Mr James George Widgery

Mr James George Widgery, 37, was born in Bristol.

When he signed-on to the Titanic, on 4 April 1912, he gave his address as 67 Oxford Street, (Southampton). His last ship had been the St Paul. As a bath steward he received monthly wages of £3 15s.

Widgery went to bed at 10 o'clock on the night of April 14, 1912. A noise, like a grating sound, woke him up. "One of the men got up and opened up a port (hole) and it was blowing very cold and we told him to shut it." Then the order came down for all the men to take their lifebelts and go up on deck. Widgery went to his assigned station, lifeboat 7 on the starboard side. However, the Purser sent him to 9 where he assisted a storekeeper in putting in boxes of biscuits in that boat. The Purser then grabbed his arm, told him to get in the boat and help the ladies in. He (like William Ward) remembered an elderly lady who would not go into the boat, instead returning back down the stairs. "The Chief Officer...called for more women and there seemed to be none and he told the men to get in, four or five of them." They were then lowered into the water and ordered to row about a hundred yards off. "I cut loose the oars - I was the only one that had a knife amongst us - and we stood off a little ways."

References and Sources
Agreement and Account of Crew (PRO London, BT100/259)
United States Senate (62nd Congress), Subcommittee Hearings of the Committee on Commerce, Titanic Disaster, Washington 1912

Related Articles and Documents

Titanic Research  (2008)

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