Historian talks about family’s incredible survival story aboard the Titanic

OCEAN ISLE BEACH (WWAY) — Visitors to the Museum of Coastal Carolina in Ocean Isle Beach got an intimate look at a family who survived the Titanic.

Julie Hedgepeth Williams travels across the country to tell the story of her great uncle, Albert Caldwell. Caldwell, his wife and infant son were one of a few families to survive the sinking of the Titanic fully intact.

Williams is an acclaimed author and media historian who goes indepth to talk about her family’s exceptional tale, with vintage photographs and documents, all while dressed to match the time period of her story.

It’s a story that Williams recalls from a young age, talking with her great uncle about his experience. “It was a story he told me, but I wrote a book about him later.” That book, “A Rare Titanic Family” tells the story of Albert Caldwell and his family’s experience aboard the doomed cruise liner. It was during the making of that biography that Williams found out a lot more to her great uncle’s story than she ever knew. “As I researched the book, I found out so much more. Like, I had hardly known the story at all.”

The stories from her great uncle and the research she found lays the ground work for her talk, which Williams hopes the audience find insightful and fun. “The talk was what he told me, which was true and accurate, and the what I found out that I hardly ever known. And so it’s kind of a research of the journey as well, although entertaining I hope.”

Williams’ book can be found at her Amazon page here