Robert John Hopkins was an Able Seaman on Titanic.
Background[]
Robert John Hopkins started his youth at a Roman Catholic family in the capital of Northern Ireland: Belfast. Titanic was built here, but the place also brought forth some of her crew. Robert was one of them when he was there on December first, 1868. John Wilson and Catherine McMullen where his parents. John Wilson was a saddler. They had sealed the deal in 1865. At some point, It is not a given if Robert had any siblings from this marriage. There’s a chance he was an only child, until Catherine found a good man in James Hopkins and they tied the knot in 1870, on the 5th of July. This is where Robert got his last name. His stepdad did domestic service. It was Janurary 29 when a half-brother, James Edmund John, had popped up.
The young Hopkins was inspired to take it to sea either during the 1890s or before that. In those years, he was active in this line of work, based in Liverpool, from where he did many crossing as a sailor. His voyages often led him to America. He seemed to like it there and could often be found in the States. In New York, a marriage was formed between him and Anna Gamble. Anna, usually called Annie Graham, as was her original surname, was a natural Irishwoman that had been widowed by the death of her husband William Graham. With her skills in the kitchen, she made a living for herself, at least before she had her former husband. Annie had later found her way to America as well with one of her daughters, Mary. The other one was called Emily. Their stepfather Robert begot more children with Annie, so Mary and Emily soon had two half-brothers. The first was Robert Henry, given life in 1904 in New York. After remigrating to Ireland, another son emerged. He was James Thomas, who left the womb in 1906 around Ormeau, Belfast.
Although the relationship between Robert and Annie was a happy one, Annie was psychotic and often psychologically confused. She did her best to care for her family but at times, she got deranged and had to stay in instutions for care, in both Belfast and Liverpool. Attempts of killing herself occured as well. Dolefully, heartbreak happened for Robert for one day, on March 4, 1912, when he had gone out the house to collect his fees. Upon return, he discovered Annie dangling at the end of a rope and she could not be saved. She had gone mad and thus without having control over it, had ended her life.
The unfortunate Robert kept going in his career.
Titanic[]
The widowed man was on the Titanic from Belfast on the 4th of April, which was her trip to be delivered to Southampton. There, on the 6th, he was picked as an Able Seaman. He was 40 years old at the time he boarded in Southampton on the 10th of April. “Good luck Titanic!” was shouted from the piers as the incredible steamer waded through the undeep waters of the Test, away from land.
When it was April 14, late in the night, Titanic was more than half-way into the voyage. The conditions were very mild for Titanic that night. However, those same conditions would lead to difficulties in the sighting of ice. Robert was asleep in his bunk when Harland and Wolff's pride and joy was faced with a sudden iceberg which the lookouts saw way too late to do something. They passed the sight through to the bridge where the First Officer came alive and did all he could to not have Titanic sail straight into this obstacle. He ordered helmsman Hichens to steer left, after which Murdoch pulled the telegraph to either ‘stop’ or ‘full astern’ and the Engine Room took all speed out of Titanic. With her helm hard over, they could only wait a few short seconds, as Titanic had not turned enough and brushed her starboard side open against the monstrous frozen mass. At six vital points, her steel hull had faded and the very small damages were still enough to give way to the tons of water of the Atlantic Ocean. The level inside the ship was high on the lowest deck in the first minutes.
The captain and the ship designer had taken in all the problems below G-Deck and came to a judgement on the bridge, at 12:00 ‘o’clock, midnight, April 15. Designer Thomas Andrews knew from all that he had gathered, that this wasn’t an ordinary collision. The ruptures were too much for Titanic to sustain her buoyancy. A dazed captain then prepared the evacuation and sent his deck crew to their boat stations.
Robert was one of the men busy with the ready-making of the lifeboats.
Robert could preserve his life as he was with lifeboat 13, launched at 1:43 A.M by Officers Murdoch and Moody. Together with the Leading Stoker Frederick Barrett, who had the authority over the lifeboat, he was responsible for heroics that saved lifeboat 13 from nearly being flattened and destroyed. As their boat was on sea level, her lowering having been sturdy, there was problem with the release mechanism, right after they had gotten away from a jet of pump water being discharged from the ship’s hull besides them. The painting of one the blocks had jammed and prevented the boat from being released. Hopkins and Barrett quickly sawed at the ropes with knivesso they could be untied from the falls and narrowly avoid the descending lifeboat 15. She was so close, that the occupants were standing up and could touch her bottom.
Some accounts said that he was in lifeboat 4, but this was false. He only helped Mrs. Astor into that boat, which was launched at least 7 minutes later than 13.
Titanic was doomed to sink. The ill-fated giant moaned and groaned as her time to become part of the sea had come. The bridge had rushed down and the stern was elevated steadily from the surface, with her prepellors visible for the first time since her construction. Now began her destruction however, when the risen stern buckled under pressure from being up in the air and with a large crunch, it detached from the mid-section.
After the sinking[]
Lifeboat 13 stood by until the Carpathia rescued everyone that hadn’t died from the sinking. There were many victims. As many as 1503 lost their lives, most in the frigid waters. The Carpathia delivered her overload of unexpected extra crew and passengers to the piers of New York on April 18th.
Robert had received no invitation to either of the two Inquries that were held. The White Star Line wanted many of her crew back in England, but Hopkins was seemingly fed up with them. He disregarded the announcements and discharged himself.
Later life[]
Later in 1912, he was back in Britain, where he succumbed to the temptation of alcohol as he conducted himself inappropriately. Appearing in court when he got himself in trouble due to losing himself in the drinking, they looked at his perfect resume and he was let off the hook with no punishments and had asked him where his , under the guise that he should lay off the drinking immediately.
He got over it and went back to sea. In 1917, he was on the Lapland, the vessel that had specifically brought Titanic’s crew back to England in April 1912, apart from the fact that Robert didn’t want to go to England at that time. Hoboken in New Jersey, USA, became his new home in the 1920s. He did labor at the harbor as a daily job. His second son and namesake had also found his way to the vast blue, also obtaining the rank of Able-bodied seaman.
On 17 November 1943, Robert John Hopkins saw daylight for the last time, at age 74, close to 75. His grave can be found in Jersey City, at the Holy Name Cemetery.
Robert Henry Hopkins made it as far as October 1990.