Thomas Andrews
by Clive Scoular
Thomas Andrews and his family
Thomas was the second child of Thomas and Eliza Andrews of Comber, County Down and was born on 7 February 1873. His older brother John Miller Andrews who, later in life, became Northern Ireland's second Prime Minister.
Thomas and John were very close as children and they both had an idyllic and happy childhood. They played together and Thomas loved the sea and boats and was a fine horseman. Like so many better-off children of that era, he was tutored at home rather than being sent to school with the other village children of his own age. However, as was the tradition of the Andrews family he was sent to Royal Belfast Academical Institution in 1884 when he was 11 years old. It would appear that he was not an academic child and, in 1889 he was sent to work in the great Belfast shipyard of Harland and Wolff. The shipping industry was making a name for itself in Ireland's principal industrial city at that time and was turning out ship after ship for all the world's prestigious shipping lines. And so it was that an Andrews boy, and the first one, became a humble apprentice in the 'yard.'
His apprentice years at Harland and Wolff
He spent time during his five years apprenticeship in every department of Harland and Wolff's. He soon knew the work of a plater and a riveter and an engineer. Life was tough for a teenager but young Thomas quickly adapted himself to hard work and the attainment of his 'ticket.' The longest time he spent in the drawing office and it was from there that his skills of design and invention were born. After five interesting years, he had finished his apprenticeship.
Thomas' home was, of course, in Comber but he only returned there at the weekends to pursue his own interests of cricket, hockey and sailing on his beloved Strangford Lough. In the week he stayed in 'digs' with a friendly landlady in East Belfast and there he continued to study and better himself. He was not going to be any mere shipyard worker. Thomas had ambition and he attended classes at night to add to his learning. In Shan F. Bullock's eulogistic memoir written shortly after Thomas's untimely death on board the Titanic in 1912 the lifestyle of Thomas is epitomised thus - 'Perfect health, his sound physique, his sunny nature and the strict adherence to the principles of temperance encouraged by his mother, helped him to attain fine manhood.' (p 11).
In the 1890s in Belfast there was a constant hive of activity at Harland and Wolff's shipyard. Thomas Andrews had, by now, entered the Drawing Office of the company and had been given jobs of responsibility. He was, for example, supervising the construction work of the Mystic and representing the firm on the sea trials of her sister ship Gothic. As the 1890s progressed he was a rising star in the firmament of that great company. He passed from being head of the Repair Division to manager of Construction work and, between 1899 and 1912, he worked on, and had a hand in, he design and building of all those mighty ships which were the pride of the Yard at Harland and Wolff. 'His job, first and last and always' (p17).
Head of Design at Harland and Wolff
When he was just 32 years old, Thomas became head of Design for the company and in 1907 he was made a managing director. His uncle was Lord Pirrie who was the boss at the Yard and Thomas, in effect, became his assistant. Many could have considered this as a nepotistic appointment but, whether or not it was, there was no better man for the job. Thomas was popular with everyone in the place, from the humblest artisan to the loftiest managers in the boardroom. He talked to everyone and no job was beneath him as was often proved.
In 1908, Thomas married Helen Barbour and, in 1910, their daughter, Elizabeth, was born.
Thomas always believed in good conditions for the workers and advocated shorter working hours for the men. Even in those early days, he believed in the workers sharing the profits with the owners and company directors. His thinking was ahead of its time. It reflected the kind of man Thomas Andrews was. He was, however, like many unionists in the north of Ireland at the time, totally opposed to Home Rule. He wanted Ireland to remain as part of the union and had no wish to have a Home Rule parliament in Dublin - then, of course, still the capital of Ireland. Unlike his older brother, John, he had no active interest in politics apart form always voting unionist.
The Titanic
The Titanic was Thomas's ship. He had been wholly involved in its construction and had watched it taking shape during its two years of building. There was not a part of the great ship he did not know and when anything went wrong or when a decision had to be made, it was to Thomas Andrews that everyone went. Thomas had invariably had the answer. The ship completed its sea trials in April 1912 and he was on board to represent the company. When the ship left Southampton on 10 April, he was there along with eight other men from the Yard, a group which included four apprentices. The ship called at Cherbourg in France and then at Queenstown in County Cork in the south of Ireland. There were over 2,200 souls aboard including officers and crew.
The rest is history. The leviathan hit the iceberg late on Sunday 14 April and, in only a few hours, sank to the bottom of the sea with over 1,500 casualties. When the ship first struck the iceberg, Andrews was called for and he immediately saw the severe damage that had been caused. He knew from early on that Titanic was doomed. He remained calm and assisted many of the passengers to life jackets to prepare for taking to the lifeboats. He himself knew that he would die but stayed composed. He knew clearly that the ship had not sufficient lifeboats for he had fought to ensure that there were only to be overruled over cost. This parsimony caused the deaths of so many innocent people and of the greatest of designers - Thomas Andrews- himself. (In fact, there were more lifeboats that were required by the Board of Trade regulations of the time.)
The tragic news was greeted with utter disbelief. When the news sunk in eventually, men at the Yard wept. A city joined in the sorrow and the thought of such an unsinkable vessel now at the bottom of the Atlantic after only a few days at sea was impossible to bear. It took many years for the hurt to disappear, if indeed it ever did.
Thomas Andrews, a ship builder of great and worthy note, was just 39 years old. He was not forgotten in his native village of Comber. Memorials were erected - the main on being the Andrews Memorial Hall in Comber - and testimonies were written and stories of a great and gallant man repeated time without number.
John M. Andrews: Northern Ireland's Wartime Prime Minister
Clive Scoular's book features short biographies of John M. Andrews' three distinguished brothers:
- Thomas: Titanic's shipbuilder
- James: Lord Chief Justice
- William: Cricketer Extraordinary
Hardback Edition: £17.99 / 25 Euro (Plus p&p)
Paperback Edition: £9.99 / 15 Euro (Plus p&p)
Send Name, Address and email along with details of your purchase to:
Clive Scoular101 Killyleagh Road
Downpatrick
County Down
BT30 9UD
Tel: 028 4482 8428
email: clive.scoular@virgin.net
Invoice will be sent with your order.
