Thomas Andrews in 1912
Thomas Andrews Jr. (7 February 1873 – 15 April 1912) was a British businessman and shipbuilder. He was managing director and head of the drafting department of the shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff in Belfast, Ireland.
Biography[]
Thomas Andrews was born on 7 February 1873 at Ardara House, Comber, County Down, in Ireland, to The Rt. Hon. Thomas Andrews, a member of the Privy Council of Ireland, and Eliza Pirrie. Andrews was a Presbyterian of Scottish descent, and like his brother considered himself British. His siblings included J. M. Andrews, the future Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, and Sir James Andrews, the future Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland. Thomas Andrews lived with his family in Ardara, Comber. In 1884, he began attending the Royal Belfast Academical Institution until 1889 when, at the age of sixteen, he began a premium apprenticeship at Harland and Wolff where his uncle, the Viscount Pirrie, was part owner.
In 1907, Andrews began to oversee the plans for three new ocean liners for the White Star Line: the RMS Olympic, the RMS Titanic and the RMS (later HMHS) Britannic. All three ships were designed by Andrews, William Pirrie and general manager Alexander Carlisle to be the largest, safest and most luxurious ships at sea. As he had done for the other ships he had overseen, Andrews familiarised himself with every detail of Olympic, Titanic and Britannic, in order to ensure that they were in optimal working order. Notably, Andrews’s suggestions that the ship have 48 lifeboats (instead of the 20 it ultimately carried) as well as a double hull and watertight bulkheads that went up to B deck, were overruled.
Andrews headed a group of Harland and Wolff workers called the guarantee group, who went on the maiden voyages of their ships in order to observe ship operations and spot any necessary improvements. Titanic was no exception, so Andrews and the rest of his Harland and Wolff group travelled from Belfast to Southampton on Titanic for the beginning of her maiden voyage on 10 April 1912. During the voyage, Andrews took notes on various improvements he felt were needed, primarily cosmetic changes to various facilities. However, on 14 April, Andrews remarked to a friend that Titanic was "as nearly perfect as human brains can make her."
On 14 April at 11:40 PM, Titanic struck an iceberg on the ship's starboard side. Andrews was in his cabin, planning changes he wanted to make to the ship, and barely noticed the collision. Captain Edward J. Smith had Andrews summoned to help examine the damage. Andrews and Captain Smith discussed the damage to the ship shortly after the collision and toured the damaged section of the ship, receiving several reports of the vessel's damage. Andrews determined that the first five of the ship's 16 watertight compartments were rapidly flooding, which is more than the four that the vessel was supposed to withstand. He relayed this information to Captain Smith, stating that it was a 'mathematical certainty' that the ship will sink and adding that in his opinion, the vessel had only about an hour before foundering. He also informed Smith of the severe shortage of lifeboats on board the ship.
Andrews was reportedly last seen by John Stewart, a steward on the ship, after approximately 2:05 a.m. Andrews was standing alone in the 1st-class smoking room with his arms folded, his lifebelt lying on a nearby table. Stewart asked him: "Aren't you going to have a try for it, Mr. Andrews?" Andrews didn't answer or move, apparently in a state of shock.
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