A baker from Birkenhead survived hours in freezing waters after the sinking of the Titanic.
Charles Joughin, born in 1878, was a chef from Birkenhead who worked as a chief baker on the historic RMS Titanic boat. The RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean after crashing into an iceberg during its first voyage from Southampton to New York City in the United States.
When the ship hit an iceberg on the evening of April 14 1912 at 11:40pm, Joughin was off-duty and resting in his bunk. Once the news of the collision broke, he immediately got to work and sent his 13 men up to the boat deck with supplies to the lifeboats, consisting of over 50 loaves of bread.
Read More: Nine links between Liverpool and the Titanic you may not know
Along with Chief Officer Henry Tingle Wilde, Joughin helped women and children get to safety as he loaded them onto 'Lifeboat 10'. However, despite the fact that he was assigned as captain of Lifeboat 10, he did not board it - the lifeboat was already being crewed by two sailors and a steward.
After the lifeboat had gone, he went below deck and drank whisky in his quarters with the water at his feet.
When all the boats had been lowered, he went back onto the A Deck promenade and threw around fifty deck chairs overboard so that they could be used as flotation devices for people stranded in the icy-cold waters. All the while, the Titanic tipped further to one side until Charles "heard a kind of a crash as if something had buckled", like the "iron was parting".
When the ship suddenly split in two and threw everyone into the water, besides Joughin, he climbed to the starboard side of the poop deck, getting hold of the safety rail so that he was on the outside of the ship as it went down by the head. As the ship eventually sank, Joughin rode it down, making him the boat's final survivor. He told a later inquiry: "It was a glide. There was no great shock, or anything."
According to his testimony, he kept paddling and treading water for about two hours. He also admitted to hardly feeling the cold, most likely due to the alcohol he had consumed earlier that night. Although he found a capsized boat when daylight broke, there was no room for him - luckily, cook Isaac Maynard, recognised him and held his hand as Joughin held on to the side of the boat, with his feet and legs still in the water.
Half an hour later a lifeboat appeared and rescued them, taking the stranded passengers of the Titanic to the Carpathia. The Carpathia rescued 705 people in lifeboats after receiving a distress call from the Titanic, which was carrying an estimated 2,224 people, according to Britannica.
Joughin is remembered for his astonishingly long survival time in the freezing waters - it was suggested "getting a drink had a lot to do with saving [his] life". Although it would not have prevented life-threatening dangers such as hypothermia, it may have boosted his courage and reduced fear and panic from feeling the cold, Canada's National Post reports.
After surviving the Titanic disaster, Joughin rejoined the Merchant Navy after WWI, before emigrating to America and settling in Paterson, New Jersey. He died in a Paterson hospital on December 9, 1956, at the age of 78, after two weeks with pneumonia
READ NEXT:
'Selfless mum' dies suddenly after birthday night out
Man put woman through 'prolonged and horrific' sexual attack down alley on night out
White van driver warned 'we have your reg plate' after flytipping
Family run pub that 'fed thousands' closes its doors
Emmerdale fans 'work out' new paternity twist to shake the village
