City's part in story of the Titanic will not be forgotten

RESCUED CREW MEMBERS ARRIVED AT MILLBAY DOCKS

- JACKIE BUTLER

ALMOST two weeks after the Titanic cruise liner sank in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912, crew members who escaped with their lives took their first weary steps onto dry land back in the UK - at Millbay Docks, in Plymouth.

Hundreds of onlookers turned out to witness the arrival of the 167 survivors - 147 men and just 20 women who had been working on the “unsinkable” luxury ship when she struck an iceberg off Newfoundland on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.

There had been 2,200 people on board, and 1,500 of those died in the world's worst-ever passenger ship disaster.

After fleeing the sinking ship on lifeboats, the surviving passengers and crew were rescued by the SS Carpathia and delivered to Pier 54 at New York's docks on April 18. It was reported at the time that Titanic's owners, the White Star Line, prevented the British crew from speaking to anyone about their ordeal.

After two days detained in port, the men and women were sailing back across the Atlantic on board the chartered Red Star SS Lapland, which was also loaded with almost 2,000 bags of mail that the Titanic had been scheduled to carry.