Thomas Andrews designed Titanic, and died a hero as ship went down

Born into a prominent and high-achieving Ulster-Scots family based in Comber, he designed the Titanic and was one of the 1,517 people who perished with the ship on its ill-fated maiden voyage.

Despite all the controversy surrounding the sinking of the ship, Andrews is one of the few heroes of the sinking and his reputation remains – to employ John Wilson Foster’s word – ‘unblemished’.

Foster has described Thomas Andrews’ place in Irish culture – ‘as a Unitarian, Unionist and staunch Empire man’ – as ‘complex’.

Perhaps this is so to people today but these dimensions to his life really ought to be readily explicable in terms of his family background. As Shan Bullock explained in his brief biography of Andrews: ‘He was a firm Unionist, being convinced that Home Rule would spell financial ruin to Ireland, through the partial loss of British credit, and of the security derived from connection with a strong and prosperous partner’.

Andrews was born 150 years ago, on February 7, 1873 in Comber, and even as a boy he was fascinated with boats and became skilled in building them.

Following family tradition, he entered Royal Belfast Academical Institution in September 1884. He was not academically inclined, being fonder of games (especially cricket at which he excelled) than study, and had not yet developed those powers of industry for which he became famed.

On May 1 1889 he began a five-year-long premium apprenticeship at Harland & Wolff. Every morning he rose at ten minutes to five and was at work in the Yard punctually by six o'clock.

By 1901 Andrews was the manager of the construction works and a member of the Institution of Naval Architects. The following year he became a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, a member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (New York), and an honorary member of the Belfast Association of Engineers.

In 1905 he became chief of the Designing department. Two years later he became managing director of the firm and was overseeing plans for the RMS Olympic for the White Star Line.

In 1908 he married Helen Reilly Barbour, younger daughter of John Doherty Barbour, of Conway, Dunmurry, Co Antrim, and sister to Milne Barbour, a linen baron and future Northern Ireland cabinet minister. The couple made their home at Dunallan, Windsor Avenue, Belfast. (The house is now the headquarters of the Irish Football Association.)

On July 31 1908 the White Star Line placed an order for the ship which would become the Titanic. Construction began on March 31 1909 and on May 31 1911 the hull of the Titanic was launched. Andrews took Helen to view the ship one night, shortly before Elizabeth Law Barber Andrews, their only child, was born. Known by her initials, ‘ELBA’ was born on November 1910.

The Titanic was a remarkable feat of early-20th-century engineering and craftsmanship and the last word in luxury. She was a magnificent spectacle with five miles of decks, squash courts and a swimming pool. She was one sixth of a mile long, as high as the Albert Clock and had funnels through which a Belfast tram could pass.

Andrews headed Harland & Wolff’s Guarantee Group on the Titanic’s maiden voyage. This was a group of workers who went on the maiden voyages of the ships built by the company to observe the ship’s performance and to identify any necessary or possible improvements.

On April 14 1912 Andrews observed to a friend that Titanic was ‘as nearly perfect as human brains can make her’.

However, later that day, at 11.40pm, the Titanic struck an iceberg on the ship’s starboard side. Andrews had been in his stateroom sleeping at the time, and barely noticed the collision. Captain Smith, the ship’s captain, summoned Andrews to examine the damage shortly after midnight. Inspecting the damaged section of the ship, Andrews ascertained that the first five of the ship’s watertight compartments were flooding rapidly and realised that if more than four of the ship’s compartments were flooded, the ship was doomed. He relayed this to Captain Smith and advised that the vessel had only about an hour before it completely sank. She actually managed to survive longer than Andrews had calculated: for two hours and 20 minutes. He also informed Smith of the serious shortage of lifeboats on board the ship: there were 2,228 people on board but only lifeboats for 1,178 people. The White Star Line had not wanted lifeboats cluttering up the ship’s decks.

As the evacuation of the Titanic began, Andrews searched the staterooms and advised passengers to put on lifebelts and go up on deck. Conscious of the short time the ship had left and of the lack of lifeboat accommodation for all passengers and crew, he continued to urge reluctant people into the lifeboats in the hope of filling them as fully as possible.

The Titanic sank at 2.20am on Monday April 15. According to John Stewart, a steward on the ship, Andrews was last seen staring at a painting, ‘Plymouth Harbour’, above the fireplace in the first-class smoking room. Another account has Thomas Andrews frantically throwing deck chairs into the ocean for passengers to use as floating devices. Andrews’s body was never recovered.

On April 19 1912 Thomas Andrews Senior received a telegram from his mother’s cousin, who had spoken with survivors in New York, searching for news of Andrews. Andrews Senior read the telegram aloud to the staff at the family home: ‘INTERVIEW WITH TITANIC’S OFFICERS. ALL UNANIMOUS THAT ANDREWS HEROIC UNTO DEATH, THINKING ONLY SAFETY OTHERS. EXTEND HEARTFELT SYMPATHY TO ALL.’

Mary Sloan, a stewardess on the ship, who Andrews had persuaded to board a lifeboat, later wrote: ‘Mr. Andrews met his fate like a true hero, realising the great danger, and gave up his life to save the women and children of the Titanic. They will find it hard to replace him’.