Emilio Portaluppi
Emilio Ilario Giuseppe Portaluppi was one of the last remaining Italian survivors of the sinking of the Titanic and one of only 14 male Second Class passengers to survive the disaster.
Emilio Ilario Gisueppe Portaluppi was born on October 15, 1881 at Arcisate, a village a few kilometers north of Varese in Italy. His father was Carlo Portaluppi and his mother was Giuseppina Perlatti.
Early life and career[]
He grew up working with stone, and did not hesitate to follow the path that was created by the hundreds of migrants from Valceresio.
Portaluppi sailed from Genoa and arrived in America on March 15, 1903. He went to Barre, Vermont (USA), an important city because of the granite in 1903. His technical and artistic talent led him to Milford, New Hampshire. Decritto was as a sculptor more than a stonemason. At some point he emerged at the Tonella & Sons Granite and Manufacturing Company, a company specializing in funerary monuments of all kinds, but was also specialized in paving and stone sculptures.
Shortly after arriving in Milford, he married Enrichetta Bessoni, a young woman from his hometown in Italy. It is a possibility that she made the trip to America with him. She gave birth to a daughter, Ines.
In 1910 Emilio and his wife separated. Mother and daughter returned to Italy.
With his reputation growing, he was hired to work on the symbolic reliefs for the New York Stock Exchange Building and on the restoration of the Astor’s Beechwood Mansion in Newport, Rhode Island. It was where he met John Jacob Astor IV and Madeleine, his wife. It seemed Emilio, who had just broken up with his wife, took a liking in Madeleine.
In April 1911 he traveled to Italy for family business.
Titanic[]
In the spring of 1912 he decided to return to America and bought a Second Class ticket for the Maiden Voyage of the Titanic. He embarked at Cherbourg. He was 30 years old at the time. Since he knew the Astors well, it seems likely that they invited him to come along on Titanic, and even sat at dinner with them in First Class despite him being in Second Cabin. There was a wish to hire him to create some statues for their Newport villa.
On the night of April 14 he went to bed early. He was awakened by a tremendous shock, caused by the collision with the iceberg, while Emilio thaught it was perhaps a boiler explosion. Another thought that occured to him was that they already docked at the pier in New York. He went up on deck where he did not notice anything strange, but felt that something must have happened. He returned to his cabin, got dressed and went back on deck just as they lowered lifeboat 14.
How he survived the sinking and how he escaped the sinking ship, is not certain. Plenty of different stories exist. In some interivew Portaluppi claimed to have fallen accidentally into the sea and have swum for at least two hours before being rescued by a lifeboat. In another story he was diving from 20 feet into the water. After he had been swimming in the icy waters for some time, Lady Astor saw him from lifeboat 14 and pleaded the sailors to rescue him. This version already very doubtful, because Madeleine was lifeboat 4.
One version even had him getting on a lifeboat dressed as a woman because he was listed as Mrs. Portaluppi on the list of survivors. We will never know the truth. It is possible that he managed to simply board a lifeboat and that he made up everything.
Regardless of what was true, the newspapers gave ample space to his story and put the emphasis on emotional trauma created by the sinking of the ship, the tragedy of hundreds of people floating in the water, the loss of life and the survivors in the boats who weren’t sure if they would be saved.
Later life[]
Following the tragedy, Portaluppi made a claim for the loss of a photograph of Garibaldi which he valued at no less than $ 3,000.
The fear of water did not stop him in 1914 to resume taking voyages when trying to return to Italy, where he took part in the Italian Army during the First World War.
In 1919 he was in the United States, in Passaic, New Jersey. He frequently travelled between the U.S. and Italy because of problems with citizenship and family. Every year on April 15, a big dinner was organized when they were invited by authorities and journalists.
In 1938 he worked for A. Farranda & Son in Woodside, New York. and lived in Brooklyn. He visited Italy many times and had two marriages. He made a last trip to Italy in 1965 at 85 on board the steamer SS Christopher Columbus.
This was the last one, after that, he permanently spent the last years in Arcisate beside his daughter and her family. Emilio Portaluppi was 90 years old when he died on June 18 , 1974.