George Dennick Wick, president and co-founder of Youngstown Sheet and Tube, was my great-great-grandmother Harriet Wick’s older brother. That made him my great-grandmother Helen Wick Ford’s uncle. To the outside world, he was a wealthy industrialist. To my family, he was Uncle George.
The Voyage and the Iceberg
In April 1912, George boarded the Titanic in Southampton with his wife Mary “Molly” Hitchcock Wick, their daughter Natalie, and two Bonnell cousins. George’s cabin was in the forward starboard corner of first class, while the women stayed in two cabins nearby. When the ship struck the iceberg, Molly, Natalie, and the cousins were escorted to Lifeboat 8, the second boat lowered that night. It had room for 65 but left with only 20 aboard. George waved goodbye from the deck. He did not survive, and his body was never recovered.
Waiting for the Carpathia
Back home, my great-great-grandmother Harriet and my great-grandmother Helen traveled to New York City to meet the Carpathia as it docked with the survivors. According to family accounts, they were there to greet Molly, Natalie, and the cousins. George himself never returned.
A Story Passed Through Generations
This story was passed down through the family. My father heard it directly from Harriet and Helen, and he also knew Uncle George and Molly’s son George, along with George Jr., and later George III, who was just behind him at Choate. When the Titanic went down, that first George was already a student there. I did not know them personally, but the story has been told often enough that it has become part of our family’s shared history.
Titanic, Life Insurance, and Denials
The Titanic’s sinking left behind thousands of grieving families, many of whom depended on life insurance. While many claims were paid, insurers still tried to avoid liability. Some raised arguments about “assumed risk” since passengers knowingly boarded a ship crossing the Atlantic. Others pointed to exclusions for accidents at sea or so-called Acts of God. More than a century later, I see the same tactics every day in denied life insurance cases. Different circumstances, same loopholes.
Uncle George’s wealth meant his family was secure, but countless others were not. Immigrant families in steerage lost breadwinners and then faced an uphill battle against insurers looking for any reason not to pay. That part of Titanic history is less remembered, but it should not be forgotten.
A Lesson That Still Holds True
The lesson is timeless: disasters happen, insurance companies deny, and families are left fighting for what they are owed. If insurers had written the script in 1912, they probably would have asked for a sworn statement from the iceberg.
The Titanic proved that even the “unsinkable” can sink. And in my line of work, I can tell you the same is true of denial letters.
The difference is that I don’t need a lifeboat to beat them...just a phone, a pen, and occasionally a sense of humor.
Written by Christian Lassen, Esq.
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