Arthur John Priest
Arthur John Priest survived no fewer than four ships that went to the bottom, including Titanic and its sister ship Britannic.
Arthur John Priest was a Southampton native, born there to Harry Priest and Elizabeth Gardner on Wednesday, 31 August 1887, a year after his parents had settled there. Arthur had many siblings. Two older brothers and two older sisters. Three younger brothers and two younger sisters would follow. His father died in 1911, and Arthur went to work at sea. He would encounter a lot of danger during his sea career.
In 1908, he worked aboard a ship called the Asturias that was badly damaged in a collision on its Maiden Voyage. That was his first brush with disaster. He was perhaps fortunate to have already served on Titanic's sister ship Olympic and was a Fireman on board when it had a collision with the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Hawke in 1911. Olympic was holed below the waterline but survived easily and could stay afloat thanks to her impressive strength and bulkheads.
Titanic[]
With the coal strike of 1912, the black gangs, as the groups of stokers, greasers and trimmers were called, had been hit hard as ships stayed in port and men were laid off. Priest was one of the lucky few to find a job on Titanic as it prepared for its Maiden Voyage across the Atlantic. He was one of more than 150 Firemen or stokers, whose job it was to keep Titanic's 29 colossal boilers at steam, day and night, for the entire journey.
He had worked his entire life as a stoker, toiling in the bowels of steam-powered ships. It was back-breaking work, often done stripped to the waist due to the ferocious heat of the furnaces.
Even so, the remainder of his career at sea was to be a remarkable tale of survival against the odds. He would claim in later life that men refused to sail with him because he brought bad luck.
On April 14, when Titanic hit an iceberg just before midnight on Sunday 14 April 1912, Priest was in the very bowels of the ship, off duty and resting between shifts.
The odds against his survival were steep, due to both his physical and social position within the ship. The route to the deck took him and other members of the black gang up through a maze of gangways and corridors before they could reach the deck. By the time they emerged into the freezing night air, most of the lifeboats had already gone.
He swam for his life through water just marginally warmer than freezing, wearing only the shorts and vests he worked in. No wonder that Priest suffered frostbite. It appears he had been picked up by lifeboat 15, but it's not certain.
Further sea career[]
Alcantara[]
When World War I broke out in 1914, merchant vessels, and their crews, were required for the war effort to serve in convoys and as hospital ships. By 1915, Germany had unleashed its U-boat fleet in a bid to choke off Britain's supply lines. The toll on the merchant fleet was horrendous.
In 1915, Priest married Annie Martin (née Hampton) in Birkenhead and had three sons; called Arthur John, George and Frederick Harry.
Priest was among those who went to war, serving aboard the armed merchant vessel Alcantara. When he returned to work, it would be aboard the HMS Alcantara which sank after combot with SMS Greif in 1916.
In February 1916, Alcantara intercepted the German raider Grief, which was disguised a Norwegian ship. As Alcantara approached, the Grief opened fire. There was a short, ferocious, close-range battle, at the end of which both ships were sunk. More than 70 of Priest's shipmates were killed and he only narrowly escaped with shrapnel wounds.
Britannic[]
Next it was aboard Britannic, Titanic’s new, slightly bigger sister, which was serving as a hospital ship, carrying wounded soldiers back to Britain through the Mediterranean. His curse followed him when he joined the third of the celebrated White Star Liners. Joining Priest on board were two other Titanic survivors; Archie Jewell, one of the 6 lookouts, and Violet Jessop, a White Star Line stewardess who was now serving as a nurse.
On 21 November 1916, the great ship struck a mine and sank near the Greek island of Kea. Once again, he emerged from the very depths of a foundering ship alive. Indeed, the majority of the ship's crew were evacuated safely, but two of the lifeboats were lowered into the sea too early and were sucked into the ship's still turning propellers, killing 30 men. Among those pulled into the blades was Archie, who somehow survived.
In a letter to his sisters he described his escape:
"... most of us jumped in the water but it was no good we was pulled right in under the blades...I shut my eyes and said good bye to this world, but I was struck with a big piece of the boat and got pushed right under the blades and I was goin around like a top...I came up under some of the wreckage ... everything was goin black to me when some one on top was strugling and pushed the wreckage away so I came up just in time I was nearly done for ... there was one poor fellow drowning and he caught hold of me but I had to shake him off so the poor fellow went under."
Violet was also in danger of being pulled into the propellers, but dived clear and was sucked underneath, striking her head on the keel. She was rescued by another lifeboat.
Donegal[]
After Britannic, Priest would have to face another case of a sinking ship. On 17 April 1917, he was a Fireman aboard the hospital ship Donegal when it was torpedoed by German submarine UC-21, and sank in the English Channel. He escaped, but suffered a head injury and would not serve again during World War One. Fellow Titanic and Britannic survivor Archie Jewell was among the 40 men who went down with the ship. He was one of Titanic’s lookouts.
That same year, Priest was awarded the Mercantile Marine Ribbon for his service in the Great War.
'Unsinkable'[]
Priest's is an amazing story of human endurance. He worked his entire life in extraordinary conditions in the belly of the ship, where fires and explosions were common. He was often at the very worst part of a vessel from which to escape and yet he survived an astonishing litany of torpedoes, mines, icebergs and collisions to live out his days spinning tales in the pubs of Southampton.
Other than his survival stories, there is little information about his personal life. According to sources, he died on 11 February 1937 at his home in Southampton at the age of 49 from pneumonia with his wife Annie by his side. He is buried at Hollybrook Cemetery in Southampton, England. He was given the nickname "the unsinkable stoker" because of his stories of survival at sea.
His wife remarried twice, and his son George would later fight in World War 2.
Trivia[]
His eldest sister Ellen "Nellie" Maud was possibly in a relationship with another Titanic victim, the trimmer from Dublin named Joseph Dawson.