James Johnstone was part of the victualling crew on Titanic.
Background[]
James Johanstone came into this world on October 1859. His place of birth was Annan, Dumfriesshire in Scotland, where his father, a bootmaker named Andrew Johnstone, had him together with his wife from Edinburgh, Jane McClean. James was the oldest and was accompanied by three sisters: Margaret had sprung in 1853 and Jane blessed the family in 1862. Janet was the last to arrive in 1863.
Mother Jane had died in 1879. After her death, James had a stepmother. She was from another town in Dumfriesshire and named Mary Gillespie. It's not sure if she and Andrew had any children.
In 1881, James was abscent from the household. He probably had started his sea career. He did several jobs on ships as a storekeeper and steward.James’ personal life had developments too. He had wed Mary Frances Pinnington in a Liverpool church, named ‘Sacred Heart of Liverpool’, in 1891. His spouse was Mary Frances Pinnington from Liverpool. After promising their loyalty to eachother on November 20, they went on to have kids. Their marriaged relationship produced two sons: James Andrew in 1892 and Thomas Pinnington in 1897. The first daughter saw the light in 1899: Florence Mary. After her, two twins appeared on the of December 16, 1901. They were Madeline and Olga Winifred.
In the 1890s , James kept doing some victualling jobs on various ships in the merchant service. The family lived in West Derby region of Liverpool in those days. In 1907, his son and namesake, James junior, was also a on a steamer, in the similar role as a steward. For an unknown reason, father James had fiddled with his birthday, acting like he was younger. Later, when the Titanic disaster occured, he had given up 3 different birthplaces, before admitting he was a Scot when they investigated the Titanic case.
Titanic[]
In 1912, James senior signed-on this Titanic in Belfast. He was one of the White Star Line staff that had been transferred from Olympic to her sister. He was appointed as a First Class Saloon Steward on the Night’s Watch and would sign on to his job on the 4th of April, taking the delivery trip to England. He was in Southampton on the 10th of April for the departure of the luxury liner. The Sailor’s Home in Southampton was his stay for those days.
Johnstone’s working hours started from 11:00 P.M, relieving the Bedroom Stewards. His job consisted of keeping an eye on the First Class Dining Saloon. He would also have to listen to the reports of the Second and Third Class chief stewards.
On April 14, Johnstone’s shift began at 11:00 P.M, late at night, as he had done so every day. In the Dining Saloon, he had a talk with the other watchmen. There were five of them in total.
About 40 minutes later, the lookouts of the mighty steamer were startled with the sight of a large iceberg. How they could not see it before so late, remains clouded in mystery. The bridge was notified and they tried to steer Titanic around it with reduced speed, but they didn’t have the time. Titanic struck the iceberg and part of her structure failed in such a way that leaks appeared. Tons of water entered the ship in a few minutes.
Johnstone felt very little of the impact while sitting at a table the First Class Dining Saloon with the other watchmen. A casual comment was thrown by a colleague: “Guess we need to go back to Belfast”. This implied that they thought one of Titanic’s propellors got damaged, which meant they had to go back for repairs.
James wanted to know more and pulled the sleaves of Greaser Alfred White, to aks him if he could go down to the Stoker Holds and have a look. Alfred returned and had brought bad news. He told James that the situation was not looking good. It was a mess, he said.
On April 15, Thomas Andrews had talked to the Captain about Titanic’s ruptures. She had taken on a lot of water. After inspections of her damage, it was clear that she would sink. Just after midnight, the evacuation began. Johnstone had seen Mr. Andrews at some point, when he was descending to the Engine Room. Upon seeing him return from down below, Johnstone went after him, but only spoke him briefly. Johnstone went to down to F-Deck, and spotted water on G-Deck, in the Bagage Hold. This was at 12:05 A.M. He reported his findings to First Class Assistant Second Steward Thomas Wheat, saying that he was worried. He then went to his Steward Cabin, to change into a suit.
Back at the First Class Reception, he saw how Thomas Andrews assured 3 nervous First Class ladies that everything was alright and repeated it to Johnstone. Realising that he had no lifevest, he went back to the gloryhole to obtain one. After that, he moved up to the Boat Deck.
He escaped the liner on lifeboat 2, the one he was assigned to. He was first making sure it was seaworthy. With the reluctant passengers, it took very long before boat 2 would leave. It was first lowered to A-Deck. James had come across George Dodd, the Second Steward of First Class, who left his lifebelt in James hands, but he would not return.
James stood around for most of the time, awaiting orders. He was later asked by Chief Officer Wilde whether he could row and he answered positively. Armed with a flashlight, given by Fourth Officer Boxhall and a razor knife from a stoker, he got in. At 1:40 A.M, Emergency cutter 2 left Titanic with 23 people. The knife proved useful in cutting the boat loose and make the launch safe and succesful.
It was much later, when the Titanic stood tall out of the water as her final plunge began, while Johnstone looked on.
The cries of people in dispair had seemingly not motivated him to pick up more people as his boat had plenty of room for more and was only half-filled. There was an iceberg near boat 2 and the ladies, although saying they were sorry, did not want to go back. They felt it was to dangerous. Many lives were lost that night. Titanic’s death also meant the death of her occupants, as they didn’t have the ship underneath them and were delivered to the subzero waters. Nobody could realistically last longer than an half hour in them.
Meanwhile, the Carpathia, which had been on course from New York to Gibraltar, now hurried her way to Titanic’s given coördinates. She couldn’t get there faster than 4:00 P.M. Officer Boxhall, the commander of lifeboat 2, saw her and attracted her attention and they were soon picked up, as the very first lifeboat.
After the sinking[]
On April 18, James was with both feet back on land, as he disembarked from Carpathia, which was back in New York.
The Worcester Evening Gazette had a chance to speak with Mr. Johnstone. He gave curious accounts, such as the scene of Bruce Ismay being forced into a boat, as described him. However this is odd, as lifeboat 2 was launched much earlier, on port side. Mr. Johnstone couldn’t have seen this happening unless boat 2 happened to be close to the ship on her other side at the moment Collapsible C, Ismay’s boat, was lowered.
Johnstone attended the British Inquiry in the same suit that he had worn during the night that he escaped the Titanic. They came on strong to him and fired off one after the other question about lifeboat 2 not going back for possible survivors as well as the situation below decks, with so many steerage passengers lost, as well as the Restaurant crew. They had him cornered, but he pretended that he didn’t know or wasn’t in the Third Class quarters.
Later life[]
James continued to serve at sea throughout World War I and emerged without a scratch. Sadly his eldest son was a Mess Steward aboard the Lusitania and perished when it was struck with a torpedo from the German submarine U-20, causing this very fast ocean liner to sink in just 18 minutes, just off the coast of the Old Kinsale near Queenstown, Ireland. This happened on the 7th of May in 1915. His son’s corpse could not be recovered among the 1198 victims.
James kept offering his services to the White Star Line, still working there in 1926. He also never moved from Liverpool till his last years.
James Johnstone passed away at the age of 52 on December 16, 1943, while hospitalised. He had become senile in his last days. Mary lived 8 more years after him.