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Frederick Barrett

{{Short description|English stoker and Titanic survivor (1883–1931)}}

{{for|the polo player|Frederick Whitfield Barrett}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2018}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Frederick Barrett

| image = Frederick William Barrett.jpg

| caption =

| birth_name = Frederick Barrett

| birth_date = 10 January 1883

| birth_place = Liverpool, England

| death_date = 3 March 1931 (aged 48)

| death_place = Liverpool, England

| other_names = Frederick William Barrett
Fred Barrett

| known_for = {{RMS|Titanic}} survivor

| occupation = Stoker

}}

Frederick William Barrett (10 January 1883 – 3 March 1931) was a British stoker. After having served as a stoker on several ships, on 6 April 1912, he was hired on board the RMS Titanic as lead stoker. On April 15, 1912, while the ship was sinking, Barrett boarded lifeboat No. 13 and took command of it, thus surviving the disaster. He later testified before commissions of inquiry into the sinking of the ship and continued to work in the navy until the 1920s. In 1923, after losing his wife Mary Anne Jones, he remained in Liverpool and worked ashore as a logger.

He died of pulmonary tuberculosis in 1931.

Biography

= Youth and career =

Frederick William Barrett was born on 10 January 1883 in Bootle, near Liverpool. He was the only surviving child of Henry Charles Barrett (1862-1909), a Devon workman, and Mary Barrett (née Morgan) (1864-?) of Birkenhead. On 4 October of the same year, he was baptized in St. John's Church in Bootle.{{Cite web|title=Frederick Barrett : Titanic Survivor|url=https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/frederick-barrett.html|website=Encyclopedia Titanica|date=20 October 2019 |language=english|access-date=2020-05-03}} Little is known about his youth, but the census of 1891 indicates that he was a wheelwright and his father a woodworker.

Barrett decided to turn to the sea when he discovered that his wife was unfaithful.{{cite book|last1=Compton|first1=Nic|title=Titanic on Trial: The Night the Titanic Sank, Told Through the Testimonies of Her Passengers and Crew|date=2012|publisher=Adlard Coles|isbn=978-1408140284|page=297}}{{cite web|title=City's Unsung Titanic Hero|url=https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/citys-unsung-titanic-hero.html|last1=Leigh|first1=Fred|date=11 June 2005 }} The date of his first trip to sea is not certain. In 1903, he joined the Cunard Line aboard the RMS Campania as a stoker. In 1904, he entered the service of the Allan Line by serving aboard the SS Parisian and then the White Star Line aboard the RMS Cedric. In 1906, he returned to the Cunard Line serving again on the Campania. He then joined the American Line aboard the {{SS|City of New York}}.

File:RMS Campania.jpg|RMS Campania

File:RMS Cedric.jpg|RMS Cedric

File:Tug and SS Parisian Montreal harbour 1870.jpg|SS Parisian

File:City of new york.jpg|SS City of New York

= Aboard the ''Titanic'' =

== Crossing and collision ==

Frederick Barrett was a lead stoker working in boiler room 6 when the Titanic struck an iceberg on the night of 14 April 1912. Boiler room 6 was at the site of the impact with the iceberg.

Barrett was talking to the second engineer John Henry Hesketh, when the red light and bells came on signalling the order to stop the engines.{{cite web|url=http://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq/BOTInq03Barrett01.php|title=Testimony of Frederick Barrett Day 3}} He shouted to the men in the boiler room to shut the dampers, the doors to the furnaces and to shut off the wind for the fires. Then he felt a crash and water came pouring in on him from a large tear in the ship's starboard side.{{cite web|url=http://www.titanicinquiry.org/USInq/AmInq18Barrett01.php|title=Testimony of Frederick Barrett Day 18}} Barrett made his way through the watertight door into boiler room 5. He was ordered to go back into boiler room 6, but there was 8 feet of water there. As some of the engineers attended the pumps, the engine room rang for all the stokers to go up on deck. Barrett was ordered to stay behind by an engineer, Mr. Harvey, in boiler room 5 to get some lamps, draw fires, and lift the manhole plate until water started to rush in.{{cite web|url=http://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq/BOTInq03Barrett02.php|title=Testimony of Frederick Barrett, cont. Day 3}}

== Aboard lifeboat 13 ==

Barrett went up along a hatchway to reach the starboard side of A Deck where there were only two lifeboats left.{{cite book|last1=Winocour|first1=Jack|title=The Story of the Titanic As Told by Its Survivors|date=1960|publisher=Dover Publications|isbn=978-0486206103|pages=253, =254|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SuwB7jjOKfcC&q=barrett}} He escaped the sinking ship on lifeboat 13, which was filled with about 65 to

70 people. Lifeboat 15 nearly came down on top of their lifeboat, but they got out in time. He was put in charge of the lifeboat for about an hour, until he got cold and had to let someone else take over. At one point a woman put a cloak over him, and he was unable to remember anything that took place after that in the lifeboat. At 4:45 a.m., Barrett and the others in the lifeboat were rescued by the {{RMS|Carpathia}}.{{cite web|title=Mr Frederick Barrett|date=20 October 2019 |url=https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/frederick-barrett.html}}

== Commissions of inquiry, career continuation and end of life ==

After the sinking, he testified at both the British Wreck Commissioner's inquiry and United States Senate inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic.

On 25 May 1912, just a few weeks after the sinking, Barrett was working on the Titanic{{'}}s sister ship {{RMS|Olympic}} where he was questioned by Senator William Alden Smith as part of an investigation.

Barrett died in Liverpool on 3 March 1931 due to tuberculosis.[https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/frederick-barrett.html Frederick William Barrett; EncyclopediaTitanica.org]

Frederick William Barrett

Barrett is not to be confused with a fellow crewmember, another stoker named Frederick William Barrett (born in 1879), who perished in the sinking.[https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/frederick-william-barrett.html Frederick William Barrett; EncyclopediaTitanica.org]

Portrayals

Notes

{{Reflist}}

{{RMS Titanic}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrett, Frederick}}

Category:1883 births

Category:1931 deaths

Category:RMS Titanic survivors

Category:People from Liverpool

Category:20th-century deaths from tuberculosis

Category:Tuberculosis deaths in England

Category:20th-century English people

Category:19th-century English people