Would Jack/Fabrizzio have been allowed to enter the US?

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Jack and Fabrizzio won their tickets in a card game. They were not on the ships manifest and did not present any king of identification other than their tickets, on embarking at Southampton.

Would immigration in the US have let them in?

-- Peter Edmead (peter.edmead@employment.gov.au), February 16, 1998

Answers

Y'know, that's a GOOD question!

Jack, being a US citizen, shouldn't have had any problem getting back into the US. Fabrizio, on the other hand, might have had problems. Since he had made it from Italy to France (presumably), and then to England, I guess we can assume he had a passport. But, in "The Night Lives On," Walter Lord notes that foreign nationals entering the US had to produce $50 to prove they were not destitute; somehow I doubt Jack and Fabrizio had that much between them.

Ah, well, we'll never know!

Cheers!

-- Kip Henry (kip-henry@ouhsc.edu), February 16, 1998.


You are right Kip. Jack said he had 10 bucks and as for Fabrizio, who knows, but I doubt he had 50 dollars just laying around doing nothing or he probably would have been in second class!

Regards, Peter

-- Peter Nivling (pcnivling@capecod.net), February 16, 1998.


Once the Carpathia hit the docks in NYC, no one went through normal immigration procedures. I don't think the harbour ever had an arrival as famed as the Carpathia. So if he survived the sinking, getting into the country wouldn't be a problem. If the public found out that Fabrizio couldn't cough up the $50, some helpful Americans would have for him. If the Titanic didn't have its disaster, I'm sure the docking procedure wouldn't have been a regular one anyways, pit stopping at Ellis Island first and that whole shebang, because of the so many American citizens on the ship as is who wouldn't want to wait around to unload passengers. And I seem to remember that a special dock had to be built for Titanic because of her size at the harbour, so unless a shuttle was waiting for the passengers to take them to immigration, he would have had time to raise some money, more poker, begging, finding distant relatives, whatever.

-- Jen (jendrew@hotmail.com), February 17, 1998.

Kip and Peter: Remember in the card game that the two swedes wagered their tickets. We can assume that Jack and Fabrizzio had satisfactory funds to see that bet. I don't know how much third-class tickets would have cost (maybe you do, and can respond), but since Jack and Fabrizzio won the hand I'm thinking they each had more than $10.

-- Dan Dalton (DDa2309070@aol.com), February 17, 1998.

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