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From: Geoff Carbines <>
Subject: [Fwd: Titanic - William Carbines]
Date: Sun, 22 Mar 1998 12:27:49 +1000


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This information may have already been posted to the list, but I felt
that it was of sufficient interest to forward it.

It was sent to me by a newly discovered family member. Discovered by Th
Cornish List.

Thanks to all our cousins.

Geoff Carbines.
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Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 15:29:13 +0000
To: Geoff Carbines <>
From: Peter Carbines <>
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Subject: Titanic - William Carbines
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Hi Geoff :)

Here's the article from "The Cornishman" I mentioned.

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FEATURE ARTICLE COPIED FROM PAGE 31 OF "THE CORNISHMAN", FEBRUARY 12, 1998

THE "TITANIC" AND WEST CORNWALL

With the film "Titanic" breaking all records at the box office, it is timel=
y to recall West Cornwall's close links with the doomed liner.

On April 3, 1912, having finished her sea trials off Belfast, RMS Titanic s=
teamed close in to Mount's Bay, and all those who saw her said she made an =
impressive sight. Why Captain Smith brought her so close in we shall never =
know, but he took her on to Southampton where many young Cornish men and wo=
men awaited to board her for passage to a new life in the USA.

Crossing the Channel to pick up emigrants at Cherbourg she then called in t=
o Queenstown in southern Ireland to pick up more passengers and then sped o=
ut across the Atlantic. On a black, chill night she ploughed into an ice fi=
eld. An iceberg loomed dead ahead. As the watch called "Hard to port", the =
Titanic's helmsman and quartermaster was Newlyn man Robert Hichens. He neve=
r had a chance of avoiding the berg and water began to pour in below.

When it became clear the liner was doomed, he took charge of lifeboat No 6 =
and helped get 32 people off. Later, at the enquiry into the disaster held =
in Liverpool he gave evidence and received criticism from passengers for be=
ing surly, showing little maritime knowledge and not allowing the boat to g=
o back for those in the water One of his passengers was the American millio=
nairess, Mollie Brown, and it was she who organised the other millionairess=
es aboard to row the boat.

Late in 1933, Hichens turned up in Torquay and was sent to Exeter gaol for =
five years for threatening a man with a revolver in a dispute over a boat. =
He might have received a longer sentence but the Judge took into account th=
e unique trauma he had suffered.

There were many Cornish heroes that dreadful night. Sam Rule of Hayle, a ba=
throom steward, helped 68 people into lifeboat 15. Harry Cotterell, Percy B=
ailey and George Hocking, all from Penzance, helped women and children into=
boats. When Mrs Hocking begged her son George to come as well he bravely r=
eplied: "No, mother. These men are brave enough to stand back for you, and =
I must stay back to let their wives and mothers go." He kissed her and she =
never saw him again.

Twenty year old Joseph Nicholls from St Ives, got life preservers for his m=
other and nine year old step-brother John, then helped them into lifeboat n=
umber 3. He stood back on the threat of being shot and watched his mother l=
owered away, pleading for him to jump. She never saw him again. She reporte=
d seeing row after row of the liner's lights going and said: "It was awful,=
terrible." When men in the lifeboat found out her son was still on the lin=
er they formed a line so that she would not see it go down.

Maud Sincock, 22, from St Ives, thrown into a lifeboat wearing just her nig=
htdress and boots, recalled hearing the screams from the men as the great l=
iner's stern went down. She was to spend six freezing hours in the lifeboat=
before being picked up by the Carpathia. Maud was one of the 711 survivors=
from the 2224 aboard Titanic. Having lost all her belongings she was helpe=
d out by charities in New York and received money from the White Star line =
before reaching her original destination of Hancock, Michigan. She was to s=
tay there the rest of her life, becoming a telephonist and marrying Arling =
Roberts with whom she had two daughters and a son. She died in Hancock in 1=
984, aged 94.

Of the 64 people from Cornwall, travelling as crew and passengers going to =
a new life or homes already in the USA, only a handful of men survived. One=
of these was passenger William T Carter of Penzance. Having made his money=
in America he returned regularly to his Cornish home town. He was the sole=
adult male Cornish passenger to survive and escaped the doomed liner in co=
llapsible boat number 3 with chairman of the White Star line, Bruce Ismay, =
scapegoat for the disaster because he got away while there were still women=
and children aboard.

Of the Cornish victims, only one body was brought back to Cornwall for buri=
al, and that was 19-year-old William Carbines from St Ives. He had been abo=
ard Titanic on his way to join his two brothers copper mining in Michigan. =
Instead his two brothers brought his body back to St Ives from Halifax Nova=
Scotia where the "Mackay Bennett", a ship chartered by White Star, had lan=
ded those bodies it had found at sea.

On May 30, 1912, at an impressive funeral attended by over 500 mourners, Wi=
ll Carbines was laid to rest in the family grave overlooking the sea he had=
been crossing six weeks before to start a new life.

Today his name and the Titanic's is barely legible on the Carbines' family =
headstone. Something should be done to preserve this stone as it is our one=
tangible link to an event that shocked the world and, some day, changed th=
e way man thought about himself in relation to the natural world.

The Titanic's story inspires writers and film makers, as can be seen in the=
latest special-effects spectacular the "Titanic" now on general release. W=
est Cornwall is part of that story

The Survivors=20
White Star Liner TITANIC - Cornish people on board at the time of the disa=
ster April 1912=20

Passengers drowned: Harry Cotterill, Penzance; Fred Giles, Porthleven; Step=
hen Jenkin, St Ives; Joseph C.Nicholas, Penzance; George Hocking, Penzance;=
Percy Bailey, Penzance; Wm. J. Berryman, St Ives; William Carbines, St Ive=
s; William Gilbert, Breage.

Passengers saved: Miss Maud Sincock, St Ives; *John M. Davis, St Ives; Mrs =
Emily Richards, Newlyn; *William Richards, Newlyn; *George Richards, Newlyn=
; * Ralph Wells, Penzance; Mrs Agnes Davis, St Ives; Mrs Eliza Hocking, Pen=
zance; Miss Nellie Hocking, Penzance; Mrs Addie Wells, Penzance; Miss Joan =
Wells, Penzance; Miss Ellen Wilkes, Penzance.

(* Children).

Scan & OCR by OmniPage Pro 8.0 21\03\98 F:\Temp\Word Docs\Tita=
nic.doc

--_Turnpike_'fH=7N(7cFhtJ+i)cv_mn/n2YrE9kud9BEwmrjhT

--
Peter There are three kinds of person; those who can count,
and those who cannot.

--_Turnpike_'fH=7N(7cFhtJ+i)cv_mn/n2YrE9kud9BEwmrjhT--

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