North's Titanic heroes revealed.

Byline: By Sarah Leese

A major new exhibition at the Science Museum in London, charting the life of the Titanic from its conception to its tragic sinking, has revealed for the first time three more victims from the North East. Sarah Leese reports

On a grey and rainy Easter Monday morning, the crew of the Titanic filed through the hiring halls for White Star Line in Southampton, all eager to sign on to the greatest liner ever built.

Among them was one J Brown, a Newcastle-born fireman, taken on as a substitute after one of his colleagues decided not to sail.

We can only imagine the sheer excitement the 30-year-old must have felt as he boarded this outstanding ship, the biggest moving object of its time.

From humble beginnings in Newcastle, Brown must have felt honoured to be part of the crew on this magnificent vessel, hailed as unsinkable.

He had previously been on the Oceanic, another of the great White Star liners, and would be paid a fairly decent monthly wage of pounds 6 for his work aboard the Titanic.

Meanwhile, in Southampton's docks, food supplies were loaded on to the great hulk as she sat in berth number 44 awaiting her maiden voyage.

The many provisions for the trip included 25,000lbs of poultry and game, 11,000lbs of fresh fish, 40,000lbs of eggs, 20,000 bottles of beer and stout and 1,500 bottles of wine.

No expense was spared on this, the most opulent of liners, where passenger facilities included a gym, a solarium, Turkish baths, a squash court and the finest restaurants.

The Titanic finally set sail at noon on Wednesday, April 10, 1912. On board were 2,220 passengers.

Alongside J Brown, there were two other North East crew members - revealed here for the first time through Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition, which opens at London's Science Museum next week.

Chief Engineer Joseph Bell, 51, served an apprenticeship at Robert Stephenson & Co in Newcastle and started his seagoing career in 1883 with the Lamport & Holt Line of Liverpool. He was born in Cumberland and educated in Carlisle.

Then there was Northumberland-born Walter Ennis, 35, who had a job aboard the Titanic as a Turkish bath attendant, receiving a monthly wage of pounds 6. He was married with two children.

Newcastle seaman James Anderson, 40, was also on board, as was Sunderland-born Charlie Whilems, a glassblower on his way to start a new life in the United States.

By Friday, April 12, two days after setting out, the Titanic, travelling at about 21 knots, had covered more than 1,000 miles.

A fire had broken out in the engine room, probably caused by coal left to dry. On the Saturday morning, Joseph Bell informed the captain that the fire had been put out and the danger was over.

But in the early hours of Sunday, messages came through that the route was blocked by icebergs and field ice.

By now the Titanic was travelling at 22 knots, the fastest speed she would ever achieve.

That evening a hymn-singing service took place in the second-class dining room. Meanwhile up a few decks, in the a la carte restaurant there was a dinner party to honour the Titanic's captain, Edward J Smith.

By 11.30pm, still travelling at 22 knots, the Titanic steamed on through the seemingly calm waters. But at 11:40pm the bronze bell rang three times. The ship's lookout cried out into the blackness: "Iceberg right ahead!".

Down in the baking-hot boiler room, Seaman Brown would have been furiously stoking the boilers, despite frantic warnings from other colleagues that he would go down with the ship if he did not get himself on deck.

But this brave man must have realised that if he stopped what he was doing, the ship's electricity would go out, leaving the ship in total darkness, resulting in an even greater loss of life. The orders were given to lower the lifeboats and fill them.

Just 58 miles to the south east of the Titanic was another liner, the Tyneside-built Carpathia, that was to make the headlines of every paper in the western world through its actions that fateful night.

After the Titanic raised the alarm, the Carpathia's captain, Arthur Rostron, began a desperate race through waters strewn with ice.

North East maritime historian Ken Smith, author of Tyne to Titanic, says the Carpathia had to do a complete turnaround.

"The Carpathia was heading to Gibraltar from New York and as soon as Rostron got the SOS call he changed direction and headed in the opposite direction.

"He had to do exactly what Capt Smith of the Titanic was doing, weaving his way through an ice field. The Carpathia wasn't as fast as the Titanic but it was more manoeuvrable. He had to take great care as he was responsible for his own passengers."

Those aboard the Carpathia included honeymoon couples and wealthy Americans on their way to the Mediterranean. There were also a number of immigrants who had been sent back from America to Italy and Yugoslavia.

The Carpathia promised to be with the doomed ship within four hours but the Titanic did not have four hours to spare. From its sinking decks, upbeat dance music floated out as the band famously played on.

Mr Smith says: "By the time the Carpathia arrived, Rostron realised it was too late. The Titanic had sunk, and scattered over the sea were the lifeboats. Some were full but others were only half-full."

A total of 705 survived the disaster and were taken aboard the Carpathia. But 1,500 people died.

Seaman Anderson was rescued in Lifeboat No 3, launched from the starboard side at 1am under the command of Able-Bodied Seaman George Moore. It contained 38 or 40 people but had a capacity to hold 65. Lifeboat 3 arrived at the Carpathia at about 6am on April 15. His fate was not known.

Seaman Brown died in the sinking.

His body was recovered and he was buried at Fairview Cemetery, Halifax, Nova Scotia, where his memorial remains, many thousands of miles from his home city.

Chief Engineer Bell also died, leaving a widow, Maud, and four children.

Northumberland-born Turkish bath attendant Walter Ennis was also a victim. His body, if recovered, was never identified.

The tragedy of the Titanic has lived on and even today, 91 years after the disaster, it still manages to capture people's imagination. There have been many books, documentaries and films about it including, most recently, James Cameron's Titanic, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo Di Caprio. So why does the story still fascinate us?

Ken Smith says: "I think it's the sheer terror of women and children being separated from their husbands and fathers. It was a human tragedy. It was also played out over several hours, unlike an aeroplane crash which happens in seconds."

Mr Smith's own fascination lies with the heroism of the captain and crew of the Carpathia: "It's that unwritten law of the ocean, to go to other ships in distress, that I admire. Rostron had to completely change course and faced the same hazards as the Titanic as he went to its rescue. He'd no hesitation in steaming in and helping the sinking ship."

NThe website www.encyclopaediatitanica. org is one of the most comprehensive sites for details of the Titanic.

NDo you have any stories to tell about the Titanic or the Carpathia? If so, write to Your Shout, Evening Chronicle, Groat Market, Newcastle NE1 1ED, or e-mail ec.news@ncjmedia. co.uk

Names put to tragedy

Titanic: The artefact exhibition, is one of the first of its kind to come to the UK.

As well as a collection of items raised from the seabed, the exhibition will also include the stories of those aboard the vessel.

Exhibition manager James Rudoni said: "It takes you back to 1907 and the ship's conception up to its sinking in 1912.

"Some artefacts have been raised in the last 10 years so they will never have been seen since the sinking. Among them is a two-and-a-half ton section of the Titanic's hull and the ship's bell that raised the alarm."

As visitors enter the exhibition, they will be handed a boarding pass with the name of a passenger.

"It explains a little bit about that person," said James. "Even though there are books and websites about the Titanic, this exhibition gets you thinking about the human tragedy."

At the end of the exhibition, visitors go into a memorial room where they find out if "their" passenger or crew member survived.

* The Titanic exhibition is at the Science Museum in London from May 16.

Journey through history

On April 24, 1903, the Carpathia departed Swan Hunter's Wallsend shipyard. Workmen looked on as she began her journey down the Tyne for trials in the North Sea and then delivery to her owners, Cunard, in Liverpool.

The Carpathia was not a luxury liner. She was built to carry second and third-class passengers at relatively cheap fares and better accommodation than had previously been offered.

She sailed on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Boston on May 5, 1903. She was later switched to the Liverpool to New York run before being transferred to the Trieste to New York route, carrying mainly Hungarian and Italian immigrants.

As Ken Smith says in his book from Tyne to Titanic, there is an unwritten code among seamen, whether enemies or rivals, to go to the aid of others in distress.

When he departed New York on April 11, 1912, Captain Arthur Rostron, of the Carpathia, cannot have imagined that his ship would be called upon to do this.

* Information courtesy of Tyne to Titanic by Ken Smith, Tyne Bridge Publishing.