Early in 1912, a man named Benjamin Hart decided to sell his home in Essex, England, and move his family to Canada. Business had been bad, and Hart wanted to get a fresh start in a new country. His wife, Esther, didn't like the idea. From the moment that her husband shared his plans with her, Esther sensed a feeling of disaster.

 

"Please reconsider,"she asked him a number of times. But he wouldn't change his mind.

 

First, he sold his business, then the family's house, and finally he booked passage on the steamship Philadelphia.

 

Then Benjamin learned that, because of a coal strike, they would not be sailing on the Philadelphia. Esther was pleased to hear of the cancellation. Perhaps the terrible feeling that she had would go away.

 

A few days later, Hart was told that they could sail instead on a new ship, the White Star Line'sTitanic.

 

The Titanic was the largest and most luxurious ship in the world. It was designed to be unsinkable, featuring a double hull and fifteen watertight doors that, in case of an accident, could be closed almost instantaneously to seal off the ship's compartments and keep her afloat. She was set to leave Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912.

 

The fact that they would be sailing on an unsinkable boat should have comforted his wife, Hart thought. So he told her, "I know you haven't wanted to go up to now, but surely now that you know you're going in this wonderful ship, the chance of a lifetime, surely you've overcome all your fears."

 

"Oh, no," she replied. "I feel even worse about it than I did before." Then she began to cry. "That ship will never get to the other side of the Atlantic," she warned.

 

On the day of their departure from Southampton, they stood on the dock with their daughter, Eva, and observed the massive ship in silence. Both Benjamin and Esther knew what the other was thinking. Finally, Benjamin picked up Eva and began to carry her up the gangplank.

 

"Please, Benjamin," Esther pleaded one last time. "Don't."

 

Hart turned around, quite angered by now, and said, "Well, this is ridiculous. If you feel so badly you'd better go home to your mother, and I'll go on my own and you can follow when you see I've got there quite safely."

 

Esther had no intention of going to her mother's house, so she composed herself and followed her husband up the gangplank. By the time they reached their cabin, though, she had made a decision. She may have decided to accompany her husband on the ship, but she was going to do as she wished now that they were on board.

 

For the first three days of the voyage, Esther Hart slept during the day and kept vigil each night. On the night of April 13,she heard some odd sounds. She woke her husband and made him find out what had happened.

 

"Ice floes," he told her, when he had returned to the cabin. "Small ice floes scraping against the side of the ship. Nothing to worry about."

 

The next morning, a Sunday, she decided to stay up a bit longer so that she would attend a church service. Afterward, she had lunch with her family.

 

One of the ship's officers approached her table during lunch.

 

"Mrs. Hart," he said, "have you given up taking care of the ship?"

 

"Not at all," she said. "I intend to sleep as soon as I've finished my lunch. I will be awake tonight."

 

"I am not happy about being on this ship," she announced, "and I will not be keeping my usual hours. I will sleep in the daytime and sit up at night, because whatever's going to happen I feel sure will happen in the night."

 

That night, April 14, 1912, was one she would always remember.

 

At 11:40 P.m., Esther Hart felt the Titanic lurch "like a train pulling into the station." As she had done the night before, she woke her husband and asked him to find out what had happened.

 

"It's the ice floes," he said.

 

"Benjamin, please," Mrs. Hart pleaded.

 

Reluctantly, he gave in. As soon as he left, Esther woke her daughter and began to dress her.

 

When Benjamin Hart returned a short time later, his face was ashen.

 

"You'd better put this thick coat on," he told Esther.

 

She never asked what had happened. As she told reporters later, "There was nothing to ask him. I didn't have to ask him what it was. I didn't know it was an iceberg, but I knew that it was something. Her feeling of disaster was coming true.

 

He helped his wife and his daughter make their way to the lifeboats, put them safely in, and watched them lowered into the water. Benjamin Hart, whose wife had tried to warn him that there would be disaster, was one of the 1,450 people who died when the Titanic sank.