Thomas William Jones in 1920.
Thomas William Jones was an Able Seaman aboard Titanic.
Background[]
Thomas William Jones was born on November 15, 1877, originating from 4, Sea View, Cemaes Bay, Angelsey in Wales. Cemaes Bay lay at the coast. His father was a seafarer and fisherman. His name was Griffith Jones, who was Amlwch-born. Also from the region of Angelsey was his wife and Thomas’ mother Mary Roberts. Usually, Thomas was on smack, a traditional small fishing boat, with his father to take bricks and other similar materials to Liverpool.
Thomas shared a household with an older sister named Annie, born in 1875 and his younger brother Peter, who came after him in 1880. There were also half-siblings, who stemmed from Griffith’s former wife. The first was named after him when he was delivered in 1856: Griffith. He had a brother in 1867, named Hugh, as well as a sister in 1870: Edith.
On November 15, 1895, celebrating his 18th birthday, he joined the Royal Navy. Later, around 1901, Mr. Jones moved to the Merchant Shipping business and from then on, when he was in his late twenties, he joined the White Star Line.
Titanic[]
The White Star Line was a company that owned the Titanic and other ships. Jones was a sailor as well as a Look Out Man on the Majestic for six years and now, in April 1912, he changed from another ship, the Oceanic, to a larger, new vessel. It was in Southampton that he went to see the Titanic which was in the dock, hardly even finished to be delivered to Southampton, from where her Maiden Voyage would begin on April 10.
Thomas went to board as he knew one of the officers on the ship. He was persuaded to join the Titanic as part of her Deck Crew while the ship was laid up, on April 6th. He was 32 years old and lived in Liverpool at the time when he became one of her Able bodied Seamen. A claim from Jones in later years is that a lifeboat test was done before the Maiden Voyage.
The western part of the North Atlantic had spawned a lot of icebergs in the Spring of 1912. Titanic’s trajectory would lead straight through a field of ice. Confident as her captain was, he let her run at 22,5 knots on the night of April 14. The supple Maiden Voyage of Titanic was turned on its head when her lookouts alarmed the bridge at 23:39, having just seen an iceberg straight in front of her, not too far away. The Officer on watch responded quickly and on instinct turned the ship to port by ordering the rudder to be put to hard-a-starboard. The Titanic reacted late and couldn’t be slowed down by the reversing of the engines either. The collision that followed sealed her fate. As her starboard side brushed against the iceberg, parts of her hull were compromised below sea level. Now, the ocean water would seep into the ship.
The collision came to Thomas as a noise as he was in the Seamen’s Mess on C-Deck, just one deck below the Forecastle Deck. He checked things out and noticed firemen coming up from down below in the bow. He also spotted chuncks of ice laying on the Forward Well Deck.
On April 15, after the ship designer and captain knew the horrifical, inevitable state their ship was in, they called the crew on deck. Thomas heard the call and went to the Boat Deck. It was around 1:00 A.M. He was put in charge of lifeboat 8. When Thomas oversaw the loading of his boat he first had to get a lamp from somewhere. Having done that, he got back and entered the boat. His captain first asked him to see if the plug was in before she could be dropped. It was.
Thomas could live to tell the tale as he survived the sinking. His boat had room for at least 70, but was launched with a meagre number of 35 occupants. He wanted to save more lives and return but most people in the boat overruled him.
Lifeboat 8 remained close to Titanic as the captain had ordered for him to row at a light but he felt that was too far. As lifeboat 8 took distance from her mothership, the sight of her bridge being close to the water struck Thomas. This was the first moment he realised that the beautiful liner was sinking.
The Countess of Rothes, Lucy Noël Martha Leslie with her maid Roberta Maioni and her cousin Gladys Cherry, wanted to an pick up swimmers just like Mr Jones, as well an American woman. The Countess was admired by the seaman. Although she had a luxurious lifestyle and was a lady or royal blood, she was not scared to get her hands dirty and Thomas could see the countess was used to ships and boats because of her lifestyle. As he had stewards on his boat, who were useless as rowers, Jones decided to give Lucy a place at the tiller to control the steering of the boat. He also noticed that she was comforting the other women on board, like the poor young newlywed, María de Soto y Peñasco, who had to leave her man behind.
Thomas later remarked: “She had a lot to say so I put her to steering the boat”, which he meant as a compliment.
Titanic’s death came at 2:20 A.M. The ship broke in two and disappared, under her way to the bottom of the mericless waters. No less than 1503 would find their deaths in this tragedy.
After the sinking[]
Lifeboat 8 was collected by a rescue ship, the RMS Carpathia, 5 hours after her launch. On board the Carpathia, brandy was available for Jones and the others. Jones was further impressed by the noble lady, who showed kind regard for the steerage passengers, many who had lost everything. Later, Jones received a silver pocket watch from Mrs. Leslie Jones later presented her with the brass number plate from their lifeboat to show his appreciation of her great compassion.
The Carpathia reached New York on the 18th of April. On April 20, the New York Times interviewed him. After that, the American Inquiry fired questions at him in regard of the half-full lifeboats as well as his previous experience as a lookout, because the Senator was not convinced of the story with the binoculars missing. Jones defended himself as he was not told that Titanic was actually going to sink, nor were many passengers willing to get into the boat at that time, dispite his pleas.
Later life[]
He would later return to Liverpool when he was finished with given his testimony. Gladys Cherry, the cousin of Lucy Leslie, had the utmost respect for mr Jones. She later wrote him a letter, commending him for demenour and his words ‘Ladies, if any of us are saved, remember that I wanted to go back. I would rather drown with them than leave them.” The letter was published in the South Wales Gazette in May 1912.
As Lucy, Gladys and Thomas got along well, they wrote eachother many more times.
On April 30, 1916, Jones bent the knee to tie the knot with an Englishwoman named Clara Elizabeth Moulton. They raised three children together. The first was a daugher, Mary Ada, who was given life in 1917. The second was a son. The named him William Frank as he was dropped in 1919. Their third child was Ellen, who had sprung from their bond in 1920.
Meanwhile, Thomas kept going in his maritime career.
Thomas was settled in Liverpool by 1939. Son William had followed in his father’s footsteps and did the technical jobs onboard vessels.
Thomas had to endure sadness as William was aboard SS Samala when it was torpedised while on course to Britain having left Kingston, Jamaica. William was one of the victims as she sank.
Thomas was still pen pals with the Countess of Rothes for decades and she even sent an annual £1 for christmas. In 1956, Lucy Leslie had passed away. In the 1950s, the story of Titanic grew on popularity with the book of Walter Lord, ‘A Night to Remember’, which was later made into a movie. This movie was also seen by Thomas, who was part of reunions with several other former Titanic passengers and crew and gave some interviews as well with the hype surrounding Titanic.
At the age of 89, Thomas Jones’ life drew to an end. It was June 1967 when he died. His adress had still been the same.
His daughter Ellen made sure that the silver watch from the countess was still in the family for some time, till the 1990s when Ellen had auctioned it. Later descendents of both Jones and the Countess of Rothes met eachother later. The silver watch was bought back into her family.
On September 21, 2021, a plaque was made for the former adress of Thomas Jones in Street in Liverpool to honor him, on the initiative of the The Cemaes Bay History Group. Descendants of Jones were present at this special occasion.