George Henry Cavell was a Trimmer onboard the RMS Titanic.
Background[]
George Cavell's origin can be traced back to Southampton, where his father, who had the same name,received his son on the 4th of December 1889. George Henry Cavell senior was a Fireman. He had pledged his vows to Alice Florence Purkiss. Their love brought forth many children. Most of them were girls, three of them older than George. The first-born was Ellen Jane who had been conceived in 1884 when Rose Mathilda appeared in 1886, with Alice Florence seeing the light in 1887. Edward Albert was their second son in 1891. He preceeded Lily Elizabeth, who left the womb in 1895, with Alice Maud being the youngest daughter, raised from 1898 onwards. The last child was given to the family in 1901: Frederick Ernest.
Both parents had grown up in the Hampshire region. In the early 1900s, the family still lived in Southampton and father Cavell worked on land.
In late 1910, George began his career at the White Star Line, a very prominant and important merchant company. Within a year, he got experience on liners such as the Adriatic and Oceanic and even the new, largest steamer at the time in 1911, of a whole new, larger class: RMS Olympic.
In April 1912, it was time for him to set foot on Olympic’s slighty bigger sister, although the difference was hardly noticable.
Titanic[]
George was one of the crewmen mustered for the Maiden Voyage of the Titanic in Southampton on the 6th of April, having had a place to stay in the Sholing district. On this impressive new ship, George would operate as a Trimmer, being part of the lower ranked Enginering Crew as he had been for the majority of his crossings. He would transport amounts of coal back and forth for the Firemen to shovel coal in the bunkers deep down below, in the belly of the ship. His designated place was Boiler Room 4. On April 10, her horns blared to signal her depature and soon, Southampton was just a spot on the horizon.
George had a shift in Boiler Room 4 on April 14, from 8:00 to 12:00 P.M, and wandered on his own through the bunker of Boiler Room 4 on her starboard side. Suddenly, a tremble occured and he was smothered with coal from the stockpile. This was the infamous iceberg collision that occured at 11:40 P.M. Getting out of the mess and hearing the sound of alarm bells, which indicated that the bridge had started shutting the safety doors, Cavell took a ladder down to the stokehold and a red light was burning. It signaled ‘stop’. But the lights faded fast and Cavell couldn’t see anything, so he made his way to Scotland Road, where he saw how soaked steerage passengers came running aft and had lifebelts with them. From a colleague he learnt about the iceberg. Cavell had then taken a lantern to go back down to Boiler Room 4, which was still dry and helped the Firemen draw the the fires out. Having partially done so, George saw water seeping into the plates from below, but very slowly. After a long time, the water level was a feet higher and Cavell therefore left his post. He was back at the Crew Alleway shortly afterwards. There was no longer anyone around at the Crew Alleyway, so Cavell visited the Boiler Room, which was empty and dark ass well with no one inside as far as he could tell.
Feeling that he could not do much there, he walked to the aft part Boat Deck. It was now very late and he ended up near lifeboat 13 and 15, the two lifeboats that were left on the starboard part of the Second Class deck. A Fireman, Frank Dymond, took responsiblity for the steering of lifeboat 15, while Cavell was instructed to get in by an officer, as he later explained. They had taken only a handful of people in the boat before descending to A-Deck and according to Cavell’s testimony, another load boarded it on either B-Deck or at the gangway of D-Deck.
Both lifeboats were discharged in short succession after one and another. Lifeboat 13 was first but hit trouble on the way down with the pump water coming out of the side of the ship. Some of its crewmembers had tried to move away from the water and the lifeboat could not get released from her lowering gear when she hit the water. Lifeboat 15 was on her way down and was nearly on top of boat 13. Frederick Barrett in lifeboat 13 took a knife and quickly disengaged the ropes to get lifeboat 13 loose from her blocks and away from 15’s keel, which could be touched by the occupants of boat 13.
When this problem was solved, the lifeboats were safely in the water. Titanic had her bows slanted forward and her forward anchors when dipped under as she swamped head down. More than half an hour after the depature of lifeboat 13, the ship’s first half plowed itself into the water and the stern section was seperated after the pressure became too big when her aft part was lifted upwards. At 2:20 A.M, Titanic was no longer visible and cloathed in darkness when her lights failed. The mighty ship had been swamped by the ocean shortly after that.
Well over 1400 people were still onboard untill she was gone and many were left behind in the lethally cold Atlantic Sea. After exposure of over 20 minutes, most of those that were in the freezing waters, lapsed into unconsciousness and death.
After the sinking[]
Titanic’s lifeboats were on the open ocean with their mothership gone and no other ship in sight. This dire looking situation wouldn’t have to last long and altered a few hours later, when luckily as, to the relief of many, a smaller passengership had come from the southeast at about 4:00 A.M.
This ship was the RMS Carpathia and she had promised to lend assistance to Titanic when her wireless had called for others to come and succour them. With the Carpathia, her survivors were sailed to New York where they could be properly looked after. Carpathia had reached the harbor on the 18th of April. George had gone back to England later and shared his side of the story during the British Inquiry on May the 9th.
Later life[]
Despite having lived through the Titanic disaster, George didn't turn his back to the sea. He could be found on the Titanic's surviving sister ship, RMS Olympic and multiple vessels of the Union-Castle Line. He avoided being drafted in the fulmination of both World Wars.
In 1919, he made the ceremotional connection with Kate Elizabeth Barber who had grown up in Droxford, Hampshire. The couple remained childless. Throughout life, they remained attached to Southampton. Later, Cavell was contracted as a handyman. He was no longer present at sea.
On 21 July 1966, George Cavell was 76 years old and had lived his last day. His resting place is at Southampton’s Hollybrook Cemetery. Kate joined him the next year.