The Dressmaker (50 page)

He successfully urged Congress to pass legislation that would mandate sufficient lifeboats on all ships.

And the great Margaret Brown—later remembered as the “unsinkable Molly Brown”—was a true oar-wielding heroine of the
Titanic
.

All else is fiction, with the exception of a puzzle at the heart of this tragedy for which there is no single answer: why did only one lifeboat make an attempt to save those dying in the water? It is on that question that my story is built.

And finally, Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the
Titanic
, died at the age of ninety-seven on May 31, 2009. This was exactly ninety-seven years to the day after the
Titanic
was launched from Belfast.

Kate Alcott

KATE ALCOTT
is a journalist who has covered politics in Washington, DC, where she currently lives.