Joseph Bell and  the 'Titanic'  Disaster Denis Griffiths

(Although straying strictly from the scope of these articles, Dr Denis Griffiths’ article, giving the background to the Joseph Bell Memorial, provides a fascinating insight into the story behind the plaque, which latter has in recent years been the subject of growing interest and visits. Ed.)

On the wall in the south aisle of St Faith’s there is a brass tablet commemorating the life, and death, of Joseph Bell. The ‘Titanic’ is probably the most famous ship which ever sailed the seas, and there are many monuments commemorating her sinking and those who lost their lives in that most tragic disaster. Numerous books have been written about the ship, but none makes mention of the memorial to be found in St Faith’s, and that alone makes the brass tablet something special.

Joseph Bell was born in May 1861 in Farlam, near Brampton, Cumberland, and received his education in Carlisle before serving an engineering apprenticeship with Robert Stephen & Co. of Newcastle-on-Tyne. He commenced his seagoing career with the Lamport and Holt Line in 1883 and joined the White Star Line two years later. Following service aboard many ships on the fleet, both on the New Zealand run and the New York service, he was appointed Chief Engineer of the ‘Coptic’ when only 30 years old. After a short spell as Chief Engineer aboard the ‘Olympic’, sister ship of the ‘Titanic’, he was transferred to the latter whilst she was being completed by Harland and Wolff in Belfast. For the delivery voyage from Belfast to Southampton he was accompanied by his eldest son, who had just begun an apprenticeship with Harland and Wolff.

The story of that first and final voyage of the ‘Titanic’ is too well known to be repeated in detail here, but following the collision with the iceberg at 11.40 pm the ship sank less than two hours later. With her she took the lives of some 815 passengers and 688 crew, including Joseph Bell and all of his engineering officers. Only 703 people were saved.

The library of books written about the disaster detail the events on deck during that eventful night, but little mention is made of the engineers who kept the ship afloat for so long in the vain hope that rescue might come. As no engineers survived, there was nobody to realise what they did, but it is possible to piece together the events below from White Star standing instructions and marine engineering knowledge. As soon as the message from the bridge came for engines to be stopped, and the nature of the incident was known, all engineers would have been summoned by means of alarm bells. Joseph Bell would then have directed them to various tasks as required.

Collision with the iceberg caused sea water to enter six watertight compartments including No 6 and No 5 boiler rooms. Watertight doors were immediately closed, thus preventing water from flooding all machinery compartments, and the pumps were started in order to try to keep the water in check. Bell would have quickly seen that the task was hopeless and that the ship would sink; it was just a matter of time. Time, however, was what he could give by keeping pumps working and preventing bulkheads from collapsing. ‘Titanic’ had been designed to keep afloat with up to three watertight compartments open to the sea, but she could not survive with six compartments flooded.

The transverse watertight bulkheads only extended a certain distance above the normal waterline and as the ship sank lower in the water, the water flooding those compartments would flow over the tops of the bulkheads into the adjacent compartments. The ship was doomed: Joseph Bell knew it and so did his engineers, but they all stayed at their allotted tasks until the end. Those tasks including stopping as many leaks as they could, shoring up bulkheads and keeping the pumps, dynamos and a few boilers working to supply the limited amount of steam now required. Other boilers had to be shut down, steam being vented and fires removed from grates. This was essential as there was a risk of these boilers exploding if normal feed water supply was not maintained, and during the emergency that could not be guaranteed. The dynamos kept the lights going as the ship sank deeper and ensured that those entering the lifeboats could do so with less danger than would have been the case in the inky blackness of a north Atlantic night.

When the order came to abandon ship the engineers stood no chance of escape as they were deep in the heart of the ‘Titanic’. It is unlikely they all drowned: many would have been crushed by boilers and machinery breaking away from mountings as the ship’s bow sank deeper in the water; others would have been scalded by high-temperature steam released as pipes became detached when boilers broke free. They all died doing their duty.

Joseph Bell was 51 years old; he left a widow, Maud, and four children: two boys and two girls. Ralph Douglas Bell, the youngest child, had been baptised at St Faith’s on 29 March 1908. The family lived at 1, Belvidere Road, Crosby and had regularly attended the church since its construction. At a packed special service held at 8.00 pm on 6 January 1913 the memorial tablet was unveiled by the Bishop of Liverpool. The collection taken at the service amounted to £6 2s Od (£6.10 in 'new' money) and was donated to the Seaman’s Orphanage.

According to the ‘Crosby Herald’ for that week, the Bishop gave a moving and eloquent address, choosing as his text Revelation 11 v, 10: ‘Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life’. Joseph Bell and his engineers were indeed faithful unto death: they sacrificed their lives that others might have a chance of living, and they undoubtedly deserved their crowns.

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