.

When the ship hit an iceberg on April 14, 1912, Margaret Hays and Miss Earnshaw were in their cabin. When the engines stopped they went to Lily Potter's room, and then went off to inquire about the situation. When they returned to Potter's room they told her: "We have hit an iceberg but the steward told us we should not worry and should go back to bed." Although Margaret Hays was not concerned, Lily Potter was scared. They dressed and wrapped Hays' Pomeranian dog in blankets. and headed to C Deck, where Gilbert Tucker helped them collect life jackets.

Bebe - Margaret Hays' Dog

The group then went to the Boat Deck. As Margaret stood waiting and holding her Pomeranian, James Clinch Smith passed by and jokingly commented, "Oh, I suppose we ought to put a life preserve on the little doggie, too."

The three women and the dog boarded lifeboat no. 7, which was the first boat prepared. Lily stepped into the boat first, closely followed by Olive Earnshaw and Margaret Hays, still holding her Pomeranian dog. Little did she know that a few days later she would be caring for two children, whose own tragic story was not yet known

The occupants of boat 7 were rescued early on April 15 by the RMS Carpathia. Also on the Carpathia were two fatherless young boys who spoke only French. Margaret spoke French fluently and was concerned that they would be separated from one another. She volunteered to take the children into her care until their family could be located. The boys played with Bebe, while they were on the boat.

Once the two boys were settled in New York, a newspaper journalist named Nicola Greely-Smith visited the Hays home with the French Consul and interviewed Margaret Hay's father:

"Of all the survivors of the Titanic those two whose impressions would be most worth gathering remain resolutely silent. The two little waifs whose father perished in the disaster and who gained a temporary home with Miss Margaret Hayes, a fellow passenger on the ill fated steamer, they are still at Miss Hayes' home at No. 304 West Eighty Third Street, and not a word have they vouchsafed to anyone as to their names, their relatives or any other matter which might shed a ray of light on their antecedents or identity.

Under the shadow of a giant azalea they sat yesterday afternoon, each with a brand-new boat in hand with which they entertained themselves while the French Consul to New York strove vainly to extract some enlightening word from the elder boy, whose age has been given as three and a half.
To every question the little curly haired chap replied with a polite and baffling "Oui" and said nothing more.

   "Do you like to play with your boat?" asked the Consul, taking the little fellow on his knee.
   "Oui," came the monotonous reply.
   "What city do you come from?"
   "Oui."
   "Do you remember the big boat that brought you away from France?"
   "Oui."

This time the child's assent was rather bored as though he wished to add: "Why do you bother me with questions about that old boat when I have this new shiny, painted, wonderful boat of tin in my hands?"

Probably I am the only person to whom it seemed in the least incongruous that these two babies should be playing with brand new tin boats. The boats obviously delight them and bring back no memory of the night of horror which saw the younger boy tossed naked from the Titanic into a lifeboat while the older boy followed later clad in a flannel shirt.

That the two children are brothers is evident from their striking resemblance to each other. There is said to be a difference of a year in their ages, but I think the older boy is more than three and a half years of age. If not, he is very tall for his years. Both children have unusually beautiful chestnut brown hair which curls in loose ringlets about their heads. Their eyes are dark. Their faces of cherubic plumpness wear that expression of mingled melancholy and mischief so charactristic of children of the Latin races.

"I have read in the papers that the older boy has said his name is Louis" the French Consul remarked, "but I can get nothing from him to prove it. It seems more likely to me that as he answers oui-oui to everything, he is understood to say that his name is Louis, which might seem to have the same saound to an American. I cabled to France and will do everything I can to find the relatives of the children, but as yet I have gained nothing from them to aid in the search."

Yet the children are by no means stupid. They are sweet, well-mannered, gentle little fellows, and my only hope for them is that having survived the perils of the iceberg and the open sea they may not be adopted by some American family which was born with a gold knife in its mouth.

Incidentally, the question of their adoption in the event that no relatives can be found remains unsettled.

"We have no intention of keeping them," remarked Miss Hays's father, beyond the time when their relatives are found or the search for them is given up. A Montreal family who were passengers on the Titanic are anxious to adopt them, and my daughter says they shall have the preference. Of course, many persons here in New York have also offered to take them.

"The published story that the children were in the same boat with my daughter and clung to her instinctively, is a misstatement. My daughter left in the first lifeboat and the two children followed on in later boats. The smaller boy was tossed from the deck of the Titanic into a lifeboat without a stitch of clothing. The older child wore only a shirt when he was taken aboard the Carpathia. The survivors of the Titanic on board formed a ladies' committee, and as my daughter was the only one among them who had not suffered some personal loss through the disaster she was asked to care for the two children, and gladly did so. She was told that the two children had been in the second cabin of the Titanic in the care of a man named Hoffman, but we have been unable to get any clue to their whereabouts from the White Star line or anywhere else.

"But I believe the companies exact certain definate information as to the destination, etc., from purchasers of second cabin tickets," I said. "Why is it not possible to get such information from the office where a man named Hoffman purchased his ticket?"

"I'm sure I can't say." Mr. Hays replied grandiloquently. "I have never travelled second cabin or steerage, so I don't know anything about such matters."

Why, oh why, can I never learn to keep my distance from the aristocracy of West End avenue, even when it has given shelter to two charming, well-mannered little children of the second cabin? I dont know, I'm sure.

Lawrence Beesley - Titanic Survivor

Later, Titanic Passenger Lawewnce Beesley wrote about seeing the boys - whom he only knew to be called Hoffman - with their father on the Titanic and commented on the sensational story surrounding them being on the ship :

Through the (second class library) windows there is the covered corridor, reserved by general consent as the children’s playground, and here are playing the two children with their father –devoted to them, never absent from them.

Who would have thought of the dramatic history of the happy group at play in the corridor that afternoon? – the abduction of the children in Nice, the assumed name, the separation of father and children in a few hours, his death and their subsequent union with their mother after a period of doubt as to their parentage!

How many more similar secrets the Titanic revealed in the privacy of family life, or carried down with her untold, we shall never know.

- Lawrence Beesley, The Loss of the Titanic, Its Story and Its Lessons

Mr Lawrwnce Beesley visited the address at West 83^rd Street, New York City, which was the home of Miss Hays. He confirmed that the children were the same Hoffman boys who were playing outside the second class library on the Titanic. Mrs Hays said that she had made some progress communicating with the boys in French.

At the time, there was a Mr Lefebre who was coming all the way from Iowa, in case they were his children. There was also a woman coming from Nice who wasn't called Hoffman, and another woman coming on a liner from Liverpool - both who thought they may be their sons.

Hugh Woolner, a First Class survivor gave evidence concerning the boys to the US Inquiry on Monday, April 29, 1912. While in Collapsible D one of the boys had been fed biscuits by him.

A sailor offered me some biscuits, which I was using for feeding a small child who had woken up and was crying. It was one of those little children for whose parents everybody was looking; the larger of those two. 

Senator Smith: Its mother was not on this boat? - No.
How old was that child? - I should think it was about five, as nearly as I can judge.
Do you know of what nationality it was? - I could not quite make out.
Do you know whether it was English or American? - I should say it was not either. I should think it was -
Senator Smith (interposing): I mean whether it belonged to an English parent or American parent? - It looked like a French child; but it kept shouting for its doll, and I could not make out what it said before that. It kept saying it over and over again.
Were there two of these children in the boat? - I cannot tell. This is the only one that I had anything to do with. There were several other children in the boat. We handed them into a bag, and they were pulled up the Carpathia's side.
Have you seen them since? - Yes, I think I saw it once on the Carpathia. It had very curly hair. Light, brownish, curly hair.
Was the child identified on the Carpathia? - Not as far as I know.

When the real story about the boys emerged it was one of kidnap and marital breakdown.

Michel Navratil

The boys father, Mr Michel Navratil  had been born in Szered, Slowakia, he later moved to Hungary and then, in 1902 went to Nice, France where he became a tailor. He married Marcelle Caretto from Italy, in London, on 26 May 1907. They had two sons, Michel M. and Edmond Roger - known as Lolo and Momon, however, by 1912 the business was in trouble and Michel claimed that Marcelle had been having an affair. The couple separated, the boys going with their mother.

They went to stay with their father over the Easter weekend, but when Marcelle came to collect them, they had disappeared.

It was the recovered Titanic victims corpse in the well-cut brown suit that yielded plenty of paper clues, and led to the formal identification of Louis M. Hoffman AKA Michel Navatil Snr.” There was a receipt in the name of Hoffman from the offices of the travel agency Thomas Cook & Company, in Monte Carlo.

It appeared that Mr Hoffman made trips there in March, the Daily Mirror reported on April 23 1912:

“Mr Hoffman paid several visits to the office with his children, and appeared to be an antiquarian, specially interested in old prints.The employees there believed that he came from Bavaria, and that he was making a tour round the world. He had been staying at Nice, at the Hotel des Voyageurs.”

Navratil had decide to take the boys with him to America. After stopping in Monte Carlo, they sailed to England where they stayed at the Charing Cross Hotel, London. He purchased second class tickets (ticket No.230080, £26) and boarded the Titanic at Southampton, the boys were booked on the ship as as Loto and Louis Hoffman. His assumed name of "Louis M. Hoffman" was stolen from a friend who helped him and the boys to leave France.

He led his fellow passengers to believe "Mrs Hoffman" was dead and rarely let the boys out of sight. Once, he allowed himself to relax at a card game and let one of his tablemates, Bertha Lehmann, a Swiss girl who spoke French but no English, to watch the boys for a few hours.

Mr Navratil wrote to his mother in Hungary, while on board, asking if his sister and her husband could care for the boys; possibly as a backup plan if they couldn't stay in America.

On the night of the sinking, Michel aided by another passenger, dressed the boys and brought them to the boat deck. When Second Officer Charles Lightoller ordered a locked-arms circle of crew members around Collapsible D so that only women and children could get through, Navratil handed the boys through the ring of men. Michel, Jr., recalled that just before placing him in the boat, his father gave a final message:

Michel Navratil Grave

"My child, when your mother comes for you, as she surely will, tell her that I loved her dearly and still do. Tell her I expected her to follow us, so that we might all live happily together in the peace and freedom of the New World."

His fathers body was recovered with a revolver in his pocket. Because he had used the Jewish surname of Hoffman on his ticket, Mr Navratil was interred on May 15th, 1912 in the Baron de Hirsch Cemetery which was designated for the Jewish victims.


Whilst the "Titanic Orphans" were being sheltered at the New York home of Margaret Hays under the auspices of the Children's Aid society, their mother Marcelle Navratil, recognized her boys from the many newspaper stories about their plight and was brought over to America by the White Star Line where she was finally reunited with her sons on May 16.

The three sailed back to France on the Oceanic.

REUNITED WITH THEIR MOTHER

The Titanic Orphans are reunited with their mother

Mrs Navraril then took the White Star Line to court in 1914

Action in the French courts

Nice, February 9th (1914).
An action against the White Star Line arising out of the loss of the Titanic began today before the Civil Court here. The Plaintiff, Mme Navratil, sues for £6,000 damages for the loss of her husband. Her two children, who were also on board, were saved.

The Directors of the White Star Line contended that she was not entitled to appeal to a French court, as she was not a Frenchwoman. She thereupon asked for an adjournment for three months to enable her to prove that she was, and this was granted.
(The Times, Tuesday February 10, 1914)

Margaret Hays kept in regular contact with Gilbert Tucker after their rescue but eventually chose to marry Dr. Charles Daniel Easton, a Rhode Island physician in 1913 and the couple lived in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island. They were the parents of two daughters.

Grave of Margaret Hays Easton

Margaret Bechstein Hays Easton died in Buenos Aires, Argentina while vacationing with her daughter and granddaughter on 21 August 1956. She was buried at St. Mary's Churchyard, Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

As for the two tragic boys she had cared for, Edmond Navratil worked as interior decorator and then became an architect and builder. He was married and during World War II he fought with the French Army, was captured and made a prisoner-of-war. He managed to escape from the camp in which he was held, but his health had suffered and he died in the early 1950s aged 43.

Michel Navraril later recalled the Titanic voyage in a translated interview:

"A magnifacent ship!...I remember looking down the length of the hull - the ship looked splended. My brother and I played on the forward deck and were thrilled to be there. One morning, my father, my brother, and I were eating eggs in the second-class dinning room. The sea was stunning. My feeling was one of total and utter well-being."

He described the events on the night of the sinking:

"My father entered our cabin where we were sleeping. He dressed me very warmly and took me in his arms. A stranger did the same for my brother. When I think of it now, I am very moved. They knew they were going to die."

 "I don't recall being afraid, I remember the pleasure, really, of going plop! into the life-boat. We ended up next to the daughter of an American banker, There were vast diffrences of people's wealth on the ship, and I realized later that if we hadn't been in second-class, we would have of died. The people who came out alive often cheated and were aggressive,  but the honest poor didn't stand a chance."

"We had our back to Titanic and went to sleep. The next morning, I saw Carpathia on the horizon. I was hauled abord in a burlap bag. I thought it was extremely incorrect to be in a burlap bag!" 

Michel Navratil

Michel went to university where he married a fellow student in 1933, he went on to earn his doctorate, becoming a professor of psychology.

Marcelle Caretto, the mother of Michel Jr. and Edmond, died in 1963.

In 1987, he returned to the U.S. for the first time since 1912 to mark the 75th anniversary of the sinking.

The last living male survivor, Michel lived in Montpellier, near Nice France.

 On 27 August 1996, Mr Navratil visited his father's grave for the first time in 84 years.

Michel's daughter, Élisabeth, an opera director, wrote a book, Les enfants du Titanic (English: "The Children of the Titanic"; called Survivors in English) about the experiences of her father, grandfather, and uncle.

Michel Navratil died on 30 January 2001 at the age of 92.