Thomas Andrews (shipbuilder)
Thomas Andrews, Jr. (born February 7, 1873 in Comber , County Down , † April 15, 1912 in the North Atlantic when the Titanic sank ) was an Irish ship designer .
Life
Andrews was the son of the local politician and a member of the Royal Council of Northern Ireland, The Right Honorable , Thomas Andrews and his wife, Eliza Pirrie. Eliza was the sister of William Pirrie, 1st Viscount Pirrie (1847-1924), the general manager and CEO of the Belfast shipyard Harland & Wolff Ltd . His brother John Miller Andrews (1871-1956) became Northern Ireland's second Prime Minister in 1940. Andrews attended the Royal Belfast Academical Institution when he was 11 years old . At the age of 16, he began working for Harland & Wolff Ltd. in 1889 . and started a steep career with diligence and skill. In 1901 he became head of the construction department and in 1907 technical director of the shipyard. Thus he was the main person responsible for the construction of the Olympic class , which also included the Titanic . This makes him the chief designer of the accident steamer. Alexander Carlisle (1854-1926) was also significantly involved in the designs for the Olympic class.
On June 24, 1908, Andrews married Helen Reilly Barbour, the daughter of John Barbour, one of the directors of Harland & Wolff. On November 27, 1910, the couple's only child, Elizabeth Law Barbour Andrews, called Elba, was born . Due to his position, he headed the eight-person shipyard guarantee group on the maiden voyage of the Titanic and left Belfast on April 2, 1912.
At the time of the collision with the iceberg on April 14, 1912 at 11:40 p.m., Andrews was in his cabin. Then he assessed the damage to the ship together with Captain Smith and predicted a rapid sinking. According to survivors, Andrews supported the evacuation of the Titanic with all his might. He was last seen exhausted and apathetic in the smoking room of the first class shortly before the sinking when he looked at a painting hanging there. He had taken off his life jacket . Andrews went down with the Titanic and his body was never found.
His widow married Henry Peirson Harland, a member of the founding family of Harland & Wolff, in 1917. She had four children and died in Northern Ireland on August 22, 1966 . Elizabeth Andrews remained unmarried. She became a safari guide in Kenya , served as a nurse with the Red Cross during World War II and died in a car accident in Ireland in 1973.
In the later film adaptations of the shipwreck, Thomas Andrews was portrayed by Michael Goodliffe ( The Last Night of the Titanic , 1958), Geoffrey Whitehead ( SOS Titanic , 1979), Victor Garber ( Titanic , 1997) and Stephen Campbell Moore ( Titanic , series, 2012) . The role was not cast in numerous other productions such as the Titanic film version from 1943, the sinking of the Titanic from 1953 or the two-part TV series from 1996.
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| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Andrews, Thomas |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Andrews, Thomas junior (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Irish ship designer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 7, 1873 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Comber , County Down |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 15, 1912 |
| Place of death | North Atlantic when the Titanic sank |