Britannic Voyage

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Residence: Belfast, Ireland
Occupation: Apprentice Draughtsman, Harland & Wolff Shipyard
Former Service: Able Seaman, Cunard Line
Nationality: British

Thomas "Tommy" Arthur Greyson was born in Whitby, England, the youngest of six children in a family that had always been mariners. In 1900, the family schooner SV Halcyon went down in a summer storm off Hartlepool, taking his father and four of his siblings with her. Only he, his brother David, and his mother survived. The sea that had been the source of the Greysons' livelihood became a reminder of all they had lost.

When David joined the merchant service, Tommy looked at him with prideful silence. The pride turned to grief in 1912 when David was lost in the Titanic tragedy. At fifteen, Tommy decided to go his brother's way to sea, but he signed on with Cunard instead of White Star. In 1915, he was serving on the RMS Lusitania, attempting to find his place in the life his brother had vacated.

On board the Lusitania, Tommy had met Katherine Tierney, a passenger in first class who, with her kindness and curiosity, had attracted him. She had invited him to a small party with other passengers, a rare spot of light in a life that had seen too much tragedy. When the ship was torpedoed off the Irish coast, the two were parted in the panic. Tommy was saved in Lifeboat 11, believing Katherine had perished, unaware she had been rescued in Lifeboat 1. They reunited in Queenstown, both of them surprised to see the other alive.

Too devastated to return to sea following the disaster, Tommy went to Belfast and found work at Harland & Wolff. He started as a lowly hand, running wood and materials about until a draughtsman noticed him sketching the lines of a ship on a scrap of waste paper. Offered a place as an apprentice in the drawing office, Tommy agreed with quiet determination. He threw himself into design, working on ships his brother once sailed on.

By November 1916, he had earned the respect of the men around him. His attention to structure and detail set him apart, and his diligence was not lost on his commanders. While HMHS Britannic was being readied for another trip, Tommy was chosen to accompany her as an apprentice draughtsman on the trip for study and inspection and had to observe the behavior of the ship in the sea and make notes on her internal alterations. For Tommy, it was a fresh beginning, a chance to clear his name and make peace with the ocean that had claimed and yielded so much.