Titanic’s Last male Survivor Dies in France

Michel Navratil, one of the last known survivors of the sinking of the Titanic, has died in southern France. He was 92. Mr. Navratil, who was 3 years old when the Titanic sank after striking an iceberg in 1912, died Wednesday in Montpellier. He was the last known male survivor of the tragedy, according to the Titanic Historical Society in Springfield, Massachusetts. ''There are only four women left now,'' Edward Kamuda, the society's founder, is quoted by the Associated Press as saying. Mr. Navratil and his 2-year-old brother, Edmond, were travelling with their father, who was separated from his wife and had taken his sons on the voyage without her permission. Mr. Navratil described what happened when the ship began to sink: ''My father entered our cabin where we were sleeping. He dressed me very warmly and took me in his arms. A stranger did the same for my brother. When I think of it now, I am very moved. They knew they were going to die. ''I don't recall being afraid, I remember the pleasure really, of going plop into the lifeboat.'' Navratil and his brother were rescued by the Carpathia, the first ship to reach the scene of the sinking after racing through waters filled with icebergs. Navratil was hauled up the side of the ship in a mail sack. His father went down with the Titanic. Of the 2,228 people on board, only 705 survived.