Jonahs of the Titanic?

When the Titanic sank on 15^th April 1912 it sent shockwaves around the world, so many people involved in this shipwreck, so many names thrown around at the later inquiries. As the stories hit the newspaper stands and later became well known within the countless books, films, documentaries and even sheet music, many didn’t realise that some of these names were synonymous with shipwreck. For some of the survivors, Titanic wasn’t the first time they had been lost at sea, for others it wouldn’t be the last. Here are some people on board the most famous shipwreck in the world and their links to other sea disasters. Some of the survivors found themselves on the same ships as their former Titanic crewmates.

Charles Lightoller (4 sinkings) – Born in 1874, Lightoller suffered his first shipwreck in 1889 when a storm forced the sailing vessel Holt Hill to run aground. The crew were later rescued from an uninhabited island. After surviving Titanic, he went on to serve as First Officer on the liner Oceanic when she grounded and sank in 1914. In command of the destroyer HMS Falcon, she was accidentally sunk in a collision off Bridlington during a night time convoy manoeuvre where he fought overnight to save half of his ship that was still afloat. After being rescued he later took command of HMS Garry where he rammed and sunk the German submarine UB-110 off the Yorkshire coast. During the Second World War he took his yacht Sundowner to the Dunkirk evacuation and rescued 130 people from the beaches. He died in 1952 of heart disease.

Arthur John Priest (4 sinkings, 1 collision) – Possibly the largest amount of sea disasters claimed by one single person on board Titanic, Priest was a fireman for the great liners, surviving first the collision between the Olympic and HMS Hawke off the Isle of Wight in 1911, survived a gun battle between the German vessel Greif and his ship Alcantara where he was once again sunk, mined on the Titanic’s sister ship Britannic off the Greek island of Kea in November 1916 while working as a hospital ship, then a torpedo despatched his final ship the Donegal in the English Channel. After four sinkings and one collision, incredibly Priest would not die until 1937 when “the unsinkable stoker” succumbed to pneumonia in his bed in Southampton.

Violet Jessop (2 sinkings, 1 collision) – A stewardess on board Titanic, Violet had already been on board Olympic during the Hawke collision, was rescued from the lifeboat after Titanic went down and then found herself on the third sister Britannic when she was mined. She later wrote a biography about her life and had been referred to as “Miss Unsinkable.” She died of heart failure in 1971 at the age of 83.

Archie Jewell (3 sinkings) – After surviving Titanic, lookout Archie Jewell survived the Britannic sinking but was later lost in the sinking of Donegal.

George Beauchamp (2 sinkings) – Following his survival from Titanic, stoker George went on to serve on board the Cunard liner Lusitania when she was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland on 7^th May 1915 killing 1197 people. He survived once again and said later that he would “stick to smaller” vessels. He died in 1942 at the age of 72.

Captain Edward Smith (1 sinking, 1 collision) – Commanding officer of Titanic was also captain of the Olympic during the Hawke collision. A subsequent investigation blamed Olympic for the incident.

Frank “Lucky” Tower – This has since been proved to be an urban legend, a man who was said to have survived Titanic, Lusitania and the 1914 sinking of the liner Empress of Ireland in a collision in the St Lawrence Seaway. No Frank Tower appears on any list on either ship despite claims that it was a true story.

Throughout history there have been several incidents that have involved the same people. In 1991 a group of entertainers took charge of the rescue of their crewmates and fellow passengers on the liner Oceanos when she sank off the coast of South Africa. Several of those same people were on board the Italian liner Achille Lauro in 1994 when she was consumed by fire and sank off Somalia. 

HMHS Britannic, a ship that many Titanic survivors would later serve on when she sank in 1916