Thomas Andrews: biography, personal life, achievements, interesting facts, photos

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:54

The son of Mr and Mrs Andrews, Thomas Gainsborough Andrews was born in Comber, Ireland. His father was a member of the Shadow Council of Ireland. Andrews was a Scottish-born Presbyterian and, like his brother, considered himself an Englishman. His siblings included John Miller Andrews, future Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, and Sir James Andrews, future Chief Justice of that region. Thomas Andrews lived with his family in Comber. In 1884 he began attending the Royal Belfast Academic Establishment, studying there until 1889 when, at the age of sixteen, he began a premium apprenticeship with the Harland and Wolff shipbuilding company.

Childhood and early years

Andrews was born into a noble family. His brother John, as previously mentioned, later became Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, and his uncle William James Pirrie was the main owner of the shipbuilding firm Belfast Harland and Wolff.

He was the second eldest son in the family and was educated at home until the age of 11, when he entered the Royal Belfast Academic School, studying there in turn until the age of 16. The Andrews family attended the Unitarian Anglican Church in Comber, and there is an apocryphal story that during a fundraising event for the church, kittens were sold near the church, one of which hid in a large crack in the wall. It was the young Thomas Andrews who lured the kitten out of such a dubious shelter, eventually becoming its owner.

From 1889 to 1894, Andrews worked as an apprentice in his uncle's firm. In order to earn his living, he changed many professions - he was a laborer, a ship washer at the company's shipyard, a salesman and a cleaner. But soon he became a full-time employee of the company and built a brilliant career as a shipbuilder.

Private life

On June 24, 1908, Titanic creator Thomas Andrews married Helen Riley Barbour, daughter of textile industrialist John Doherty Barbour and sister of Sir John Milne Barbour, known as Milne.

Working on the Titanic

In 1907, Andrews took part in the construction of the new RMS Olympic superliner for the White Star Company. The Olympic and its twin brother the Titanic, which began construction in 1909, were designed by William Peary and general manager Alexander Carlylos, along with Andrews. Andrews familiarized himself with every detail of bothliners for optimum performance. Andrews' proposals for the ship to have 46 lifeboats (instead of the original 20), as well as a double hull and watertight bulkheads that would rise to level B, were rejected.

Andrews led a team of company employees who were to go on the first voyages of two ships built by the company (guarantee group) to observe operations on the ships and identify any design flaws. The Titanic was no exception, so Andrews and the rest of his party left Belfast for Southampton to begin their maiden voyage on the Titanic on April 10, 1912. During the voyage, Andrews took notes on the various improvements he felt were necessary. First of all, they meant cosmetic changes to various objects. However, on April 14, Andrews noted in a conversation with a friend that the Titanic was "almost perfect, just like the human mind."

Fatal Collision

April 14 at 11:40 p.m., the Titanic collided with an iceberg to starboard. Andrews was in his quarters, planning the next changes he wanted to make to the ship, and barely noticed the collision. Captain Edward J. Smith called Andrews to help determine the extent of the damage received. Andrews and Captain Smith discussed the damage to the ship shortly after midnight, after which Thomas Andrews made a round of the damaged part of the ship and received several reports of damage to the ship. Andrews decided that the first five watertight compartments of the ship would quicklyare flooded. The engineer knew that if more than four overloaded compartments of the ship sank, he would inevitably drown. He relayed this information to Captain Smith, stating that it was "mathematical certainty" and adding that he thought the ship only had about an hour before it sank. He also informed Smith of a serious shortage of lifeboats aboard the ship.

When the evacuation of people from the Titanic began, Thomas Andrews tirelessly walked around the cabins, informing passengers that they should put on lifebuoys and go on deck. Several survivors testify that they met the flickering Andrews several times. Fully aware that the ship would soon sink and most of the passengers and crew would not survive, he continued to urge frightened passengers to get into the lifeboats, hoping to fill them with as many people as possible.

Andrews was reportedly last seen by John Stewart (the ship's steward) at about 2:10, ten minutes before the Titanic sank in the Atlantic. Andrews sat alone in the first class smoking room, looking at the Plymouth Harbor painting hanging over the fireplace. His intact life jacket lay on a nearby table. Although this story has become one of the most famous legends about the sinking of the Titanic, being published as early as 1912 (in the book "Thomas Andrews: Designer of the Titanic" by Shan Bullock) and thus going down in history, it is known that John Stewart left the ship earlier than, according to himAndrews was said to have been spotted by him.

Last minutes before death

However, other people saw Andrews. It looks like he did sit in the smoking room for a while and then continued to help with the evacuation. At about 2:00 he was seen on the boat. The crowd began to move, but the women still did not want to leave the ship. In order to be heard and draw attention to himself, Andrews waved his hand and loudly urged them to get into the boats. Another report from a survivor was that Andrews was frantically throwing sun loungers into the ocean to keep drowning passengers afloat. He then made his way to the bridge, perhaps in search of Captain Smith. Andrews was last seen on the ship in the last minutes before sinking. His body was never found.

On April 19, 1912, his father received a telegram from his mother's cousin, who spoke to survivors in New York, definitively that Thomas was not among the survivors.

Recognition and memory

Newspaper reports of the disaster called Andrews a hero. Mary Sloan, the ship's stewardess who was persuaded by Andrews to board the lifeboat, later wrote in a note: Mr. Andrews met his fate like a real hero, realizing great danger and refusing to save his own life to save women and children, and they will remember about him all his life. A short biography of the shipbuilder was produced within a year by Shan Bullock at the request of Sir Horace Plunkett, MP, who believedthat Andrews' life deserves to be remembered.

Interesting facts

• At one time, only one book was published, written by Thomas Andrews - "We are not the first".
• Today, the SS Nomadic is the only surviving ship designed by Andrews.
• Asteroid 245158 Thomasandrews was named after him in 2004.
• Thomas Andrews was played by Victor Garber, who received many critical acclaim for his performance. His candidacy was approved by the director at the last moment. Initially, Cameron negotiated with Matt Dylan - he was supposed to play Thomas Andrews.

Titanic is Andrews' greatest creation

The name "Titanic" was borrowed from Greek mythology and symbolized its gigantic size. Built in Belfast, Ireland, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (as it was then known), the RMS Titanic was the second of three "Olympic" class ocean liners - the first was the RMS Olympic and the third was the HMHS Britannic. They were the largest ships in the fleet of the British shipping company White Star Line, which at the time of 1912 consisted of 29 ships and tenders.

White Star is facing a growing threat from its main competitors, who recently launched the Lusitania and Mauritania, the fastest passenger ships in service with the British Navy, as well as the German line of liners Hamburg America. and Norddutscher Lloyd. ChapterThe company preferred to compete on size rather than speed, and proposed the introduction of a new class of liners that would be larger than anything ever built and would also surpass all liners in comfort and luxury. The company sought to modernize its fleet primarily in response to the emergence of giant ships such as Cunard.

Irish liners for the British Empire

The ships were built by Belfast shipbuilders Harland and Wolf, who had a long and close relationship with the company dating back as far as 1867. Harland and Wolf were given more freedom to develop a line of ships for the White Star Company. Their usual approach was to have one of the designers sketch out a general concept, which the other would turn into reality by designing the ship. The cost ratio was relatively low, and Harland and Wolf were authorized to spend as much as they liked working on these ships. The cost of the "Olympic" class ships is estimated at three million pounds (250 million dollars in 2018). The approximate price of the first two ships was agreed in advance, in addition, the company paid the shipbuilders some additional costs.

Creative team

Harland and Wolf put their lead designers on the development of the "Olympic" class boats. The development process was overseen by Lord Pirrie, director of the White Star Line. Engineer Thomas Andrews, the hero of this article, also worked with him. The team also included Edward Wilding, Andrews' deputy, andResponsible for calculating the ship's structure, stability and finish is Alexander Carlyle, the shipyard's chief draftsman and general manager. Carlisle's duties included working on decorations, equipment, and all general machinery, including the implementation of an efficient lifeboat design.

Choice of titles

On July 29, 1908, Harland and Wolf submitted preliminary drawings to J. Bruce Ismay and other White Star Line executives. Ismay approved the project and signed three letters of agreement two days later, allowing construction to begin. At this point, the first ship, which later became the Olympic, had no name, and was originally called simply "number 400", since it was the four hundredth hull designed by Harland and Wolf. The Titanic was based on a revised version of the same design and was numbered 401.