Spencer Victor Silverthorne was a Canadian First Class passenger of the RMS Titanic and survivor of the sinking.
Early years[]
Spencer was born on October 17th, 1876 in Lobo, Middlesex, Ontario, Canada as the fifth son of Daniel Silverthorne and Elizabeth Johnson. His parents were both English-born migrants from Dorset and London respectively, and they got married in London on October 22nd, 1864 where their first two children were born. He had five siblings: Arthur Herbert Silverthorne (b. July 29th, 1867), Bertie Augustus Silverthorne (b. October 16th, 1870), Isabel Louise Alberta Silverthorne (b. June 18th, 1873), Ernest Lionel Vincent Silverthorne (b. January 9th, 1875), and George Wesley Silverthorne (b. May 17th, 1879).
Around the 1880s, the family moved from Canada to Greenville, Michigan where his mother died on October 25th, 1881 when he was 5 years old. His father remarried to Hannah Elizabeth Angevine on November 10th, 1888. Spencer had five half-siblings through his father's second marriage: Hugh Daniel Silvethorne (b. December 16th, 1891), Kate L. Silverthorne (b. August 4th, 1893), Guy Asbury Silverthorne (b. April 7th, 1895), Roy Fairchild Silverthorne (b. February 18th, 1898), and Lucile Victoria Silverthorne (b. March 22nd, 1900).
Spencer appeared on the 1880, 1894, and 1900 censuses with his family at an unspecified address in Greenville; on the latter record, he was described as a dry goods clerk. He later moved to Rochester, New York but then returned to Montcalm, Michigan where he married Beulah Fowler, daughter of William J. Fowler, on April 28th, 1903. However, their marriage remained childless. Around this time he was described as a salesman.
Titanic[]
He boarded Titanic in First Class at the Southampton docks and occupied cabin E-24 with another man, Mr. Edward Calderhead.
On April 14th, late night, he was sitting in the smoking room reading Owen Wister's The Virgin when suddenly he felt something hit the ship, but wasn’t immediately expecting it to be an iceberg. To satisfy his curiousity he went out on deck and saw the iceberg. Having been impressed by its size, he went back and he and the other passengers in his vicinity weren’t concerned one bit.
They went back to where they left off, and a while later a crewmember came to the First Class part where Silverthorne was and said they must come up to the lifeboats, with lifebelts on. Spencer did as he was told.
He was saved in lifeboat 5 and helped rowing for several hours.
At sunrise, he was bewildered by the sight of the icebergs all around him. When Carpathia picked up lifeboat 5, one of the last to be collected, his hands had gotten so cold that he could not climb the Jacob’s ladder that was put down, so he was raised by a rope with with a hoop in it.
He received a brandy in the Carpathia’s Smoking Salon. He met up with some of his colleagues, three men of the group were there but there were a few that didn't make it. He and his fellow compagnions had a go at all sorts of alcoholic beverages and they had two days of fun.
In his career he still regularly went on sea voyages across the Atlantic.
He lost his wife on 19 November 1913.
Spencer found himself a new love and he married to Gertrude Odom in 1916.
He had kept working in the merchant and warehouse business throughout his whole life.
Spencer Silverthorne died on 17 May 1964.