J. P. Morgan had bought a ticket for Titanic’s first and only voyage
The Corsair, which was built by William Cramp & Sons for Charles J. Osborn (1837–1855) and launched on May 26, 1880, was the first of numerous large yachts that Morgan, an enthusiastic yachtsman, owned. The private banking manager for Jay Gould was Charles J. Osborn. In 1882, Morgan purchased a yacht. Although the question is unproven, Morgan is sometimes quoted as stating, "If you have to inquire the price, you can't afford it," in answer to a query concerning the price of keeping a yacht. A similar unproven rumor claims that J.P. Morgan Jr. said this in conjunction with the 1930 launch of his yacht Corsair IV at Bath Iron Works.
Morgan had been scheduled to travel on the tragic RMS Titanic's inaugural voyage, but he decided to stay at a resort in Aix-les-Bains, France, instead. Morgan's International Mercantile Maritime Company owned the White Star Line, which ran the Titanic, and she was required to have her ohamber and a promenade deck there.
JP Morgan is incredibly fortunate. An amusing tidbit about JP Morgan is that he purchased a first-class ticket for the Titanic's celebrity-studded inaugural voyage but changed his mind at the last minute and sold it to a total stranger. He famously said, "When I heard of the ship's sad sinking, "Money losses have no value in life. What matters is the loss of life. It is the loss of life. It was a terrible death."
