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| Millvina Dean, the last remaining survivor of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, died Sunday in a care home in England, media reports said. She was 97. |
Millvina Dean, the last remaining survivor of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, died Sunday in a care home in England, media reports said. She was 97.
Elizabeth Gladys Dean, known to friends as Millvina, was only nine weeks old when the liner hit an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean on the night of April 14, 1912, and sank killing 1,500 people.
She survived after being bundled up in a sack and carried to safety. Her mother Georgette Eva and brother Bertram also made it, but her father, Bertram Frank, was among those who died.
Dean died in a private nursing home near Ashurst in the southern English county of Hampshire, according to the BBC and Britain's domestic Press Association news agency. Staff there refused to comment late Sunday.
Dean's family had boarded the Titanic at Southampton, heading for a new life in Kansas where her father hoped to open a tobacconist shop.
Born on February 12, 1912, Dean was the youngest passenger on board. At the time, RMS Titanic was the most luxurious, most technically advanced and largest passenger liner in the world.
She was dubbed "unsinkable", but it took just two hours and 40 minutes for her to disappear into the icy waters of the Atlantic after striking an iceberg at 11:40 pm on April 14.
Dean was taken back to Southampton with her family after the disaster and did not find out that she had been on board until she was eight years old and her mother was planning to remarry.
According to enthusiasts' website Encyclopedia Titanica (ET), Dean worked for the government as a cartographer during World War II and then for an engineering company.
She told reporters that it was not until the wreckage of the liner was found in 1985 that she suddenly became a celebrity, taking part in documentaries and giving media interviews.
Dean was invited to complete her family's ill-fated journey to the United States in 1997 aboard the QE2, and accepted, although she turned down an offer to attend the premier of the movie "Titanic" because it would be too upsetting.
She moved into a private nursing home in Hampshire after breaking her hip three years ago, and after struggling to pay the bills was forced to sell off some of her memorabilia.
At auction in October 2008 she raised 31,150 pounds (40,000 euros, 53,900 dollars), selling off rare prints of the liner signed by the artists as well as compensation letters sent to her mother by the Titanic Relief Fund.
Dean was also forced to sell a 100-year-old suitcase filled with clothes donated to her family by the people of New York when they arrived after being rescued.
In the wake of the auction, friends including members of the British Titanic Society and the Belfast Titanic Society -- the liner was built in Belfast in Northern Ireland-- set up a campaign to secure her future.
Among the donors to the Millvina Fund were Hollywood actors Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, who starred in the 1997 "Titanic" film. The pair and the film's director, James Cameron, reportedly donated 30,000 US dollars in total.
The last remaining US survivor, Lillian Asplund, died in her home in May 2006 at the age of 99. She was just five years old when the Titanic went down.
译文:
“泰坦尼克号”最后一位幸存者于英国辞世
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| 据媒体报道，身为1912年沉没的泰坦尼克号上余生的最后一位幸存者的米尔维娜•迪安，于星期日（2009年5月31日）逝世于英国的一家养老院，享年97岁。 |
据媒体报道，米尔维娜•迪安，1912年沉没的泰坦尼克号上余生的最后一位幸存者，于星期日（2009年5月31日）逝世于英国的一家养老院内，享年97岁。
伊丽莎白•格拉迪斯•迪安，被友人们称为米尔维娜，在1912年4月14日泰坦尼克号邮轮撞击到大西洋的冰山上，因最终沉没致死1500人的那个夜晚，米尔维娜出生仅九周。
灾难发生后，她被包裹在一个麻袋内，并被运抵安全处而获救。她的母亲乔吉特•伊娃（Georgette Eva）及哥哥伯特伦（Bertram）也成功获救。但是，她的父亲，伯特伦•弗兰克（Bertram Frank）却不幸罹难。
据BBC及英国国内的新闻协会通讯社报道，迪安死于一个近英国南部汉普郡艾舍斯特(Ashurst)的私人疗养之家。那里的工作人员拒绝在当日晚些时候就此事发表言论。
迪安的全家是在英国南安普敦登上了泰坦尼克号，动身前往美国堪萨斯州以开始新生活，她的父亲希望在那里开一家烟草店。
迪安出生于1912年2月12日，是邮船上年纪最小的乘客。在那个年代，英国皇家邮船泰坦尼克号是世界上最豪华，工艺最精湛且最大的客轮。
泰坦尼克号称为“不会沉没的邮轮”，但距离4月14日夜里11：40，它撞击上一座冰山，之后消失于大西洋茫茫冰水中，不过2小时40分钟。
迪安在这场大劫难后，与她幸存的家人一起被送回南安普敦。在8岁之前，她一直不为人知曾搭乘过泰坦尼克号，直到母亲打算再婚。
据爱心人士创建的网站“泰坦尼克号百科全书”(Encyclopedia Titanica，简称为ET)记载，迪安曾于二战期间在政府中担任制图师一职，之后为一家工程公司工作。
迪安告诉记者，在1985年泰坦尼克号沉船灾难被世人发现之前，她一直默默无闻，但那之后，她突然就成了名人，参加了若干部纪录片的拍摄，并出席过众多的媒体见面会。
虽然迪安曾拒绝了出席电影“泰坦尼克号”首映式的邀请，因为那会勾起她异常痛苦的回忆，但她还是应邀于1997年搭乘伊丽莎白女王2号邮船（Queen Elizabeth the Second，简称QE2） 出访美国，以完结那段令她一家人命运完全逆转的旅程。
三年前，因摔断了尾椎骨，迪安搬进了一家在汉普郡的私人疗养院；因付不起养老院的帐单，她被迫低价卖出一些大事记。
在2008年的一场拍卖会上，她以31150英镑（40000欧元，53900美元）高价拍出了若干稀有的，有艺术家们亲笔签名的泰坦尼克号照片以及“泰坦尼克号救济基金”发给她母亲的一些关于赔偿的信件。
迪安也被迫拍卖了一个百年历史的衣箱，里面装满了获救送返后，纽约人民捐赠给她家人的衣物。
紧随那次拍卖会后，包括英国泰坦尼克会社（British Titanic Society）及贝尔法斯特泰坦尼克会社（Belfast Titanic Society）成员在内的友人们——泰坦尼克号建造于爱尔兰北部的贝尔法斯特——发起了一项活动以保障她的未来生活。
米尔维娜基金（Millvina Fund）捐助者中有好莱坞演员凯特•温斯莱特（Kate Winslet）和莱昂纳多•迪卡普里奥（Leonardo DiCaprio），他们曾主演了1997年的电影“泰坦尼克号”。这两位主角及该片的导演，詹姆斯•卡梅隆（James Cameron），据传一次性捐赠了30000美元。
最后一位美国籍幸存者，莉莲•阿斯卜朗德（Lillian Asplund），2006年5月辞世于自己的家中，终年99岁。泰坦尼克号沉船当年她仅有五岁。