Titanic Secrets and Little-Known Facts

Six Chinese passengers survived the sinking but were unable to get off the Carpathia and enter the US. Instead, they were sent to Cuba and seemingly vanished — until recently.

A documentary about the six missing Chinese survivors (Lee Bing, Fang Lang, Chang Chip, Ah Lam, Chung Foo, and Ling Hee) called “The Six” premiered at film festivals in 2021.

“Six of the survivors, all Chinese sailors, had to stay on the ship, prohibited from entering the United States under an anti-immigration law called the Chinese Exclusion Act. The next day, immigration officials escorted them across Manhattan and put them on board a Cuba-bound cargo ship they had been contracted to work on. And then they seemingly vanished,” The New York Times reported in August 2021.

One of these men, Lang, even inspired a scene in James Cameron’s “Titanic” — he was rescued from the water by the single returning lifeboat, much like Kate Winslet’s Rose. His rescue was also depicted, but the scene, available on YouTube, was later deleted.

The BBC reported that the six survivors eventually returned to the UK. Chip died soon after the sinking in 1914. Lam was deported to Hong Kong, Hee made his way to India, Bing moved to Canada, and Lang eventually became a US citizen decades after he was rejected. It’s unclear what happened to Foo.