Archie Jewell was born in Cornwall 1888. Jewell signed on with the White Star Line in 1904 and moved from Cornwall to Southampton. Jewell moved into 50 Bond Road in Southampton. His last address before sailing on Titanic had been 32 College Street, which was also located in Southampton. He served on the S.S Oceanic for roughly seven to eight years in which time he had married.
Jewell had been working on the S.S Oceanic as a lookout but transferred on to the Titanic on the 6th April 1912. Many of the serving crew of the Titanic had previously had experience with White Star Line vessels. For example, Edward John Smith had skippered Titanic’s sister Olympic and then was transferred to Titanic after Captain Herbert Haddock stepped down. Similarly, chief Officer Henry Wilde had also been transferred from the Olympic to the Titanic, at the Captain’s request. It wasn’t uncommon for staff working under the same company to ‘swap ships’ at last minute.
Jewell would serve as a one of six lookouts on the Titanic. Jewell served alongside Fredrick Fleet, Reginald Lee, George Alfred Hogg, George Thomas Symons and Alfred Frank Evans. The job of the lookout was to keep a watch for any imminent danger that could be posed to the ship. The average wage for a lookout was £5.
April 14th -15th 1912
According to the British Wreck Commissioners Jewell had been working the 8pm to 10pm shift. After that Fredrick Fleet and Reginald Lee would have relived him and George Symons, who he was working alongside. Jewell recalled that it was Charles Lightoller who had instructed him to keep a lookout for any ice as by Titanic had been traveling through an ice field. Wireless messages had been to the ship by the not too distant S.S Californian suggesting that Titanic should consider slowing down or stopping.
That was telephoned up to the crow's-nest, and where was the telephone from?
- From the bridge.
Then it would be the Officer on the bridge who would telephone to you?
- Yes.
Do you happen to know who it was - which Officer it was?
- I could not say. I think the Second Officer was on watch at the time.
Throughout Jewell’s testimony he was insistent that he not seen any ice up whilst he was on his shift. However, Jewell stated that he had been woken up by the crash. Jewell was placed on lifeboat number 7, which left at approximately 12:45 pm. Lifeboat 7 was one of the first to leave the doomed Titanic. All of Titanic’s lifeboats had room for at least 65-70 people. However, Jewell’s lifeboat left with only 28 people.
In the inquiry Lord Mersey had asked Jewell about why the lifeboat’s full capacity was not met. Jewell had said that they had loaded as many women and children into the boats as possible. But as so early on in the night they struggled to find anybody who was willing to get into the lifeboats.
You say Mr. Murdoch said "women and children first," and what was done?
- Well, we put all the women in that was there, and children. Up to that time there was not many people; we could not get them up; they were rather afraid to go into the boat; they did not think there was anything wrong.
Were there men passengers there too?
- Yes, we had some men passengers.
Did any of them get into your boat?
- Yes. I do not know how many. There was three or four there. Three or four Frenchmen there - I do not know whether they got into the boat.
I only just want to know; did any men passengers get into No. 7?
- Yes.
Like many testimonies Jewell’s account of the sinking of the Titanic depicted a relatively calm night and that there was not much panic on board. This is an aspect of the sinking that is sometimes overlooked. As many of the passengers hadn’t much of idea what had happened to the Titanic, there main source was word of mouth. It’s also no myth that when loading the lifeboats some members of the crew and staff had reassured that everyone would be back on board in time for breakfast. However, that was most likely an attempt to get the women and children into the lifeboats.
Jewell also had stated that he had heard an explosion when the Titanic went down. A possibility of what Jewell had heard could have been one of Titanic’s boilers exploding or perhaps Titanic’s bow breaking away from the stern of the ship.
Just tell us shortly what you yourself saw then. What did you see that happened to the "Titanic" before she went down and as she went down?
- We stopped there and watched her gradually sink away. We could see the people about on the deck before the lights went out. As she went away by the head so the lights went out, and we heard some explosions as she was going down. But all the lights went out and we could only see a black object in front of us.
Was it light enough to see if her stern was up in the air?
- Yes. I saw the stern straight up in the air.
At that time were the lights still burning or had they gone out?
- No. As the stern stood up in the air so all the lights went out.
Lifeboat number 7 was picked up by the Cunard liner S.S Carpathia at 5:10 am on April 15th 1912. In later life Jewell still served with the White Star Line and Jewell was even present at the sinking of Titanic’s youngest sister HMHS Britannic alongside other Titanic survivors Violet Jessop and John Priest.The three gained the nickname of the 'unsinkable' crew However, this was not to last. After 1916 Jewell finally resigned from the White Star Line and died on board the SS Donegal after it was hit by a German Submarine. Jewell has no formal grave, as he died in the English channel however, Jewell’s name appears on the memorial to the Merchant Navy located at Trinity Square in London. His name is also inscribed onto the grave of his son, Raymond, who died in 1930. Jewell’s son was only fourteen when he died.
As always I’ll leave a few external links about the life of Archie Jewell, including his testimony before the British Wreck Commissioners. Feel free to ask any questions or get in touch.
Have a titanic rest of your week, Millie
The life of Archie Jewell according to Encyclopaedia Titanica: https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/archie-jewell.html
Archie Jewell’s testimony before the British Wreck Commissioners: https://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq/BOTInq02Jewell02.php
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