Biography of Thomas Andrews

On the night of April 15, he went to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean with his ship. In our country the general public, the name of Thomas Andrews became known after the release of James Cameron "Titanic", where the role of the British shipbuilder was brilliantly played by the wonderful Canadian actor Viktor Garber. But in general, we know very little about this person who, of course, is worthy of the memory of him to remain in future generations.

Thomas Andrews came from a rather rich and influential family, which largely influenced his life and career. He was born on February 7 in the town of Comber, in the County of Daun in Northern Ireland. Perhaps the greatest influence on Andrews’s fate was exerted by his uncle by his mother William James Pirri, who was one of the co-owners of the shipbuilding shipyard “Harland & Wolf”, as well as the Lord mayor of the Belfast.

In the year, Andrews entered the Royal Academic Institute in. Belfast, and in the year he went to work for his uncle shipyard, where he was first accepted as an apprentice and where he in depth met different sides of the company. After 12 years of study, Thomas transferred to the post of manager of construction work, and in the year he was appointed executive director of the shipyard.

At the beginning of the 20th century, there were two largest shipping companies in the UK - White Star Line and Cunard Line, which fought out a fierce struggle for passengers. For some time, Cunard Line escaped forward, putting into operation two super -tags - Lusetania and Mauritania, which at that time were the largest ships in the world, having a length of meters, and had the highest speed - about 26 knots, for which they were awarded the year of the “blue ribbon of the Atlantic”.

It is clear that their eternal competitors who lost passengers, and with them a profit, such a situation of things could not arrange, and in the year a historical meeting was held between William Pirri and the director of the White Star Line Joseph Iskmeem, on which a decision was made to lay the Harland End Wolf Shipyard of the same type of ocean Liners, which later became the Olympic, Titanic and British.

Moreover, it was decided not to make the main emphasis on speed, since it was almost unrealistic to surpass the mark of 26 knots, and the size and luxury of the interior decoration of the vessels. The main designers of the first two liners became Thomas Andrews. The construction of the Titanic began in March. It was Andrews that was the author of the main engineering and design solutions on the ship and followed the progress of construction work.

Under his own leadership on May 31, the Titanic was successfully launched in the Belfast and took place at the beginning of the year, and on April 10, he went on the first flight of the Titanic to New York as part of the warranty group. As you know, this flight, which lasted only four days, was simultaneously the last not only for the ship itself, but also about one and a half thousand people from the person who were on board.

On the liner, Thomas Andrews led a special notebook in which he recorded his observations of the work of the mechanisms and systems of the ship and all the identified shortcomings. On the evening of April 14, after dinner, Andrews retired to his cabin, where he worked with the drawings of the ship. Probably, this work was caught by a clash of Titanic with an iceberg, which, as you know, occurred in the sooner Titanic captain Edward John Smith called a designer for consultations and evaluate the damage received by the ship.

Andrews immediately appreciated the scale of the disaster - as a result of a collision in the right side of the liner, a hole was formed 90 meters long, which entailed the flooding of the first five compartments. Briefly outlining the state of affairs, Andrews made a disappointing conclusion: no matter what they did, from that moment the “Titanic” is doomed.

An hour later, a maximum of two, he will go to the bottom of the ocean. Conflicting evidence has been preserved about the last hours of Thomas Andrewus’s life. According to eyewitnesses, he actively helped passengers sit in boats, persuaded women and children as soon as possible to leave the drowning liner, called to put on life vests and threw various furniture items overboard, who could help people who ended up in icy water.

At some point, he apparently retired to the 1st class smoking room, where the Titanic Stuard John Stuart found him, standing in deep thought in front of the Plimut Harbor picture. This scene took place somewhere in the region of half of the second night, but it is unlikely that Andrews stayed there until the very end. At least, some eyewitnesses claimed that they saw Andrews on the deck just a few minutes before the liner went to the bottom.

One way or another, Thomas Andrews did everything in his power to save as many people as possible from the perishable ship. He himself did not even try to escape.In the memory of passengers and members of the Titanic crew, Thomas Andrews remained as an example of heroism, selflessness and professionalism, and his memory is immortalized in many memorials dedicated to the death of the Titanic.

He was a truly great man whose name was remembered and honored both in his homeland and throughout the world.