Philip Charles Thomas Rentowl was a Titanic Fireman who had embarked under an alias.
Background[]
Philip Charles Thomas Rentowl was his name at birth, which occured on the 31st of March, 1886. There are question marks on who the father was, but his mother was Jane Ann Maria Rentowl, shortly addressed as ‘Janetta’. The limited information idicates that he could’ve been a bastard. He came onto this world in Southampton, where Jane also was begotten. With the father not in the picture, she made ends meet by washing clothes.
Philip soon had an actaul father when growing up, Jane’s new partner, who she probably had found in the 1890’s or shortly before that, was Richard Philip Raymond. Janetta’s 5 years younger love could often be found working at the harbor. They had not pledged their vows yet while they …… children. All the while, they were still habitant in Southampton.
Violet May felt life outside the womb first, in 1892. In 1897, she got a brother: Bertie Edwin The year 1900 saw Nelly Maud become the last child to be given to the Raymond family.
At the age of 15 Philip, had stopped his school education and was a woodworker. Details are missing about the start of his sea life.
Titanic[]
In 1912, Rentowl saw a chance to work as a Fireman for Titanic, having just finished his trip with the ship Orotova. He had set down his autograph for this job in Southampton on April 6. However, he had given up a false identity. His employers and colleagues would know him as ‘S. Sullivan.’ Rentowl would have the third watch, which was from 8:00 P.M to 12:00 P.M. in the morning and the night shift of 20:00 till midnight.
The Titanic made her way out of Southampton on the 10th of April. Her destiny was New York but the steamer would be stationary in France and Ireland for taking on further passengers and crew.
‘Mr. Sullivan’ was certainly at his Boiler Room on the night of April 14, if we go by his schedule. Just 20 minutes before his last working hour would end, something happened that nobody had foreseen: Under the strangest of circumstances, Titanic had somehow scraped her bow and her further front section open against an iceberg that towered above the Boat Deck. The trail of slits would run over 100 metres. For most men in the forward Boiler Rooms, it was like a waterfall, water suddenly cascaded in through several gaps that the ice had created as Titanic’s steel had been weakened by the large, frozen mass. Her lookouts had somehow not seen this obstacle before it was too late to get by without a scratch, despite the bets efforts of First Officer Murdoch who had attempted to port around it sharply while declerating her large pace.
On the bridge, at midnight, Captain Smith had ended his tour down to the belly of the ship, as he had looked at the places where the water was washing in. Titanic designer Thomas Andrews had taken it all-in as well. He did some headcounting. What had been believed to be an unsinkable ship, was now in danger, he as he adduced the factors that would lead to her downfall.
Captain Smith proceeded to call his deck crew to the Boat Deck, where they were laided with the task of seeing that the boats were put to the side of ship and made them ready for lowering. Many passengers had to be really persuaded to get in. There were Firemen who had also gotten into boats, most of them being suitable as rowers and they had experienced firsthand what went down in the stoker holds. They were more aware of Titanic’s peril.
Titanic had gradually digged deeper into the waters and after 2:05 A.M, she lunged her head down, with the bridge overflowing and the last 2 collapsibles washed off and upped her rears in the next minutes. At 2:18 A.M, her stern stood diagonally, her lights still ablaze. Her stern was confronted with a pressure she was not designed to withstand and it cracked, splitting and falling back level with the rest of the ship being torn down and sinking. The stern itself, concealed in the dark, slithered down vertically at 2:20 A.M.
We know nothing about Philip Rentowl’s actions at this night, what is known however is that an amount of stokers had gotten to a lifeboat. Philip could not have been in a lifeboat, because he name would appear on the list of the dead. How he died is a question left to be answered, but there were a select group of brave Firemen that sacrificed their lives to keep everything working inside the ship by still feeding the furnaces and keeping. Perhaps Philip was one of them, but there’s equally big chance he had done something else. Either way, most Titanic victims had succumbed to the cold ocean, where no human being could last longer than 40 minutes at best. There were 1503 lifeless bodies, some inside the ship. This was the fate for most of the Engineering Crew, who could be described as heroes.
Most were lost forever. Rentowl was too. One could also wonder what would’ve happened if the recovery ships had somehow found him as he had used a different name.
After his death[]
The Titanic Relief Fund had given Janetta an amount of money to provide in her maintance for her son’s loss. She would remain a Sotonian for the rest of her life, which came to an end in 1916.