Thayer, John Borland, 49. 1st Class.
Thayer (née Morris), Marian Longstreth, 39.
John (Jack) Borland Jnr, 17.
John B Thayer as a Univ of Penn baseball player in 1879 (Wikipedia).
Thayer was from Haverford, Pennsylvania, where he was Second Vice-President of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He married Marian Morris and they had two sons and two daughters. They were Jack, born on 24 December, 1894, Frederick, Margaret ‘Peggy’ and Pauline. Jack accompanied them on a trip to Europe, where they were guests of the American Consul General in Berlin. They joined the Titanic as first class passengers.
At 5 pm on Sunday, 14 April, Marian went to Emily Ryerson’s stateroom and invited her for a walk on the deck. Emily agreed and Marian was pleased as it was the first time Emily had been on deck as she was in mourning for a son killed the week before in Bryn Mawr, PA. After walking for an hour they sat down on deckchairs on A Deck, where they were joined by Bruce Ismay. He asked if they were enjoying the trip and showed them the ice warning from the Baltic given to him by Captain Smith.
That evening they joined the Widener party for a dinner party in the a la carte restaurant. They were going to bed when the collision occurred. Jack went up to investigate and saw ice on the forward well deck. He then called his parents who accompanied him and discerned that the ship had a slight list to port. They returned to their staterooms and dressed warmly. They remained together until the order was given for women and children to board the lifeboats.
Thayer and Jack said goodbye to Marian at the top of the grand staircase on A Deck. She and Miss Fleming then went to the port side of A Deck. Thayer and Jack believed that she had left the ship, but were later advised by Chief Second Steward George Dodd that she hadn’t. They found her, then, while Jack got lost in the crowd, Thayer saw Marian onto Lifeboat 4. As there were only two seamen aboard Marian and other ladies rowed.
Thayer remained with his friends, George and Harry Widener and Charles Williams. After all the boats had left Colonel Gracie saw him speaking to George Widener at the midship rail, thereafter they may have moved aft as he didn’t see them again. Thayer’s body, if recovered, wasn’t identified.
Jack had meanwhile found Milton Long, 29, a friend whom he had met over coffee that evening. They went forward on the starboard side. Jack saw a drunk lurching past drinking from a bottle of Gordon’s gin and said, “If I ever get out of this there is one man I’ll never see again.” Incongruously Charles Joughin was to survive the cold water because of the alcohol in his system!
Long was not a strong swimmer and persuaded Jack not to go aft and jump as others were doing. Instead they waited, then said goodbye to one another before Long climbed onto the rail, saying, “You are coming boy, aren’t you?” Jack said, “Go ahead. I’ll be with you in a minute.” Long slid down the side of the ship and was possibly sucked into it as he was not seen again.
Jack jumped far out and surfaced clear of the ship. He felt as though he was being pushed away from the sinking ship, “The ship seemed to be surrounded with a glare, and stood out of the night as though she were on fire … the water was over the base of the first funnel. The mass of people on board were surging back, always back toward the floating stern. The rumble and roar continued, with even louder distinct wrenchings and tearings of boilers and engines from their beds. Suddenly the whole superstructure of the ship seemed to split, well forward to midship, and bow and buckle upwards.
“The second funnel, large enough for two automobiles to pass through abreast, seemed to be lifted off, emitting a cloud of sparks. It looked as if it would fall on top of me. It missed me by only 20 or 30 feet. The suction of it drew me down and down, struggling and swimming, practically spent.
“This time I was sucked down, and as I came up I was pushed out again and twisted around by a large wave, coming up in the midst of a great deal of small wreckage. As I pushed my hand from my head it touched the cork fender of an overturned lifeboat. I looked up and saw some men at the top and asked them to give me a hand. One of them, who was a stoker, helped me up. In a short time the bottom was covered with about 25 or 30 men. When I got on this I was facing the ship.
“Her deck was turned slightly toward us. We could see groups of the almost 1,500 people aboard, clinging in clusters or bunches, like swarming bees; only to fall in masses, pairs or singly, as the great part of the ship, 250 feet of it, rose into the sky, till it reached a 65 or 70 degree angle. Here it seemed to pause, and just hung, for what felt like minutes. Gradually she turned her deck away from us, as though to hide from our sight the awful spectacle.”
“I looked upwards – we were right under the three enormous propellers. For an instant I thought they were sure to come down on top of us. Then, with the deadened noise of the bursting of her last few gallant bulkheads, she slid quietly away from us into the sea.” The men on top of the upturned Collapsible B had to stand for most of the night and move in accordance with instructions from Second Officer Lightoller, in order to balance it and save it from capsizing.
When the survivors on Collapsible B were picked up by Lifeboat 12, with Boat 4 alongside, Marian was too numb with cold to notice that Jack was among those transferred. At 8.30 am when Lifeboat 12 arrived at the Carpathia, Marian met her son and asked, “Where’s daddy?” Jack replied, “I don’t know, mother.” While on the Carpathia Jack described the sinking to a fellow passenger, L D Skidmore, who drew a sequence of pictures which showed the ship breaking in two.
Jack Thayer went to visit Ismay in his cabin and recalled 28 years later, “I have never seen a man so completely wrecked”.
After they disembarked the Thayers and Margaret Fleming boarded a private train to Haverford. On 31 May Marian had dinner with Madeleine Astor and Florence Cumings. The guests of honour were Captain Rostron and Dr McGhee of the Carpathia. Marian telephoned Ismay before he left for England and they corresponded thereafter for several months.
When filing a claim for insurance for the loss of her husband she applealed to Ismay to present her case for special consideration. He refused and the correspondence then declined. He later wrote that she was the only person who understood him and all his faults. She later visited England but they did not meet.
Jack graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and became a banker. He married Lois Cassatt and they had two sons, Edward C Thayer and John B Thayer IV. In 1940 Jack published a pamphlet on his recollections of the sinking. During World War II both his sons served and Edward was killed in the Pacific Theatre. Following a bout of depression Jack took his own life on 18 September, 1945, aged 50. He was buried at the Church of the Redeemer Cemetery, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. His mother, Marian, never remarried. She died at Haverford on 14 April, 1944, aged 71.
Thorne, Gertrude Maybelle, 38. 1st Class.
She was from New York and boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg. Gertrude was the mistress of George Rosenshine, who attempted to hide the fact by boarding under the assumed name of George Thorne. They were returning from a business and holiday trip. Gertrude was saved in Collapsible D.
Troutt, Edwina Celia ‘Winnie’, 27. 2nd Class.
Winnie was born in Bath on 8 July, 1884, and had four brothers and three sisters. She became a pre-school teacher and clerk then, in 1907, went to America where she worked as a waitress and domestic for five years. She returned to Bath in 1911.
As her sister was having a baby in Massachusetts she returned on the Titanic as a second class passenger. Winnie shared a cabin with Susan Webber of Cornwall and Nora Keane of Ireland. After the ship struck she investigated then returned to inform her friends. On the way she met two table companions, Jacob Milling and Edgar Andrew. She told them that the ship was sinking and Milling replied, “Don’t worry. I am sorry such a thing has happened, but I sent a wireless today. We are in communication with several vessels and we will all be saved, though parted. But I won’t go back home on so big a ship.”
At her cabin she found Nora Keane trying to put on a corset. Winnie flung it away and shepherded Nora to Lifeboat 10, then herself boarded Lifeboat 16. As they were about to be lowered a Lebanese passenger, Charles Thomas, handed her a five-month-old baby, Assad Thomas. She recalled hearing the band playing ‘Nearer my God to Thee’ at the end.
On the Carpathia she slept on a table initially, until she became hysterical during a storm, then was given a bed and brandy. It took Winnie several months to recover from the ordeal. She moved to Southern California in 1916, became an apricot picker and married Alfred Peterson in 1918. They ran a bakery in Beverley Hills until his death in 1944. She then married James Corrigan.
In 1964, aged 79, Winnie married James Mackenzie and retired to Hermosa Beach, Ca. In 1974 she received a letter from the president, Richard Nixon, on her 90th birthday. In her 99th year she crossed the Atlantic again, following at least ten other trips. She was very popular at Titanic meeting until her death at Redondo Beach, Ca, in December 1984, aged 100.
Tucker, Gilbert Milligan, 31. 1st Class.
He was born on 3 November, 1880, son of the author Gilbert Milligan Tucker (1847-1932). He had a sister, Margaret, and they lived in Albany, New York. His father was editor of ‘The Country Gentleman’ and author of ‘Our Common Speech.” Tucker graduated from Cornell University and also became an author.
He travelled to Europe with his parents and sister, where he met Margaret Hays, who was touring with her friends, Olive Earnshaw and Lily Potter. Tucker fell in love with Margaret and when she returned to America on the Titanic, he appointed himself as the unofficial escort to the three ladies.
After the collision Tucker helped the three ladies into their lifebelts at C Deck’s landing. They proceeded to the Boat Deck where they were all permitted to board Lifeboat 7. After returning to New York he kept in touch with Margaret, but in 1913 she married Dr Charles Easton.
When he was 41 Tucker married Mildred Penrose Steward, 36, in 1922. He died on 26 February, 1968, aged 87, and is buried at the Little Chapel by the Sea, Pacific Grove, California. Mildred died in January 1981, aged 94.
Turja, Anna Sofia, 18. 3rd Class.
She was born on 20 June, 1893, and lived in Oulainen, Finland. Her father, Heikki, had 21 children by two marriages. She had a brother, Matt, living in Conneaut, Ohio, and a half-sister, Maria, in Ashtabula, Ohio. Anna wrote to Maria that she and 100 other Finns were sailing on the Titanic, the letter arriving on 18 April! Anna shared a cabin with Maria Panula and her children and Sanni Riihivuori.
Anna was woken by the collision, which she described as a shudder. She thought that there was something wrong with the engines, so dressed, as did the other ladies. A brother of one of the women arrived and told them to put on their life jackets. “Get up or soon you will be at the bottom of the ocean.” Anna wasn’t scared but she saw that others were and some fainted.
She assisted Maria in dressing her sleepy and crying children. Maria had lost a son to drowning in Finland and cried, “We will never get away from here alive. Do we all have to die by water?” As they made their way to the Boat Deck they were stopped by a sailor, but they barged past him and he then chained and locked the doors behind them. Anna recalled, “We were not told what had happened, and had to do our own thinking.” Anna spoke no English and by pure chance they emerged on the Boat deck.
Anna recalled that the Finns didn’t panic and that many gathered to listen to the music being played. She was there until 12.30 pm, then probably boarded Lifeboat 15. As they pulled away she heard loud explosions and the lights went out. She recalled the moaning of those in the water, “… finally it was almost like a hymn you could hear.” She was told that they couldn’t return for swimmers as the boat was full. People burnt hats and other items so that they could be seen by other lifeboats.
On the Carpathia Anna spoke to a Finn who claimed to have been in the water for six hours. He said that there had been some shooting as the Titanic sank and that he had narrowly escaped being shot for climbing into a half empty lifeboat being lowered. Anna was taken to St Vincent’s Hospital and confined to her room, though she desperately tried to find out who had died. Three of her room mates perished.
The White Star Line paid for Anna’s hospital bill and her train fare to Ashtabula. She was met by her brother and taken to her sister, where neighbours crowded in. “They marvelled at the wisp of a girl they met. She was described by a newspaper reporter as ‘fair, slender, and exceedingly bashful’. As her name was on the Lost Passenger list her family only found out six weeks later that she had survived.
Anna met and married Emil Lundi and they had seven children. Anna never learnt to speak English. When she attended the movie ‘A Night to Remember’ in 1958 one of her sons had to interpret for her. At the end of the movie she turned to her son and, with tears in her eyes, said, “If they were so close to take those pictures, why didn’t someone help us?”
Emil Lundi died in 1952 and Anna at Long Beach. California, on 20 December, 1982, aged 89. She was interred in the Edgewater Cemetery, Ashtabula, Ohio.
Turvey, Charles, 16. Restauranteur.
He was born in London and signed on to the a la carte staff of the Titanic, thus being paid by Mr Gatti. He died in the sinking and his body, if recovered, was not recognised.
Van Billiard, Austin Blyler, 35. 3rd Class.
James William, 11.
Walter John, 9.
Austin was born in America on 9 February, 1877, the son of a successful marble merchant. In 1900 he went to France to seek work before the Universal Exposition opened in Paris. He prospered as an electrician. He met a London girl, Maude Murray (born on 13 April, 1873), who had accompanied her father when he went to Paris on business.
They married on 3 November, 1900, and soon had two sons, James born on 20 August, 1901, and Walter on 28 February 1903. In 1906 the family left for Central Africa to try their luck at diamond mining. They lived under harsh circumstances, yet had another two children.
They found their way to South Africa, possibly on the diamond trail. Austin decided to return to America as a diamond merchant, so they left from Cape Town. They apparently smuggled their children aboard a French steamer. He left his wife and two youngest chidren in England, then boarded the Titanic with his two older boys.
They all perished when the ship sank. Austin’s body was recovered by the MacKay Bennett and 12 uncut diamonds were found in his pockets.
Van der hoef, Wyckoff, 61. 1st Class.
He was born in New York on 13 or 28 May, 1850. Van der hoef married Laura Newell and had twin sons, Marshall and Newell. He went to Europe on business and pleasure, then boarded the Titanic in Belfast on 2 April, the only passenger to do so. He re-boarded in Southampton.
Van der hoef died when the ship sank. His body was recovered and is buried in the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, close to where George and Dorothy Harder, both Titanic survivors, are buried.
Wallis (née Moore), Catherine ‘Cissie’ 35. Matron.
Catherine Moore was born in Hampshire in 1877 and had two brothers. She married James Wallis and had five children, Fred, Melita, Cecilia, James and Frank. Her husband died on 16 January, 1911. Cissie, as she was known, became an assistant matron on the Oceanic and transferred to the Titanic’s third class staff.
Cissie died when the ship sank. Her name is commemorated on her son, Fred’s grave, who died on 26 July 1929, aged 21, and is buried in the Old Cemetery, the Common, Southampton.
Ward, Anna Moore, 35. Maid, 1st Class.
Anna Ward was born in Scotland on 1 August, 1876. She came to America with her mother, brother and sister and lived in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. She became a personal maid to Charlotte Cardeza, 58, and they boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg.
After the collision she donned a fur coat and put various items, which she found on tables, into its pockets. She offered these to Mrs Cardeza, who said that she could keep them. They were rescued in Lifeboat 3.
Anna remained in Mrs Cardez’s employ until the latter’s death in 1939. She died on 25 December, 1955, aged 79. She left some jewellery and salt and pepper shakers, which she had taken from the Titanic, to her relatives.
Weir, Colonel John, 60. 1st Class.
Born in Scotland in 1852 he married there and had a daughter. Weir came to America where he made a fortune in mining, becoming president of the Nevada-Utah Mine & Smelters Corporation. He was appointed quartermaster-general by President McKinley during the Spanish-American War and served in the Phillipines.
Weir was popular in Salt Lake City, especially for the presents which he gave during the Christmas season. He visited his sister and daughter in Scotland, then was going to return on the Philadelphia, but its sailing was postponed on account of the coal strike, so he took a first class cabin in the Titanic.A friend, Henry Julian, was also aboard. He died in the sinking and his body, if recovered, wasn’t identified. His wife, a tall woman in blue velvet, accompanied Mr Cornell, a local magistrate and husband of one of three sisters aboard, to the New York office of the White Star Line and fainted when she was told that there was no news of Col Weir.
Wennerström, August, 27. 3rd Class.
He was born August Edvard Andersson on 24 April, 1884. He became a journalist and socialist activist in Malmö, Sweden. In 1905 he puiblished ‘The Yellow danger’, and thereafter was known as that. He described King Oscar II as ‘King of thieves’. He was charged, so decided to emigrate. To conceal his identity when he purchased a ticket he used the name of a friend, Ivar Vennerström, the later Minister of Defence, and used a W instead of V.
On the Titanic Wennerström made friends with other Swedes, among them Gunnar Tenglin with whom he shared a cabin. After the collision he took some Swedish girls to the lifeboats, then returned to steerage. He recalled that Johan Lundahl, “… said to us ’Goodbye, friends; I’m too old to fight the Atlantic’. He went to the smoking room and there on a chair was awaiting his last call. So did an English lady; she sat down by the piano and, with her child on her knee, she played the piano until the Atlantic grave called them both.”
As the Titanic went down he and Gunnar Tenglin tried to save some children, but lost them in the sea. As the steerage passengers emerged they found Edvard and Elin Lindell from Helsingborg. They struggled up the sloping deck together until it was too steep, then slid down while holding hands. They were in the sea close to Collapsible A. As the ship disappeared under the sea he noted that there was no suction.
He and Lindell climbed into the boat, which was half-swamped. He saw Mrs Lindell in the water and grabbed hold of her hand, but was too weakened by the cold to pull her aboard and she drifted off. He saw that Lindell was already dead. “All the feeling had left us. If we wanted to know if we still had legs (or any other part) left, we had to feel down in the water with our hand.
“The only exercise we got was when someone gave up hope and died, whom we immediately threw overboard to give the live ones a little more space and at the same time lighten the weight of the boat.”
After being rescued he was quartered at the New York Salvation army cadet school. Wennerström created a furore when he accused the Lutheran Immigrant Home of embezzlement. He travelled to the Salvation Army in Chicago where he met a Swedish girl, Namol Johnson. They married and moved to Culver, Indiana, where he became a gardener. They had seven children. Wennerström died on 22 November, 1950, aged 66, and is buried locally.
West, Edwy Arthur, 36. 2nd Class.
West (nee Worth), Ada Mary, 33.
Constance Miriam, 4.
Barbara Joyce, 10 months
Arthur West was born on 20 November, 1875, in Perranzabuloe, inland from the north Cornwall coast. His family had originated in Essex. In 1889 they moved to Newham, an area of Truro. Ada Mary Worth was born at Mitchell Hill, Truro, on 17 February, 1879, the daughter of a printer. Arthur and Ada were married in Newham in 1905. They moved to Bristol, where their daughter, Constance, was born on 13 August, 1907. They then moved to Bournemouth, where Barbara was born on 24 May, 1911.
Arthur worked for a department store, JJ Allen, as a shopfloor walker. They decided to emigrate to Florida and start a new life in the fruit culture business. They travelled Second Class on the Titanic. Ada later recalled, “We were all asleep when the collision took place, but were only jolted in our berths – my husband and children not even being awakened, and it was only the hurrying of passengers outside the cabin that caused alarm.
“The steward bade us all get up and dress thoroughly with plenty of warm things. Arthur placed lifebelts upon the children and then carried them to the boat deck. I followed carrying my handbag. After seeing us safely into the lifeboat (Boat 10) Arthur returned to the cabin for a thermos of hot milk, and [on his return] finding the lifeboat let down he reached it by means of a rope, gave the flask to me, and, with a farewell, returned to the deck of the ship.”
By climbing back aboard the Titanic he deliberately went to his death. The newspaper Mining World said of him: ‘… Arthur West may be one of the least known of the Titanic heroes, but none will deny him the distinction of being one of the noblest’.
Ada was pregnant at the time and gave birth to a daughter late in 1912. She and her daughters returned to England on the Celtic and lived with her husband’s brothers in Truro. A memorial was placed in Truro Cathedral, where Arthur had been a chorister for many years. Ada died on 20 April, 1953, aged 74, and her name was added to the memorial. Constance lived in Cornwall for the rest of her life and died in Penzance on 12 September, 1963, aged 56.
Barbara West (Wikipedia).
Barbara married William Dainton in 1952. She lived in Truro and ‘wanted nothing to do with the Titanic people’, yet kept contact with the British Titanic Society. The third daughter married a bank clerk who pursued a successful career in the Bahamas in the Prime Minister’s Office. She died at a young age of cancer.
Barbara died early in November 2007, aged 96, reputedly the second to last Titanic survivor.
White, Percival Wayland, 54. 1st Class.
Richard Frasar, 21.
White was married to Edith Frasar Wheeler and had two sons, Percival jnr and Richard Frasar White. The latter was the younger son and was born in December 1890. White became a successful cotton manufacturer in Winchendon Springs, Massachusetts, before moving to Brunswick, Maine.
Richard finished his undergraduate studies at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, sooner than expected. As a reward for his academic success White took Richard on a tour of Europe for a month. They crossed to Europe on the Olympic and were so impressed that they booked on the Titanic as first class passengers for the return journey.
On board they befriended Elizabeth Lines, 51, and her daughter, Mary, 16. On the night of the 14th White knocked on their stateroom door to inform them of the disaster. Elizabeth was later told by a survivor that “her husband and son were last seen removing their shoes in preparation for their leaps into the sea”.
They both lost their lives and White’s body remained undiscovered. Richard’s body appeared to be that of a 37-year-old. An impressive funeral took place, with students from Bowdoin College attending. Mrs White was presented with his diploma. Richard was then buried in the family plot at Winchendon Springs, Massachusetts.
Widener, George Dunton, 50. 1st Class.
Widener (née Elkins), Eleanor, 50
Harry Elkins, 27.
George D Widener (Wikipedia).
George Widener’s father was a member of the board of the Fidelity Trust Company of Philadelphia, the bank that controlled IMM, owners of the White Star Line. Widener was heir to a fortune and ran a street-car company as well. He, his wife, Eleanor (born in Philadelphia on 21 September, 1861) and son, Harry (born on 3 January, 1885) together with their servants, Edwin Keeping and Emily Geiger, boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg. They had been staying at the Paris Ritz Hotel.
Harry E Widener (Wikipedia).
Harry graduated from Harvard in 1907. He was a collector of rare books and had a Shakespeare Folio and Gutenberg Bible in his collection. Among the books he purchased in England was a second edition of Bacon’s Essais of 1598.
During the afternoon of Sunday 14 April they were talking to J Bruce Ismay on the promenade when Captain Smith handed the latter an ice warning cable received from the Baltic. Ismay merely pocketed it. That evening Captain Smith attended a dinner party given in his honour by the Wideners. Among the guests were Mr and Mrs John Thayer, Mr and Mrs William Carter, Major Archibald Butt and Clarence Moore.
Captain Smith excused himself shortly before 9 pm and went to the bridge. The ladies retired and the men sat in the smoking room until the ship struck the iceberg. George and Harry escorted Eleanor to Lifeboat 4, which Mrs Thayer was also boarding.
William Carter approached Harry to try for a boat but he said, “I think I’ll stick to the big ship, Billy, and take a chance.” The Wideners entered into deep discussion with John Thayer until the ship sank and all were drowned. A romantic story states that as Harry was going to step into a boat he remembered his copy of Bacon’s Essais and returned to fetch it. Robert Daniel, 27, from Philadelphia jumped with them and was picked up by a lifeboat.
Two Tiffany Windows in memory of George and Harry Widener are at the Church of St Paul, Philadelphia. Eleanor Widener had the interior of the church rebuilt in 1912/3. She made a $2 million donation to the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library at Harvard University. One of her stipulations was that each Harvard graduate must pass a swimming test, as she felt her son may have been saved if he could swim. Some 3,500 books from Harry’s collection are included in the library. The author visited the library and was honoured to find some of his books there!
In 1915 Eleanor married Dr Alexander Hamilton Rice of New York. He was an explorer, so they travelled widely in the Americas, Europe and India. She died in Paris on 13 July, 1937, aged 75.
Wilde, Henry Tingle, 39. Chief Officer.
Henry Wilde (Wikipedia).
Born on 21 September, 1872, he grew up in Liverpool and went to sea as a young man. He obtained his masters certificate and joined the White Star Line, serving on a number of ships. He also became a lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve. His wife and twin infant sons all died in December 1910. He had four surviving children. In 1911 he was Chief Officer of the Olympic when it was rammed by HMS Hawke.
There was considerable confusion around the appointment of senior officers of the Titanic – some contend it was Captain Smith’s directives and others that the orders came from company headquarters. Wilde was made Chief Officer and Murdoch moved down to First Officer and Lightoller to Second Officer, displacing David Blair who took with him the knowledge of where the lookout’s binoculars were.
Wilde had misgivings about the Titanic, “I still don’t like this ship … I have a queer feeling about it.” On 14 April Wilde was on the bridge from 2 pm to 6 pm, when he was relieved by Lightoller. After the collision Wilde joined Captain Smith and Andrews on their inspection tour. He took charge of the even numbered boats, but was reticent in loading and lowering them. He worked diligently once he realized how serious things were. At 1.30 am he ordered Lowe to take command of Lifeboat 14. He then asked Lightoller where the guns were and accompanied him in fetching them.
Wilde assisted with lowering Collapsible C, which had been placed in a lifeboat’s davits. As it was being lowered Bruce Ismay and William Carter jumped aboard. He then assisted with Collapsible D, where Lightoller had drawn his revolver and had a ring of men guarding it. Wilde told Lightoller to get aboard, but he refused. He was last seen attempting to free Collapsibles A and B. His body was never found. Wilde is commemorated on a grave and obelisk in Kirkdale Cemetery, Liverpool.
Williams, Charles Duane, 51. 1st Class.
Richard Norris, 21.
Charles Williams was born on 11 August, 1860. He lived at Radnor, Pennsylvania, qualified as a lawyer then married Lydia Biddle Williams-White. They moved to Geneva, Switzerland in 1890, where they had a son, Richard Norris, on 29 January, 1891. The latter became an accomplished lawn tennis-player, who planned to take part in tournaments in the USA before enrolling to study at Harvard.
Richard Norris Williams III (Wikipedia).
They boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg as first class passengers. After the collision they saw a steward trying to open a stuck door, behind which a passenger was trapped. Charles Williams smashed the door in with his shoulder and the steward threatened to report him for wilfully destroying the ship’s property. They went to the bar around midnight but found it closed. A steward told them that it was against regulations to open it. Charles handed an empty flask to his son, who retained it for his grandson.
They wandered about as the ship sank, visiting A Deck to view the map which showed the ship’s run each day. They continued to the Boat Deck, from where they could see lifeboats’ lights in the distance. To get out of the cold they entered the gymnasium and sat on stationery bicycles while the gym instructor, McCawley, chatted to others. Then near the end, they entered the frigid water.
Richard swam ahead and found himself face to face with a prize bulldog, Gamon de Pycombe, which belonged to Robert Daniels. A passenger had ventured below to release the dogs from their kennels. The forward funnel then collapsed, crushing his father and many others. The wave it created washed him toward Collapsible A. After hanging onto its side for some time he was pulled aboard.
He forgot the cold briefly when he noticed a man wearing a dented Derby hat. Williams attempted to explain in several languages how to push it out. He then reached out to do so himself, but the man resisted as he thought that Williams wanted to steal it.
Williams later wrote to fellow survivor Col Archibald Gracie, “I was not under water very long, and as soon as I came to the top I threw off the big fur coat. I also threw off my shoes. About twenty yards away I saw something floating. I swam to it and found it to be a collapsible boat. I hung on to it and after a while got aboard and stood up in the middle of it. The water was up to my waist. About thirty of us clung to it. When Officer Lowe’s boat picked us up eleven of us were still alive; all the rest were dead from cold. MY fur coat was found attached to this Engelhardt boat A by the Oceanic…”
They were later transferred to Lifeboat 14. On the Carpathia the doctor recommended that both Williams’ legs be amputated, but he refused. By regular exercise he regained their use. He returned to playing tennis and entered Harvard. He won the 1912 United States mixed doubles with Ms Mary Browne. In 1914 and 1916 he was the US singles champion. During World War I Williams served in the US Army and was awarded the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur and the Croix de Guerre.
In 1920 he was the Wimbledon men’s doubles champion with C Garland, and runner up in 1924 with W Washburn. Williams was also the 1924 Olympic Gold Medalist, and between 1913 and 1926 he was a member of the US Davis cup team.
He married, became a successful investment banker in Philadelphia and served as President of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania for 22 years. He died of emphysema on 2 June, 1968, aged 77, and is interred in St David’s Churchyard, Devon, Penn, where there is a memorial to his father.
Woody, Oscar Scott, 44. Postmaster.
He was born on 15 April, 1868, and lived at Clifton Springs, Fairfax County, Virginia, USA. He was in charge of the postal workers who celebrated his birthday, then after the collision endeavoured to move the mailbags out of the water’s reach. All five men stuck to their task until the end and all perished.
His body was found clinging to an iceberg a week later and he was buried at sea His key chain and three keys to the mail room were recovered. They were auctioned by Henry Aldridge and Sons of Wiltshire, England, in April 2007.
Woolner, Hugh, 45. 1st Class.
Born in 1867 Woolner became a director of various businesses in London. He possibly shared a first class cabin with Mauritz Bjornstrom-Steffanson. He later said, “One lady (Mrs Churchill Candee) was recommended to my care by letters from friends in England. She joined the ship at Cherbourg, but I had not known her before”.
When the Titanic collided he was in the First Class Smoking Room with Bjornstrom-Steffanson and Kent, “We felt a sort of stopping, a sort of, not exactly shock, but a sort of slowing down; and then we felt a sort of rip that gave a sort of slight twist to the whole room. Everybody, so far as I could see, stood up and a number of men walked out rapidly through the swinging doors on the port side, and ran along to the rail that was behind the mast. I stood hearing what the conjectures were. People were guessing what it might be, and one man called out, ‘An iceberg has passed astern’…“
Woolner went to look for Mrs Candee and found her outside her stateroom. He reassured her and they went for a walk on the after-deck. They then saw people with lifebelts on and a steward confirmed that they were to don theirs. They did so and proceeded to the boat deck. “My great desire was to get her into the first lifeboat (No 6), which I did, and we brought up a rug, which we threw in with her and waited to see that boat filled. It was not filled but a great many people got into it, and finally it was quietly and orderly lowered away.”
He then saw Captain Smith ordering people down to A Deck, so approached him and said, “Haven’t you forgotten, sir, that all those glass windows are closed?” He replied, “By God, you’re right. Call those people back.”
Woolner and Steffanson then assisted in the loading of other lifeboats. They went down to A Deck and found three women, 2nd or 3rd class passengers, who were lost so brought them up to the boat deck. They tried to convince Mrs Straus to leave her husband, but she refused adamantly. Woolner said to Straus, “I am sure nobody would object to an old gentleman like you getting in. There seems to be room in this boat.” He replied, “I will not go before the other men.”
They then went to assist in clearing a boat of men. “We helped the officer pull these men out, by their legs and anything we could get hold of.” They pulled five or six men out. As the boat was being lowered they went down to A Deck, walked past the closed windows and emerged where Collapsible D was being lowered on the port side. Steffanson jumped across nine feet into the boat. Woolner followed, but hit his chest on the gunwale and had to clutch hold of it, with his feet trailing in the sea, until Steffanson assisted him in. They saw a man swimming so hauled him aboard.
There were six men and 30 women and children aboard, “One lady had a broken elbow bone. She was in a white, woollen jacket. She sat beside me eventually.” As for the ship, “… she seemed to me to stop for about 30 seconds at one place before she took the final plunge because I watched one particular porthole, and the water did not rise there for at least half a minute, and then suddenly she slid with her propellers under water.”
Lowe then left five or six people in their boat in order to go back for survivors. They tied up with other boats and drifted through the rest of the night. In the morning he saw a number of icebergs about before they were rescued by the Carpathia. Woolner was questioned at the Senate Hearings about provisions in the lifeboats. He recalled that one of the Navratil children kept calling for its doll. Although there was no boat drill there was no want of discipline.
Woolner died at Budapest on 13 February, 1925, aged 58. His wife, Mary, died in England in 1947.
Wright, Frederick, 24. Racquet attendant.
He was born in Great Billings, England, in 1888. Wright lived at Shepherd’s Bush, London, at the time of transferring from the Olympic to the Titanic, where he became the racquet court attendant.
Shortly after the collision he met Colonel Gracie, who jokingly cancelled his racquet lesson for the following morning. Wright appeared concerned, possibly because he knew the racquet court was already filling with water. His body, if recovered, was never identified.
Wright, Marion, 26. 2nd Class. (Pic in Goldsmith Commutator 176 p193)
Marion was born on 26 May, 1885, probably in Reading, Berkshire. Her mother died while she was young and in the late 1880’s her father remarried a Miss Huntley. Marion spent much of her youth taking care of her three stepsisters. While visiting a friend in Yeoville she met Arthur Woolcott. He had gone to America in 1907 and returned in 1910 to finalise the finance for an 80-acre farm he had purchased in Cottage Grove, Oregon. They then corresponded, became engaged and she booked on the Titanic to travel to her wedding in America.
Marion shared a cabin with Mrs Bessie Watt and her daughter, Bertha, from Aberdeen. She made friends with Kate Buss, 36, from Kent and Alfred Pain from Canada. Early in the evening of 14 April she sang solos at a service taken by Rev Ernest Carter, being ‘Lead Kindly Light’ and ‘There is a Green Hill far away’.
She was alarmed at the collision, which sounded like a “huge crash of glass. The stopping of the engines on an ocean liner creates such a calm, such a painful silence, that it inspires passengers that something is not exactly right.” She went on deck with Kate Buss, but was assured that there was no danger. She noticed the large number of passengers donning their lifebelts, so did the same. It was impossible to see from one end of the deck to the other. She was surprised to hear an officer call out, “Any more ladies?”
Alfred Pain guided her to Lifeboat 9 and she boarded. There were about 35 people in it. Marion watched the Titanic sink, and recalled hearing ‘Nearer my God to Thee’ being played. According to her “… she went down gradually, bit by bit. When she broke in two, which she did a few moments before she sunk, going down with a huge explosion, the cries of the people left on board were heart-rending.”
There were six men aboard, of whom two were crewmen. They were found by the Carpathia at 6.30 am. Marion recalled the helpfulness of their crew and their amusement at the ‘queer clothes’ which the survivors wore.
Arthur Woolcott had journeyed to New York to meet Marion. He missed her at the dockside but found her staying with a Mr and Mrs Milne. They married and took the train to Cottage Grove, where they later had three sons, John, Russ and Bob. They never made enough money to return to England.
Woolcott died in 1961 and Marion on 4 July, 1965, aged 80. They are buried in the Cottage Grove cemetery. At the local museum there is a memorial to Marion’s Titanic experience.
Young, Marie Grice, 36. 1st Class.
A New Yorker and Washingtonian, she boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg and shared a first class cabin with Mrs J White. Marie was an accomplished musician, who had once been the musical instructress to Ethel Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt’s daughter.
Marie had expensive poultry on board and each day would be taken below by Carpenter/Joiner John Hutchinson to inspect them.
“It so happened that I took an unusual interest in some of the men below decks, for I had talked often with the carpenter and the printer, in having extra crates and labels made for the fancy French poultry we were bringing home, and I saw a little of the ship’s life, in my daily visits to the gasily crowing roosters, and to the hens, who laid eggs busily, undismayed by the novelty and commotion of their surroundings.
“I had seen the cooks before their great cauldrons of porcelain, and the bakers turning out the huge loaves of bread, a hamper of which was later brought on deck, to supply the lifeboats. In accepting some gold coins, the ship’s carpenter said, ‘It’s such good luck to receive gold on a first voyage!’ Yet he was the first of the Titanic’s martyrs, who, in sounding the ship just after the iceberg was struck, sank and was lost in the inward rusing sea that engulfed him.” Marie was rescued in Lifeboat 8.
On board the Carpathia Marie wrote of the sinking, which was published in the ‘National Magazine’.Rumours spread that she had conversed with Major Archibald Butt, which was referred to by the Secretary of War during the major’s memorial service. Marie wrote to President Taft and regretted that it was untrue. “… When I last saw Major Butt, he was walking on deck with Mr Clarence Moore, on Sunday afternoon. With deep regret that I could not be his messenger to you.”
Her observations and letter are recorded in the Titanic Commutator of May 1997. She retired to a rest home in Amsterdam, New York, where she died on 27 July, 1959, aged 83.