Surviving Engineers?

[Mel Sharp]

Hi everyone,

I have repeatedly read that no engineers survived the sinking, however I have just seen a chart on wormstedt.com that states two survived, does anyone have any further information on this please?

 

[Steven Christian]

You might want to browse thru this link...all about surviving crew. Right at the top it states no engineers survived. But you can run thru it to see who did make it.
Titanic Crew Survivors | Encyclopedia Titanica

 

[Mel Sharp]

Thanks Steven, I have taken a look through and can find no engineers, yet if you look at this An Analysis of the Bodies Recovered from the Titanic it clearly states two survived??

 

[Ioannis Georgiou]

Both list are right. The 2 survivors were not "Engineers", they belonged to the Engineering department (as did the Greaser, Trimmers, Stokers).
It were Engineers Mess Steward Cecil Fitzpatrik and Firemens Messman Thomas Knowles.

 

[Steven Christian]

Ok I'm just stating an opinion. From my experience it was not uncommon to hear people called engineers who worked in the dept but were not actual engineers. They were aids, assistants or had other positions. So I could see where the confusion would come in. This might be a little off topic but kind of related: The first 10 years I worked at the power plant the senior person in charge of the operating shift was always called the "watch engineer". That was their official title. Then came along some young bright eyed and bushy tailed engineers that took offense because a lot of the watch engineers didn't have a degree. 30 years of experience didn't seem to matter to them (which in my opinion was worth 10 degrees) so they filed a complaint. After that the watch engineers were called shift supervisors. I always went out of my way to call them watch engineers for the next 20 years until I retired.

 

[Mel Sharp]

Ahh okay, that explains it. Thank you Ioannis, much appreciated.

Steven, that's testiment to your good character, Im sure the watch engineers appreciated it.