George Dennick Wick was many things to the world. He was the president and co founder of Youngstown Sheet and Tube. He was a prominent industrialist. He was wealthy, respected, and powerful.
To my family, he was simply Uncle George.
George was the older brother of my great great grandmother, Harriet Wick. That made him the uncle of my great grandmother, Helen Wick Ford. Family relationships like that tend to flatten history. Titles fade. What remains is the person.
The Voyage That Never Ended
In April of 1912, George boarded the Titanic in Southampton. He traveled with his wife, Mary “Mollie” Hitchcock Wick, their daughter Natalie, and two cousins from the Bonnell family. George occupied a first class cabin in the forward starboard section of the ship. Mollie, Natalie, and the cousins stayed in two nearby cabins.
When the Titanic struck the iceberg, the women were escorted to Lifeboat 8. It was the second lifeboat launched that night. It had room for sixty five people. Only twenty boarded.
George stood on deck and waved goodbye.
He never returned. His body was never recovered.
Waiting at the Dock
After the sinking, Harriet Wick and her daughter Helen traveled to New York City to meet the Carpathia when it arrived with survivors. Family accounts say they were there to greet Mollie, Natalie, and the cousins. George was not among them.
That moment is difficult to imagine now. No phones. No instant confirmation. Just waiting on a dock, hoping, and then knowing.
A Story Handed Down, Not Written Down
This story was passed through generations. My father heard it directly from Harriet and Helen. He also knew Uncle George and Mollie’s son, George, as well as George Jr., and later George III. George Jr. attended Choate, and my father was just ahead of him there. When the Titanic sank, the first George was already a student.
I did not know them personally. But stories like this do not need firsthand memory to become real. They are told enough times, with enough consistency, that they settle into family identity.
Titanic and Life Insurance Denials
The Titanic disaster left thousands of families grieving. Many depended on life insurance. While numerous claims were paid, insurers still looked for ways to limit liability.
Some argued that passengers assumed the risk by boarding a transatlantic ship. Others raised exclusions related to accidents at sea or so called Acts of God. The language varied, but the goal was the same. Pay less. Delay more.
More than a century later, the tactics are familiar.
Today the facts are different, but the strategy has not changed. Insurers still comb policies for exclusions. They still argue foreseeability. They still lean on technicalities that have little to do with fairness and everything to do with avoiding payment.
Uncle George’s family was financially secure. Many others were not. Immigrant families in steerage lost wage earners and then faced insurers who treated tragedy as a business opportunity. That part of Titanic history is rarely highlighted, but it matters.
Why This Still Resonates
Disasters change technology. They do not change human behavior.
Insurance companies denied claims in 1912 for the same reason they deny claims today. Because they can. Because many families give up. Because delay often works.
The Titanic proved that even things labeled unsinkable can fail. In my line of work, I see the same thing with denial letters.
They look solid. They sound final. They are not.
If insurers had written the Titanic story themselves, they probably would have asked for a sworn statement from the iceberg.
The difference today is that families are not powerless. Denials can be challenged. Language can be tested. And sometimes, a little persistence