James McGann was a Trimmer on the Titanic.
Background[]
James McGann had sprung from the bond between Eugene McGann and Mary Kelly. James was born into a Catholic family and had Irish roots, through both his father and mother. The pair were wed in 1880 and James was their first child on June 26, 1882. They also would refer to him as ‘Jimmy’. In 1884, another boy was conceived and named Joseph.
In the 1900s, James had grown up and cleaned boilers. At the end of the decade, he became fatherless and motherless.
Titanic[]
Like his now deceased father, James had a career in the merchant shipping and came from the South Africa when the White Star Line newest vessel, the grand, luxurious RMS Titanic.
James’ services where required on short notice, as a Trimmer, being employed on the day that Titanic would set sail: April 10. In Southampton, where James had now stayed for a couple of days awaiting the arrival of the ship, the large steamer blew her horn to announce her department just after the clock hitting 12.
Five days into the Maiden Voyage, on April 14, Titanic had picked up a good speed and made excellent progress. She had nothing but ocean ahead until she found herself in an icefield from 22:00 A.M. onwards. It was 1 hour and 40 minutes later, when, all of a sudden, the two lookouts in the crow’s nest identified an iceberg that they approached at a fast rate. They communicated it to the bridge and the First Officer ordered the wheelman to turn Titanic completely to port and gave the Engine Room orders to slow Titanic down. His bid to avoid a frontal collision became something worse, as the starboard side wasn’t out of harms way and rubbed against the berg over a great length. Regrettably, the scratches opened up parts of her hull underneath the water level. After the collision, a stream of water came crashing through the narrow openings. This water ascended very fast.
When it was midnight, the 15th of April, the Captain and Titanic’s designer ……. The extent of her ….. and it looked bad. Thomas Andrews knew his ship through and through and had to admit that this sort of…. was . Captain Smith then called his man and told them they should get all the lifeboats ready and organise the evacuation.
James McGann stayed on the ship very long, as he later explained that he was next to Captain Smith at the forward end when their were only two lifeboats left and the water was seeping over the bulwark. Smith, who then relieved them of their duties, with the encouragement that was so typically described by many other surviving Deck Crew, had a child in his hand according to James. The water came over the bridge when McGann and other was fixated on the task of launching Collapsible B. The Titanic made a sudden dive and Jimmy jumped, saw Captain Smith jumping too and was at one point on the collapsible. In later life, in his own words, he descibes that he and the captain were both taking care of two children and that the cold water made them lose their grasp on them.
Minutes later, the giant steamer looked even larger than ever before as her stern came out of the water at an angle of 45 to 70 degrees. The massive forces made Titanic crack and the stern broke off, after which the bow descended down the frigid waters. At 2:20 A.M, the stern was gone too, sliding down the ocean vertically.
After the sinking[]
He and his fellow survivors on the overturned boat B had to wait a few moments, after which they became the rescuees of lifeboat 4 and lifeboat 12 who had room and devided the men who had managed to stay alive on the capsized boat.
Titanic had called out for help with CQD and the relatively new ‘Save Our Souls’ code. One vessel, 58 miles to the southeast, had answered and was quickly on her way. This ship, the RMS Carpathia, was at the scene of 4:00 A.M, long after Titanic was gone, but one by one she gathered the people in the lifeboats. She was finished at 8:30 A.M and made one last tour, after which she altered course to New York.
Once Carpathia stopped in the harbor of New York on April 18, McGann was taken to a hospital once he set foot on solid ground. During his struggle to get to Collapsible B, He had been in the water too long, so they needed to treat him for his frozen skin. As he was bedbound, he talked to a journalist and his account was delived in various newspapers. He was not summoned for the US Inquiry and left America later. His maritime career resumed and he was resident in Liverpool. The British Inquiry hadn’t called for him either.
Later life[]
In Liverpool, James Mcgann met Catherine McMeal, who became his wife in 1914 A son, Joseph, emerged from their wedlock in November 1915. A daughter, Catherine, was next in November 1918. Sadly, Jimmy was never to meet his daughter as he was admitted to a sanitorium with tuberculosis and died on May 25 at just 35 years of age, months before she was born.
His son wouldn’t live long. He was crually taken from the family in 1921. Catherine worked in the healthcare and didn’t have a new husband. She lived until 1921.