Stephen James Davis was an Able Seaman on the Titanic.
Background[]
On March 20, 1873, George Davis from Winton, Wiltshire and Rebecca Streets from Cork saw their son for the first time in Drypool, Sculcoates, Hull, Yorkshire, England. Stephen’s father already had a career in the Marines and was a petty officer while Rebecca, an Irishwoman, produced 9 other kids with him, while they also had different living environment as they got around a lot, sometimes they were in Ireland, then back in Southern England or the further northern East Coast. They had said yes to eachother in 1876.
The first child to have sprung from their bond was George, in 1870. A girl was added in 1871: Amelia. Those were the two elder siblings of Stephen. After Stephen, George senior and Rebecca expanded their family further with William in 1875. Stephen’s first baby sister was Kate in 1877. The year 1880 saw the arrival of Henry, followed by Frederick in 1882, after who another girl appeared who was named Rebecca Agnes. She had another few siblings, the first emerging in 1884: John. Albert was the youngest when he was given life in 1888.
A very young Stephen saw his chance to do what his father did and at just 15, he began his vocation at the Royal Navy on July 24th, 1888. He had seen a lot of ships of the British sea force at the time of 21 March 1900, when he stopped. Between those years, he once was having a short period in confinement for an unknown reason. He had a clean record of being very obedient otherwise.
Stephen was in Portsmouth on the to make the ultimate promise to Miriam Maud Borne. She was born there. That same year, they could be found elsewhere. Their home would be in Sunderland, Durham. Stephen was given a post to watch the shore. Miriam bore him three children, of which Albert Edward George became the first in 1902. Owen James was his younger brother since 1903 and their daughter was Louisa Maude, who was put on this earth in 1905.
In 1911, Stephen was away from home while his wife continued to live in Portsmouth.
Titanic[]
Just like the regular Fireman Frederick William Barrett, he had been on the Cunard Line’s Ausonia, before he was given employment by the White Star Line, selected as able bodied seaman for the Titanic’s very first voyage on April 6, in Southampton. From there, Titanic would commence her trip which was planned to head to New York via France and Ireland. Stephen was 39 years old at the time. His brother John had come from Belfast on her delivery trip as well. He would have a job as baker onboard the luxury liner.
Titanic was cursed with ill luck after proceeding through the colder, northern part of the Atlantic Ocean. To avoid the worst icefields, her Captain had adjusted her course a bit more southern, but on April 14, Titanic had a very unfortunate encounter with a large iceberg late in the night. This iceberg was put in her path by a cruel play of Mother Nature and was well hidden. Titanic’s two lookouts could only identify it as the ship was less than a minute away. The warning from the lookouts was quickly put into action by First Officer Murdoch, but he couldn’t get Titanic past without a long part of her hull touching it. Below the waterline, the structure was weakened and a number of rifts made way for the sea.
Captain Edward Smith had been looking at the extent of the leaks down below, as had Titanic’s designer, Mr. Thomas Andrews. The two men had worked out whether Titanic could manage to stay upright. This wasn’t the case and the captain therefore put his deck crew to work on the lifeboats. It’s not far-fetched to assume that Stephen Davis was also called on deck.
Time was up for Titanic at 2:20 A.M. In her last minutes, the ship bellowed and under the pressure, having her stern pointing diagonally up in the star-lit skies, she had her upper decks crunched when the stern cracked and the ship tore itself apart. What Stephen did at night has not been described.He must have gone down with her or could have been one of the helpless swimmers that lost all heat in their bodies in the grim Atlantic Ocean with the low temperatures. This cost many of those, who had stayed on Titanic on the last moments, their lives. His brother John also fell victim to this great disaster.
There was no trace of Stephan left behind. He would be forever lost to the sea. It was the same story with John.
Portsmouth was forever the home of Stephen’s poor wife. She would have two more husbands and lived until 1963.