George Barlow was a member of the vicutalling crew on the Titanic.
Background[]
George Barlow was begotten by George Barlow senior and Harriett Cooper. The father was a railway clerk who had tied the knot with Harriett in 1871, when both were 20 years of age. They stemmed from Manchester. Their first child was Lilly Elizabeth, who appeared in 1870. As she was born out of wedlock, Lily carried Harriett’s surname. George junior was given life on the 4th of May 1872. In July, they lustrated him. Besides his older sister, George junior also had a younger sister named Harriett Annie. She was welcomed in 1874.
Mother Harriett died very young, she was 25 years when she had left the land of the living. Her widow got a new love in 1877 when he was given to Emily Jane Cropley, who was raised in Spalding, Lincolnshire. Six half-siblings were spawned from the new union. Muade Ethal being the first in 1878, but she died in the same year. The Barlows had a terrible time of it as it kept going wrong with their children. To their incredible grief, they had to let go of more than half of their young ones. In 1879, a boy was conceived and named Harry. He lived through childhood and was followed by Jessie in 1882. William was next in 1886 but he was yet another early deceased child in 1893, following the death of his younger sister Elizabeth Ann, who had been born in 1887 to already pass away in 1889 and the death of Margaret who was delivered in 1891 but she had to lose her life that same year. The last one to arrive was Florence, who was also known as ‘Florrie’ and had left the womb in 1895. She did live through childhood.
They all had their home in Hulme, Lancashire between 1881 and 1891. Later, they would live in south Manchester, where George junior would live too, as he did simple manual labor involving the enveloping of cotton products. When Lilly Cooper had become Lilly Hedley, the wife of Charles Frederick Hedley, George was taken into the household with his stepmother and father living elsewhere in Manchester.
White Star Line[]
He quit his job around the 1900s to offer his services to the most distinguished shipping company of England: The White Star Line. In 1911, had sailed with the Oceanic for the largest amount of the years as a Bedroom Steward, a function he also held once on the Cedric inbetween his passages with the Oceanic. This year, with 12 years experience under his belt, he would be part of a new, larger and innovative luxury liner: The RMS Olympic.
On Olympic, George was one of the crew members as an incident occurred on 20 September 1911, when her suction pulled the Hawke towards her at the Isle of Wright, after which Hawke' bow was crippled and the Olympic having a large gash in her starboard stern. The Olympic had managed to make it back to Belfast port by herself. The Olympic had daunted George since then and ironically, it was this ship that gave him the frets, feeling that it could be her last voyage at any time as she would certainly end up wrecked, he predicted. He rather not stepped aboard again after having done just two trips.
In March 1912, Barlow was thinking about leaving his sea career forgood and wanted to establish himself on land. He was spending three weeks in Belfast during this period.
Titanic[]
In April, Barlow was still in Belfast, where Titanic was about to be finished. His official address was in Southampton. Titanic was ready on April 4, as she was now collecting the crew for the delivery trip to England. Although the plan for George had been to pay a visit to his family in Manchester, a coal strike meant that he couldn’t go through with this. Instead, he gave his name for the list of the crew that was working in the victualling department for the sistership of the vessel that had given him nightmares. On the Titanic, he would be a Second Class Bedroom Steward. His function was keeping the beds tidy for the passengers in Second Cabin and care for their wishes. Titanic was delivered in Southampton a few days later and got paved on the Good Friday, after which she was readied for depature day: April 10. Shortly after noon, the tugboats guided her away from the piers to start her Maiden Voyage.
Most of the crew didn’t have a care in the world on the voyage of Titanic. Nothing worhty of note happened until the night of April 14, when Titanic was in a pinch without knowing it. Her route at high speed led her towards an iceberg, which was only discovered when the iceberg was close by. The lookouts alarmed the bridges who took quick action, but it wasn’t quick enough as the Titanic couldn’t veer to port fast enough to get around the iceberg, depsite the Engine Room reversing her engines. The end result was a few nasty scars over the hull on starboard side, which were still big enough to have the water coming straight in. Because of the large surface of the damages, the water spilled into several of the compartments that the ship had.
On April 15, midnight, the ship’s designer had a talk with Captain Smith over the situation in the belly of the ship. They had done various inspection tours and it led them to a judgement. The ship was in peril and they would be left without a ship in just 2 hours. The captain gathered his men and gave them the order to arrange the lowering of the lifeboats.
The actions of George Barlow are left up for guessing, but many stewards were laided with the task of waking up the passengers and make sure they were told of the situation and made their way up top with their lifebelts, so it's a reasonable assumption that he did the same and helped in the evacuation. With the lack of lifeboats, the chances of survival where slim for many crewmembers. Several Bedroom Stewards were saved however, but George’s name would not appear on the list of those who made it off.
Titanic was later completely overcome by the sea, which had pulled her under completely at 2:20 A.M. Anyone that had still been onboard in the last minutes would end up in the freezing cold waters beneath the stern which stood vertical after she had been detached from the forward section. No human being could last long in those waters, which cost the lives of more than 1000 souls.
The Barlows, who had lost many children at young age, now had to live without another son. He would be forever lost at the sea, despite some vessels being sent out to the place where Titanic sank to find 328 of the 1503 bodies.