Officers' Relationships

Hehe,I thought that was James Moody,Lights and James must had the same personality
 
While they were fairly similar in some respects, Alyson, I would hardly say they had the same personality. Moody seemed a great deal shyer in many situations, whereas Lightoller never had any problems letting his opinions known. And while Lightoller was known for taking many foolhardy risks, Moody did not really seem the type. He had no problem with a lark, but I doubt he would take it to the extremes that Lightoller did.

And while Lightoller was very inconsistent in much of his career (at least before he got married), often taking off long breaks until he ran out of money and was forced to find another job, Moody was very dedicated and believed in hard work, and from what I've read from Inger, was fairly frugal with his money.

Lightoller also harboured a great love for the sea, whereas Moody was given little choice in his career. Lightoller also seemed much more boastful to me, while Moody more self-depricating.

And no doubt that's just the tip of the iceburg with the differences in their personalities! (No pun intended!).
 
Frugal meaning how?
True.
I thought james was kind of shy.When he was with Lights, i think lights out going personality would of made him look more shy.
Given James had two older Brothers,there was no need for James to follow in his father footsteps .I don't think James wanted to be a lawyer or a sceintest,so he choose a different path.
 
It was more Victorian tradition that the third son become a sailor among some families, and hence James' enrollment.

And bluntly, frugal is the nicer way of saying cheap!
 
What? James Moody was cheap,you mean a tight ar/se. How do you know this. This is news to me, Got any more input please,if you can!
 
Ask Inger, I remember reading it in one of her posts. And not a tight arse, just responsible with his money. There are certainly worse things to be in a time when welfare was non-existant, and if you didn't have a job, you went hungry.
 
I don't know if James was particularly shy, Kat - he was remembered as "mischievous" and "full of fun". He did make an amused reference once to an incident in which he felt very shy, but that was as an adult looking back to a childhood memory of sitting at a table surrounded by female relatives, all teasing him!

He could also be profligate with his money when the mood was upon him (if I were to characterise any of the officers as "frugal", based on the crew agreements for his ships I'd say it was Lowe). While he did take certain precautions and had a savings account and life insurance (so was broadly responsible), there was one occasion on which he managed to spend all his ready cash while on leave and had to sell one of his sextants to raise some funds!

Moody did indeed see nothing wrong with hard work, and had a pretty clear career path laid out to which he more or less stuck. He wouldn't have become a WSL officer the same month he turned 24 if he hadn't had both talent and a sense of responsibility about his work.
 
Inger.I'm going to be a pain here but what incident was that made him all shy in front of his female ralitives? Why were they teasing him for?
 
Really? Thanks for the correction, Inger, I guess I've been reading up so much in the last couple weeks my mind has been turned to a jumble of mush!

And now that it has been pointed out, I agree, I would classify James as shy - I think it was a matter of bad word usage. Certainly not shy, just much less... blunt, than Lightoller I guess was what I meant. Since reading TOAS I've always found Lights highly opinionated and unafraid of saying exactly what he thinks, whereas James was much more... sedated? I cannot for the life of me think of a way to describe it, but I hope you understand what I mean. Just very much more conscious of the 'there's a time and place for everything' ideal.

And I recall hearing about that incident with his earnings and the sextant that you are referring too (likely from you yourself!
Happy
)

And I agree, definitely a talented and dedicated seaman, but I'm sure I remember reading something about his natural calling not really being the sea. Perhaps I'm thinking of someone else?
 
Yeah same here Kat it's differently James,i do recall reading that the sea was not his natural calling too.
 
You're right that it wasn't his profession by choice - it was decided by his relatives that sending him to HMS Conway would be a good way of finishing his education and providing him with a career. His closest living relative has expressed the opinion that, even if he had not been involved in the Titanic sinking, he would not have remained at sea.

In this context, it's quite moving to read some comments he made in a reflective mood a couple of years before the Titanic sinking. He was much happier in the steamers, and commented that he had never felt so happy at sea before.

By the beginning of 1912, he was looking forward to that summer on the Atlantic run.

Alyson, they were just teasing him as the only boy among so many females (which included his cousins, aunts and grandmother) - they dubbed him "Puck among the roses." The "roses" being themselves, of course, and "Puck" is a nature spirit, most famously used by Shakespeare in "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Originally sometimes a rather sinister figure, "Puck" over time came to be considered more playful and mischievous. To be "puckish" now means to be impish and whimsical.

Rudyard Kipling (a distant relative of the Moodys) published "Puck of Pook's Hill" in 1906, which suggests the word and character might have been popular in the early years of last century (the incident with Moody took place around 1900).
 
Thanks Inger.You mention that he would not remand at sea after the Titanic (if nothing went wrong)What was james interest for work?
 
I've never heard an alternate career for him mentioned, Alyson - it was his family who had the impression he would nto have remained at sea. I wonder if he would have joined the Royal Naval Reserve and served with the Navy in World War I like his surviving Titanic colleagues, or whether he would have joined his two brothers in a Grimsby regiment and gone to France.
 
Maybe James wanted to join his brothers in the work force?

>>I wonder if he would have joined the Royal Naval Reserve and served with the Navy in World War I like his surviving Titanic colleagues, or whether he would have joined his two brothers in a Grimsby regiment and gone to France.<<

Now you got me thinking.I would think the Royal Navel Reserve only cause he would have alot of experience in that feild but then again he might want to fight with his Brothers (Brothers in arms)lol.
I wounder if he Brothers survived WW1.
 
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