Carla Andersen

Carla Nielsine Kristine Andersen was a young Danish woman who survived the sinking of the *Titanic* in 1912.

## Biography

### Early life

Karla Nielsine Kristine Andersen was born out of wedlock on Monday 13th February 1893 in Sankt Hans parish in Odense, Denmark where she was Christened on 26 February 1893. She was the child of the unmarried Karen Sophie Andersen and grandfather Niels Peter Hansen. Her mother later married master butcher Hans Christian Jensen, and the couple had several children who were given the surname Jensen, while Karla kept her birth name which is her mother's maiden name. Karla worked as a maid in Eskildstrup near Odense, where her stepfather Hans Christian Jensen was a master butcher.

### On board the *Titanic*

Andersen obtained her mother's and stepfather's permission to travel to America and settle in Portland. Her stepfather paid for the trip. She travelled with his brother Niels Peder Jensen ("Rasmus"), her younger brother Svend Laurits Jensen and her fiancée Hans Peder Jensen in hopes of a better future.  They travelled through Esbjerg and London to Southampton, where they boarded this magnificent new ship, RMS *Titanic*. Carla was 19 years old at the time. She had a ticket for Third Class.

She shared a cabin with three other young women, two were English and one Swedish.

On April 14 she went to get some rest early in the night. They felt a bump late at night only half an hour later, but didn't think much of it and continued sleeping. At 0:30 A.M. her uncle knocked on their door, saying they had to hurry and put a coat on, before going out on deck. She did what he told her, and with the coat over her nightgown, she went up. There, she learnt that the ship had a collision with an iceberg. She could hear the music from the First Class Lounge. When digging from her memories she reported that there was no panic at this time. The men around her joked by saying that she probably got to New York faster than them

Carla got herself a seat in lifeboat 16 before it was lowered away. Once they had taken a distance from the ship, they could still hear the music from the Orchestra play, some British hymns. A good while later, she heard an indescribable bang, and well over a 1000 screams of terror. She saw how *Titanic* broke in two, the stern rising up before being consumed by the ocean. She was filled with angst.

### After the sinking

Andersen and the other survivors were picked up by the RMS *Carpathia*.

She received $200 from the Women's Help Committee. From the hospital in New York, she sent a telegram home saying that she was alive, but not the rest of the family. She was told: "*Come home immediately*". The White Star Line gave her a ticket for Second Class on the *Adriatic* to travel to Liverpool. She was back in Eskildstrup on 13 May, and never left Denmark since.

### Later life

Andersen rarely spoke to her loved ones about the tragedy. In 1913 she married Frederik Pedersen, who was smallholder at Sønder Nærå on Funen. Together they had three children: Laurits, Ellen and Bente.

Andersen gave numerous interviews to newspapers, magazines, and radio throughout her life.

A few years after Frederik's death, Carla moved to a nursing home in Ferritslev on Funen. She died on Friday, March 14, 1980, and was buried in the nightgown she was wearing when the *Titanic* sank.  She and Frederik are buried at Sønder Nærå Valgmenigheds cemetery, Odense County.

Her great-granddaughter Gitte Olsen has written a novel based about her great-grandmother's experience.

## Popular culture

It is believed that she inspired James Cameron for the character Rose DeWitt Bukater in his 1997 film about *Titanic*, especially Rose's appearance at the film's end as an old woman dressed in a nightgown.