Notably the richest man on the Titanic and a member of the prominent Astor business family, John J. Astor and his second wife had traveled abroad to escape the gossip surrounding their marriage. The recently divorced Astor, 47, had remarried Madeline Force, 18, a year younger than his eldest son. The couple was returning to the states for the birth of a new child. The night of the sinking, Astor managed to get his wife aboard a lifeboat. His body was later recovered, and those who examined him believed he was killed by one of the ships’ falling funnels.
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