John Stewart

[Brian Durrans]

is John Stewart, a steward on the Titanic who survived the disaster, the same as the Jack Steward who wrote a note later retrieved from a bottle and referred to in Hoffman and Grimm (1982: Beyond Reach, p. 95 and photo of note among illustrations between pp.64-75)? In that photo the word is definitely Steward not Stewart, so could possibly be his job-title rather than his surname. Can anyone clarify this?

 

[Brian Durrans]

William Hoffman & Jack Grimm (Beyond Reach: the search for the Titanic. New York, Beaufort Books, 1982) refer on p. 95 to a note from Stewart which they say came to light after having been washed up on a beach and given to a colleague of the authors by “a woman from Maine” who had read about their planned search for the Titanic. A photograph of the alleged note is reproduced in their book among the illustrations between pp. 64-75. The only other instance I've heard of concerning a note thrown overboard or otherwise surviving from the sinking ship is one from Jeremiah Burke of Glanmire, which is reported to have been found washed up near his birthplace in Ireland and is currently on display, in the bottle in which it was supposedly found, at the local museum in Cobh. If anyone can shed any light on (the alleged) John Stewart's alleged message and whether he was Stewart or (just a) steward, I'd be really grateful to hear about it. Many thanks

 

[Christophe Puttemans]

Edward P. De Groot speaks about a note being written on board the sinking Titanic. Freely translated from Dutch:
"On the tilting deck of the TITANIC a left-behind passenger wrote a good-bye note and put it in a medicine bottle. Being in a hurry, he wrote down the wrong date, but the bottle reached its destiny: the shores of Newfoundland."
This is what's written in the second print:
"On board the sinking Titanic third class passenger Jeremiah Bruke wrote a good-bye note and put it in a medicine bottle which was later found on Newfoundland shores. Jeremiah Bruke and his wife weren't among the rescued."
This is the only note from the sinking Titanic I know about, but maybe there was another note?

 

[rob kessell]

i have his passenger ticket for the white star line with his name on it