Charles Henry Pascoe in Southampton having returned from New York, following the Titanic disaster.
Charles Henry Pascoe was an Able Seaman on the Titanic.
Background[]
Charles Henry Pascoe was brought into life on a Sunday, 17th of March, 1867 by Anthony Pascoe and Jane Ann Bartlett. Anthony was an English sailor for the Royal Navy and born in Cornwall, like his wife, sealing his bond with Jane in Devon in 1856. Their son was a native of Perran Porth, Cornwall. They had other children before him, several of them in Stoke Damerel which was their first home as a pair. The first-born was actually a namesake, also called Charles Henry, who was conceived in 1858, but the child must have lost his life at a young age at an unknown year. The same fate was bestowed on their next son, Joseph Ernest who came into the world at 1859, to die in 1862, the year that his sister Mary Jane was begotten. Mary Jane had a younger brother in 1866: Francis John. He was then followed by Charles Henry.
Not long after his birth, Charles got poured with water in the traditional ritual of their church on August 18, 1867. His own younger brothers were James Anthony and Thomas Henry, emerging in 1868 and 1871 respectively.
The family had to mourn over the loss of two of its members in the next decade. First it was his mother who was taken in 1874. Sister Mary Jane was no longer alive by 1880. Betsy Ann Knight becames Charles’ new stepmother when Anthony took her hand in 1883. The family had a new home in Talland around that time. With her, the Pascoes had their residence in the Liskeard area.
Becoming a man, Charles found work as a labourer on a farm. Later, Charles got into the same line of work as his father, offering his services to the Royal Navy from December 27, 1884. Doing his duties on well over 10 different vessels, he had 20 years worth of experience as he entered the merchant shipping business. In 1911, he was working for the White Star Line.
Titanic[]
Charles had sailed with the Olympic just before he got involved in the Maiden Voyage of her sistership, the RMS Titanic, where he became part of her deck crew on April 6, in Southampton, where he would board her. He was staying in the important seafaring town for the time being. On April 10, after he was included into the crew as Able Seaman. He was 43 years old at the time. The first trip of the magnificent liner began after 12:00 A.M. as she was pushed into the Test and guided out of port.
The lookouts in the crow’s nest thought they would have an easy, comfortable night as they gazed upon the horizon. Without knowing, they were on collision course with an iceberg. They couldn’t descern the iceberg until they were so close that they could not get by undamaged. Although the First Officer acted quickly and reduced speed right away while ordering the ship to be steered sharply to port, at the moment the bow was parallel to the iceberg, her starboard side, underneath the water line, ran against the ice and it kept scraping Titanic’s hull open on several parts. Six different compartments now started to fill with water. She couldn’t get worse luck.
At midnight on April 15, Titanic’s designer Thomas Andrews had just diagnosed Titanic’s situation on her lowest decks with her captain and garantueed him that her leakage way past the treshold that she was designed to withstand. At this rate, she would certainly be doomed. Captain Smith then called the deck hands and made them turn up the davits and get the lifeboats in position for launching.
It is guesswork which boat Pascoe had taken to get off the ship, but it was deduced to have been lifeboat 8. Noteworthy was, that his lifeboat was being launched at a time that the forecastle had gone under and that the boat was only half-filled.
Later, the merciless seas had taken control over Titanic, two hours and 40 minutes after her fatal collision and now brought her into the depths, a sight that imposed many fear and trauamas onto those that had escaped. Her first half was below the surface while her stern was sticking into the starlight night sky, unable to sustain this composure. With a loud noise, like thunder, a large part of her stern cracked and was smashed, torn from the forwards section that quickly sank. The stern uprighted itself before descending vertically into the ocean at precisely 2:20 A.M. Who ever had been on the ship before her last seconds, where now in a gelid water. Many died of shock. Most died of hypothermia. Others were still inside the ship to be drowned. The Atlantic had just claimed many souls. Pascoe was fortunate to not be one of them.
After the sinking[]
One vessel that was making her trip to Europe, had turned her easbound course around quickly when the sinking Titanic’s wireless radio operators had sent her CQD signals to ask for assistance. This ship was the RMS Carpathia under command of the honorable Arthur Rostron, also known as the Electric Spark, for his quick decision making, which he also did on this night. In 4 hours, he was at Titanic’s given coördinates, to only find some wreck debris and 706 out of 2209 who made it off the ship alive, in her 20 lifeboats. The Carpathia gathered everyone and was ready for a new course to New York at 9:30 A.M.
Carpathia was present in New York on the 18th of April to deliver her extra passengers to dry land. For the rescued Charles Pascoe, survival meant he could go back to England. He was in Southampton later, where he got held as they might need him for giving testimony at the British Inquiry but they soon told him his services weren’t required so they gave him a small sum of money to make up for that.
Later life[]
On August 2, 1914, Charles was back at his former organisation, the Navy, with World War 1 tearing through Europe. The battles were also fought at sea. He forfilled his role for them untill September 30, 1917 when they let him go.
In 1928, he made the promise for life to Annie ‘Minnie’ Broad. Minnie had lost her life partner so Charles now had another stepson, who stemmed from her former marriage: Leslie.
Charles Henry Pascoe died at the very young age of 45. He was at his house when his life ended on March 29, 1937, his hometown being Penzance, Greyholm.