Fireman injured by the steam from the boiler
Yuriko Cheng
Member
Certainly there was lots of steam in the boiler rooms when the sea touched the fires, even though the firemen and stokers did their best to shut them down and vent excess steam as soon as the Titanic collided with the berg. Their efforts were not completely in vain—all the fires were put out before the water could reach them, so there were no explosions; and they kept the electricity supply going especially to the lights and the wireless until the very last minutes of the sinking. It is estimated that their actions bought the Titanic an extra hour or so afloat and enough time to launch all the lifeboats. But as to whether or not there were any injuries quite like the ones depicted on films I cannot say—more than half the engineering department died that night.
There is at least one confirmed injury caused (albeit indirectly) by the steam. In Boiler Room 5, a group of men were working to put out the fires as the Boiler Room filled with steam and hampered visibility, causing Engineer Jonathan Shepherd to fall through an open manhole and break his leg. His colleagues moved him to a corner and made him as comfortable as they could before they carried on working. Not long after, water began flooding the Boiler Room rapidly as one of the bulkheads gave way. Engineer Herbert Harvey yelled at the men to evacuate via the escape ladders while he himself ran back for Shepherd; within seconds, both men were swallowed by the rising tide of water.
(As a personal aside, this anecdote is to me one of the greatest and most selfless acts of heroism that night. It makes me wonder how many more displays of courage and nobility happened belowdecks that we will never know about because those involved did not survive.)
There is at least one confirmed injury caused (albeit indirectly) by the steam. In Boiler Room 5, a group of men were working to put out the fires as the Boiler Room filled with steam and hampered visibility, causing Engineer Jonathan Shepherd to fall through an open manhole and break his leg. His colleagues moved him to a corner and made him as comfortable as they could before they carried on working. Not long after, water began flooding the Boiler Room rapidly as one of the bulkheads gave way. Engineer Herbert Harvey yelled at the men to evacuate via the escape ladders while he himself ran back for Shepherd; within seconds, both men were swallowed by the rising tide of water.
(As a personal aside, this anecdote is to me one of the greatest and most selfless acts of heroism that night. It makes me wonder how many more displays of courage and nobility happened belowdecks that we will never know about because those involved did not survive.)
minhong
Member
As expected, the fireman injured by the steam of the boiler is a dramatic device in films. Thank you for answer
Arun Vajpey
Member
Fireman John Thompson, who barely survived on Collapsible A, is supposed have badly burned hands. Exactly how that happened, I’m not sure. Will check.
Edit: In On A Sea Of Glass, it says that Fireman Thompson burnt his hands in a "steam related event" during the evacuation of the boiler rooms. The source could be the New York Herald of 20th April 1912. Thompson was not called in to testify at either inquiry.
Edit: In On A Sea Of Glass, it says that Fireman Thompson burnt his hands in a "steam related event" during the evacuation of the boiler rooms. The source could be the New York Herald of 20th April 1912. Thompson was not called in to testify at either inquiry.
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Jonathan Shepherd's death was not directly caused due to burns from hot steam, though...
Yuriko Cheng
Member
Yes; I only said he was indirectly injured by the steam (which reduced visibility in the boiler room and hence caused Shepherd to fail to notice the open manhole) and nothing about its role in his death.
Jack Howell
Member
It was probably the way most stokers and trimmers died before being killed by the icy water
Samuel Halpern
Member
Not at all. First of all, only about 1/3 of these people were on duty at any one time. 2/3 were off duty in the quarters. Most of the fires in the furnaces in the forward boiler rooms were drawn soon after the lights came back on shortly after the collision, and many of the stokers, firemen and greasers were released from duty after that. The remaining stokers and trimmers were released from duty around 1:20am. I know of no credible source attributing a steam related injury to a fireman.
Samuel Halpern
Member
OASOG has many unconfirmed stories that showed up only in newspaper accounts. I believe the more credible story about Thompson is that he broke his arm struggling to get into the waterlogged collapsible boat A and first realized that it was broken when he tried climbing up a rope ladder onto Carpathia.
marina_irc
Member
Where is the steam going to come from? Titanic began venting steam immediately after the collision to avoid an overpressure condition in the steam plant with no further demand for underway power. The boilers in all the forward rooms were dampened and drawn from the start. The bleed system for the steam worked as designed, that's why the initial evacuation was so noisy, and there would be no reason for it to fail. Only the boilers in Boiler Room No.2 had working pressure when she went under, and there is no evidence any man remained below at the point when its steam lines would have catastrophically ruptured during the break-up. I don't believe a single man aboard was scalded by steam, and if there was then it was a relatively minor and trivial injury to a single man as valves were closed and opened to isolate sections of the steam piping during the damage control fight.
George Jacub
Member
What is the source of your more credible story?
Samuel Halpern
Member
There is a picture of survivors Whiteley, Thompson, McIntyre and Castello taken, I believe it was taken in St. Clair's hospital in NY, where Thompson could be seen holding his left arm, and you can see the end of the plaster cast under his coat. Also, his hands were not bandaged, which is what one would expect if he had burnt himself. I look for the photo to post.
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Samuel Halpern
Member
It was St. Vincent's hospital: Survivors at a New York hospital
Arun Vajpey
Member
Not necessarily. If he gad received superficial burns and blistering without permanently damaged skin, his hands might not have been bandaged. That photograph is not very clear and we cannot see Thompson's palms in it, the most likely part of the hands burnt in a steam related event. Without going into too much detail here (which can always be looked up for those interested) there is such a thing as "Exposure Treatment" of certain types of burns.
I accept that a report in New York Herald is NOT evidence that Fireman Thompson had burnt his hands while below. But if he had scalded or very superficially burnt his palms, they would have hurt a lot for a few hours thereafter. Hands, especially palms, are among the most pain sensitive parts of the body and if they had been scalded while in the boiler room, Thompson would have found it very painful to grip anything and, like it claims on OASOG, would have made it almost impossible for him to push the plug in at the bottom of Collapsible A.
Superficial burns damage only the epidermis, the outer protective layer of the skin, thus exposing the sensory nerve endings in the next layer, dermis. These would be extremely pain sensitive and even a whiff of wind blowing across the area would be very painful. But after 3 or 4 days, the symptoms resolve dramatically as long as there is no further damage.
Thomas Krom
Member
Hello George,
Three newspaper articles support that Fireman John William Thompson (1871-19?) broke his arm instead. They are the following accounts:
The Rome (New York) Daily Sentinel on the 19th of April 1912 reported that:
The New York Press edition on 22nd of April 1912 reported:
The New York Evening World edition on the 22nd of April 1912 reported:
I hope this confirms the story.
Kind regards,
Thomas
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