Irish Aboard Titanic

by Senan Molony

  The mother he was supposedly going to visit according to Podesta’s account, was no longer in the town by the 1911 census. Another woman was – widow Margaret Coffey, who also had a son called John. By further coincidence this John was also a marine fireman, evidenced by the certificate of his 1911 marriage in Portsmouth, leading to a misidentification in the first edition of this book. This family lived in Thomas Street, at the top of the town, where folklore said the deserter stayed. In fact, the John Coffey of the Titanic, by RNR records, in June 1912 gave an address next door to Margaret in Thomas Street, Queenstown. Perhaps she was his aunt.

  Although The Cork Examiner’s article reported that he deserted because ‘he did not relish his job’ other newspaper reports said that Coffey deserted because he ‘felt sure something was going to happen’. Family fragments now say Coffey, on arrival by the Mauretania, told New Yorkers that he had a dream of the Titanic sinking, so he left the ship: ‘The Americans loved the story and wined and dined him, taking it all in.’

  Coffey earned a caution for his desertion, family lore suggesting he spent a few days in jail at Liverpool on the Mauretania’s return. In any case, his survival allowed him to father two more children, in addition to a daughter, Louisa. Son John, born in 1915, was later father to Brian Payne, who initiated a mission to uncover his grandfather’s past, one made more difficult by Coffey’s divorce and subsequent disappearance from the family horizon, c. 1920. The records Brian discovered showed that Coffey continued to sail with White Star and Cunard, but deserted from the RNR in November 1914, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War.

  After his divorce, Coffey stayed single, working as a merchant seaman for the rest of his life, finally stepping off the Urmston Grange in Newcastle on the day of his 65th birthday in 1954. He died three years later (on 12 June 1957, after a stroke), and was buried in a pauper’s grave in Hull’s Eastern Cemetery, where he lies with three other adults and four babies.

  Brian says: ‘Granddad’s grave was much better kept than I had expected. Fate is a strange thing. I will never know what God intended, but I feel that an empty page in my life was written up and completed [by visiting it]. I feel a better person for it.’

  John Coffey, the serial deserter, is once more back with his family.

  John Coleman (58) Lost

  Mess steward.

  From: Cork.

  7 Mortimer Road, Woolston, Southampton.

  John Coleman was born in Queenstown, County Cork, and claimed to be 55 when signing on to Titanic, having admitted to being 57 in the 1911 census.

  Married for thirty-two years to Roseanne, from Dundalk, they had only one child, who had died in infancy. In his Southampton census entry Coleman proudly noted that he was a ship’s steward employed by the White Star Line.

  Joseph Colgan (33) Saved

  Assistant cook/scullion.

  From: Dublin.

  27 West Street, Southampton.

  Colgan may have found a place aboard lifeboat No. 8 on the port side. He was born in Dublin, and may have once been a private in the Irish Fusiliers. He gave his last ship as the White Star’s Majestic when signing on to the Titanic’s articles on 4 April 1912. Colgan worked in the First- and Second-Class galley, on wages of £3 10s per month. A scullion’s duties essentially consisted of washing up.

  He survived the sinking and returned to Britain on the Lapland. He received the balance of his wages on 30 April. He did not give evidence at either inquiry, but returned to life at sea thereafter, serving on the White Star’s Cedric and other ships. Mystery surrounds his later life.

  Denis Corcoran (26) Lost

  Fireman.

  From: Thurles, Tipperary.

  Sailors’ Home, Southampton.

  Four firemen were seen on the poop just before the vessel sank. They were Matty Black, [Frank] Mason, Denny Corcoran, and John Bannon.

  One of the boys, named Dillon, said to Bannon: ‘Johnny, there’s a light over there; I’m going to strike out for it. Are you coming?’

  ‘Not just yet awhile,’ said Johnny.

  Dillon went over the side in the direction of the light on the lifeboat and was picked up. The [remaining] firemen took off their shoes and were on a piece of grating when the final plunge came.

  (Able Seaman George McGough in a New York interview, quoted in Phillip Gibbs, The Deathless Story of the Titanic, 1912)

  Corcoran’s remains were not found or identified. Some battered bodies of unknown crew victims were buried at sea in weighted canvas after being recovered by the MacKay-Bennett, but these were in the tiny minority.

  Joseph Dawson (23) Lost

  Trimmer.

  From: Dublin.

  70 Briton Street, Southampton.

  Dawson’s body was recovered by one of the search ships (No. 227) and he is buried in Fairview Cemetery, Halifax, Nova Scotia. The following appeared in the Daily Mail on 3 April 1998:

  Teenage girls are flocking to a lonely grave to mourn the young man they believe inspired the character played by Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic.

  They leave flowers, cinema ticket stubs, and even love notes before the headstone marked J. Dawson. Dawson’s body was fished from the Atlantic after the liner went down in 1912. In the Oscar-winning film, DiCaprio plays Jack Dawson, a passenger on the doomed liner. But Jack was a purely fictional creation.

  The remains in the cemetery at Halifax, Nova Scotia, are of 23-year-old James [sic] Dawson from Southampton, a lowly trimmer in the ship’s engine room. When the filmmakers chose their hero’s name, they had no idea there was even a J. Dawson on the crew list.

  ‘We’ve probably broken a lot of hearts by telling the true story of the body in the grave,’ Richard MacMichael of the Marine Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax said. ‘James Dawson probably never saw the upper decks, let alone any beautiful rich young ladies like Rose in the film. He would have been down in the engine room in 120 degree heat, stripped to the waist.’

  When buried at Fairview Cemetery, the Dublin-born youngster who came to England to find work was unmourned, known simply as body number 227. It was years before he was identified.

  In fact Joseph Dawson had been identified within a short time by the coroner’s office of Nova Scotia through his union membership card, found on the remains. He was buried under his surname and first initial on 8 May 1912, but the name was not recorded on his gravestone until much later.

  No. 227. Male. Estimated age, 30. Hair, light; and moustache.

  Clothing – Dungaree coat and pants; grey shirt. No marks on body or clothing. Effects – N.S. & F. Union 35638. Fireman.

  Name – J. Dawson, 17 Briton St., Southampton.

  Joseph was born in the slums of inner city Dublin in 1888, but his birth was not registered. His mother, Catherine Madden, was a widow, and his father, Patrick Dawson, a widower, who had once ‘jumped the wall’ in family lore to escape a hasty decision to enter the priesthood, unlike his three brothers, who became Fr Thomas, Fr William and Fr Bernard.

  Joseph’s parents were not married, although Patrick had a previous wife, Maryanne Walsh, who had died in childbirth in 1883, aged only 30. The 1901 census shows the family living in a tenement in Rutland Street. Patrick is a joiner aged 44, Catherine is a year older, and eventual Titanic victim Joseph is aged 12, with a younger sister, Maggie, eight. The Dawsons occupied just two tiny rooms, but shared the four-storey tenement with eight other families, some of whom, with eight and nine members, made do with a single room.

  He was aged 18 when his mother died and Joseph moved to England with his sister, who then trained to be a nun, studying for her vows with the daughter of poet Hilaire Belloc. She later abandoned this intended vocation.

  Joseph joined the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) and took up boxing, a sport of which his father Patrick strongly disapproved. He was eventually based in Netley, a few miles from Southampton, and left the army in 1911. He moved into the family home of John Priest, a White Star fireman, who introduced him to life at sea
. He first signed on as a coal trimmer aboard the Majestic.

  Dawson began courting Priest’s sister Nellie. Both men signed on for the Titanic, and the Southampton Pictorial later reported that Mrs Priest had ‘one son restored to her, but her daughters Nellie and Emmie both lost sweethearts’.

  Grandniece Moira Whelligan-Fell said: ‘From what we know, he was a typical 23-year-old, full of ambition and hoping to see the world and send some money home. We often think about him, full of dreams, boarding Titanic and waving goodbye … not knowing he was sailing to his death. It is so sad.’

  Thomas (Frank) Donoghue (33) Lost

  Steward.

  60 Ludlow Road, Southampton.

  Report of the American Red Cross (Titanic Disaster) 1913:

  No. 121. (Irish). The husband was drowned. He was 33 years of age, a steward on the Titanic, earning $75 a month. He had made his home in this country [United States] for two years. He is survived by the widow, 33 years of age, and a son, 6 years of age.

  Both husband and wife have relatives living in Liverpool, but none are able to assist this family. The widow is unwilling to return to England to live, because there are more opportunities in this country to earn a living for herself and her son. At present, she is employed as a domestic servant and cares for her son, who lives with her and attends school.

  Immediately after the disaster, she went to England to recover for the death of her husband under the British Workmen’s Compensation Act. She was awarded £300, of which one half was paid to her in cash. The remainder, placed in trust for the boy, is paid to her at the rate of £5 each quarter.

  The appropriation by this Committee has been placed in trust for the widow with the Charity Organisation Society of the city in which she lives, and is paid as a pension to supplement her earnings until her son attains working age. From other American relief funds she received $81. ($2,700)

  Donoghue’s Irish origins are unknown. He was boarding at Ludlow Road with a fellow ship’s steward named Thomas Phillips and his family.

  Laurence Doyle (27) Lost

  Fireman.

  From: County Wexford.

  10 Orchard Place, Southampton.

  Larry Doyle was formerly on the Majestic. He earned £6 a month as a stoker.

  The only Laurence Doyle of the right age in Wexford in the 1901 census was a teenage servant on the Donohoe farm in Monamolin, with no prospects where he was.

  William Luke Duffy (36) Lost

  Writer/Chief Engineer’s Clerk.

  From: Castlebar, County Mayo.

  11 Garton Road, Itchen, Southampton.

  Duffy: 15 April 1912, at his post on board the SS Titanic, William Luke, dearly loved husband of Ethel Duffy, 11 Garton Road, Itchen, Hants, late 103 Lr Baggot Street, Dublin, and grandson of the late Luke Ward, Castlebar. RIP.

  (Irish Weekly Mail & Warder)

  William’s Baggot Street address was a boarding house run by his aunt, Mayo woman Marianne Ward. William’s brother and sister, Mary and Joseph, meanwhile lived at No. 98, across the road. Mary appears to have inherited the most property after the death of their parents.

  William had been a long time in Dublin. The 1901 census shows him as a 22-year-old commercial clerk in a bakery, living at 11 Stamer Street in the north inner city at the home of his aunt Mary. He was born on 8 October 1875 at Castlebar to civil engineer Joseph Duffy and his wife Ellen, formerly Ward. He was educated in St Jarlath’s College, Tuam. He later spent two years as a clerk in Shackleton’s Flour Milling Co., Dublin, before taking another job with James Walker & Co., Dublin. He married, and moved to England, settling in Southampton. The couple had a daughter, Mary.

  Duffy opted to go to sea, re-crossing the Irish Sea and joining the Titanic at Belfast on 2 April 1912 as Chief Engineer’s clerk. It was his first voyage.

  From the Mansion House Titanic relief fund report, March 1913:

  No. 88. Duffy, Ethel, widow; child: Mary. Marianne Ward, Aunt. All class D dependents.

  Ethel was later granted a sum of £4 4s to buy a set of false teeth. Her daughter became sick, and she was granted further monies in 1914 for ‘special nourishment’.

  Cecil Fitzpatrick (21) Saved

  Steward.

  From: William Street, Kilkenny.

  93 Millbrook Road, Southampton.

  William Cecil Norman Fitzpatrick was born at William Street, Kilkenny, on 26 April 1890, but was often referred to by his preferred name, Cecil. He was a mess steward, who found himself clinging to life on overturned lifeboat, collapsible B:

  Amongst the survivors of the crew of the Titanic was a steward, Mr Cecil Fitzpatrick, son of Mr and Mrs Fitzpatrick, Bishop Street Tuam.

  (Limerick Chronicle, 30 April 1912)

  Fitzpatrick’s parents, Robert and Mary (née Ryan), were married on 28 September 1885, in St Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny. The groom was a policeman and on retirement he farmed horses at Foster Place, Tuam, County Galway.

  Passenger Lillian Bentham (No. 12 lifeboat) told the Rochester Times-Tribune in April 1962:

  ‘If it weren’t for my fur coat, I believe I would not be alive today, nor would the young steward, Mr Fitzpatrick. I had on a hooded steamer coat over my nightclothes, and Bert [Denbury, a friend] grabbed my fur one from a chair as we left the stateroom. That “extra” I wrapped around Mr Fitzpatrick when we had rescued him from an overturned boat.’

  In gratitude, the steward gave her the tiny Scout whistle from his belt. He had blown it all night in an effort to call some other boat to their aid. [Eventually] lifeboat No. 12, picked up about 20 men who had been for hours on the half-submerged hulk. One of them was dead.

  ‘I have that whistle, some coins from the dead man’s pocket, and a White Star Line button from the coat of an officer who later died in our boat,’ Mrs Black [née Bentham] reveals.

  On the night of the collision, Cecil helped passengers into the lifeboats. When the ship was low in the water where he stood, he jumped and swam for his life. He managed to scramble onto the overturned collapsible. Among the other shivering survivors there was Titanic Second Officer Charles Lightoller.

  Mr Fitzpatrick, one of the stewards who were rescued from the Titanic, stated in an interview that on Sunday, 14 April as he was serving the lunch in the engineers’ mess, the chief steward, who had been an old seafaring man, said that he knew ice was in the vicinity of the ship by the smell of the air.

  ‘We retired to our cabin,’ he continued, ‘which was situated on the deck above the engine room and were settling down to sleep when we were aroused by a sudden lurch of the vessel. After a few minutes the engines were stopped. I enquired the reason for this sudden stoppage of the engines, and after being informed that the ship had struck an iceberg and that she was not seriously injured, I settled myself to sleep again.

  ‘I was awakened by a foreman. I went on deck and the ship was listing to port. As one of the lifeboats was being filled with women and children, a foreigner tried to jump on the boat. The officer told him to go on deck. He refused, and the officer fired, and the man fell dead on deck. The crowd of foreigners who were hanging around the lifeboat cowed back when they found one of their countrymen dead.

  ‘The lifeboat was lowered, and the officer kept on firing his revolver until he was level with the water. I saw a similar instance occur on the port side. A passenger tried to claim a seat in one of the boats. The officer told him to leave at once, and as he hesitated a revolver shot was fired, and he dropped dead in the water.’

  (Northern Constitution, 4 May 1912)

  The Liverpool Journal of Commerce of 30 April is similar, but adds in conclusion: ‘As the liner was dipping I jumped over board in the icy water, and struck out with every effort I could in order to escape the suction. I was picked up by No. 12 lifeboat and afterwards taken on board the Carpathia.’

  On 16 May 1912, Fitzpatrick wrote a letter to the Southern Daily Echo as follows:

  Sir,

  Referring to the various letters I have read in y
our columns under the heading ‘Stewards as Life-savers’, would you kindly allow me to enlighten some of your correspondents, who imagine that the stewards did not carry out their duties efficiently on the lost Titanic when she foundered, owing to lack of proper organisation.

  Here is what I saw on the boat deck on that fatal Sunday night. Everywhere one could see the white jacket boys fastening passengers’ lifebelts and assuring them that there really was no cause to fear.

  Now I can see a group of them standing by the boat falls, ready to lower the boat load of women and children, and a few of their mates picked to man the boat, a very few, with steady, strong arms, and cool heads, for I assure anyone who has never been in a shipwreck that it requires gritty men to lower boats chock-full of living freight to the water 90 feet below, but thank God it was effectively carried out by the men who go on pleasure trips, in other words – stewards.

  The firemen – brave fellows – were shoulder to shoulder with the stewards, and also performed their duties manfully.

  The officers of the boat will be able to pass judgment on the stewards if they have not done their work efficiently. I was one of the few who had to swim for it, and I was under the command of Mr Lightoller. He is the only officer alive who had to swim.

  Ask him if the stewards whom he was directing carried out his orders coolly and diligently, although the water where we worked was on the level with the boat-deck.

  We were trying to get one of the two collapsible rafts launched when the vessel broke, and we had to go.

  What do the feather-bed public want from stewards? I do hope that certain correspondents will kindly refrain from criticising the actions of men whom they do not know and who are ever ready to meet death bravely.

  Yours faithfully,

  C. W. Fitzpatrick

  Engineers’ Steward.

  93 Millbrook Road.

  Cecil W. Fitzpatrick married Elsie M. Moody in Hull on 2 August 1914. The certificate shows him as a ‘cashier and building contractors’ assistant’, resident at 11 Commercial Road, Ipswich. Within days he was in uniform as the Great War broke out, and went on to serve on the Western Front in the Royal Garrison Artillery as a gunner, fortunately not on the front line. His photograph was taken on 8 December 1915, when he was 25.