Alexander Black was a Fireman on the Titanic.
Background[]
His birthdate is estimated at the year 1884, but could be a couple of years over and under. Confirmation is needed. He was likely English of origin.
Titanic[]
Alexander Black was established to be inhabitant of Southampton when he joined Titanic in April 1912. As a Fireman, he had a place among the ‘Black Gang’ on the ship, as her stokers were called.
Titanic was a majestic ocean liner and with lots of enthousiasm, a crowd awaited her departure on the 10th of April, Black had to keep one of the furnaces smoldering from 8:00 to 12:00 P.M. as well as 8:00 to 12:00 A.M. If he needed rest, he had a bunk in the Firemen’s accomodations on the starboard side of F-Deck.
On the night of April 14, the Titanic was around 2,250 miles into her voyage, with no clue that she was about to run into disaster. Her passage had been effortless and above all, mostly uneventful. This would change very drastically by one moment. A very dangerous icefield had to be crossed to get a fast route to New York. She was already going further south than originally planned, but the ice had still caught up. Large icebergs were reported by others ships, via wireless. They were hidden in the darkness, although the view from the crow’s nest wouldn’t have been bad, with stars shining everywhere, pretty much lack of wind, a sea flat as a millpond. Because of the professedly ideal circumstances, the icebergs posed a challenge of being clocked from a further distance. It was 11:39 P.M. when the all-deciding iceberg revealed itself. Frederick Fleet’s voice shattered the silence of the night as he first spotted the looming iceberg. He relayed the sighting to the bridge. Despite a quick order of hard-a-starboard of First Officer Murdoch, which made the rudder go right, to have the Titanic steer to port, with stopped engines, her turning motion came seconds to late, so the starboard brushed against the iceberg under the water line. The mountainous obstacle sliced small parts of her hull open.
Black should have been on watch at that time but there would be no evidence on how he was doing or in which Boiler Room he was. Two Boiler Rooms saw water cascading into the stokeholds. Captain Smith had felt that something was amiss directly and started to investigate after his Officer had told him the truth.
The old man was worried that the ship might have been severly damaged. Her designer could only have wished that he could acertain the captain that it was fine, but it was not. At midnight, on April 15, he came with his findings, with the help of a nearby blue print. There was not doubt in the words of Thomas Andrews, who considered the ship as lost. The captain must have been dumbfounded, but nevertheless, the majority of people should abondon ship. With the manpower of the sailors, the lifeboats were swung out and lowered to the precise hight of the Boat Deck.
Some of the lifeboats had stokers to crew them, but Black wasn’t one of them.
At 2:20 A.M, Titanic sank after breaking apart. Over 1500 people were dragged to their deaths, some inside the ship, most in the icey waters. No good fate was bestowed upon Alexander Black either, but how, that will remain a question. What is known is that a group of Firemen had stayed behind and altruisticly made sure that her power was still on just 2 minutes before she went down, two and a half miles to the bottom of the Atlantic. Since then, she was gone from sight for 7 decades.
If his body was later plucked from the water at all, they weren’t able to pinpoint who he was. He was likely gone forever in the disaster.