James Blaney was a Fireman on the Titanic.
Background[]
James Blaney was the first son of his father, John Blaney,whose wife Catherine McTammeny gave him the young James on January 10, 1880. James was the second eldest of 6 children produced by the married couple. The young James started his life in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland. His parents were blacksmiths.
In 1876, Catherine had dropped Mary Ann, one of five daughters. Following James was Annie, who had come into this world in 1882. James’ only brother was Daniel Jospeh from 1884 onwards. Annie was likely a premature death, but that’s not confirmed. Later, Chaterine bore Catherine Blaney and Sarah in 1887 and 1891 respectively.
Before the 1900s, many of his siblings were no longer living in Northern Ireland but had instead migrated all the way to the East part of America. James took a different path, which led to Scotland.
In 1902, Blaney had been a workman for a small iron and steel factory called Clyde Tube Works for an unknown time when he went to the military forces of England on 15 February 1902. He was a soldier in the 4th Highland Light Infantry of the British Army, but only as privateer. He also had become an Englishman, having his address in Old Monkland, Lanarkshire. He did his duties for 6 years, before he apparently sought jobs in the merchant shipping business.
Titanic[]
In early April 1912, Blaney was hired for the Maiden Voyage of the grandest ship in the world: The RMS Titanic. James came over from a small vessel of the Blue Anchor Line named Narrung. He was officially added to the crew list of Titanic in Southampton. The 32 year old man would be appointed as a Fireman, to feed Titanic’s hungry furnaces. He had his stay Sailors' Home in for the time that he had to wait till he could embark. On April 10, the Titanic was ready to take aboard the passengers and other crew and the large crowd waved her goodbye, a handful of people wishing her ‘good luck’.
That however didn’t help Titanic in the end. She seemed okay in her first day and proved to be a stable ship. Her stokers made her funnels spout large grey clouds of smoke and her propellors were whirling rapidly. Onboard the ill-fated Belfast liner, Blaney would could expect to work a round-the-clock four hours shift to maintain the Titanic’s 21ft long boilers.
On April 14, on the night, her speed had increased compared to the previous day. Her rapid crossing was on of the factors that ultimately brought her to her doom. She was in a calm open ocean but icebergs were everywhere and were masked by Mother Nature very convincingly. The breaking of waves would normally betray the outliers of an iceberg, but this was not the case at this point, which is why Titanic’s lookouts reported an iceberg in front of her bow at 11:39 P.M, far too close to sail past safely. The Officer on the bridge responded with a quick swoop to port while diminishing Titanic’s pace in the process.
At the last moment, the ship seemed to get clear but her starboard side touched with the ice below sea level, which caused ruptures in her hull, which were small but still led a lot of water through. This water began to climb fast.
On April 15, midnight, Thomas Andrews and Captain Smith had looked down below and were on the bridge were the ship designer gave his thoughts. He knew by now that six compartments were affected. Not even with the pumps would be able to keep above the water, he confirmed. Smith then approached his hands and gave them orders to evacuate people. The lifeboats were provisioned and geared up for lowering.
There were firemen who escaped in such a boat. This was not the case for James Blaney. What he did and how he fared is left up for guessing but he did not survive the sinking of the Titanic.
The White Star Line employed a couple of ships to go the place where Titanic had sunk to check the wreck site for corpses. James Blaney’s body was not spotted.