Joseph Scarrott, age 33, was an AB Seaman on the RMS Titanic. Born in 1878, and the oldest of three children, he was raised by his mother. His father, a seaman in the Royal Navy, died in 1897.
In 1898, Joseph married Annie Elizabeth Till, age 21. After two years, they had no children and separated.
In 1907, he married Agnes Laura Payne and started working for White Star Line as an AB Seaman but sometimes as a Boatswain (Bosun). At the same time, he worked for other shipping companies. His last ship before signing on to the Titanic was the Kildonan Castle. His AB Seaman wages were £5 per month. He survived the sinking of the Titanic to give his account of the event.
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| Joseph Scarrott, 1878-1938 |
On May 3, 1912, Joseph Scarrott was called to testify by the British Wreck Commission. He was asked about the time just before Titanic hit the iceberg.
Scarrott: "Shortly before the vessel struck the iceberg, I heard three bells from the crow's nest - that's about 11:30pm. I felt a sort of shock as though the engines had been changed to full astern. At that point, the iceberg was less than a ship's length ahead of us."
Question: How far was that?
Scarrott: "About 800 feet."
Question: About how high from the water was the iceberg?
Scarrott: "About 60 feet."
Question: What did the iceberg look like?
Scarrott: "It looked like the Rock of Gibraltar and very much the same shape."
Question: Tell us about the lifeboat process.
Scarrott: "My assigned area was Lifeboat #14 on the port side. The schedule and map were posted that morning. We were supposed to have a drill on Sunday, but the Captain canceled it. Supervising the port side launching of lifeboats were Officers Wilde, Lightoller and Lowe.
"Even though the boats were numbered, there was no order to how the lifeboats were lowered. As they had people in them, if no one was waiting, then they were lowered. After the second or third boat we knew most of the passengers were never going to get in a lifeboat because the boats were not being filled up.
"Lifeboat #14 attempted launch around 1:30am. People were pressing themselves up against the rails watching lifeboats being lowered and keeping a keen eye for the next one to be readied. The pushing and shoving concerned Officer Wilde so he fired off three shots to warn them to get away from the rails. Officer Wilde put Officer Lowe in charge of Lifeboat #14 and when it was nearly full to capacity, Officer Wilde ordered it to be lowered to the sea.
"Before it could be lowered, about 20 men tried to rush the boat. They were foreigners, they didn't understand our language. I was second in charge. I used rather strong persuasion. I knocked them down with the boat's tiller. One man jumped in the boat twice and I threw him out each time. I told the chief officer (Lowe) of the trouble trying to keep the men back and he pulled out his revolver and fired off two warning shots between the boat and the ship's side to warn the men who were there. Lowe told them "Be a man - we've got women and children to save." The one guy I threw out of the boat, went back on deck and he knew he had lost his chance to get off the sinking ship.
(Also hiding in the same lifeboat was Third-class passenger Daniel Buckley who was disguised as a woman. See his link at end of this post to read his story.)
"There were 54 women and 4 children, one a babe in arms in our boat. For crew, there was myself, two firemen, three or four stewards and Officer Lowe.
"Finally we were being lowered to the sea but our boat got caught and twisted on the after fall. We had to drop the boat by releasing the gear to get clear of the ship. There were four men rowing. There was a man we thought was a sailor but he was a window cleaner named William Harder so that left three doing the rowing.
"With Titanic about 100 yards away, we sat there with the other boats. Officer Lowe was at the helm, we watched Titanic's lights and could hear the orchestra. When she sank into the ocean, there were people who had been standing on the deck. Their bodies slid off into the water as Titanic went down. There were about as many bodies as there was wreckage in the water.
"All around us were moans and cries of people in the water. There were hundreds of dead and alive bodies in lifebelts. One man we were able to pull into our boat, but he died soon afterwards. (William F. Hoyt) Another man was alive, hanging on to a piece of wreckage that looked like the staircase. He was kneeling and praying while he called for help until he saw us. We were about 20 yards away from him. There were so many bodies and wreckage that we couldn't get through to him without pushing bodies out of the way.
"We finally took an oar, held it out to him for him to grab it and that's how we got him into the boat. It was terrible to be rowing amongst the dead bodies, but we did pick up four men who were clinging to wreckage. We picked up people from the Englehardt boat too."
Question: Did any passenger class have a better advantage to being saved?
Scarrott: "It is true because of the location of their cabins that first and second class passengers had a better chance of getting to the boat deck than the steerage third class. From the time the collision happened until they were ready to put people in the lifeboats, women and children in steerage had to be brought up to the boat deck because the gates were locked. In the confusion, with people rushing the lifeboats, others not wanting to leave their spouses, and officers and seamen being assigned to lifeboats, I don't know who took care of the locked gates. The Captain ordered the gates in third class to be locked so they could not have access to first and second class areas and passengers."
Question: How many people did you pick up from the Engelhardt boat (the Collapsible)?
Scarrott: "Cannot say exactly, but I think we got about 20 people off that boat."
Question: Were there any provisions in your lifeboat?
Scarrott: "After being lowered to the water, Officer Lowe checked the provisions. There was no lamp, no candles, no flares, no food, no water, and no provisions of any kind in the lifeboat. We learned later in the early morning hours that one other lifeboat had some provisions but most had nothing.
"Our lifeboat was heavy with passengers and some of the others had less people in them. After Titanic sank, we saw other boats that had women and children. Some of them had no officer in charge, so Officer Lowe brought Lifeboats #10, #12, and Collapsible "D" closer to our Lifeboat #14 and transferred some of our 58 passengers to the other lifeboats that didn't have as many people in them.
Question: When you witnessed the Titanic sinking, did she go down as a whole or did she break apart?
Scarrott: "The sight of that grand ship going down will never be forgotten. She slowly went down bow first with a slight list to starboard until the water reached the bridge, then she went quicker. People had jumped or were sliding or falling into the water. When the third funnel disappeared, I heard four explosions which I took to be the bursting of the boilers. The ship was straight up on its end then. Suddenly she broke in two pieces between the third and fourth funnel. The lights were burning right up until she broke in two. The cries from the poor souls struggling in the water sounded terrible in the stillness of the night. It cut you like a knife. Officer Lowe ordered all the boats with us to row towards where the ship went down to see if we could pick up anybody.
"After that we tied our boats together to form a large line which would be seen quicker than a single boat. We evened out the passengers in the boats so the rowing would be easier, then we rowed amongst the wreckage following the cries and voices.
"About 4am is when we saw the Carpathia. We proceeded with our boats toward her as she had stopped right over where Titanic had gone down. Carpathia had got our wireless message for assistance. No other ships ever came, just the Carpathia. When we got on board, we found some survivors had already been picked up before us, they must have sighted their boats first. Everything was ready for us - clothes, blankets, beds, hot food, spirits etc. - everything to comfort us. The last survivors were aboard by 8:30am. The dead bodies that were in some of the boats were identified and then given a proper sea burial. We stayed in the area for a while looking for more survivors but didn't find any. The Californian came as we were leaving but there was no reason for them to stay. We learned later they were so close to us they could have been there the night before and saved us all.
"We returned to New York and arrived at 9pm on Thursday the 18th. It was a sad journey. A list of survivors was taken down by hand as soon as we left the wreckage. On arrival at New York, everything again was made ready for our comfort - clothing, money, medical aid. I must say the passengers when they were in the boats, especially the women, were brave and assisted in handling the boats a great deal. Thank God the weather was fine or I do not think there would have been one soul left to tell the tale."
The British Wreck Commission called many crew members and passengers. Except when it came to the Duff-Gordons, mostly everyone had the same or similar stories.
Joseph Scarrott went back to work at sea. In 1914, he must have forgotten to get divorced from his first wife Annie Elizabeth Till because he was arrested for bigamy and served a month in prison. (The Portsmouth Evening News, February 10, 1914). When he got out of jail, new wife Agnes Payne had moved on. At the end of 1915, his first wife Annie Elizabeth Till died.
In 1919, Joseph married Elizabeth Minnie Koster and they moved to Essex. They had no children. He continued to work on ships until his death on August 13, 1938 at age 60. He was buried in an unmarked grave at Sutton Road Cemetery. His widow married again 11 years later. She died in 1981.
Source:
Transcripts from British Wreck Commission
Interesting Reading
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