The Titanic:
More about the crew
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Background 6: More about the crew

Many of the crew came from Southampton and in ‘Titanic: Triumph and Tragedy’, page 212, there is a photograph with the caption:

“Entire streets in Southampton are filled with sorrow as in one house after another the sad news arrives”.

The photo shows wives and children standing by front doors and has type written captions. The captions are:

On the facing page is another photo with the caption:

“Every one of these children from the Northam School (Southampton) has lost at least one family member”

- there are 138 children in the photo!

There are many amazing and interesting stories about individual crew members.

Survivors from other disasters

Many of the crew had sailed on previous White Star line ships - Violet Jessop, John Priest and Evelyn Marsden for example.

A Lucky Escape

Others had unbelievably lucky escapes from the disaster - none more so than Charles Joughin. At the British Enquiry into the disaster he gave this statement:

“I got to the starboard side of the poop; found myself in the water. I do not believe my head went under at all. I thought I saw some wreckage. Swam towards it and found collapsible boat with Lightoller and about twenty-five men on it. There was no room for me.

I tried to get on, but was pushed off, but I hung around. I got around to the opposite side and cook Maynard, who recognised me, helped me and held on to me.”

Lord, in ‘A Night To Remember’ gives a long account of Joughin’s bravery that is well worth reading, but closes with this account of the above events:

“He bolted out of the pantry towards the stern end of A deck, just behind a swarm of people, running the same way and clambering down from the boat deck above. He kept out of the crush as much as possible and ran along in the rear of the crowd. He vaulted down the steps to B deck, then to the well deck. Just as he got there, the Titanic gave a sickening twist to port, throwing most of the people into a huge heap along the port rail.

Only Joughin kept his balance. Alert, but relaxed, his equilibrium was marvellous, as the stern rose higher and corkscrewed to port. The deck was now listing too steeply to stand on, and Joughin slipped over the starboard rail and stood on the actual side of the ship. He worked his way up the side, still holding on to the rail - but from the outside - until he reached the white-painted steel plates of the poop deck. He now stood on the rounded stern end of the ship, which had swung high into the air some 50 metres above the water.

Joughin casually tightened his lifebelt. Then he glanced at his watch - it said 2.15. As an afterthought, he took it off and stuck it in his hip pocket. He was beginning to puzzle over his position when he felt the stern drop under his feet - it was like taking an elevator. As the sea closed over the stern, Joughin stepped off into the water. He didn’t even get his head wet.

He paddled off into the night, little bothered by the freezing water. For over an hour, he bobbed about, moving his arms and legs just enough to keep upright. ‘No trick at all,’ he explains cheerfully today.”

The luckiest man of the night

The story that Patrick Dillon recounts in the enclosed facsimile newspaper is worth reading. At the British enquiry Dillon said:

“I went down with the ship and sank about two fathoms. Swam about twenty minutes in the water and was picked up by No. 4. About 1,000 others in the water in my estimation. Saw no women. Recovered consciousness and found Sailor Lyons and another lying on top of me dead.”
Two passengers, Mrs. Stephenson and Miss Eustis gave an account to Colonel Gracie which he published in his book. The following extract from that account relates to Dillon:

“We implored the men to pull away from the ship, but they refused, and we pulled three men into the boat who had dropped off the ship and were swimming toward us. One man was drunk and had a bottle of brandy in his pocket which the quartermaster promptly threw overboard and the drunken man was thrown into the bottom of the boat and a blanket thrown over him.”

It would seem that in those days too, a journalist’s story was only as accurate as the source of information!

Davie, in ‘The Titanic, The Full Story of a Tragedy’ sums it up nicely:

“The drunk was a fireman from Belfast, Paddy Dillon, and he was the luckiest man of the night. He found the brandy somewhere, rapidly became drunk, toppled over the Titanic’s side, and was immediately picked up.”

Investigation 6: More about the crew

Use the crew data to find the crew members referred to in the photo captions given and then research issues such as:

  1. What would have been the name of the street in the photo?
  2. Can you discover any crew that may have had children at Northam School?

Use the crew data to find the crew members described in the reports and stories and then research issues such as:

  1. Who else was in the same lifeboat?
  2. What happened to the other crew members referred to in their accounts?

Again, it is highly likely that other issues will arise as users follow the lines of investigation suggested above.

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