William Henry Taylor was a Fireman on board Titanic.
Background[]
William Henry Taylor was a Southampton-born, as he came into life in the Northam district on December 1st, 1883. When his father Thomas Taylor and Fanny Joyce got together and were unified as one by law, on the 18th of September in 1870, with the vows being pledged in the Christ Church of Southampton. Both halves of the pairing were not from there. Their origin lay in Burnley, Lancashire, England.
William was growing up in a large household. A litter of 8 children had appeared in total. Ellen Louisa was the first to bless the family in 1870 and had a sister in 1872: Margaret Sophia. Two other girls had taken form in 1874 and 1877 respectively: Mary Jane and Annie Elizabeth Sarah. John was their first son, raised from 1881 onwards. William was their second and his younger siblings were twos sisters: Bessie, begetted in 1886 before it was the turn of Frances May in 1889.
William’s aspirations for the life at sea didn’t come from a stranger. His father had been seafaring before him when he met Fanny and was still doing this when William got older and he went out of the house probably before 1901 as well, to seek a profession at the deep blue.
On 28 January 28, 1907 William Henry Taylor consolodated his love for May Calloway. William and May received their one and only child, Margaret Alice, on 29 October 1910. They were householders in Southampton in those years.
Titanic[]
On April 6, in 1912, William had just done a voyage with the Oratova before he made himself available for the maiden trip of the RMS Titanic. William was 28 years old when he was chosen as one of her Firemen. William would run the night shift from 12:00 A.M till 4:00 and the one on 12:00 P.M till 16:00, so his berth was at the bow on F-Deck.
On April 10, Titanic came to live as her engines were started, to commence the crossing, with the goal of bringing many passengers from Southampton to New York, saying goodbye to port around lunch time, with two stops made in France and Ireland before being out in the open ocean, bound for America.
Titanic’s first trip, which had gone according to plan so far, was also her last. On 14 April, at about 11.40 P.M, the Titanic had touched something. The hit itself didn’t disturb William, who was sound asleep, but as he got stirred our of dreams by the alarm bells, he went out of the Fireman’s cabin and looked around. Having not found any evidence that there was a problem, he thought he could just retreat back into the cabin and they would know where to find him if they needed him. Moments later, someone had enlightened him that cargo hold 1 was filling up with seawater.. With his items in his bags, he and colleagues went to the Firemen’s Mess to see if anyone would come and tell the more. Via Scotland Road, an Officer had come for the men and gave instructions to don their lifebelt and head up to the Boat Deck.
William’s life was saved as soon as he had been placed in lifeboat 15, which he was officialy assigned to before. A throng had appeared in front of this boat, it being the only one left of the 4 on starboard side. They lowered 15 only gradually and made halt at A-Deck and perhaps also at B-Deck, to take on more people. The boat was filled to the bring and taken down just minutes after lifeboat 13, which got in their way after they had been pushed into 15’s path due to a wash from her scupper caused the boat to drift directly under lifeboat number 15. Lifeboat 15 kept being lowered down as the crew on the Boat Deck didn’t hear the screams and shouts from the panicked people in boat 13. Fortunately, the crew aboard lifeboat 13 were able to cut the ropes to move her out of the way just in time.
With both boats safely prevented from being entangled, they pulled a distance away from the Titanic, out of fear for the the suction, and they kept on pulling toward the light, along with a few other boats.
In well over two and a half hours after the Titanic collided with the iceberg, she sank after she broke apart at 2:18 A.M, and was completely enveloped by the seas 2 minutes later. Of the 2209 people that had been on board, more than 1500 perished. The majority found an early sea grave because the sea was freezingly cold.
All 706 survivors were rescued by the RMS Carpathia. At about half past 7, the occupants of lifeboat 15 boarded her. When she was done with gathering all of those that had made it off the sinking ship alive, she set course for New York. New York welcomed the Carpathia on the 18th of April, with several people having escaped, but also the difficult news of the very high death toll.
When Taylor was on dry land, he was placed under constraint as he needed to clarify a few things for the inquest into the Titanic disaster, led by the US Senate.
Later life[]
Taylor left the sea for what it was and must have felt safer after having survived the sinking of the Titanic. He would have been wrong, sadly. Still having a slight connection with the port, he labored at the docks. On 12 March 1914, Taylor had the worst possible day of his life. Busy with taking apart some enclosure for livestock at the docks, he had a massively heavy sort of pillar come on top of him. He broke bones on crucial places, not least his backbone and also a part of his leg had snapped. There was probably more They sped him to the surgery were he held out for only 10 days. On March 22, it was evident that William was only going to suffer and not overcome his. The body was later transported to Old Common Cemetery in Southampton.
After his death[]
Research had led to the conclusion that no one was to blame for the contretemps that had befalled Mr Taylor. It was pure mischance.
The next year, May Calloway made the promise to Albert Macey abattoir. May brought forth one boy with Albert in 1922. He was Ronald William Arthur, who grew up to become a soldier, to lose his life in World War 2, on the battlefield in 1945. May’s life ended in 1955.