Frederick Charles Kinchenten was a Greaser on the Titanic.
Background[]
Frederick Charles Kinchenten was given life by Edward Charles Kinchenten and Elizabeth Brixey, a couple who had made the big promise in Southampton in 1873. While Edward’s crib had been placed in the West End part of the town, Brixey was begotten in Netley Marsh, a civil parish west of Totton and Eling, also in Hampshire. Elizabeth saw their son, who was the eldest boy out of 6 children, for the first time on September 13, 1875.
Their first-born, Kate, was given the middle name of her mother, Elizabeth, in 1873. She was the only older sibling of Frederick, who had a younger brother in 1877: Walter George. Walter George’s little sister was Sarah, who began life in 1879, before it was Henry James’ turn to leave the womb in 1881. In that year, the family, had a home in Saint Mary’s, Southampton.
Elizabeth had to labor one more time to receive Selina in 1883. Whether Selina would get to know her mother truly is doubtful, as she was ripped from the family life in 1888.
In 1891, a widowed Frederick was a longshoreman, still citizen of Saint Mary’s and his son Frederick had also parted ways with the household, to put himself out on the shoreline and perhaps prowl passed the boundaries of the coast. Maybe he had found work. The Royal Navy must have picked him up at some point, whether he sailed with them reamins indefinite.
He had found work in the Spring of 1912, when he had done crew work for a ship of the Union Castle Line, the Kildonan Castle. There was a certain Mr Edward Johnson, with a Mrs Johnson who had taken Frederick into their stead in Southampton by that time.
Titanic[]
Frederick was back from his time on the Kildonan Castle on April 6, when he was officially included for the first voyage of a much larger steamer. This was the RMS Titanic, which was just about finished with her trials and had come to Southampton from Belfast, her place of birth. Titanic needed 44 Greasers and on that day, Frederick became on of them. Greasers had to monitor the Engines and occasionally fill them up with lubricants. The answered directly to the Engineers or Electricians.
Wednesday, April 10 was the big day for Titanic. Trains came to the dock with loads of her passengers, much of her crew embarked, cargo and mail was conveyed and she was put under steam shortly before 12:00 P.M. Not long after that, she set course for New York. She was due to moor at France and Ireland before she would be on the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.
Sadly for everyone, it was also her last time. Everything went like a dream until the later hours of April 14, when the stars were shining bright everywhere in the cold night sky. Exigency was written in them. Two lookouts were trusted with the task of keeping watch of any ice. The horizon had somehow obstructed their view and the distorted image could not reveal a substancially large iceberg in time. It was 11:39 P.M. when the bridge was shaken up, out of their rhythm by three strikes on the bell. The lookouts had spotted something. It turned out to be a massive iceberg, which was only partly visible as the greater part was below water level.
With the knowledge, the First Officer prompted his quartermaster at the wheel to change course rapidly to port side, with the rudder sharply to starboard side while he pulled the telegraph to full astern. It couldn’t buy them anymore time, which Titanic needed to reply to her commands, which she started doing only moments before her starboard side prodded against the ice beneath sea level. The ice penetrated and punctured the hull on areas that spanned from the forepeak to the most forward Boiler Rooms just behind the first funnel. Water ran straight through those crannies, with the tons.
Captain Smith turned out and was on the bridge within minutes. Titanic’s most important safety features, the watertight bulkheads, were rendered useless as they were not watertight enough to prevent her bows to delve deep enough into the water to go above those steel walls. The iron gates were thus overcome even though the watertight doors throughout the ship were closed right after she hit.
This is what Titanic’s most important designer Thomas Andrews explained to Captain Smith after midnight on April 15, after they had taken a tour below. The fate of the people on board were in his hands now. Knowing full well that half of the people of the ship might die, he had to act. Andrews gave the ship 2 hours at best. Smith called for the crew and started up the evacuation, with 20 lifeboats, enough for only 1178 souls, with 2209 onboard.
Things didn't run slickly. At 2:07 A.M, Titanic's forecastle and two upper decks were sunk, while only two lifeboats remained, but they were not folded out properly when the sea came over the Boat Deck and made a sudden, quick movement towards the crowds surrounding it, grabbing hold of the two boats. Minutes later, a smokestack had been torn down with its wires failing one by one, narrowly missing a boat. With the second smokestack being left standing and surrounded by water, Titanic's Poop Deck began to camber as her back part soared up into the sky.
A bending force, caused by the massive weight of her engine parts in the aft section, caused the ship to crack wide open when it split into two parts. The first sank pretty fast and pulled the stern along when only the keel held on. The stern went straight up and then vertically descended. With 1503 people losing their lives, most in the chilling waters, Titanic's complete journey to the bottom started at 2:20 A.M.
Frederick would not ever see daylight again. Whether he was inside or outside at his last moments, it was not a place where one could live long. There were Greasers who never made it out and helped pump out water or manage the electricity. What Frederick went through is not known and went down with the ship. The biggest evidence, his body, was missing.