How many stokers

Despite being dehydrated and exhausted, the 'Jap' took over from another passenger and "worked like a hero", according to the same officer who had initially questioned his worth. The Chinese were actually the largest group of non-European or north American passengers on board the doomed liner, which sank on its maiden voyage with the loss of 1, of its 2, passengers and crew. Vanishing from the history books in the disaster's aftermath, their absence has left even more questions unanswered - including a claim that they were stowaways, not genuine seamen.

So far, he and director Arthur Jones have been to the home village of at least one of the men, and have traced their descendants to the UK, US and Canada. During the investigation into the sinking of the Harland and Wolff-built vessel, owner J Bruce Ismay, who was on the same lifeboat as two of the Chinese survivors, said they only "found four Chinamen stowed away under the thwarts" after the boat was already in the water.

Schwankert says, however: "No matter what Ismay said or thought, they were not stowaways on any lifeboats. Revealed: the untold story of six Chinese stokers who survived Titanic disaster. Expand Expand. Rescue ship Carpathia docked in New York. Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp. Facebook Twitter Email. Video: Flaming lorry drives through Coleraine. Politicians and bikers among mourners at funeral for Army veteran Dennis Hutchings. He had previously worked aboard a ship called the Asturias that was badly damaged in a collision on its maiden voyage.

But this was an age when accidents, near-misses and sinkings were relatively common. Even so, the remainder of his career at sea was to be a remarkable tale of survival against the odds. He would claim in later life that men refused to sail with him because he brought bad luck.

It's hard not to see their point. When Titanic hit an iceberg just before midnight on Sunday 14 April , many of the passengers and crew were unaware that anything was amiss until the engines stopped. In the very bowels of the ship, Priest was off duty and resting between shifts. The odds against his survival were steep, due to his both his physical and social position within the ship.

The route to the deck took him and other members of the black gang up through a maze of gangways and corridors before they could reach the deck. By the time they emerged into the freezing night air, most of the lifeboats had already gone.

Those firemen who survived - 44 in all - swam for their lives through water just marginally warmer than freezing, wearing only the shorts and vests they worked in. Small wonder that Priest suffered frostbite. Another survivor, a lookout by the name of Archie Jewell, wrote to his sister describing the moment Titanic sank.

I can't help crying when I think about it. When World War I broke out in , merchant vessels, and their crews, were required for the war effort to serve in convoys and as hospital ships. By , Germany had unleashed its U-boat fleet in a bid to choke off Britain's supply lines.

The toll on the merchant fleet was horrendous. Priest was among those who went to war, serving aboard the armed merchant vessel Alcantara. In February , Alcantara intercepted the German raider Grief, which was disguised a Norwegian ship.

As Alcantara approached, Grief opened fire. There was a short, ferocious, close-range battle, at the end of which both ships were sunk. More than 70 of Priest's shipmates were killed and he only narrowly escaped, with shrapnel wounds. When he returned to work, it was aboard Britannic, Titanic's other - even bigger - sister, which was serving as a hospital ship ferrying wounded soldiers back to Britain through the Mediterranean.

Having already survived a collision on Olympic and the loss of Titanic, it must have been with no small amount of trepidation that he joined the third of the celebrated White Star Liners. Joining Priest on board were two other Titanic survivors; Archie Jewell, the lookout, and Violet Jessop, a White Star stewardess who was now serving as a nurse.

If Priest did feel any nervousness, it was entirely justified. On 21 November , the great ship struck a mine and sank near the Greek island of Kea. Once again, he emerged from the very depths of a foundering ship alive. Indeed, the majority of the ship's crew were evacuated safely, but two of the lifeboats were lowered into the sea too early and were sucked into the ship's still turning propellers, killing 30 men.

Among those pulled into the blades was Archie, who somehow survived. I shut my eyes and said good bye to this world, but I was struck with a big piece of the boat and got pushed right under the blades and I was goin around like a top