James McGrady was a First Class Saloon Steward on the Titanic.
Background[]
James McGrady experienced life on earth since March 8, 1885, when he left the womb of Ann Hagan, who was not of marital status when she bore him. James’ native town was Lansamore, County Down in Ireland. The family was a follower of the Roman Catholic belief. Records aren’t clear of McGrady’s early years, his father, still remains unidentified but it was hinted that it was namesake, a Mr. James McGrady senior who labored at the traintracks and was from Holywood, Belfast in Ireland.
For the largest part of his life, James was raised by his grandmother from mother’s side in Crossgar, County Down, Ireland: Margaret Hagan. Her husband, his grandfather was no longer alive. Like most young men, McGrady took to sea, after trying his hand at agricultural labour. He did so when he was 16 years old. A dilation of a bloodvessel caused the death of Margaret on the 15th of June, 1902. At some point, her daughter Ann had found a new love and had confirmed it by law. The name of James’ stepfather would be Thomas Alphonsus Savage.
Titanic[]
Being 27 years young, James McGrady had worked on the RMS Oceanic not long before putting himself forward to be employed for Titanic on April 6th, 1912 in Southampton, just four days before she was to set sail from Southampton’s docks on April 10. James McGrady’s last address was listed as The Platform Tavern in Southampton when he was taken aboard as a First Class Saloon Steward.
His role would have involved tending to any needs of the wealthy passengers in the large public spaces on the bewildering ship.
An iceberg was coming up to Titanic out of nowhere on the night of April 14. With it getting bigger every second, the lookout put a call out to the bridge. Having received word of what was seen, the First Officer sprung into action and makes the ship swing to port as he shouts the order 'Hard-a-starboard' which means the steering wheel would go left and the rudder to starboard. The engines are being stopped. As soon as Titanic starts to turn, it’s far too late. The starboard side rubbed alongside a submerged portion of the iceberg, her metal groaning when the hull suffered parted seams due to the popping of rivet heads. Water was spraying into the ship.
Captain Smith ordered the ship’s carpenter to sound the ship for damage. Thomas Andrews, the managing director of Harland and Wolff’s design department, conducted his own inspection. The ship was letting in 400 tons of water each minute. Andrews, who had full responsibility for the design of the Titanic, knows the ship better than anyone. He concluded that the ship was doomed and estimated that it will sink within two hours. Five minutes after midnight, Captain Smith issued the order to abandon ship and the crew began to alert the ship’s passengers to the impending danger. The task of most stewards now became clear: they had to motiviate their passengers to quickly get dressed and don their lifebelts while the lifeboats were swung out to take on passengers. There weren’t enough of those for everybody.
Titanic’s final plunge began at 2:07 A.M. Her bridge was submerged and the last two boats weren’t ready to be launched yet, so a large wave had picked them up. Seven miutes later, the stern began to lift higher out of the air. Titanic’s steel structure began to fail and cracked. The hull comes apart and her back was broken. The stern fell back to a normal level, but it was not more than seconds later, that it began to rear up again. Moments later, the stern was consumed as well.
Unfortunately, McGrady’s life was claimed by this profound moment, alongside at least 1500 more lives. Titanic carried a total 329 stewards, with 48 being saved at least.
However, approximately a month later James McGrady’s body was picked up by the SS Algerine, still wearing a lifejacket. His body was returned to Halifax by a different steamship and was buried under the headstone number #330, although he was the 328th of the bodies that were salvaged in total. This might be because there was a miscount on the CS Montmagny, whose crew started counting from 326 when there were just 323 accounted for.