Richard Baines was a Greaser on Titanic.
Background[]
Richard Baines was emanated in the 1850s, with only the name of the father known: Lawrence Baines. Richard was sprouted in Dublin in Ireland. Much else about his youth or background is unclear. His mother could have been Rose Murray and he could also have been ceremonially sprinkled in Lucan, Dublin on the 12th of August, 1855, but there’s no attestation.
Robert tracked from Ireland to establish himself in England, where he hoped to find a daily grind. He was clearly made for oceanic travel and hard labor. Baines built up an impressive resume since 1877 and with that, garnered ever more billets in the lower end of the Engineering Crew on various passenger liners. He had seen the inside of the coal bunkers countless of times, sometimes in the position of a Greaser, at other times he had to stow the boilers as a Fireman. The list of ships he was on, was long and he carried out his duties for many companies, from four-masters to twins-screw ships. He sailed with the bigger names such as the Inman Line, Pacific Coast Steamship Company, Booth Steamship Company and also the Cunard Line.
In the meantime, Robert was a match with Sarah Currand and the woman became his partner for life. She had displaced herself from Ireland as well to settle in Liverpool. Robert and Sara eloped in Saint Anthony's Roman Catholic Church in Liverpool on 26 November 1879. Lawrence was their eldest son who was bequeathed the honor of carrying his grandfather's name since 1881. His father's name was then bestowed upon his brother Richard, who was next in 1882. In 1884, it was the dawn of life for their brother John. A daughter revealed herself in 1887: Mary. She would be the only girl. Daniel was the last in the order, his first year being 1891.
Before the turn of the century, the Currands, as that was the adopted last name of most children, exchanged Liverpool for Southampton. Still, Robert didn’t sway from Liverpool and was contracted only from there.
Regretfully, Sarah was harshly ripped out his life with her having lived for only 44 years when her passing came in 1900. As the only guardian of their scions, of whom most had reached adoloscence, he had to stick to his métier and drudge even harder for their sake. With some of his sons becoming of age, they had to begin to develop themselves, started careers and also created new bloodlines and got their own nests with their loved ones. His namesake and second eldest Richard was made into the leading figure of the elderly dormitory, in eastern Southampton.
Past the middle of the 1900s, the passengerships increased ever more in size and Robert found engagement on better known steamers such as the Empress of Britain and the White Star Line’s Majestic. Occasionally, Robert senior wouldn't have to miss his eldest son Lawrence, who sometimes had another role on the same ship as his father was on, such as supervising the stocking of the ship and maintaining the magazine.
Baines also had a history of trouble. He was arrested in 1910 for fighting after leaving his ship, the Saint Paul. His arrest report describes him as being bald, with a scar below the left eye.
Titanic[]
Baines was ordained as Greaser for the RMS Titanic on the 6th of April in Southampton, the town which he would still call home, with his only daughter still at his side. He had been re-united with Saint Paul just before he took up this next job. If his day of birth was right, as their were contradictions in what he was giving up to the superiors he would work for, he would now be in his late fifties.
On April 10, after 12 o’clock, Titanic’s horn echoed over Southampton to make it clear to the town, that she would be on her way soon. Her route was planned to go to New York in America, via two lay-overs in France and Ireland to take on more mail, passengers and crew while also dropping off a few. From Ireland, all that awaited her was the expanded North Atlantic.
The Atlantic Ocean had a dark secret in April 1912. She was unpredictable, with the shipping lanes having to cope with more ice then ever before, which had travelled further south than normal, but it seemed to be anything trivial when Titanic made her way to New York rapidly. Her 5th day at sea, the 14th of April, saw a temperature drop but a very serene motion of the ocean, like she was gliding over a plate of glass. This idle sea had severe consquences however.
As her lookouts were to look out for ice, Mother Nature had sent an iceberg on her route, despite her captain making a slight change in the navigation to try and stay away from the growlers that had been reported by other ships. This iceberg was missed by the two watchmen until it towered over the horizon, at a distance too short for Titanic to put the anchors out. Nevertheless, lookout Fred Fleet decisively pointed out what he had seen and phoned the bridge after clinging the bell three times. With the Sixth Officer wanting him to report what he saw, he shouted “ICEBERG”. The First Officer by now also knew what they were heading for, so before Junior Officer Moody put the phone down, Senior Officer Murdoch instructed Quartermaster Hichens to helm and let the Engine Room know they needed to back off rapidly.
Titanic was taking long to navigate to port. Her response came just seconds before the starboard side had an impact with the large floating mass, which reached above the Boat Deck of Titanic. The iceberg was graining over the iron and steel and also dinted it a bit. The water spilled to her innards via a set of holes, shaped as a narrow stretch. The calamatous part of it was that the marks were spread over 6 areas between the forepeak and Boiler Room 5. The bulkheads would become inundaed if all these areas flooded. With the order to hard-to-port being shouted by Murdoch, further damage at the aft was prevented.
The captain was nervous when his ship had made an odd and he stoved out of bed and was soon with the men on the bridge. Murdoch filled him in on the situation. With the closed watertight doors, the ship should be save but the captain still prefered to be ensured that nothing major had broken. The carpenter was the first to be sent below. Other Officers were tasked with the same thing and then Smith took the stairs himself to watch what. The updates from the Post Office were not too good. The ship’s most briljant architect, Thomas Andrews, had also joined the party, so he took soundings and inspected everything carefully. Andrews was shocked at the inflow rate and the nature of the harm done to Titanic's plates.
On the bridge, he explicitly enumerated the details of Titanic’s buyoancy. It was more than bleek. Her time above the water would not be long-lasting. They had to start now with bringing people to safety. At 12:05 A.M, April 15, the crew was organised to install the lifeboats into their right position.
In those crucial 2 hours, most lifeboats were brought down over a long distance parrallel to Titanic’s massive hull, which got ever closer. In the end, they ensured the lives of 706 people while the giant slipped ever deeper into the calm blue. Her last two boats were a problem as they were tied up at a higher place. The evacuation had gone too slowly and Titanic’s time was up. Slantwise, the front of her highest deck was immersed at 2:07 A.M, while the two boats were launched by the upcoming water itself. One was topsy-turvy and drifted along with the other, which hadn’t been unfolded properly. The rest of the ship was bathed in the drink, which mercilessly pushed her bridge down to move further aft. A funnel fell and moments later, the dome over the Grand Starcaise caved in.
The Titanic then lined herself up, as the sea had taken full control of her posture. Half of her interior was flooded within minutes. Her tail end seemed to reach for the stars, like a duck in cover. This took its toll on Titanic’s construction. Her whole upper structure came undone and it smashed into two parts, of which the heavier dropped back again, to be heaved up as the bow section had pulled under and was still hanging onto the stern via the keel, which was now destroyed as well. The aft part of Titanic managed to stay afloat for only 2 minutes before she slipped beneath the surface, at 2:20 A.M.
During these hours, Richard was likely onboard still. Perhaps close to the end, although there was a group of the lower-class engineering crew that helped the entire Engineering Crew to pump away seawater, along with shoveling coal.
Whatever it was that Richard did, he wasn’t fated to be saved by a lifeboat. With the ship going under, some were inside her, to drown, whilst others were thrown from her decks or hung on till she was gone, with nothing but ocean around them. The temperatures were undoable for a human body and thus claimed many lives, including Richard’s. Most of the bodies became part of the sea and his was no exception, sadly. There were later corpses found with the recovery crew of other vessels not being able to attach at named, but nothing matched the description of Baines.
After his death[]
There is no indication that his brood was applicable for any support from one of the Relief Funds that were raised following the Titanic disaster.
There was a John C, who was at some point burdened with the task of collecting popnails at the dock who could have been the third of Richard’s 4 sons but that was never established. In 1917 this man went to the great beyond, much too soon.