William Albert Thomas Hebb was a trimmer on the Titanic.
Background[]
William Albert Thomas Hebb was an Englishman, who had his origin in Southampton, born to William Hebb senior from Wiltshire, a worker on the shipyards. William’s mother was Mary Jane Jones, a Southampton native, she originated from Saint Laurence. From the marriage between his parents, 3 other children were born after William junior, who arrived on November 9, 1889. In 1890, William had a sister in Elizabeth Ellen. Ten years passed before he had a brother. It was 1900 when Frank Henry appeared. Another younger sister was Rose, conceived in 1906. During those years, the family relocated to a different street in Southampton.
William did a job in his young years for the Royal Marine Reserves in 1908 where he was released from rather quickly, but he soon had a marine career at the White Star Line.
Titanic[]
On April 6, 1912, Hebb was embarking on a very large liner in Belfast. His age was listed as 20. William came over from the sistership of the Titanic: RMS Olympic. He had served aboard this magnificent liner as he became a trimmer on the even grander, new Titanic.
His sister Elizabeth was given to the Southampton born Albert Sylvanus Hunt and he was on the Titanic too, including his brother Thomas Hunt. Albert was also a trimmer while Thomas’ function was that of a Fireman.
It was April 14, late at night, when something unforseen and dreadful happened to the Titanic. A big wall of ice was in her path, but hidden in darkness until Titanic got too close. Only then, the lookouts sounded the alarmbell and called the bridge, who took quick action but it was to no avail. A frontal collision had been avoided, but the Titanic still touched the iceberg with her broadside. Small openings appeared on her starboard, below the water line. The ship started taking on water. The captain woke up.
On April 15, Captain Smith and Thomas Andrews had discussed the situation the ship found herself in. With calculations, Thomas worked out what they could do to stop the inflow of water. He soon came to the conclusion that it couldn’t be stopped. Just after midnight, the captain gave the order to man the boats, as he knew from the designer that the vessel was doomed.
Of the three related men, both William and Albert were spared from this disaster. It’s still unclear which side of the story of William and Albert’s survival is true. One dipiction is that they jumped in Collapsible C which was lowerd, but this is unlikely given the acocunts The Hunt family believed both Hunt brothers were with Albert near or on Collapsible B, when it was overturned and had been taken of Titanic’s submerged Boat Deck by a wave. As Thomas couldn’t hold out, his grip loosened and Albert lost his brother that night.
Several other lifeboats took the struggling Boat B occupants over from their predicament. All lifeboats were waiting for help, which didn’t come before 4:00 A.M. The RMS Carpathia of the Cunard Line had answered Titanic’s call for assistance but was too far away to get there before Titanic’s demise at 2:20 A.M. Many lives were lost in the merciless water when she slid beneath the waveless ocean.
After the sinking[]
At dawn, Carpathia was still busy bringing all the ex-Titanic denizens together for continuation to the wrecked ship’s original destination. Carpathia was moored in New York on April 18, releasing both William and the sole remaining Hunt. Hebb was not needed for delivering testimony at either of the two inquiries that were held following the tragedy.
Later life[]
William became the husband of Beatrice Larkin. They took their vows in Southampton in June 1916. On July 18, 1922, the pair could welcome their two only daughters, who were twins. They were given the names: Beatrice Ruby and Dorothea or ‘Doris’ Constance.
Herb followed through with his career at sea and still worked on various ranging from the Mauretania, Armenia, Homeric, the Ohio and once again the Olympic.
At some point, William began drinking and couldn’t stay away from the booze. This might have led to an early demise, because a developing liver cirrhosis hurt his physical condition later. Beatrice had to say goodbye to him with many tears on June 16, 1932.
She would continue with her life and is believed to later have a new man who had survived the Titanic.