Titanic's Engineers

Chief Engineer Joseph Bell.

Although Titanic's band, led by Wallace Hartley, have become legends for their unnerving bravery and devotion to duty, their was a far larger group of men aboard Titanic who were blessed with the same courage and devotion to duty that Hartley's men had shown on that night in April, 1912. The thirty-five men, comprising electricians, plumbers, boilermakers and engineers were led by Chief Engineer Joseph Bell, pictured here on the right, and they were working deep-down in the very bowels of Titanic , ensuring that her lights kept shining until the very last seconds of the sinking. In another similarity to Hartley and his men, Bell released all of his staff from duty at about 2.00am, but not one of them made for the decks high above. Titanic stayed afloat for almost another twenty minutes, and her lights never went out until just before the final minute or two of the sinking. It's also important to remember that whilst there was power, then the all-important radio would remain operational, not to mention the pumps.

During those horrible last few minutes, eye-witnesses noticed that the lights flickered many times, testament to Bell's men pushing back tripped circuit breakers, as the water began to enter wiring and circuitry all over the ship. We cannot imagine what kind of hell those men had to endure, and to ensure that the men and their deeds were never forgotten, England's monarch at the time, King George V decreed that British Marine Engineers should henceforth show a purple background on their rank insignia.

The Titanic Engineer's Memorial, East Park, Southampton.
(Picture courtesy of Billen Jos.)

Amongst the thirty-five engineers was nineteen year-old Assistant Electrician Albert George Ervine of Belfast, the youngest of the engineering staff. He had actually worked at Harland and Wolff's to study marine electrical work, and had ironically worked on Titanic during his time there. Another tragic case was that of Chief Engineer Joseph Bell himself - as well as leaving a widow, Maud, he also left behind four children, two boys, two girls.

Altogether, the statistics show that there were eighteen widows created from the deaths of those men, and twenty-six children were left without fathers.

'GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS. THAT A MAN LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS.' 'TO THE MEMORY OF THE ENGINEER OFFICERS OF THE R.M.S. TITANIC, WHO SHOWED THEIR HIGH CONCEPTION OF DUTY AND THEIR HEROISM BY REMAINING AT THEIR POSTS 15TH APRIL 1912.''ERECTED BY THEIR FELLOW ENGINEERS AND FRIENDS ON 22ND APRIL 1914.'

There stands in East Park, Southampton, a magnificent granite memorial, pictured above, dedicated to the heroic engineering staff, which was unveiled on April 22nd, 1914, in front of a crowd of 100,000 people! It bears the inscription shown here on the right.