Edward Arthur Dorkings was a passenger on the RMS Titanic.
Background[]
Edward Arthur Dorkings was originally from England, yielded by the bethrothed pair of Edward Arthur Dorkings, who was with the law enforcement, with his wife Florence Derby, both having started out life in Cambridgeshire and taking up vows one year before Edward came into existance. Edward junior’s crib was placed in Stamford Hill, London, on the 18th of June. The typical dipping ritual of the christian belief, followed on 26 July 1894 at the Saint Ann’s Church. Little did they know, that their son would be in doused in water for a lot longer in later life.
Edward was not their first, their daughter Edith May was already given life in London 1892, months after the Dorkings’ ceremony of faith in Greater London. A younger sister was delivered in 1894, who they officially called Dorothy but named ‘Dolly’ in daily life.
Father Edward, no longer a constable, had to be away from their home in Cambridge 1901. He did something in the commercialising department and had to pay for a stay at an address in Dewsbury, Yorkshire. His life was cut short when he fell victim to influenza on the 30th of March, 1904. Having being ill for five days, he developed pneumonia and at the age of 36, he desisted. His death certificate listed him as a "commercial traveller."
Edward’s first connection to the tidal races began with Florence’s new bashert. He was from the same region as her former love as well as a victualler for the commanding crew of ocean going ships. Johnnie Charles Baker was his name and he took her hand in 1907. He would only be a stepfather as he had no children of his own, nor did he brought any new ones forth with his new love, who was quite some years older.
In 1911, the fresh pair was situated at a hearthstone in a less dense region, namely in Liss, Hampshire. Edward meanwhile was in the entertainment industry, something that could help him later. He was no longer in London either, but he wasn’t with his mother either. His fireside was in Finchley, Middlesex, as he and his stepfather had never gotten along and their dislike of one another only seemed to increase as the years passed.
Titanic[]
In 1912, young Edward Arthur Dorkings. was living in Clevedon. Edward had seen enough of England by then and wanted to try his luck elswhere. He knew an uncle in America, who inhered in Portland, which was a mining center in Illnois. They had a mortar making plant as well. Edward thought he could partake, find work and also could be billited by his uncle.
He was of limited means and could just about afford a passage on an ocean liner. Dorking was in possesion of a boarding pass for the Third Class section of the Titanic. His journey to Southampton was tiring and lasted through the night. Not having been able to get enough sleep, the veins in his eyes had thickened, making them look very red. This nearly caused him to miss this voyage, which was scheduled to get underway on April 10.
On that day, he was there, but his affliction was a concern for the health examiners, who had a notion that he might have something contagious, so he had to sneak aboard and hide when the cargo was hauled up. After the whistles of Titanic had quieted and everyone who was on time, had embarked, the scoops started to vertiginate and she was manouvred through the river Test, towards the river Itchen, but when she was in the Test, the Titanic sailed on her own for the first time. Stationed nearby were the New York and the Oceanic, also ships of White Star Line but considerably smaller in size. Alongside Pier 42, Titanic developed more speed, as much as 6 knots.
The further sailing of Titanic went fine until one pivital moment. Dorkings had a good time onboard and he was later very positive on how his voyage fared. He called the Third Class General Room, the music room, as there were lots of people in Third Class who had brought their own instruments to play their own music and their was a piano as well. He often got his fun in doing card games with fellow passengers.
Edward was trading cards with his fellows at the later hours on April 14th. One big jounce chucked the group of men out of their seats at 11:39 P.M. This tremor was of course brought about by an iceberg running against the side of the ship below sea level. It came with a lot of ruckus, that reverberated through the entire ship. Peculiar enough, Edward talked of ice rupturing the bottom and falling onto the ship on portside. He also expressed that he went all the way forward, saw the iceberg from there and it must have been dwarfing Titanic. This looks like exaggeration, as in his words, the tip was exceeding the funnel tops by far.At first glance, there seemed to be no reason for anyone to have any sort of disquietude. They felt safe.
As he and his mates continued to play, steerage passengers from other cultures emptied out of their dormitories with their luggage in tow. Women were whimpering. A while later, Edward felt observed a very small tangent, which came from the ship’s anterior. There was also a bit of a lean to one side. At that point, the frisson among the conflux rose as they justled through. Edward went op top with them, where many gathered around lifeboats. Edward he saw a boat leave with close to 17 occupants, which must have abeen boat 1, but it would have been very hard for a Third Class passenger to get to the furthest end of the Boat Deck. He told of more and more boats going down the hull before him, with ever more people.
The fact that some officers strictly implementend the tradition of the Birkenhead Drill, meaning that women and children had priority and that men had to stand back, or they would be constrained, with physical threats, even to the point of a gun.
Even the six Chinese passengers appeared in his account, but Dorkings was one of those that bestowed a marred reputation on them, as he claimed they all had made themselves looks feminine to have a chance at getting in a boat. This was a pretty heavy and unfounded accusation.
Singularly, he waited all the time and only then he decided to grab a life vest at the latest hour, with the clock being close to 2:00 A.M, as he illustrated that the last boats were gone. For this, he needed to go to his berth as it was underneath, but this must have been well under water by then, as Titanic’s forecastle was already submerged at this point. The single steerage men were all placed in the forward part of the ship, which he too saw getting to a lower level gradually. He even talked of getting close to the Engine department and had a squint at a clammy-faced, stale looking Captain Smith who was overseeing everything there. As he realised that the water was indeed far beyond his quarters, he climbed the stairs once more to get to the highest deck. It became very hard to stand up straight with the way the bow had gradually biased down in a diagonal way.
Everyone held on for dear life. Dorkings then had the right idea. He hadn’t taken note of the time but he said the last boats were definitely gone, meaning it was well after 2:00 A.M. He thought his best opportunity to keep his life was to spring for it and abandon the Titanic. He took his heavier coat and even his shoes off before leaping off, thinking that there could be a boat in the water to swim through. Another telling of this story has his friends with him at the ster and they all plunged into the waters.
The water gave him a knock in his nerve system and he had a feeling that he was going to be choking, but he didn’t think about it, worrying only about the vaccuum that could betide once the ship had gone down further, so he kept stroking to take distance. We could never know if it was just how he personally felt it, but 35 minutes must have passed when the he had concocted actually bore fruit. When Titanic was about to keel over and surrendered, one of the last two boats had gone topsy-turvy and was at sea, with 30 men clambering on. This was of course Collapsible B and through sheer will, Edward had managed to get apace with it.
Moments before that, Dorkings detailed the premise of the groaning colossus behind, which final moments were at hand. He elucidated on the demeanor of the ship, saying the blades were clearly soaring up in the night sky and relayed that it barely made the ocean move a bit in her last seconds. A break-up didn’t manifested itself in his narrative.
After the sinking[]
When he was near boat B, he still wasn’t safe. His survival instinct kicked in, he had a skirmish with two other men who tried everything to hold Dorkings off as well as nearby swimmers who tried to use him as a pillar to not drown. As Edward seemed to have more strength, he held on long enough to be finally pulled up by two men on the boat, but he was nearly slipping away in subconsciousness. There was nothing to think about other than the frigid atmoshpere, which would get any strong man severly ill. Three more lives on the boat dwindled into nothingness. Cruel as it sounded, they were literally dead weight and therefore disposed of. Two others nearby just couldn’t get a hold on and died that way. A long time later, flares were seen.
The determination of many of the women in lifeboat 4, brought about a search for any life that possibly was in dire need of saving. Madeleine Astor was one of the women in that boat and she was adament that they couldn’t just do nothing. Lifeboat 4 therefore managed to meet with Collapsible B and with help of lifeboat 12, they took the men off the overturned boat.
The lifeboats were later rescued by the Carpathia. When she was within sight, Edward had been out cold, to awake at the mirth of the others. In the evening of April 18, the ship came to New York harbor. Pier 59 was reserved for Titanic, but would now have another ship come to visit a very eager crowd, consisting of journalists who were hunting for scoops, as well as the many families and friends of Titanic denizens who wanted answers and see their loved ones.
He did not testifiy before the United States investigation committee nor the British Board of Trade whitewash as they didn’t want to hear anything from the miniority of Third Class people that had managed to survive against all odds.
The Dorkings family had already regarded Edward as a certain loss. Landing in New York, he was taken to a hospital for several days where he was given money and a completely new attire. During his stay, he had conversed with one of the key figures of the Titanic catastrophe: The man who first saw the iceberg, Frederick Fleet. He was also in the hospital and was lamening the fact that he had passed three warnings of seeing ice to the bridge, but was only taken serious at the third go, which was long overdue to get the ship by the giant floater safely. This mystery surrounding this kenspeckle lookout had surfaced elsewhere shortly after Carpathia was moored off.
The fact he was there was communicated through to his family in England. On Wednesday, 25th of April, he was cleared to go. Although he was robbed of $20.00 of his money as soon as he went to get a train ticket, he managed to acquire the funds to, through the philanthrophy of the people in the city. He arrived travel on to the home of Fred Cooke on April 27. For a time, he worked with his uncle in Portland (since 1913 known as Oglesby).
Even before Dorkings was on dry land, the Princeton Star theatre buff, a Mr W.O. Stevens, had gotten interested in Edward’s conjuctures, so he had given Fred Cooke a heads-up on short notice. He had a deal for Edward. Edward was completely knew in standing before a large audience, but he was still given this prospect. He was going to be paid decently for his several appearances and talks about Titanic in neighbouring towns.
Edward did so. The local press got height of it and covered it substantially. Titanic was a hot topic after all. On the 29th of April, Edward was on the stands for his first performance. The number of people where close to that of the surviver count of the Titanic, roughly 700. That ball got rolling since and there were other theatres that requested him.
Dorkings was prone to embellish his accounts for theatrical effect and so does cast doubt on his accounts. Although he seemed to have mixed truth with a composite of tales that had been reported in contemporary newspapers, some additional insight is available into what befell him in the early hours of April 15, 1912. He would countenance for himself that this would not go without ineludible consequences.
A most eye-chatching example was an article of the Denver Rocky Mountain News of July 26 1912, which summarises how Dorkings tried to paint Bruce Ismay, owner of White Star Line and director, in a very cruddy light at the Fort Collins Theatre. The important businessman, who was aboard TItanic and had jumped in a Collapsible at the last minute to preserve his life, had fallen out of grace in the general American public, but still had his share of advocates, backers, allies and friends. Edward's demeaning comments invoked a stark reaction from at least one man, who had gone to school with Ismay in his early life and found it disgraceful and unjust. The tall indiviual got into a heated discussion with Mr. Dorkings when he asked for evidence and asserted that he knew Ismay all his life. It hotted up so much that a row broke out when he announced the words of Edward as false and other men sided with this person.
The police had to step in as both sides of the argument got their accompanies and a fight was threatening to spur. The alarm was sounded. A riot was obviated.
Later life[]
Dorkings himself had regular snags with the oinks, an ironic fact given that his own dear father, deceased long ago now, was a constable himself. He and his stepfather were still in touch, but they must have had bad blood between them as the exchanges were scarce.
In 1913, he went by the nickname Ted. Ted declared his intent to become a US citizen in Ottawa, Illinois but didn't followed through with his naturalization and remained a British subject for a time.
For the next several years Dorkings worked as a manual labourer in Illinois, perhaps as farmer, but failing to find contentment there and being involved in several minor skirmishes with the local police, he jaunted deeper into the American country, westbound, touring, while appearing in theaters with a tour of the Sullivan & Considine circuit, talking about the Titanic. People could enjoy his monologues, which were followed by rounds of questions, in the cities of Princeton, New Jersey, Fort Collins, Colorado, Salt Lake City, Utah, Ogden, Utah, Los Angeles, Portland in Oregon, Decatur in Illinois, Moline in Illinois, Tacoma in Washington, Davenport in Iowa and Vancouver. He designated his profession as ‘Vaudeville’. He didn’t take the greatest delight out of this fare himself but he had a reason to do it. According to him, none of those that were deprived of their possesions and everything else when Titanic took off to the bottom, were given reimbursement from the White Star company, so this is how he saw his best way to repay to himself what he had lost.
In 1916, he had stepped out of this career and ended up at the US West Coast, arriving in Los Angeles after he had also had another brush with the blue bulls. With the onset of World War I, where America was also sucked into, he avoided the draft by joining the Coast Artillery on May 2, 1917 and officially stay around until he was dismissed in January of 1919. He was still a Brit officially.
His uncle in Illinois was killed in a mining accident about the same time and ‘Ted’ seems to have lost contact with most of his relatives at that point. He is known to have had some sporadic contact over the years with Fred Cooke's daughter, Queen Williams, who had also settled in the Los Angeles area. Perhaps he had taken a liking to her but that is just guesswork.
Following the war, Edward Dorkings, sometimes using the alias of Arthur Edwards, remained in Los Angeles for a good while and at various times identified himself as an iron worker and as a maritime seaman. His employment, according to various documents he signed during the next two decades, was sporadic, and at one time he found himself in peril of being deported. He also couldn’t contain himself around alcohol and seemed to have chucked down a load of bottles, which led to drunkenship in public and once again, he had the heat on him. Arrested for vagrancy on at least one occasion, he lived in rooms and small apartments in lower class areas of the city, one document listing him as a resident of Skid Row.
He never married and lived the life of a loner. There were whispered murmurings among his cousins as to Ted’s promiscuity or even an alleged homosexuality. His cousin, Pearl Novak remarked in later years that she was somewhat sickened to think that there were people with standards low enough to allow them to have relationships with Ted. To fill the empty hours of his life, he eventually turned to the bottle again.
Dorkings had seen plenty of the world, as his occupation as jacktar led him from Shanghai to Honolulu in Hawaii somwhere in May 1927. He technically still belonged to Britain and in September, that same time, he must have paid his mother in Cambridge a visit. Whether on land or on sea, Dorkings would never sit still. In 1928, he had a hearth as a citizen of Houston, Texas, where he tried to become a proper American on paper. From here, he could still regularly be found aboard vessels as a crewman.
In 1933, Edward had turned up in Los Angeles once again. He could find himself a place at a a institute for troopers in Sawtellen. In this decade, muscle aches and inflamed joints were getting in his way and he no longer had his a complete denture either. He was still roaming the seas occasionally.
On October 17, 1940 he was arrested for public drunkenness in Los Angeles and sentenced to six months in the county jail. Following his release, he completed an alien registration form in which he stated that he arrived at the port of New York aboard the RMS Carpathia on April 18, 1912. He described himself as being 5 feet and seven inches tall, weighing 150 pounds, with brown hair.
He was called upon in 1942 to fight in World War II. He was still at the same veteran’s care domiciliary.
It can be conjectured that Ted Dorkings hadn’t had an easy life as Titanic surivor. Had the war not been horrible enough, his book wasn’t closed before a few black pages were written. With the war over, Ted was again arrested. At this point in his unenjoyable life, he was totally alienated from any relatives and confined in a hoosegow on Terminal Island, San Pedro, California. The nature of his crimes are obscure and his phyiscal condition was not good when the end came. During his time of confiment, he developed tuberculosis and arteriosclerosis. By 1954, the turberculosis was far advanced and coupled with chronic heart disease. He had to be admitted to the California Medical Facility at Terminal Island.
Macabre was also the fact that his date of death was April 12, 1954 precisely 42 years after his pleasant time onboard a ship destined to go to the deep of the Atlantic, with him given a second chance. Dorkings was turned into dust and no family member ever bothered to put in application for his ashes. His grave had no name for a long time.
Legacy[]
In 2001, Fred Cooke's only surviving child and Ted Dorkings' only surviving first cousin was told the story of his latter years and death. In a tone mixed with wistfulness and fatalism, the 95-year-old summed up her feelings about the young man that arrived at her home nine decades earlier with thrilling tales of an epic disaster. "His life was one big disaster. I sometimes wondered what became of him but suspected it was better not to know."