Joseph Bell, Chief Engineer on the R.M.S. Titanic

On a recent visit to Southampton, I visited the Titanic Engineers’ Memorial that is sited in East [Andrews] Park that is dedicated to Joseph Bell the Chief Engineer and his staff, that consisted of 24 engineers, 6 electrical engineers, two boilermakers, a plumber and a clerk who died in the RMS Titanic disaster on the 15^th April 1912.  Sir Archibald Denny, president of the Institute of Marine Engineers on the 22nd of April 1914, unveiled the bronze and granite memorial. An estimated 100.000 Southampton residents attended the event.

On unveiling the statue, Sir Archibald Denny said: “By the manner of their deaths the Engineers carried out one of the finest traditions of our race”.“They must have known that pumping could do no more than delay the final catastrophe, yet they stuck pluckily to their duty”. “Driven back from boiler-room to boiler-room, fighting for every inch of draught to give time for the launching of the boats, not one of those brave officers was saved”.

Ferdinand Victor Blundstone was the sculptor of the memorial that is a Grade 11 listed building. It features a bronze statue of Nike, the Greek Winged Goddess of Victory, created by Trieste born sculptor Romeo Rathmann, and carvings that represent the engineer officers of the ship who died in the disaster.

The inscription on the Titanic Engineers’ Memorial reads:

Greater Love Hath No Man Than This,

That a Man Lay Down His Life For His Friends

ST. John 15^th CH. 13^th Verse

 TO THE MEMORY OF THE ENGINEER OFFICERS

OF THE R.M.S.TITANIC WHO SHOWED THEIR

HIGH CONCEPTION OF DUTY AND THEIR

HEROISM BY REMAINING AT THEIR POSTS

 15^TH APRIL 1912

ERECTED BY THEIR FELLOW ENGINEERS AND FRIENDS

THROUGHOUT THE WORLD

    Images below are carvings from each side of the the bronze statue of Nike

For those who may not have seen them, here are a selection News Reviews & Notices that have appeared for the new biography of Joseph Bell, Tarn to Titanic: Life & Times of Joseph Bell Chief

 CUMBIA MAGAZINE:

Mr John Lightfoot MBE, former Marine Engineer and donor to the Joseph Bell Memorial Appeal recently visited the Memorial Gravestone dedicated to Joseph Bell in the old  Churchyard of St Thomas a Becket near Farlam Cumbria.  Ann Freer, joint author of the recently published and first biography of Joseph Bell, is accompanying him here.