By far the most exciting story concerning a Titanic crewman has survived through Mrs. Louise Parker of Golden Grove, a surviving daughter of greaser George Prangnell. The story of Prangnell's escape is truly incredible, and is told here in print for the first time. I suppose there must have been many survivors who felt that they were the ''last to be picked up'', but Mrs. Parker truly believes her father was such. It is not my place to cast doubt upon the story she received from her father, as she and her husband related it to me in all sincerity - I merely wish to express that it remains and probably always will remain uncorroborated by anyone else.
The story came to light through another of my pupils, Jane Russell, Prangnell's great-grand-daughter. Following my reading extracts from Walter Lord's book at school, she turned up one morning with her great-grandfathers Titanic wages-slip, a Board of Trade letter requesting his presence at the disaster inquiry, and his discharge book, vital pieces of history which are significant sources of information about Prangnell's nautical career, various newspapers and documents contain several different spellings of his name, probably culminating through lazy speech, in the modern pronunciation of the name with the first 'n' silent.
George Prangnell was born in Southampton in 1881. His Discharge Book states that he had an anchor tattooed on his left hand. An entry in the front ''Renewal Book Original Lost Through Shipwreck'' refers to the loss of his original in the Titanic sinking, the uniformity of the handwriting throughout indicating that it was copied up from company records when he was re-engaged. He served on the Teutonic and the Majestic, earning entries on his conduct and ability as ''Very Good''. On November 29th, 1911, he was taken on by the Olympic the Titanic's sister-ship, as a fireman, then in March, 1912, he mysteriously quit the job. The record simply states ''Voyage not completed'', and one wonders why? Maybe it was because there was a chance of a job on the prestigious new Titanic? He gained in status on his engagement as a greaser on the new White Star Liner on April 10, 1912, the fateful day on which the Titanic left Southampton for the first and only time. The entry in the discharge book is logged with stark, bare simplicity: '' Voyage - Intended New York: Discharged 15th April, 1912 - At Sea''
Prangnell had left a wife and two sons at home in Brew House Court in Southampton, and his wages slip records that he received £3 2s 4d, for his week with the Titanic, plus an advance of £1 which he had left with his wife to last them until his return. At. 2.20am on April 15, 1912, he like hundreds of others was desperately striving for life in 28 degree Atlantic water. A drifting life-raft came by and he tied himself to it with his braces, he drifted on the Atlantic, I am told, for three days, suspended half-in, half-out of the water. All other survivors, - according to documentation, were rescued by the Carpathia, so maybe Prangnell was the only survivor to be rescued by other means? He was picked up, half-dead, by a cargo vessel, the name of which may never now be discovered, and was recognised and revived with whisky by a Southampton seaman, Mickey Shields, who recognised him the moment he was hauled aboard. After being treated for severe frostbite, exposure and swollen genitalia in a New York hospital he re-enlisted with the White Star Line on July 20, 1912, as a fireman aboard the ''Oceanic''. Maybe a New York medical establishment contains a record of his admittance, or possibly there was tiny mention in an American newspaper of the time? George's story was never chronicled in a Southampton paper, despite the fact that he finally arrived home three months after the other survivors had returned - apparently, say his family, this was his way, shy of publicity. During his absence, he was presumed dead for days after the tragedy by his family, but another story from the Parker family tells how his dependants discovered that he was safe.
The Prangnell family lived at 9 Brew House Court, a tiny cul-de-sac off Brew House Lane, which ran between French Street and High Street, but now no longer exists. In those days mothers could watch from the windows here and see their children playing in the yard of St. John's School, in the days before the Blitz decimated the area and before French Street was truncated by Castle Way. Every day, as did many others, Mrs Prangnall made the sorrowful journey to the White Star Offices in Canute Road to see if her husband's name had been added to the lists of those saved: then one day she returned to the house to be greeted by the old lady who was looking after her two young sons, who informed her that she should not worry any more, for she had seen a vision of George in the flames of their fire, suspended from a life-raft! Several days later, his survival was confirmed with an official message from New York.
After his rescue and eventual return, Prangnell had four more children, and Louise Parker grins as she reflects that she would not even have been born had it not been for her father's iron will to live. She recalls how he never felt warm again, even in summer. He remained at sea until 1924, then worked at Vosper Thornycrofts, shipyard in Woolston and as a grain-runner for Fear & Colebrook in Chapel Road, living a full and active life until his death in 1953.
During 1953, Louisa Parker took her father to the Southampton Odeon to see the 20th Century Fox film, ''Titanic'', starring Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Wagner, this movie being the original film version of the disaster. She remembers her father describing the film as ''eyewash'', and in fact this first celluloid effort is generally remembered as being quite a dreadful film, much of it being quite fictitious, this view being confirmed by Southampton film expert John Edgar Mann, then Features Editor of the Southern Evening Echo.
John Mann, who joined the Echo in 1946, remembers the film well, and also how the Titanic was a taboo subject in those days, for it seems that the disaster was still too painful a memory in the 40s and 50s to be mentioned lightly in the pages of the local paper. Attitudes changed, however, with the release of the film ''A Night To Remember'' in 1958, starring Kenneth Moore, a far more representative and well researched movie, through being based on Walter Lord's book. Its appearance sparked interest in the story, and John can remember interviewing many Titanic survivors for his paper over the years. He also recalls being raised in the Thornhill district of the city, just across the road from a garage owned by two sons of Captain Rostron, of the ''Carpathia'' the Cunard liner which picked up the 705 survivors.
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