Frederick Fleet
| Frederick Fleet | |
|---|---|
Fleet in 1912
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| Born |
15 October 1887 Liverpool, UK |
| Died | 10 January 1965 (aged 77) Southampton, UK |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Sailor, Crewman |
Frederick Fleet (15 October 1887 – 10 January 1965) was a British sailor, crewman and survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic after it struck an iceberg on 14 April 1912. As a lookout aboard the Titanic when it struck the iceberg, along with Reginald Lee, it was Fleet who first sighted the iceberg, ringing the bridge to proclaim, "Iceberg, right ahead!" Fleet testified at the inquiries that if he had been issued with binoculars, "We could have seen it a bit sooner." When asked how much sooner, he responded, "Well, enough to get out of the way." In later life, Fleet suffered severe depression, and died by suicide.
Fleet was born in Liverpool on 15 October 1887. He never knew his father, and his mother abandoned him and fled with a boyfriend to Springfield, Massachusetts, in the United States never to be seen or heard from again. Frederick was raised by a succession of foster families and distant relatives. In 1903 he went to sea as a deck boy, working his way up to able seaman.
Before joining the crew of the RMS Titanic he had sailed for over four years as a lookout in the RMS Oceanic. As a seaman, Fleet earned five pounds per month plus an extra 5 shillings for lookout duty. And it was as a lookout that Fleet joined the Titanic in April 1912, along with five other watchmen.
Fleet boarded the Titanic in Southampton on 10 April 1912. The ship made two stops, first in Cherbourg, France and Queenstown, in Ireland. The lookouts, six in total, made two-hour shifts due to extreme cold in the crow's nest. The trip was uneventful until the night of 14 April 1912. At 22:00 (10PM) that night, Fleet and his fellow lookout Reginald Lee replaced George Symons and Archie Jewell at the nest. They passed on the order given earlier to them by second officer Charles Lightoller to watch out for small ice. The night was calm and moonless, which made it difficult to spot the icebergs due to the lack of waves breaking against the base of the iceberg and reflection. Furthermore, despite repeated requests for binoculars, they were not available for the lookouts. It is sometimes attributed to the last-minute change in the hierarchy of the ship when officer David Blair was replaced by Henry Tingle Wilde, without Blair mentioning where the binoculars had been located. It has been also mentioned that Blair accidentally took the keys of the cabinet containing the binoculars with him. Despite both inquiries into the disaster, nothing clarified why the lookouts were not provided with binoculars, though there are many explanations such as one that the White Star Line steamers' lookouts did not particularly use them. Besides, some experts have said that even using binoculars, neither Fleet nor Lee could have spotted the iceberg any sooner given the conditions of the night.
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