Thomas Andrews (shipbuilder)
Thomas Andrews, Jr. ( born February 7, 1873 in Comber, County Down, † April 15, 1912 in the North Atlantic during the sinking of the Titanic ) was an Irish naval architect.
Life
Andrews was the son of a local politician and member of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland, The Right Honourable, Thomas Andrews and Eliza Pirrie his wife. Eliza was the sister of Lord William James Pirrie (1847-1924), Chief Operating Officer and Chairman of the Belfast shipyard Harland & Wolff Ltd. .. His brother John Miller Andrews (1871-1956) was the second Prime Minister of Northern Ireland in 1940. Andrews attended by the school at the Royal Belfast Academical 11 years the institution. At the age of 16, he began his work in 1889 at Harland & Wolff Ltd.. and launched a successful career with diligence and skill. In 1901 he became head of the design department and in 1907 the technical director of the shipyard. Thus he was the main person responsible for the construction of the Olympic - class to which also belonged to the Titanic. This he regarded as chief engineer of the steamer misfortune. But one of the most responsible for the construction plans of the Olympic - class was also Alexander Carlisle ( 1854-1926 ).
On 24 June 1908 he married Helen Reilly Barbour, daughter of John Barbour, one of the directors of Harland & Wolff. On November 27, 1910, the only child of the couple was born, Elizabeth Law Barbour Andrews. Because of his position, he led the eight-member group shipyard warranty on the maiden voyage of the Titanic, and left with this Belfast on 2 April 1912.
At the time of the collision with the iceberg on April 14, 1912, Andrews was at 23:40 clock in his cabin. Then he surveyed the damage of the ship along with Captain Edward John Smith and predicted a rapid demise. According to statements by survivors Andrews supported the evacuation of the Titanic with all your strength. He was last exhausted shortly before the sinking and apathetic seen in the smoking room of the first class, as he stared at a painting hanging there. He had taken off his life jacket. Andrews went down with the Titanic, his body was never found.
His widow married in 1917 Henry Peirson Harland, a member of the founding family of Harland & Wolff. They had four children, and died on August 22, 1966 in Northern Ireland. Elizabeth Andrews remained unmarried. It was safari guide in Kenya, served in World War II as a nurse with the Red Cross and died in 1973 in a car accident in Ireland.
In the later film adaptations of the ship's destruction was Thomas Andrews by Michael Goodliffe ( The last night of the Titanic, 1958), Geoffrey Whitehead (SOS Titanic, 1979) and Victor Garber ( Titanic, 1997) shown. In numerous other productions such as the Titanic film version of 1943, sinking of the Titanic in 1953 or in the TV miniseries of 1996, the role was not occupied.