Charlotte Appleton boarded Titanic with her two sisters, Caroline Lane Brown and  Malvina Helen Cornell. They were returning from England after attending the funeral of another sister, Lady Victor Drummond. Mrs. Brown was a widow and the other two sisters travelled unaccompanied by their husbands. 

The sisters were friends of Colonel Archibald Gracie IV, another passenger on the voyage and he commented that they made a quartet with their friend Miss Edith Evans. On the night of the disaster the sisters were seperated . Charlotte and Malvina boarded lifeboat 2 together which left at about 01:45am. It was noted that "Mrs. Appleton and Mrs. Cornell had been rowing and rowed all the time."

Aboard the Carpathia the two sisters were joyfully reunited with Caroline although Edith had insisted Caroline took the remaining seat in Collapsible D and she went down with the vessel.  In an extraordinary coincidence the sisters discovered their uncle Charles H. Marshall was a passenger on the Carpathia.