The death screams robbed him of sleep for the rest of his life. Adolphe Saalfeld, perfumer and bon vivant, was sitting on one of the benches in lifeboat number three on the night of April 15, 1912, above him the clear starry sky, below him the mirror-smooth sea and in front of him the “Titanic”, leaked and doomed to sink. At that time, more than 1500 people were still on the ship. They desperately tried to escape the rising water and then, clinging to the railing or ship’s side, to escape safely into the freezing water. At minus two degrees water temperature, a person dies within minutes.
Adolphe Saalfeld, then 47 years old, was one of the lucky ones that night. And so began his misfortune.
Access to all STERN PLUS content and articles from the print magazine
ad-free
Already registered?