Washington Augustus Roebling II, car racer and designer, perished in the RMS Titanic when the ship sank in the North Atlantic Ocean


Monday 15th April 1912

Washington Augustus Roebling II, car racer and designer, perished in the RMS Titanic when the ship sank in the North Atlantic Ocean. Roebling was the son of John A. Roebling, president of Roebling and Sons Company of Trenton, New Jersey. Washington’s namesake, Colonel Washington A. Roebling, had been one of the builders of the Brooklyn Bridge. Young Washington began work as an engineer at the Walter Automobile Plant, which was later taken over by the Mercer Automobile Company. While working for Mercer, Washington designed and built the Roebling-Planche race car that he raced to a second-place finish in the 1910 edition of the Vanderbilt Cup Race. In early 1912, Washington embarked on a tour of Europe with his friend Stephen Blackwell. Roebling’s chauffeur Frank Stanley brought with him the Roebling’s Fiat in which the group began their continental adventure. A week before the completion of their tour, Stanley fell ill, and returned to America with the family Fiat. Roebling and Blackwell booked passage on the RMS Titanic in the first-class cabin. On the night of April 14, according to Titanic survivor Edith Graham, Roebling alerted her and her daughter to the danger. He helped them to a lifeboat making no attempt to save his own life and reportedly remarked to them cheerfully, “You will be back with us on the ship again soon.” Both Roebling and Blackwell perished.


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