- Original Article
Shoreham Man was Titanic hero
A COOK on board the Titanic, who reportedly saved a baby from Captain Smith's arms, as the liner was sinking, was from Shoreham.
Isaac Maynard was born in Shoreham on October 8, 1880.
The son of Shoreham lifeboat coxswain Hiram Maynard, he was an entrée cook on the ill-fated voyage, which ended with the liner sinking on April 15, 1912.
His niece, Doreen Bartram, now 85 years old, said the family had had a party to celebrate his safe return.
Captain Smith
"When I was a child, I saw him," said Mrs Bartram.
"The whole family had a marquee to celebrate him coming home."
Mr Maynard had been living in Southampton before setting sail on the Titanic and, according to family history and reports from the Daily Sketch at the time, took a baby from Captain Smith's arms as he stood on the bridge of the sinking liner.
"My mother used to say Uncle Ike saved the baby from the captain's arms as the Titanic sank," said Mrs Bartram, who lived in Adur Avenue, Shoreham, as a child.
Daily Sketch
Mrs Bartram added: "Mum was always very proud of him.
"She always used to talk about him."
Mr Maynard was picked up by a lifeboat, but it was days before his family heard whether he was safe or not.
An article in the Daily Sketch, dated April 30, 1912, said: "A well-known Shoreham family are distressed by the fact that they have a relative as one of the members of the ship's complement who are missing.
"Mr Isaac Maynard, a son of the late Mr Hiram Maynard, one-time coxswain of the Shoreham lifeboat and a pilot at Shoreham Harbour, was a cook on the Titanic.
"No news concerning him can as yet be gleaned."
Millvina Dean
Mrs Bartram decided to contact the Herald to tell her uncle's story after hearing of the death of Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the Titanic, and seeing a picture of him on a television documentary.
"I thought it would be nice for people to know what he did," she said.
Mrs Bartram, who moved to Tiverton in Devon 14 years ago, lost touch with her uncle when he moved to Weymouth and her mother died.
"I'd like to know a bit more about him," she said.
More than 1,500 people died in the north Atlantic after the Titanic sank – largely owing to a lack of lifeboats.
Miss Dean, the last Titanic survivor, who was just six weeks old when the liner sank, died on Sunday, May 31, aged 97.