James Kirkham was a Greaser on the Titanic.
Background[]
James Kirkham was begotten by James Kirkham and Sarah Maria Cracknell. James senior shared his last name with the place he had been making his first footsteps, Kirkham in Lancashire. Sarah had begun her life in Easton in the heart of the Debbon Valley of Suffolk. On October 29, 1873, James entered life in Wittingham, City of Preston, Lancashire, England, he was the middle child, with three siblings dropped before him. The eldest was Thomas, whose life had dawned in 1866. Next in line was Jane in 1870. George came after her in 1872. John would be his brother in 1876. John however was not viable enough to make it into the next year. A second daughter, Edith, was gifted life in 1879, with her younger sister seeing the light in 1882: Lucy Hannah. She was the last.
James had a stable place to reside between 1871 and 1881 and hadn’t moved anywhere in the decade. It must have been in his teenage years that he discovered his avidness for the salt chuck when he went away from home. James started to earn a living as stoker and was contracted by White Star Line. For a good amount of years, he spent weeks on the coroporation’s proud steamer RMS Majestic.
This period also saw him devote his affection for a gal from Newcastle Upon Tyne. His darling was Jane Cooner, a young woman, more than 10 years below him in age. For some reason, Jane rather saw her place of birth registered as Liverpool, her turf since many years, according to the 1911’s documents. James brought a child to life with Jane, a daughter, who they named Margaret. On October 14, 1893, she came in the limelight inWallasey, Cheshire.
In 1911, the family were citizens of Seacombe, Cheshire as James roamed the choppy brines. They had no house of their own so they were taken in and paid expenses as tennents. With her husband away from home often, Margaret brought her share of income to the household as a house cleaner on demand and it’s inclined that Margaret would do something similiar.
Titanic[]
The latest and largest Royal Mail Steamer, Titanic, made her debut in the ocean travel business in April 1912. She was owned by White Star Line as she had just been released from her big test. They were on a very tight schedule with her and before all of her interiors were completed, they brought her to Southampton, where they gathered most of the crew to get her ready for her premier Atlantic crossing. James bivouaced here in those days.
Titanic’s sister had already done quite a few voyages and James had been on this ship, the RMS Olympic, prior to the day of April 6, when Kirkham was in Southampton to be selected as Greaser for the Titanic, a marginally better job than a Fireman or Trimmer. Instead of only seeing the inside of the coal bunkers like he did on the Majestic, James would now abit the higher ranked Engineers by filling the top of the engine caps with oil to ensure that everything ran smoothly, hence the name of his occupation. A Greaser would walk between the Recipocrating Engine Room with its quintessential, large cylinders and the Turbine Room, which was a place built around a large, cased rotor that spun on a monstrous lathe.
He might have been doing this when Titanic’s mighty power plant was fired up on late morning of April 10. After noon, she would propel her way out of the town, destined for New York. First, she would visit two other harbors in France and Ireland for more customers. James was 38 years old and interestingly enough, also had Liverpool listed as his birthplace, rather than Whittingham.
Many people on the elegant ship were under the guise that nothing could happen to her and she would conquer everything. Talks were made that the ship couldn't even be sunk by God Himself. They were in for a rude awakening when Titanic scuffed her broadside across an iceberg on the night of April 14. Unusual meteorology had camouflaged this specific iceberg. The lookouts were completely caught off guard. It seemed like the iceberg had just been teleported there. The lookout that saw it first transmitted the famous words “Iceberg, right head” via the telephone to one of the officers, before the leading Officer yelled at his quartermaster to get her clear of the berg via the tiller commond ‘Hard to Starboard’. This meant Titanic had to take a sharp turn to port. Via telegraph, the Officer let the Engine Crew know Titanic had to go in opposite direction as well. At the point that Titanic was less than 100 yards away, she finally deviated to seemingly almost get out of the berg’s way but the starboard part of her prow was adjacent to the massive wall and below sea level, a forking part of the berg made contact with Titanic’s hull over a lenght of 300 feet. Steel was warped as the ice cut grooves in her body and thousands of liters of water moved into the openings.
Shortly after impact, the Captain was on the bridge and demanded an explanation. He was disturbed by the impact and wanted to garantuee that his ship was not too badly affected and started to sent members of the crew down to inspect. Minutes later, first signs of trouble reached the bridge when a mailman reported flooding of the Mail Room. Thomas Andrews, one of Titanic’s designers, also got height of the situation. When they heard about the blanked postchamber, Titanic’s captain and architect both scoured the place and took it all in. What they had witnessed down below, was dejecting.
On April 15, Andrews could vouch for the fact that the Titanic had a bit too much spillage in 6 seperate areas, which normally would be able to handle the deluge, but were now filled at the same time. This could only lead to her demise, he ensured the Captain. They wouldn’t be above sea level for long, is what he also added.
Five minutes later, Captain Smith set an operation in motion to get as many people of the ship. First, his subordinates had to precipitate the lifeboat launch. There had been no time for a drill and they also needed to convince passengers to embark.
With a large inclination, Titanic literally bowed down for the sea, which took over the entire front of the ship, over the course of two hours. The evacuation strided on with chaos and unoriganised manner and sluggishly too. They still ran out of time to get 2 collapsibles securely in the water. The ocean had bathed the entire wheelhouse and spilled over the deck, with the 2 last boats wiped off it.
Titanic’s line of defense was well past and the Boat Deck got swamped further and further aft, knocking over the first funnel. When the water touched upon the base of the second funnel, the back end of the ship escalated and her degree of tilt scaled a lot in three minutes.
This resulted in opposite loads at both ends. The bow that was quite a few feet below the surface pressing down, as well as the much heavier hindpart that carried the heavy propulsion mechanism and motors. The loads caused twisted steel to fail, fracture and then the ship cracked wide open. She was devided in two and within minutes, those two parts were bogged down. At 2:20 A.M, Titanic was silently making her way down into the dark of the ocean, while the people that were onboard were left in the darkness of the ocean with only stars above them and downright numbing waters surrounding them. Titanic created 1503 fatalities, most of them slipped away in the ocean. Some went down into the depth inside the ship, among them, all of her Engineers, but also some Greasers, Trimmers and Firemen who had eked out all their energy to keep the ship afloat as long as possible and keep the lights burning till two minutes before Titanic’s death.
James’ side of the tragic story was lost with the sinking as he didn’t come out alive. He was not a lifeboat occupant, that was for sure. There was also nothing left of him when ships were delegated to the wreck site in search of bodies.
After the death[]
Daughter Margaret created a lot of off-spring with her squeeze, who she had wed in the year that saw the last of her father.
Although the death of the head of the household did part Jane with James, he would still be her one and only, at least officially.
Birkenhead would be her place when her time had come to pass into the afterlife in 1931.