Arthur John Priest

Male

Birth date: 31.8.1887 y.

Cabin: Healthcare workers-79

Biography:

Arthur John Priest was born on 31 August 1887 in Southampton, England, one of twelve children in a working-class family. His father, Harry Priest, worked as a laborer, and his mother, Elizabeth Garner, kept the home running. Like most boys from the docks, young Arthur grew up with the smell of coal smoke and saltwater in his lungs. Life in Southampton’s maritime quarters was hard, but it offered opportunity for those willing to work. By his teens, Priest had left school to take up labor at sea — a stoker’s apprentice, learning the brutal rhythm of the boiler rooms that powered Britain’s great liners.

By the early 1900s, Priest had become a seasoned fireman/stoker, part of the “black gang” — the crews who worked deep below decks shoveling coal into the furnaces that kept ships alive. It was punishing work: deafening heat, choking dust, and little sunlight. Yet Priest thrived there. He shipped out on a number of steamers, including White Star Line vessels, earning a reputation as a strong, steady worker who didn’t complain. His life was one of relentless voyages — crossing the Atlantic, serving on cargo routes, and working the liners that symbolized Britain’s industrial might.

Priest’s career became the stuff of legend due to his astonishing string of survivals. He was aboard RMS Olympic in 1911 when she collided with HMS Hawke off the Isle of Wight — badly damaged but saved from sinking. A year later, he served as a stoker on the RMS Titanic during her maiden voyage. When the ship struck an iceberg on 14 April 1912, Priest was among those working in the lower decks who escaped up through the boiler rooms and survived the icy Atlantic night. He later sailed on HMS Alcantara, which sank in 1916 after an engagement with a German raider, and was again among the rescued. His reputation among seamen grew — many joked, half seriously, that sailing with Priest was a curse for any ship.

In 1916, Priest was assigned to the HMHS Britannic to become one of the stokers as she sailed for the Helenes

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