Frederick Barret
This man is the only man on board the Titanic that witnessed the impact, damage, and water pouring in from inside the ship, and survived. He told a remarkable tale!
Frederick Barret was a leading stoker in boiler room 6.
On the night of the disaster, Barret was speaking with 2nd engineer Shepard in the stokehold near the ships hull.
Barret was standing 2ft away from the hull, marked in red.
An alarm rang through the boiler room along with a red light coming on, the signal for All Stop.
He cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted to all the men:
Shut all the dampers!!!
The order was obeyed, but the crash came before they got them all shut.
About 2 feet from where he was standing he heard a grinding noise that sounded like an anchor being dropped along with feeling a slight vibration. He turned to the noise and saw the plates buckle with water pouring in two feet above the floor. The water knocked him down, the alarm for the watertight doors rang and he got up and ran with all the other stokers in the boiler room through the water tight doors into the next boiler room. He had to duck under the watertight door as it closed but he and the other stokers made it to boiler room 5.
Upon witnessing the impact, he knew the ship was torn throughout boiler room six. When he entered 5, he saw no damage to the hull. But when he checked the coal bunker, he saw water coming in. He dropped the coal bunker door and informed the engineers.
He could see no more damage beyond the coal bunker, so he surmised that all damage was forward of boiler room 5.
The engineer shouted to all the men:
All Hands Stand By Your Stations!
Because all the watertight doors were shut, Barret and Shepard went up the escape ladder in boiler room five, crossed the deck to the escape ladder to boiler room six and tried to get back down to his station. He was shocked to see that in less than 10 minutes it was already flooded with 8 feet of water.
With nothing that could be done, Barret and Shepard returned to boiler room five to see that two assistant engineers were frantically setting up water pumps to pump the water that was pouring into the coal bunker. The phone rang, Barret picked up the phone and it was a call from the engine room ordering him to send all stokers up on deck, and for him to remain in boiler room 5.
The order was obeyed and just after the last stoker went up the ladder, the lights in his section went out. It was pitch black. One of the engineers told him to go get some lamps, so he went up the ladder and noticed that the lights were still on in the hallway he was in. It appeared that they were on throughout the ship except the boiler room. He guessed that they were changing circuits, changing steam engines. He fetched two fireman to bring back some lamps. They came back with 10-15 lamps and dropped them down the ladder just as the lights came back on. The pumps were still keeping the water in boiler room 5 at bay, and he checked the gouges of the boilers to see if any water had gotten inside. As he was doing this, the engineer ordered Barret to get some men to keep the boiler fires lit to keep the ship powered enough to operate the radio and keep the lights on. He fetched 15 men and they got to work getting those fires roaring. The wet coal being tossed into the boilers was rapidly filling the room with steam.
The engineer asked Barret to open a manhole cover to expose the valves that would allow them to direct the steam from the boilers. Shepard, who was in a hurry and could not see properly due to the room being filled with steam fell into the manhole and broke his leg. Barret and a few others quickly carried him over to the pump room. By this time barret could feel that the ship was sinking, she had a forward list and it was quickly getting worse. Just as Barret returned to his station, a rush of water came pouring in between the boilers from the front of the boiler room. The water was not pouring in from the top of the watertight compartment, but at floor level and fast. He did not stop to look where it was coming from. (Later on, he guessed that the coal bunker bulkhead gave away once the weight of the water became to much. The coal bunkers were not watertight)
All the men ran up the escape ladder as fast as they could, and up on the deck. Shepard, who's leg was broken was left behind in the pump room as the water was pouring in screaming at his colleagues to not leave him. Shepard did not survive…
Up on deck Barret did not immediately see many people. He started running towards the rear of the ship because it was no use going forward. That's when he saw 3rd class passengers come pouring out from all below deck exits looking for a lifeboat.
There were only two left on the ship.
Barret got in lifeboat Number 13, as it was lowered into the water it got tangled up with a discharge hose from the Ships pumps. Barret walked through the passengers on the lifeboat to cut the hose lose and tossed it in the water. The lifeboat got into the water, and drifted directly underneath lifeboat Number 15, which was now being lowered directly on top of them. Barret stated shouting up to the deck to stop lowering but nobody heard him. Thinking quickly, he and the other seaman grabbed the oars and pushed off the side of Titanic just in the nick of time.
With no one in charge of the lifeboat, Barret took command, distributed the oars, set up the rudder and got underway away from the ship.
As they pulled away from the Titanic, Barret saw that she was noticeably sinking now with her front submerged in the water.
After Titanic went down, Barret and the other passengers were overcome with the sounds of the screams of the passengers that were left on the ship and now in the water. Comparing it to the sounds of the crowd at a sports stadium crying out. It gradually got quiter, and quiter, until they were surrounded by complete silence. Barret saw another lifeboat and hailed them to tie up together, they rowed towards each other and Barret asked if he could transfer some passengers. He was told no, they're full up.
By this point, Barret was extremely cold and completely exhausted. He was only wearing thin clothing that he wore in the boiler rooms, it gets extremely hot in there. He had no time to put warm clothing on. One of the female passengers gently took her cloak off and wrapped it around his shoulders, after which he promptly fell asleep.
He was awoken in the morning at the site of the Carpathia coming to their rescue.
Frederick Barret Passed away at the age of 48 on March 3rd, 1941 due to tuberculosis.
You can read it in his own words here:
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