Thomas Andrews was born into one of Ireland’s wealthiest families. His father Thomas Andrews senior was the owner of Comber’s linen factory ( it was this factory that had actually supplied the sheets to the Titanic) and his mother Eliza Pirrie came from a political family. The Pirrie’s were descendants from Captain Pirrie who had played a part in the commission of Belfast harbour in 1847. Eliza’s brother William was the future mayor of Belfast and one of the chairmen of successful shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff. William Pirrie would go on to play a big part in Andrews’ ship building career.
Growing up Andrews had taken a particular interest in shipbuilding and would spend time observing his uncle meanwhile his brother James Andrews would go on to become Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland and his other brother John Andrews would become Prime minister of Northern Ireland. Andrews had studied architecture and engineering at the Belfast institute (now known as Belfast Metropolitan) he also completed his apprenticeship at his Harland and Wolff as a joiner. Despite his uncle’s position in the company. Andrews chose to start at the bottom of the ladder and enjoyed mucking in with the work as much as the other Harland and Wolff workers.
It was the late 1890s when Andrews had been promoted to a member of the design team. These people were responsible for over seeing and checking the designs of boats for any flaws or issues that may arise.
Outside the yard Andrews enjoyed taking part in sport. His family were patrons of the North Down Cricket Club and Andrews had also been one of the founding members of the North Down Hockey Club. In 1908 Thomas Andrews married Helen Barbour, more affectionately known as ‘Nelly’. On the 27th November 1910 Elizabeth Law Barbour Andrews, she was commonly nicknamed ‘Elba’ was born. She was the only child of Thomas Andrews and was just three years old when her father was lost in the sinking.
Titanic
Thomas Andrews’ contributions to the Titanic is most famously known as the man who fought for more lifeboats. This is true, it was in a meeting that took place between Bruce Ismay ( Manager of the White Star Line), Alexander Carlisle ( Chief Designer), William Pirrie ( chairman of Harland and Wolff) and Thomas Andrews. Thomas’ central argument was that although Titanic’s lifeboats had met the Board of Trade rules. It would be sensible to double the number of lifeboats from 20 to 40 ( 16 regular boats and 4 collapsibles) because Titanic and Olympic were double the length of any other ship and therefore could accommodate more people. So, in case of emergency everyone would have a place on a lifeboat. Ismay and Pirrie disagreed and as a result Alexander Carlisle walked out and left the position of chief designer to Thomas Andrews. As a compromise Pirrie had agreed to add in four collapsible boats. ( these in effect did not do much good when the Titanic was sinking as only two of them managed to successfully get away. Collapsible B and A were washed off the deck after Henry Wilde tried to cut them free.)
Although Thomas Andrews was promoted to Chief designer, he didn’t really have much of a say in the overall design features because Titanic’s construction had nearly been completed and had he have wanted to change any physical aspects of the Titanic for example the type of steel used. It would have taken another five years to do so. To credit Andrews he did implement many features on the Titanic. For example he had instated water fountains at the top of the spiral staircase leading down the boiler rooms which allowed workers when they were on a break to get a drink as they were not allowed to come up to any passenger decks due to their scruffy appearance. In the 2003 documentary 'Ghosts Of The Abyss' the indents were the fountains had previously been can still be seen.
April 14th 1912
When Thomas Andrews had been informed that Titanic had struck an iceberg he was sighted heading towards the boiler rooms to assess the damage. It was from this he had predicted Titanic only had 1-2 hours left and was fully aware that that there wasn’t enough room for everyone on the lifeboats.
In later testimonies survivors recalled seeing Thomas Andrews walking up and down the decks ensuring everyone had a life jacket on. It was Stewardess Mary Sloan who Andrews had to persuade to put her life jacket on and put her in a lifeboat . Charles Joughin, Titanic’s Chief Baker, said he had seen Andrews frantically throwing deck chairs off the decks for the people in the water to hold onto. The last sighting of Thomas Andrews was recorded by a saloon steward who describes Andrews as staring at the painting of Plymouth harbour ,located in the 1st class smoking loung with his life jacket next to him. Sloan later described Thomas Andrews as “Just noble, just as he always was a grand fellow.”
Thomas Andrews did not survive the sinking and his body was never recovered. A memorial can be found to Thomas Andrews in his home town of Comber. The Thomas Andrews Memorial was erected in his memory and just next to it is the Andrews family tomb.
Andrews has been portrayed many times in films recounting the Titanic disaster. He is most famously portrayed by actor Victor Garber in the 1997 film ‘Titanic.’ Andrews also features in William McQuitty’s ‘A Night to Remember’ as well as the 2012 tv series ‘Titanic: Blood and Steel’ and is a prominent character in the stage musical ‘Titanic the musical’.
I’ll leave a few external links for more information about Thomas Andrews and I should imagine he’ll get quite a few posts and mentions on here as he’s rather a fan favourite of mine.
Have a Titanic day, Millie.
Encyclopaedia Titanica: https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/thomas-andrews.html
BBC History: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/thomas_andrews
The Irish Post: https://www.irishpost.com/life-style/thomas-andrews-seven-facts-irishman-designed-titanic-went-ship-113110
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