#Thomas Andrews

[malacandrax]

So like what if there’s no Jack.

Partly fuelled by a group watch of titanic, partly ‘nobody has ever drawn this therefore I Must’. I think drawing this made me kind of fonder of the platonic relationship they have in canon, but it was fun! And I Do love a good may/december haha.

[devonsawas]

TITANIC | 1997 ↳ Directed by James Cameron

[dopeasspancake]

The one part of Titanic I will absolutely never recover from is at the very end:

Jack, the person she loved most is the one waiting for her up the stairs at the clock. As you get closer to Jack, the other people Rose was more familiar with and/or cared for her are the ones standing nearest to him, with Jack’s third class friends she met and danced with being toward the bottom of the stairs and Fabrizio is even leaning on the rail with his foot on the first step (hon. mention to Mr. Murdoch who saw Jack and Rose cavorting on deck and smiled and laughed about it).

But you know who the only other character is that’s not only fully on the staircase, but several steps up from everyone else?

Mr. Andrews 🥺

He was the only one of Rose’s first-class peers to show her respect, value her intelligence, and show genuine concern about her making it off Titanic alive.

And it both warms my heart and tears me apart that next to Jack, he was clearly the next closest person she held dear. And I know everyone smiles and greets her as she walks by but Thomas Andrews just looks so fucking proud of her. He’s so proud that she made it out and lived her life.

So I think it’s safe to say that in return, Thomas Andrews was the one who cared for Rose the most, aside from Jack.

When she walks in and people start noticing her, you can see Fabrizio speaking to Mr. Andrews before spotting Rose and gesturing toward her, and UGH they both just look so happy to see her.

So I know the end is up for interpretation on whether it’s a dream or she died. But personally I choose to believe she passed peacefully in her sleep and was finally reunited with the people she cared about most, who had been patiently waiting for the last 84 years for her to rejoin them.

Excuse me while I go cry now 🥹

[your-resident-boat-person]

"What we think, or what we know, or what we believe, is in the end, of little consequence. The only thing of consequence is what we do."

I think a lot of you should keep this quote in mind. Nowadays, having the "right" opinion has become more important than one's actions, to the point where people will be harassed for opinions they hold completely privately and do not act on. It's like that one person says, something along the lines of "in leftist spaces, it's infinitely more important to do nothing wrong than something right."

Ultimately, someone with all of the "right" opinions who does nothing good offers nothing to the world at large. Someone who may have "wrong" opinions who actually gets up and makes a difference is infinitely more important to the world at large.

You will not be remembered or celebrated for sticking to your morals and doing nothing.

Every day, each and every one of us is given hundreds if not thousands of opportunities to do little acts of good and kindness. Taking those opportunities will invariably make the world a better place.

[dame-de-pique]

Thomas Andrew - Man from Satawan, 1886

+++

[melancholyromance]

I'm sorry that I didn't build you a stronger ship, young Rose.

[kornblume814]

[mattaytchtaylor]

Now a for-real-deal throwback: A Thomas Andrews, Jr. sketch.

I haven't drawn him in years!

[trekkitkat]

Some more reasons why Thomas Andrews my favourite person from history.

As a kid, his friends nicknamed him “Admiral” because of his skill and fondness of boats. 

He loved animals, looked after bees and horses and was very kind and gentle with them. 

At school, he wasn’t so great at academics, but the teachers and students still loved him for his generosity and honesty, “Wherever he went, he carried his own sunshine.” 

Staying at a hotel on a trip with friends, someone broke a bed rail. Thomas look responsibility for it and paid for a new bed. He fixed the broken bed and gifted it to an elderly cleaning lady at the hotel for her invalid husband. He and his friends carrying it to the couples' house and setting it up for them. 

As a teenage apprentice at the Harland and Wolff shipyards, he was known to do things like finish his own work early so he could help an old workman with his tasks, stay late to catch up the work of another apprentice who was sick, encourage others who were struggling.  A foreman noted, “It seemed his delight to make others around him happy.” 

He worked all day in the shipyards, then took night classes in drawing, mechanics and naval architecture. 

As head of the Design Department, he had in depth knowledge of all fifty-three branches of the shipyard, 

He was a natural and good leader. The workers at the shipyard looked up to him because he was good-natured, direct and intelligent and he could bring that out in others too. He saw people and respected them. If someone had an idea or suggestion, he wanted to hear it. 

He climbed an eighty-foot scaffold during a gale to save a man who got stuck. 

He didn’t believe himself above anybody and saw the workers at the shipyard as his friends.  He advocated for better housing, education and shorter working days for labourers. And he hated politicians who tried to fuel class divide and tension. 

During Titanic’s voyage, he wrote or sent telegrams to his wife from Belfast, Southampton, Cherbourg and Queenstown, telling her how the ship was fairing and the details he was working on.  A couple who shared the same dining table with him said he was very proud of the ship, but what he wanted to talk most about was his wife, daughter and family. 

Stewardess May Sloan said, “He made you feel on the ship that all was right. It was good to hear his laugh and have him near you. If anything went wrong, it was always to Mr Andrews one went.” 

And this is just a sample of what this man was like. He was an absolute gem. One of those rare, special people that make the world better just by existing. 

[quicksiluers]

Well, I may have knocked her together, but the idea was Mr. Ismay's. He envisioned a steamer so grand in scale, and so luxurious in its appointments, that its supremacy would never be challenged. And here she is...willed into solid reality.

[frankidacre]

Posting here one of my favorite pieces <3 I always associate Andrews with the sun/sunflowers.

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

not really enjoying tumblrs trend of comparing Thomas Andrews to Stockton Rush 😒Could you share how the two differ despite the fact they died by their own creations?

ive been trying to figure out how to tackle this ask for a few days now because theres so much to disentangle, but disentangle i will.

see, this comparison relies on common misinformation and misconceptions about titanic. its a ship thats been romanticised and mythologised for decades, and every portrayal of it from william randolph hearts yellow newspaper coverage to robin gardiners conspiracy theory to jim camerons film.

what im gonna list to disentangle this whole thing is by no means an exhaustive list of titanic misconceptions, only those relevant to this topic

-titanic was a cruise ship - titanic was an ocean liner not a cruise ship (ive detailed the differences in a different ask here)

-titanic was a brand new unique ship never seen before - not true, ocean liners had existed for decades. theres debate about which was the first, but many agree that its the ss great western which launched in 1843. titanic wasnt even the first launched in her class; that honour goes to the rms olympic.

-it was built with substandard materials and cut corners - this is one of those where theres potentially some truth, but its been misrepresented. theres some evidence that the rivets werent the best made, but the board of trade cleared the ship and she was built with the same materials and basically the same design as her sister ship, rms olympic which sailed for 24 years under the nickname "old reliable" and literally rammed a u-boat during ww1 when she was requisitioned as a troop ship. ultimately, the builders were not blamed in the wreck inquiry and the materials used were not substandard.

-it was built as said above due to the choices of j bruce ismay - yeah so this one obviously ties into the above. theres a lot of unreliable sources who seem to believe ismay oversaw the entire design and every cut corner was due to money. this simply isnt true and isnt how this sort of thing worked. white star had a contract with harland and wolff wherein they would build the ship agreed upon and when it was finished, it would be presented to white star and undergo sea trials, and during that time, white star could reject the ship if they considered it substandard. this is what happened to the ss city of rome. unles. the design itself was to be changed a la britannic after titanic sank (improving safety measures), white star could not interfere. ismay could not force them to use different materials.

-it was all ismays fault - okay, i could go on about this for a long time, but this ask isnt about ismay. the gist of it is that history has blamed ismay due to the influence of william randolph hearst (yeah, the guy from newsies and supported hitler) who hated ismay and blamed him entirely. actual evidence shows ismay helped a lot of people during the sinking itself.

-titanic was badly designed - ive kinda gone over this a little already, but again, titanic was not badly built. she was practically identical to olympic which was a fantastic ship. in the design, no risks were taken. most of the designs were enlarged versions of parts of previous successful ships. she was considered the safest ship on the sea. four of her water-tight compartments could be breached without her sinking which was a big fucking deal.

-thomas andrews was the sole designer - there was actually a team of designers that included andrews. he didnt even draw up the original plans; that was alexander carlisle.

-titanic sinking was a unique situation - yeah nah, boats sank a lot around that time. literally two years after, there was a similar disaster with the rms empress of ireland which goes entirely forgotten nowadays. in the same decade, you also had the sinking of lusitania in 1915, principe de asturias in 1916, volturno in 1913 and even thrown in princess sophia in 1918.

-the sinking was actually caused by a coal bunker fire - this is simply horseshit and im sure im gonna end up having to explain and debunk that one too

-the crew were taking unnecessary risks to win the blue riband - this myth is widespread because of the movie, but titanic was not trying to beat the record of the fastest ship from southampton to new york (thats what the blue riband) is; she physically couldnt. it was held by mauretania at that point with a record of 26.06 knots/48.26 km/hr. titanics top speed was 23 knots. white star as a line never focussed on speed and ismay never told the captain to speed up.

-she was "unsinkable" - this is a little harder to disentangle. the claim itself was "practically unsinkable", but the context of that was to do with how safe titanic was as mentioned above. also, the idea of an unsinkable ship was not quite to white star or harland and wolff; most of the shipping industry believed it.

-almost everything youve heard about the life boats - okay so here you need to throw out your preconceptions of what a life boat is because our modern conception does not match that from the early 1900s. to not get into all the details of life boat philosophy at the time (if you do wanna know, just send me an ask lmao), the main purpose of life boats at this time was ferrying passengers to a rescue ship. that was it. this attitude was informed by both the wrecks of the ss valencia and ss clallam, as well as the miraculous rescue of the rms republic. titanic did not have enough life boats for everyone because it was never expected for the passengers to be alone in the life boats for hours; it was not a design flaw, it was a feature.

-that fucking stupid ship swap myth and the idea that the crew were trying to sink the ship - i dont even want to get into why this is bullshit, plus ive also debunked it in another ask

i highlight all of the above to emphasise the fact that titanic was not a badly built ship. she was designed well, built well and sailed well. many experts agree that the way that she hit the iceberg was the only way she could have sank.

this is not the case with titan and stockton rush. in a previous post, ive gone over the design of the titan, the flaws in it and what experts in the field believe, so im not gonna go over it again, but rest assured, the titan imploded because of rush's actions and decisions.

titanic did not sink because of thomas andrews. its due to his design that anyone survived the titanic because she stayed afloat for over two hours which allowed the crew to launch all the life boats. thomas andrews himself helped many survivors during the sinking and evacuation.

he also was not a rich man using a gravesite as tourism; nepotism was certainly involved in his career but he spent ten years working his way up in the company, helping with the design of countless ships. he was mostly regarded as a good man who worked hard and recognised the hard work of others.

its honestly ludicrous to compare them because the disasters themselves are simply not comparable. the titanic did not sink because of the folly of rich men cutting corners; titan did.

thomas andrews, for any faults he had, knew what he was doing and built a good ship that was unlucky. almost every other ship he helped design didnt sink or if they did, most of them were due to ww1.

its just such a ridiculous comparison, and thats all it is. without the misconceptions and misinformation about titanic, the comparison simply falls apart. its built on a foundation that fundamentally misunderstands the titanic disaster.

if you want to talk about shipwrecks caused by stupid decisions made by rich men, go look up the last incarnation of hms captain or the gunilda or the fucking vasa if you want, you can literally go see that one. but dont besmirch the memory of a guy who, by all acounts, died a hero helping other survive.

[sectumsempra4enemies]

Februrary 7

Today, 151 years ago in 1873, a very special human being was born in Comber, Northern Ireland. He was kind, intelligent, diligent and a true hero until the bitter end, sacrificing his life for the safety of others. He was an extraordinary shipbuilder, loving husband and father with a promising future ahead of him. His short but meaningful life ended when he was just 39 years old, but today we will remember and celebrate this beautiful man and think of all the wonderful things he has done. The world would be a better place if there were more men like him.

Happy birthday to the one and only:

Thomas Andrews

You are still loved and will never be forgotten.

[the-rmstitanic]

"Throughout that long ordeal Tom inspired everyone who saw him, workmen, foremen, managers, and those in higher authority, as much by the force of his personal character as by his qualities of industry. Without doubt here was one destined to success. He was thorough to the smallest detail. He mastered everything with the ease of one in love with his task."

THOMAS ANDREWS SHIPBUILDER By Shan F. Bullock

Happy birthday Tommie !

[dopeasspancake]

I have ADHD and made the mistake of watching Titanic like 3.5 times over the past week (it’s been on heavy rotation on TV lately and I can never not watch it when I see it) and now I’m accidentally hyperfocused on the most obscure non-canon pairing in a 25-year old movie

If you watched Mr. Andrews be the absolute sweetest human being on that ship with those expressive eyes, charming smile, and that accent and you don’t want him to gently lay you down and absolutely blow your back out then you’re lying to yourself.

The way he continually looked out for Rose and treated her as an equal has me absolutely feral.

And I’ve already read like all 10 fanfics in existence about this rare pair so now I’m just going to sit here and sulk and hope my brain goes back to my regularly scheduled Harringrove soon.

SIGH.