In the Fall of 1911,Emilio went to Italy to visit family and was booked to return in April on the Oceanic II when he received a telegram from the Astors. They were on their way home from a vacation in Egypt and invited him to join them on the Titanic. It seems they wanted to discuss hiring him to create some statues for their Newport villa. On April 14, he had joined them in first class for dinner and then went back to his cabin in 2nd class to retire for the evening. He was shaken awake, and thinking they had docked in New York, went out on deck in his bathrobe. When he arrived he realized something serious was happening so he went to get dressed.
The End....,,.....,,,..,
There are several stories as to what happened next. One version is when he came back on deck he was wearing a life jacket. He jumped overboard, swam to a huge ice floe and was able to stay afloat until he was rescued by lifeboat 14. Another version was that he tried to get into a lifeboat, lost his footing and fell into the ocean. After he had been swimming in the icy waters for some time, Lady Astor saw him from lifeboat 14 and pleaded with the sailors to rescue him. One version even had him getting on a lifeboat dressed as a woman because he was listed as Mrs. Portaluppi on the list of survivors. Claudio Bossi, author of Titanic wrote, “We will never know the truth. It is possible that he managed to simply board a lifeboat and that he made up everything.”
He continued to be an adventurer… he fought for Italy in WWI. After two more marriages and many visits back to Italy, Emilio took his final voyage home on the S. S. Cristoforo Colombo in 1965 at the age of 84. He died at 92.
