A Wirral baker went for a drink in his room on the sinking Titanic and survived hours in freezing waters.
Charles Joughin, born in Birkenhead, was "one of the best paid crew members" as chief baker on the RMS Titanic, according to the National Archives. The passenger liner, operated by the Liverpool-based White Star Line, was sailing from Southampton to New York when it struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean on around 11.40pm on April 14, 1912.
The Hollywood blockbuster's version of Charles can be seen helping lead character Rose after she falls, before he hangs from the ship's railing, drinking from a flask as it sinks into the sea. But Charles' actions in real life were much more heroic than those in the film.
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At the the time of the 1911 census, the 30-year-old baker lived in Southampton with his Manx wife, Louise, 31, their Kirkdale -born daughter Agnes, three, and their son, one-year-old son Roland. He'd previously been chief baker on the Titanic's sister ship, the Olympic, but now he was tasked with commanding a staff of 13 bakers and confectioners aboard what was then the largest ship in the world.
When the ship and iceberg collided, George "felt the shock and immediately got up", he told the British Wreck Commissioner's inquiry into the sinking, presided over by Charles Bingham, Lord Mersey of Toxteth. He and his staff took more than 50 loaves of bread up to the lifeboats, before he went back below deck, passing fleeing third class passengers on his way to his room to drink half a tumbler of "spirits".
He went back up to help women and children onto the escape vessels, throwing some in because the Titanic was tilting, which made the lifeboat swing "about a yard and a half from the ship's side". When the order for him to board the boat as the captain never came, Charles assumed it was full and went back to his room once more, where he "had a drop of liqueur" with water at his feet.
Upon remerging above deck, "all the boats had gone", so Charles started throwing deck chairs into the water as flotation devices. All the while, the Titanic listed further to one side until Charles "heard a kind of a crash as if something had buckled", like the "iron was parting".
The ship had split in two, and a crowd rushed towards the rear of the ship, some being thrown to the sides or overboard as the vessel submerged. Charles climbed to the outer side of a railing at the back of the ship before it "simply glided away" into the water, roughly two and a half hours after striking the iceberg. Charles told the inquiry: "It was a glide. There was no great shock, or anything."
He treaded water for two hours with the help of a lifebelt before the sun started to rise and he spotted an upturned collapsible boat. With "about 25 men standing on top", there was no room for Charles to climb aboard, so a cook held his hand as he continued to paddle in the water until a lifeboat arrived half an hour later and took them 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. Charles' case stood out for the remarkable length of time he survived in the water when many perished during the initial panic of plunging into cold water.
During the subsequent inquiry into the sinking, it was suggested "getting a drink had a lot to do with saving [Charles'] life". Alcohol wouldn't have saved Charles from hypothermia - in fact, it could have seen him freeze faster than a sober person - but it may well have boosted his courage and reduced fear and panic from feeling the cold, Canada's National Post reports.
According to the National Archives, Charles rejoined the Merchant Navy after WWI, before emigrating to America and settling in Paterson, New Jersey after a few years serving as a baker on transatlantic crossings. He died there on December 9, 1956.
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