Miss Sarah Agnes Stap
- Biography
| Name: Miss Sarah Agnes Stap
Age: 47 years Marital Status: Single. Last Residence: in Birkenhead Merseyside England Occupation: Stewardess Victualling crew First Embarked: Southampton Rescued Disembarked Carpathia: New York City on Thursday 18th April 1912 Died: Saturday 27th March 1937 |
Stewardess: Sarah Agnes Stap [1], c.46 [2], was born around 1865 at sea, the daughter of Captain Henry Stap, a master mariner, who at one time worked for the White Star Line.
Sarah Stap had been on the maiden voyage of the Baltic, and Adriatic, and also served on the Celtic, and most recently the Olympic as a nurse.
When Miss Stap signed-on to the Titanic on 9 April 1912 she gave her address as 41 Bidstan avenue, (Cloughton, Birkenhead). She signed on as a first class stewardess although according to her great-nephew Gordon Stap, she was not a stewardess but a ship’s matron. In her position she received monthly wages of £3 10s.
On the night of the sinking Sarah claimed that she owed her survival to a young cabin boy beside her who, when she was told to get into a lifeboat by the crew member in charge of that lifeboat, that there was room for her, she told the young cabin boy that as she was into her thirties and had had her life, he should take her spot. The cabin boy's answer was to simply pick her up, and put her in the lifeboat (#11).
Sarah Agnes Stap died in Birkenhead on Saturday 27 March 1937, aged 72.
Notes
1. She is sometimes listed as "Mrs Strap"
2. When she signed-on to the Titanic she gave her age as 31, her age at death was 72 suggusting that she was in fact about 46 on the Titanic.
References and Sources
The Birkenhead Newssaturday, 4 May 1912, Experiences of a Birkenhead Stewardess
General Register Office Certified Copy of an Entry of Death
Donald Hyslop, Alastair Forsyth and Sheila Jemima (1997) Titanic Voices: Memories from the Fateful Voyage, Sutton Publishing, Southampton City Council. ISBN 0 7509 1436
Credits
Brian Stap
Gordon Stap (great-nephew of Sarah Stap)
Cameron Bell, Northern Ireland
Phillip Gowan, USA
Mike Scott-Williams, South Africa
Related Articles and Documents
| Birkenhead News (2011) | BIRKENHEAD STEWARDESS MISS STAP'S GRAPHIC ACCOUNT OF THE TITANIC DISASTER |
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