George Edward Roberton was a steward on the Titanic.
Background[]
George Edward Roberton stemmed from a Sontonian family, consisting of father Thomas Alexander Roberton and mother Alice Lydia Bickers and their 5 children. In 1885, they had arranged their conjoinment. George received his name shortly after appearing in Southampton on September 4, 1892. The Roberton pair, who both originated in Southampton, had begotten 3 siblings before him. The tradition of the sea was always connected to this town and Thomas was a stevedore.
Their first child to see daylight was James Alexander, who made himself 1886. Alexander Thomas was the name given to the second son, that would be added to the family in 1888. In 1890, a girl, Ellen Mary, was delivered. Emily Jessie concluded the line-up in 1894 as was George’s sole younger sibling.
In 1901, the family had taken their stay to another house in the street.
In 1911, the young Roberton was shown to have been lured to the shipping lanes and was no long an established member of the Roberton household.
Titanic[]
In 1912, White Star Line had picked up the 19-year old George, who would leave the docks with the victualling crew of the Titanic, in Second Class, as he put his signature and his parents’ address down on the application form. The lad had already crossed the Atlantic with a position on Oceanic shortly before after accepting his new job in Southampton on April 4.
There was a familiar face when he embarked. George had an aunt named Emily Ann Roberton Andrews. Her son, therefore George’s cousin, Charles Edward Andrews, was a colleague, but a position higher, as George was an Assistant Saloon Steward in Second Class, while Andrews was not an assistant.
As Titanic surged onward on her primary trip to New York, April 14 proved to be a different day than usual. On this day, Titanic was at her fastest, with as much as 75 revolutions per minute. First Class passengers expecting her to do more miles each day, they even placed bets on it amongst eachohter.
The icebergs would not give away any signs that they were in the area. As the ship drew closer to one, recognition dawned on the lookouts only at 11:39 P.M, less than a minute away. Seeing how little time he was given, lookout Fred Fleet grabbed the phone while making the clapper gong three times. Demanding someone’s presence, he heard the voice of Sixth Officer Paul Moody. Moody in his turn dispatched the to First Officer William Murdoch. Murdoch’s eyes had met the fast approaching mass by now and he made Quartermaster Robert Hichens revolve the wheel hand over hand, all the way to the left, as Titanic needed to swing to port. Via telegraph, he made the Engine Crew below know he wanted to stop Titanic’s forward momentum and then have her outward propellors turn the other way. This couldn’t happen in this short span of time so, as Titanic initiated a yaw, the starboard side of the ship had already linked with the ice. Some of the iceberg’s underwater bulk punched Titanic’s starboard hull plates a bit inwards.
With small dents and notches on a range of places, Titanic was drawing a lot of water in her Boiler Rooms and holds. The water came in by the tons and within seconds, it was a few feet above the keel. This disturbed Captain Smith’s good night rest but he dashed off to the bridge from his stateroom. Demanding an explanation from his Officer, he learnt of the ordeal and wanted the presence of the carpenter to take soundings. Fourth Officer Boxhall was also pressed. More than 10 minutes later, nothing was found until a post worker made a statement that the Mail Hold was flooding. Now, Smith wanted to Extensively examine the abrasion himself. In his wake was Thomas Andrews, who had felt the collision and was eager as well to see what was wrong with his ship, that he designed. The two men contemplated and it was Andrews who had reckoned what the ship was going through. Based on the reports and where the water was in terms of time nad the lay-out, he gave an enumerated account. This was a severe bind. Andrews saw no hope. The water would overshoot the edge of the bulkheads and go further after. There was no way of stopping it. He had computed that they could last as little as 2 hours.
Shortly after midnight, the words of the designer prompted the captain to excecute the directive of clearing the ship of as many passengers as they could via the lifeboats.The deck crew were wanted on deck, to begin cranking them up and equipping them. As part of the victuallers, George must have been compelled to knock on some passengers doors, but it's not conclusive what he engaged with during the beginning of the abdication.
Water filled up the wheelhouse by the time that the two last boats were being manouvred across the sloping, listing deck but never made it to the side of the ship. The water pushed its way further and then Titanic was put into a ducking position and her entire bridge was gone from sight.
Her sinking process was in her final 13 minutes. At 2:07 A.M, the waves from that nosedive had taken hold of the boats. With her front immersing further, soon, only half of the ship was above the water, in a heavily inclined state. The stress of the upper structure was too much and buckled seconds after her lights went out, then the Titanic was broken in two sections, with only the keel attached. After the disconnection, her largest forward part made its way into the deep. The aft part was getting back at a shallower angle but filled up rapidly. The rudder pointed at the dark sky once more and then the remaining part of the ship was standing straight up while making a slow turn. She went under at 2:20 A.M.
There were still so many aboard her in her final minutes and were surrendered by the ship the Atlantic Ocean, which was gelid. Most people were left to die like this, more than 1500 in number.
George Edward Roberton’s life was also expired in that night. A cause of death is missing as it’s unknown where on the ship he was during the final hours, as well as what he would have been doing.
His cousin Charles however, owed his life thanks to a request of an officer to take an oar in lifeboat 16.
After his death[]
The cableship Mackay-Bennett was given the unpleasant assignment to scavenge the wreck site for any of the death. White Star Line had chartered her and she brought back a few hundred people, having picked up 306. One of them was George Roberton, but they didn’t have the space so they gave him an honorable, but wasteful, burial on the choppy seas on the 23th of April, a shame for his family, who would not see him again to be granted this ceremony for themselves. His body was pretty much undamaged according to the crew. He was indexed as number #33.
On April 27, the Hampshire Independent accurately related on his status as victim.
All of his family were ensured with financial subvension by the Titanic Relief Fund. They would still be connected to Southampton for many more decades, as would his cousin Andrews.
Southampton's Hollybrook Cemetery has his name united with the family grave.