Card shark boarded Titanic to fleece VIP millionaires and escaped sinking
A professional card player targeted millionaires on board the Titanic to swindle them out of their money.
George Brereton had a list of all the first class passengers when he boarded the ship heading to New York, and even identified the wealthiest people by circling their names.
His copy of the first-class passenger list is going up for auction, and it is expected to sell for £60,000 this weekend at Henry Aldridge & Son Auctioneers of Devizes, Wiltshire.
The US citizen was recorded to have hidden in the first-class smoking room, where he lured rich passengers into playing high-stake card games with him under the alias George Brayton.
One of the names Brereton circled was Charles Hays, a VIP guest of White Star Line boss Bruce Ismay, with the word ‘millionaire’ even written next to his name.
Mr Hays died in the tragic sinking which killed 1,500 people, after helping his family onto a lifeboat along with his secretary and his maid.
At the time the ill-fated ship hit the iceberg, Brereton was recorded to be ‘at work’, but managed to escape death by sneaking onto a lifeboat.
After he was rescued by RMS Carpathia, he continued to try and trick people out of their money, as he asked for a handout from fellow survivor Charles Stengel.
Brereton made contact with Mr Stengel again after arriving in New York and unsuccessfully tried to involve him in an illegal horse racing scam.
He took his own life 30 years later following the death of his wife, but his passenger list has managed to survive more than a century on.
Experts have described the 110-year-old booklet as being in ‘surprisingly good condition’.
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: ‘These first-class passenger lists are like hen’s teeth. Only a handful of them are known to be in existence.
‘What is really interesting about this list is that Brereton put stars next to those who were rich and Charles Melville Hays’ name was ringed and the word “millionaire” written next to it.
‘What is also interesting is Brereton’s name appeared on the passenger list as George Arthur Brayton. One can only conclude that he used an alias to avoid suspicion.
‘He survived the disaster like that sort of character would do.’
Explaining how the booklet still exists, Mr Aldridge said: ‘They were given to passengers and contained all the information they would need onboard from Wireless telegraph rates to the hire of steamer chairs and blankets.
‘They also listen in A-Z order the names of the first-class passengers. I suppose these days, that sort of information would be regarded as a breach of the data Protection Act.
‘Brereton’s great niece had the list until the late 1980s when it was acquired by Ken Scholz, a leading collector of Titanic memorabilia.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.