The last survivor of the 1912 sinking of the “Titanic”, Millvina Dean, has died at the age of 97. She died in her sleep at a nursing home in Southampton, England, the city her family had tried to leave behind when it took the ship’s ill-fated maiden voyage, bound for America. Her death came on the 98th anniversary of the launching of the Titanic, on May 31, 1911.

Millvina Dean was just over 2 months old when she and her family set sail, third class, on the luxury ocean liner on April 10, 1912. Five days later, she was among about 700 passengers and crew who were rescued off the coast of Newfoundland. She and her mother, Georgetta, 32, and her brother Bertram, 23 months old, were put into lifeboats. Her father, Bertram, 27, stayed on board the ship and was among more than 1,500 passengers and crew members who went down with the RMS Titanic. The ship sank in less than three hours.

Dean, who was wrapped in a sack to protect her from the cold and lowered into a lifeboat, was the youngest of the 706 Titanic survivors. Her mother Georgetta and two-year-old brother Bertram also survived, dying in 1975 and 1992 respectively.

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