Charles Joughin

Charles John Joughin was born on August 3, 1878 in Liverpool, England. He became a very good chef and worked at a restaurant until heading out to sea. He had a wife named Nellie Ripley and three children. His first assignment was the Olympic as chief baker. It was very difficult because you had to prepare 11 course meals for over 2,000 passengers (with the help of 5 other chefs). He was then transferred to the TITANIC (with a 12 pound pay) where he made friends with fellow chef Maynard. On the TITANIC, it was even more difficult because even more people were on board than the Olympic. To make matters worse, he also had to cook for 2nd class passengers too!

On April 14, 1912, it was 11:35 and Joughin had just gotten to sleep when he awoken by a jolt. He was called to the bridge and when he got there, he was explained what happened. Joughin immediately ran off not waiting for orders and aroused the other chefs. Together, they got all the spare bread and each person loaded the boats with four loaves of bread. They kept going back and forth until all the boats had 4 loaves of bread.

Joughin then went down to his cabin and drank two bottles of whiskey. He then went up on deck and started picking up women wherever he saw one and throwing the them into boats. He was placed in charge of a boat but seeing stewards, he got out and said "I'd better not set a bad example for the men". He then went to the promenade deck and threw over around 50 deck chairs and then started going inside and threw lavish seats into the water. His purpose was so that those in the water could use the chairs as rafts. By then, the TITANIC had listed so much, that it would have been impossible to climb steps.

Chief Baker later said this about how he survived: "I got on to the starboard side of the poop; found myself in the water. I do not believe my head went under the water at all. I thought I saw some wreckage. Swam towards it and found collapsible boat ("B") with Lightoller and about twenty-five men on it. There was no room for me. I tried to get on, but was pushed off, but I hung around. I got around to the opposite side and cook Maynard, who recognized me, helped me and held on to me." He stayed in the water for around four hours (the average man survived for minutes) until he was pulled aboard a lifeboat which came to Collapsible B. He was in another shipwreck on the S.S. Oregon which sank in the Boston Harbor. He retired and later died of natural causes on December 9, 1956 at the age of 78.