From Wikipedia:
"Stead boarded the
RMS Titanic for a visit to America to take part in a peace congress at
Carnegie Hall at the request of
William Howard Taft. After the ship struck the iceberg, Stead helped several women and children into the lifeboats. After all the boats had gone, Stead went into the 1st Class Smoking Room, where he was last seen sitting in a leather chair and reading a book.
A later sighting of Stead, by survivor
Philip Mock, has him clinging to a raft with
John Jacob Astor IV."Their feet became frozen," reported Mock, "and they were compelled to release their hold. Both were drowned." This story was proven false because Astor was crushed to death when the 1st funnel fell.
[1]
Stead had made two possible premonitions concerning the Titanic. On March 22nd,
1886, he published an article named "How the Mail Steamer Went Down in Mid-Atlantic, by a Survivor"
[2], where a steamer collides with another ship, with high loss of life due to lack of lifeboats. Stead had added "This is exactly what might take place and will take place if liners are sent to sea short of boats". In
1892, Stead published a story called
From the Old World to the New [3], in which a
White Star Line vessel, the Majestic, rescues survivors of another ship that collided with an
iceberg."
A memorial plaque to Stead in NY's Central Park
There is a report by Stead of a meeting during the 1904 Welsh Revival
here.