Thomas Hunt was a Fireman on the Titanic.
Background[]
Thomas Hunt was born on May 29, 1884 in Southampton. He was the second eldest child of Isaac Hunt and Harriett Rusher. They put their rings on eachother’s finger in Salisbury, Wiltshire, the place where Harriett originated from, while Isaac was a Southampton native. They had 5 sons and 3 daughters, the first being a daughter, Gertrude Elizabeth in 1878 and she preceeded Beatrice Fanny, born in 1879. Their first son was George in 1881. After Thomas’ birth, Sylvester came in 1886. The fourth son was Albert Sylvanus who was next in 1889. In 1893, his third sister, Emily Rose, was born. She was followed by the last child, James Isaac in 1897. From a young age, Thomas, also spoken to as ‘Tom’, went to sea and was a sailor in the early years of the 1900s. He ended up working for various companies. In 1900, he lost his mother.
Titanic[]
He was not a married man when she signed-on to the new White Star Line vessel on April 6, 1912, in Belfast. He was 27 years of age. Tom had been a crew member of the Minnewaska just before. This ship, from the Atlantic Transport Line, would later help RMS Carpathia with sending out survivors names following the Titanic disaster. Thomas had family working onboard Titanic, who were crew in the engineering department as well. Brother Albert was a Trimmer, just like their brother-in-law William Albert Thomas Hebb. William was the brother of Elizabeth Ellen Hebb, who had married Albert Sylvanus.
On April 14, late at night, Titanic’s Maiden Voyage looked like another routine one just like it could have been for any other vessel, until something disastrous occured. A large iceberg appeared while remaining hidden from the lookouts view despite them having 11 miles of sight. The bridge responded to the alarm of the watchmen and turned to port with the engines slowed down. This action was too late and couldn’t prevent Titanic from the inevitable. A minute after sighting the iceberg, the lookouts had to witness the ship’s starboard side scratching the frozen solid mass, harder than rock. It couldn’t be a worse kind of collision. Several parts of the ship beneath the water line were breached and damaged. A large amount of water flowed into the ship.
On April 15, at midnight, Captain Smith and Thomas Andrews conversed about the fate of their vessel. They couldn’t see any way to save Titanic, which Andrews declared as a certain loss in a few hours, so Smith ordered for the crewmen to lower the lifeboats.
What Tom and his relatives did during the night, remains vague. They were on the Boat Deck at a very late time. Tom did get close or was hanging on the Collapsible boat B after it had floated off the deck, but he slipped away during the night as he couldn’t last, or so was later told by William, who was there as well as Albert and they held on to be later rescued. It could be that he bravely sacrificed himself to save Albert.
Meanwhile, the biggest liner in the world at the time, plunged to the bottom at 2:20 A.M. Albert and William were fortunate enough to survive. Her death toll was huge. Up to 1503 people had been taken to their death and most had an immediate sea grave after succumbing to the cold waters.
The White Star Line sent a few small ships out to the wreck site to recover bodies, but they could later not retrieve Tom Hunt as he was missing.