Arthur John Priest (31 August 1887 – 11 February 1937) was an English fireman and stoker who was notable for surviving four ship sinkings, including the , HMS ''Alcantara'', HMHS ''Britannic'' and the . Due to these incidents, Priest gained the moniker "the unsinkable stoker".

Life

Priest was the son of Harry Priest, a labourer and his wife Elizabeth Garner, and was one of twelve children. In 1915, Priest married Annie Martin (née Hampton) in

Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liv ...

and had three sons; called Arthur John, George and Frederick Harry. The family lived for a number of years at 17 Briton Street,

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

. Priest worked as a stoker, in the bowels of

steam-powered A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be tr ...

ships. He was considered a part of the ''black gang'', in a group of 27 men, which consisted of six firemen, two trimmers, and the firemen's steward colloquially known as a 'peggy' whose task was to bring food and refreshments to the group. The work was intense and often done while stripped to the waist due to the sustained and intense heat of the furnaces. Whilst working as a stoker, Priest survived four ship sinkings and two major collisions, most of them during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. The ships in question were RMS ''Asturias'' (collision on her maiden voyage, 1908), (collision with HMS ''Hawke'', 1911), (sunk by an iceberg, 1912), HMS ''Alcantara'' ( sunk in combat with SMS ''Greif'', 1916), HMHS ''Britannic'' (sunk by a mine, 1916) and (torpedoed by , 1917). Two other survivors of the ''Titanic'',

Archie Jewell Archibald Jewell (4 December 1888 – 17 April 1917) was a sailor who was on the crew of the Titanic. He survived the sinking of the ''Titanic'' and '' Britannic'', but died during the sinking of the SS ''Donegal'' when it was torpedoed withou ...

and Violet Jessop, would later also survive the sinking of the ''Britannic'' with Priest, with Jewell later being killed on the ''Donegal''. In 1917, Priest was awarded the Mercantile Marine Ribbon for his service in the Great War. After the sinking of SS ''Donegal'', Priest retired from working at sea and left his job as a stoker. He lived out the rest of his days in Southampton, with his wife Annie. He claimed that "no one wished to sail with him after these disasters." Other than his survival stories, there is little information about his personal life. According to sources, he died in 1937 at his home in Southampton at the age of 49 from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...

with his wife Annie by his side. He is buried at

Hollybrook Cemetery Hollybrook Cemetery is a cemetery in Bassett, Southampton, England containing around 53,000 graves as of August 2012 and still open to new burials as of March 2016. It is one of the main cemeteries in Southampton. History The first burial in ...

, England. He was given the nickname "the unsinkable stoker" because of his stories of survival at sea.

References

External links

Titanic’s Unsinkable Survivors
The Old Salt Blog. The Arthur John Priest & Violet Jessop
The man who survived 3 sinkings in the First World War and the Titanic
February 29, 2016

Street Arts, Amazing "To the Bitter End," December 2019

Nov, 15, 2017
The wreck Site, RMS Alcantara (+1916)
Allen Toney, 2006
Titanic's unsinkable stoker
Peter Engberg-Klarström, Brian Ticehurst, Bill Wormstedt, "Mr. Arthur John Priest" 2017
Forgotten Wrecks of the First World War
Beresford, Katherine. Maritime Archaeology Trust. 22 November 2017 {{DEFAULTSORT:Priest, Arthur John 1887 births 1937 deaths 19th-century English people 20th-century English people People from Southampton RMS Titanic survivors Burials at Hollybrook Cemetery Deaths from pneumonia in England