Captain John Edward Smith
"I believe you may get your headlines, Mr. Ismay" - Capt. Smith
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Captain Edward John Smith (age 62) was born at Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent,
England on January 27th, 1850 - the son of potter Edward Smith and his wife
Catherine.
Edward John Smith attended the Etruria British School until the age of 13
when he went to Liverpool to begin a seafaring career as an apprentice on a
clipper ship - the 'Senator Weber' owned by Gibson & Co. - in 1869.
He joined the White Star Line in 1880 as Fourth Officer and gaining his first command in 1887. Among the ships he would command were the first 'Republic', 'Coptic', 'Majestic', 'Baltic', 'Adriatic' and 'Olympic'. In total he captained 17 White Star liners.
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On January 13th, 1887 he married
Sarah Eleanor Pennington at St. Oswald's Church, Winwick.
Their daughter Helen Melville Smith, known as Mel, was born in Liverpool and
later moved to Southampton with her parents.
The family lived in an imposing red brick, twin-gabled house
"Woodhead" on Winn Road, Westwood, Southampton.
Captain Smith soon became a master seaman, and was considered the top dog in
the formidable White Star Line's fleet. He often took the company's ships out on
their sea trials and their first voyages.
His capability and experience attracted a lot of people to him. Many of the
White Star Line employees would request to be transferred to whatever ship he
was captaining at the time in order to be near the "millionaires
Captain".
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Prior to the disaster, Captain
Smith had captained the Olympic, Titanic's identical sister ship,
for almost a year.
All in all, Captain Smith had 46 years of experience on the sea, including
captaining a ship during the Boer war.
Sadly, he planned to retire after Titanic's maiden voyage.
A large statue of Captain Smith was unveiled by his daughter Helen on July 29th, 1914 in Lichfield, England. The sculptor was Lady Kathleen Scott (1870 - 1947) widow of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, "Scott of the Antarctic." A plaque which was placed on Hanley Town Hall in his memory in 1913 was later removed to Etruria Middle School.
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Captain Smith's widow Eleanor Sarah
was born on June 17th, 1861. After her husband's death she remained in
Southampton for a time but later moved to London. She died after being knocked
down by a taxi outside her London home on April 28th, 1931.