Body unidentified 105 BD

[patrick verneuil]

body unidentified #105 list recovered by ship :
male estimated age 30, moustache, striped shirt marked "B.D".probably third class.
the initial name "B.D" in third class are Barton David and Bowen David.
Bowen has 21,and no moustache,Barton age 32.
body #105 in list of recovered bodies is:
Barton David ?

 

[Ben Holme]

Hi Patrick,

I hazarded a guess at this one myself a while back. Body #105 could have been David Barton or Dai Bowen, but judging from their photographs, both appear to have had light brown hair rather than dark. The body was more likely to have been that of someone like Bertram Dean (who was 26 with dark hair and a moustache) or, somewhat less likely, Branko Dakic (who was 11 years younger than the "estimated age"). His "claim" is made further tenuous as I do not believe anyone has a photo of him. However, it could have been somebody entirely different. Unfortunately, the body was buried at sea.

Hope this helps,
Ben

 

[Geoff Whitfield]

Ben, Don't, like I have done on more than one occasion, fall into the trap of attempting to identify people through initials in clothing. Remember that in those, less affluent days, it was quite normal for people to wear either "hand me downs" or even second hand clothes. The same goes for watches with inscriptions and rings which were often passed down to relatives, or even, in the case of many crew members, the pawn broker!

 

[Ben Holme]

Hello Geoff,

I'm sure your right. As I said, it could have been almost anyone, mainly because of the reasons you mentioned. I was just explaining to Patrick who I thought fitted the #105 criteria better than anyone else. My guesses were based chiefly on the physical description and the estimated age. It just seems that Bertram Dean is a more likely candidate than Barton or Bowen.

I have a "suggested identity" for quite a number of passengers and crew. They are probably all wrong (!) but it's quite an enjoyable exercise to do and it helps establish to a certain extent, those whose bodies were certainly not recovered.

But many thanks for your advice. I hadn't fully considered those points.

Regards,
Ben

 

[Phil Fazzini]

https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-biography/bertram-frank-dean.html {Dean bio}
https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-biography/david-john-barton.html {Barton was 22}