George Symons in 1912, before he was assigned on Titanic
George Thomas Macdonald Symons was one of Titanic's sailors. He had some experience. He had worked on the Oceanic for four years, of which three he spent as a Look Out, just before joining Titanic, and in his testimony of the British Inquiry he said he had been sailing 58 to 60 times on the Atlantic. He had encountered icebergs back then as well.
He was born on 23 February 1888 in Weymouth, England. His father Robert James Symons (1867-1939) was a steamship fireman, and his mother was Bessie Newman (1868-1933).
Symons worked his shifts paired with Archie Jewell as a Look Out Man on the Titanic. On the night of 14 April 1912, Symons and Jewell were relieved by Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee at 10:00 P.M. During his voyage, he was told he had to make do without the binoculars, something he admitted later would've been really useful, because they came in handy on Oceanic. He has also recalled that he could smell ice around 9:30 P.M. and that it was a sort of a rule, that you could smell it before reaching it (something that would become a bit of a joke in the 1997 Titanic film, but then it happened with Fred Fleet). After being relieved at 10:00 P.M., he went to his cabin to sleep.
Then around 11:40 P.M. the ship had grazed an iceberg. To George, it sounded like a grinding on her bottom. He thought at first she had lost her anchor and chain, and it was running along her bottom. so he would not get up. The others got up, but he thought nothing was wrong and stayed in his cabin.
Shortly after Captain Smith told the crew to prepare the lifeboats, he was ordered to go up on the Boat Deck and help with the task of loading the lifeboats. Another Look Out Man, George Hogg, had came down to get him. When he got to the Seamans' Mess, he could hear and see water flowing into Hold no. 1.
First Officer William Murdoch began to load lifeboat 1 shortly before 1:00 A.M. Mr. Symons was assigned to the lightly loaded boat, which he was given command to. Symons was part of the significant scandal of "the money boat" story that the crew on his lifeboat were paid to not return to the scene after the ship sank. The boat finally rowed away from the Titanic at 1:05 A.M.
He has observed the ship's sinking and demise, when the lifeboat had reached the water, and they pulled away fast, he said the water level was at least at D-Deck around that time, and later he heard explosions when seeing her final moments, her lights went out and the stern was well out of the water, but that it fell back level after the break-up.
He however was afraid to return to pick up people from the water and testified he didn't deem it safe despite the fact he had plenty of room. He received a lot of questions about this at the British Inquiry. He was very defensive when he was asked about a certain gentleman that Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon and Lady Duff Gordon sent, and was visiting Symons' house in Weymouth. He didn't want to share what their conversation was about.
The lifeboat was picked up by the RMS Carpathia hours later. His brother Jack Symons was part of the Carpathia crew and was on hand to pull his brother out of the lifeboat.
After the sinking, he returned to Britain and married Mary Jane Bolt. The couple had two daughters. After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Symons served for the Royal Naval Reserve. Then again, Symons stumbled upon his brother Jack and then they both ran into their other brother Bob who had been seriously wounded in combat. Fortunately they all survived the war.
Symons died in Southampton on 3 December 1950 at the age of 62.