Edward Lewis Wateridge was a Fireman on the Titanic.
Background[]
Edward Lewis Wateridge stemmed from Millbrook, Hampshire in England. His mother Harriet Jane King had bore him there with the help of Charles William Wateridge, her husband by law, on the 17th of September 1886. Charles was a native of Millbrook and his mother could be traced back to Portsmouth. The couple had three children before Edward. Charles Daniel showed up as the first of 11 in 1882.
Things didn’t go according to plan. The child was taken from them in the same year, before welcoming Florence Elizabeth in 1884. Her brother, Walter William of 1885, also died, sadly. It was the turn of George Ernest in 1890, after who Charles appeared in 1891. The poignant thing is, he also lost his life in the same year, like his sibling with the same name. The same fate was bestowed on the next daughter, Ellen Martha. She lived in 1894, to pass away before her first birthday. Dorothy May, being gifted life in 1895, did survive childhood and the same goes for William Wild who saw the light in 1896. Gilbert Charles was their last of off-spring. He made it through as well.
In 1901, as fresh as a 14 year old could be, Edward had left his education for what it was and landed a paid job.
By 1911, still a Millbrook local, Edward could call himself a sailor.
Titanic[]
A single man aged 25, Millbrook took up the job of Fireman for Titanic’s first ever trip, on the 6th of April in Southampton. He had been on Titanic’s sister, the Olympic, just before he was constracted. On April 10, it was time for the liner to leave Southampton to go to New York via France and Ireland.
Wateridge’ working hours would be from 4:00 A.M. to 8:00 A.M. as well as 4:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M, on each day. Perhaps he knew fellow stoker George William Beauchamp, as he had lived in the same street as the Wateridge family in 1901.
On April 14, at 11:39 P.M. disaster happened at night in freezing temperatures. What the crew didn't foresee was the absence of moonlight and a dead calm sea. With no moonlight or waves breaking on the icebergs. One perticular berg was not seen until it was too late to avoid collision at the speed the ship was traveling. The iceberg pierced the hull. Openings were made below the water line on the starboard side of the ship and ran across a large length, allowing much seawater into the ship.
The man who designed the ship, Thomas Andrews, had extensively diagnosed the integrity of his ship by midnight, April 15, together with her captain. Captain Smith and Andrews had stood belowdecks staring at tons of water coming into the ship and now, the shipbuilder calculated how much time there was left. Not too much, he said. The Captain then ushered his men to turn the lifeboats outboard, so passengers could board them. Edward Wateridge didn’t get into a boat.
As the mortally wounded liner neared the last moments of her death-struggle, the inrush of water to her forward compartments depressed her bow, leaving her stern clear of the water. The structure couldn’t support its own weight and she was pulled apart by external forces. The result was a ship into large chuncks, which then settled in the darkness of the depths at 2:20 A.M.
Either during or after the sinking, Edward Lewis Wateridge would become one of many great losses. His actions are unknown. The sea had taken his body.
After his death[]
The tragedy must have hurt the Wateridge family deeply, for they had to see so many children go away from them already. The heartbreak was worse for the mother. The pair hadn't gone away from Millbrook, the husband had left life on earth in 1917.
Harriett meanwhile would have to moarn another son as well, way too soon in 1919: William. He was an army man at the time of his passing. The year 1931 saw Harriett for the last time, living out her last days in Millbrook.