Titanic: Survivors from Wales of 1912 liner tragedy

By Steve Duffy BBC News Wales

One of the Titanic lifeboats, with some of the 700 survivors

... Able seaman Thomas William Jones, 32, son of a fisherman from Llanbadrig on Anglesey, was in charge of boat No 8. It contained two fellow crew and 24 women, all first class passengers, including the redoubtable Countess Rothes, an expert oarswoman.

However, despite Jones' own misgivings, the majority of passengers were against going back for survivors, despite there being room on board for fear of being swamped. A letter of gratitude from the countess's cousin, a fellow survivor, said: "I shall always remember your words, 'ladies if any of us are saved, remember I wanted to go back. I would rather drown with them, than leave them.'"

Another crew member from Anglesey was Holyhead-born Edward Brown, 34, a steward in first class, who helped load lifeboats but was washed overboard by a wave as he tried to leave in a boat as the ship sank.

The non-swimmer said it felt "like a lifetime" in the water, clinging onto a lifebelt until he was rescued by a collapsible lifeboat, one of the last to leave Titanic.

His great-great niece Olivia Goulding said: "He was in the water so long his hands and feet swelled up - he said that his feet were bursting through his boots, but he took an oar of the lifeboat".

Edward later married but the physical toll from that night may have contributed to his death at the age of 48 in a Liverpool sanatorium. He left a widow and six-year-old daughter.

Olivia and her cousin Valerie Lewis, who have researched his story, presented Holyhead Maritime Museum with their findings in his memory to coincide with the centenary.

Historian Richard Davenport-Hines, who has written Titanic Lives: Migrants and Millionaires, Conmen and Crew said: "The crew and passengers in the lifeboats would have realised, with 1,000 people bobbing in lifejackets in the water, people might get to the sides and overwhelm them.  

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