Titanic: Prominent people who dodged the disaster
BY JASON MCCORMICK
CBS News
APRIL 6, 2012

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J. Pierpont Morgan
Had J. P. Morgan stayed his reported course to leave Europe on April 10, 1912, he would have gone down with his ship, Titanic. Fortunately, the powerful American capitalist nixed his booking for the maiden voyage and pulled a collection of his fine art from her cargo only days before she struck an iceberg, and sank roughly 370 miles southeast of Newfoundland.

A.G. Vanderbilt (note: Vanderbilt died three years later in the sinking of the Lusitania, a different Royal Mail Ship.)

Former United States Secretary of State Robert Bacon had planned to head home from Europe with his wife and daughter aboard Titanic, though reportedly due to a delay of the arrival of Myron T. Herrick, Bacon's successor as U.S. ambassador to France, he postponed his family's departure.

Candy tycoon Milton Snavely Hershey made a reservation with the White Star Line on Dec. 18, 1911 to ride Titanic on the liner's maiden journey, and paid the $300 deposit by golden check. Hershey left Europe early in April 1912, however, and crossed the North Atlantic on the Amerika, a German liner, because the businessman was needed sooner than previously expected at his chocolate factory.