John Frederick Barnes was a Fireman on the Titanic.
Background[]
John Frederick Barnes’ life started in 1872, as the first of 7 children begotten by the married pair Henry Barnes and Annie Williams, both from the Southwest part of England, in Dorset. They lived in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Hampshire, where they welcomed their boy. Henry manufactored bricks in 1881.
John was the elder brother of Harry, who popped up in 1874, William, who showed up in 1877, Charles, who manifested himself in 1880, Annie Louisa, who came to be in 1884, Fanny Eliza, who came out in 1886 and Mary received the honor of being the youngest in 1888.
John sealed the deal with a woman at his 18th. His wife was from Christchurch and named Amelia Beale. She was a few years older than John. Casually, she was referred to as ‘Minnie’. Minnie became John’s other half in her native town in October 1890. They made their home in the vicinity of Christchurch and nine young ones would be formed through this union. It didn’t go too well, dolefully. There were quite a few that didn't sit through childhood, meaning only half of the children were left in the early 1900s. The first of their off-spring was James, in 1893. Thomas William followed in 1894, with Frederick appearing in 1896. Alice Beatrice was granted life in 1899, while James’ life was taken that same year, Rose Amelia became their sister in 1901 and William emerged in 1903. Frederick was destined as another loss in 1902. There could also have been a sister named Ann, who might have died as well but his is not confirmed.
While he and his wife produced children, John did the same work as his father. He traded this line of work for something more off-shore, while he, his wife and children had relocated to Hound in Hampshire by 1901.
By 1911, the Barnes family had made home in Southampton.
In April 1912, Mr. Barnes was 29 years old when he on the payroll of White Star Line, as he hopped from Oceanic to the next vessel, which was quite a unique one.
Titanic[]
On the 6th of April, John saw an opportunity to work as Fireman on the RMS Titanic. His name appeared on the list in Southampton and 4 days later, on the 10th, Titanic was guided away from the Southampton piers.
John had been placed on the second watch of the firemen, which was from 4:00 A.M. to 8:00 A.M. as well as from 4:00 P.M. till 8:00 P.M.
On April 14, fate intervened with the ship’s plan to get to New York as quickly as possible, while still providing excellent comfort to her passengers. The night saw Titanic steam a more southern route to the west than usual, but the icefields still caught up with her. Her biggest threat, an iceberg, higher than her Boat Deck, was facing her and she was going straight towards it, while the smoothest of sea and weather conditions had prevented her lookouts from seeing it in time. It was 11:39 P.M. when they laid eyes on it while it was less than half a mile away, too short a distance for Titanic to get by without hitting it. The bridge had been informed right away and the crew tried to steer her away while also asking the engineers to reduce speed, but her starboard side had still brushed the iceberg, which made a few dents and gashes in the hull below the water line. Water rushed in and became an ever bigger problem from the leviathan.
Captain Smith and Titanic's designer Thomas Andrews had felt the hit and after learning further detail about the collision, they dashed off to the lowest decks to see what was going on down there. What they see was definitely not lifting the spirits. At midnight, on April 15, Thomas Andrews studied the deckplans. He now knew they were in the middle of an emergancy, as the ship would be taken over by the sea eventually. With the Captain, he decided that evacuation was imminent. Smith agreed and summoned his men. They had to install the lifeboats level to the deck and ready for taking on passengers.
Titanic went on to sink further while less than 700 people had been taken away in the boats, with the last two boats being caught in a large wave, as Titanic proceeded to plunge down at 2:15 A.M, with her nose deep in the water and her other half sticking out, pointing diagonally up to the stars. The hull was not built for this stance and cracked, so the stern came undone and the front and mid part of the ship were gone. The stern itself was pulled up to almost 90* and then made her decent at 2:20 A.M.
Barnes was not seen alive since. There’s no clues on how he fared during the horrible night, but there were stokers who sacrificed their lives saving others. Some helped with the lifeboats, plenty of them also escaped in one. Most however would die, either in the ice-cold waters or inside the ship. Many men of the Engineering Crew, including a group of Firemen, kept the electricity functional till the last 2 minutes of the sinking so that those that had to be evacuated, stood a chance.
There was no body left of Barnes. His widow is considered to have remained loyal to Barnes after his death.