Jack Thayer

John Borland "Jack" Thayer III (December 24, 1894 - September 20, 1945) was a 17-year-old first-class passenger on the RMS Titanic who provided several first-hand accounts of the disaster.

Aboard the RMS Titanic

Jack Thayer boarded the Titanic along with his father John Borland Thayer and his mother, Marian. Jack occupied cabin C-70 while his parents occupied C-68. [ [http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/299/ Mr John Borland jr Thayer - Titanic Biography - Encyclopedia Titanica ] ] .

Shortly after 11:40 p.m. on April 14, 1912, Jack was preparing for bed when he noticed that he could no longer feel a breeze streaming through his half-open porthole. He did not recall feeling the ship's collision with the iceberg. He dressed and went to A deck on the port side to see what might be happening. Finding nothing, he walked to the bow, where he could faintly make out ice on the forward well deck [ [http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/299/ Mr John Borland jr Thayer - Titanic Biography - Encyclopedia Titanica ] ] .

Jack woke his parents, who accompanied him back to the port side of the ship. Noticing that Titanic was developing a list to port, they returned to their rooms and put on warmer clothes and life vests. They returned to the deck, but Jack lost sight of his parents and after searching for them, assumed they had boarded a lifeboat. [ [http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/299/ Mr John Borland jr Thayer - Titanic Biography - Encyclopedia Titanica ] ] .

Jack soon encountered Milton Long, a fellow passenger he had met hours before over coffee. Both Milton and Jack tried to board a lifeboat but were denied because they were men. Jack then proposed to jump off the ship, as he was a good swimmer. However, Milton was not and advised Jack against it. [ [http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/299/ Mr John Borland jr Thayer - Titanic Biography - Encyclopedia Titanica ] ] .

Eventually, as the ship was sinking quickly, the two men decided to jump and attempt to swim to safety. Milton went first; it was the last time Jack saw him. Once in the water, Jack reached an improperly launched and overturned collapsible lifeboat, on which he and a number of other men were able to balance for some hours. He later recalled that the cries of hundreds of people in the water reminded him of the high-pitched hum of locusts in his native Pennsylvania. [ [http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/299/ Mr John Borland jr Thayer - Titanic Biographies - Encyclopedia Titanica ] ] .

After spending the night on the overturned collapsible, Jack was picked up by lifeboat 12. He was so distraught and freezing that he did not notice his mother in nearby lifeboat 4, or vice versa. Lifeboat 12 finally made its way to the rescue ship Carpathia at 8:30 a.m. [ [http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/299/ Mr John Borland jr Thayer - Titanic Biographies - Encyclopedia Titanica ] ] . Jack's father did not board a lifeboat and died in the sinking.

After the sinking

After the sinking, Thayer went on to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania. He married Lois Cassatt and had two sons, Edward and John IV. He described his experiences with Titanic's sinking in a 1940 pamphlet known for its vivid detail. Robert Ballard used it to determine the location of the Titanic and proved that it had split in half, contrary to popular belief [ [http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/299/ Mr John Borland jr Thayer - Titanic Biography - Encyclopedia Titanica ] ] .

During World War II, both of Jack's children enlisted in the armed services. Edward was killed in 1945 in the Pacific theatre. When the news reached Thayer, he became extremely depressed and committed suicide on September 20, 1945. He had cut his throat and was found in an automobile at 48th and Parkside Ave. He is buried at the Church of the Redeemer Cemetery in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

References

Further reading

* "Titanic: A Survivor's Story and the Sinking of the S.S. Titanic" by Archibald Gracie and Jack Thayer, Academy Chicago Publishers, 1988 ISBN 0-89733-452-3
* "Titanic: Triumph and Tragedy", by John P. Eaton and Charles A. Haas, W.W. Newton & Company, 2nd edition 1995 ISBN 0-393-03697-9
* "A Night to Remember", by Walter Lord, ed. Nathaniel Hilbreck, Owl Books, rep. 2004, ISBN 0-8050-7764-2

External links

* [http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/299 Encyclopedia Titanica article on John Borland Thayer III]