Frederick Barrett

Frederick William Barrett (10 January 1883 – 3 March 1931) was a British fireman who was one of the leading firemen aboard the and was in Boiler Room No. 6 when the ship struck the iceberg, opening several compartments to the ocean. While the ship was sinking, Barrett boarded lifeboat No. 13 and was given command of it, thus surviving the disaster. He later testified before commissions of inquiry into the sinking of the ship and continued to work in the merchant marine until the 1920s.

Early life and career Frederick William Barrett was born on 10 January 1883 in Bootle, near Liverpool. He was the only surviving child of Henry Charles Barrett (1862–1909), a Devon workman, and Mary Barrett (née Morgan) (1864–?) of Birkenhead. On 4 October of the same year, he was baptised at St. John's Church in Bootle.

The date of Barrett's first trip to sea is uncertain but it was likely around the early 1900s. In 1903, he joined the Cunard Liner as a stoker. In 1904, he joined the Allan Liner , and then the White Star Liner . In 1906, he served again aboard Campania. He then joined the American Line ship . He was a lead stoker working in boiler room 6 when the Titanic struck an iceberg on the night of 14 April 1912. Boiler room 6 was at the site of the impact with the iceberg.

Barrett was talking to the second engineer John Henry Hesketh, when the red light and bells came on signalling the order to stop the engines. He shouted to the men in the boiler room to shut the dampers, the doors to the furnaces and to shut off the wind for the fires. Then he felt a crash, and water came pouring in on him from a large tear in the ship's starboard side. Barrett made his way through the watertight door into boiler room 5. He was ordered to go back into boiler room 6, but there was 8 feet of water there.

Aboard lifeboat 13 Barrett went up along a hatchway to reach the starboard side of A Deck, where there were only two lifeboats left. He left the sinking ship on lifeboat 13, which was filled with about 65 to 70 people.

Barrett took charge of the lifeboat for about an hour, saying, "I did not see anybody that was going to take charge of the boat. The rudder was lying in the stern at the bottom, and I shipped the rudder and took charge of the boat till after the Titanic sank."