Thomas Andrews and the west of Ireland (c. 1895-1902)

As I work in the largest Titanic Museum in the world, it is only fitting that my first post should relate to the doomed liner which sank in 1912. In the run up to the centenary of the Titanic's sinking a massive output of books were published touching on every conceivable aspect of the Titanic disaster and the history of shipbuilding in Belfast. The literature that was released varied greatly, both in its quality and historical accuracy, whilst a hoard of hastily written booklets were undoubtedly released in order to 'cash in' on the disaster (as many were accused throughout 2012 - see Titanic Tayto crisps). The publications that stood out for me were two well-researched books released by Stephen Cameron (co-founder of the Belfast Titanic Society) in 2011. Belfast Shipbuilders: A Titanic Tale, charted the foundation and development of Belfast's shipyard industry and gave concise biographies of the key players and the most important ships in Harland & Wolff's history, whilst Titanic: Belfast's Own grounded the Titanic story in the city where it had been constructed, focusing upon the Irish dimension of the tragedy by telling the personal story of each of the 36 Irish men and women who perished aboard the ship. 

One of the many interesting facts I learned from Cameron was the true role played by Thomas Andrews who is popularly believed to have been the chief architect of the Olympic Class liners; in fact the Olympic and the Titanic's main design was the responsibility of Alexander Montgomery Carlisle. The brother-in-law of Lord William Pirrie (Chairman of Harland & Wolff), Carlisle served as Chief Naval Architect at the shipyard until his resignation in 1910 and was therefore tasked with undertaking the design of the two 880 feet ships envisaged by Lord Pirrie and J. Bruce Ismay of the White Star Line in 1907. Thomas Andrews, who was Carlisle's cousin, is accredited with completing the design of the liners upon the Chief Naval Architect's departure. From 1907 Andrews worked as a personal assistant to William Pirrie and also operated as a Managing Director; Cameron states that Thomas Andrews was chosen by the Board of Directors to represent Harland & Wolff and to oversee the sea trials and maiden voyages of all the newly completed ships launched by the firm. The following source dates from before Andrews elevation to these positions of responsibility and is a snapshot of the naval architect as a young man with a promising career ahead of him.  

Thomas Andrews was born in 1873 at Ardara House in Comber. In 1889 Andrews had entered the shipyards of Harland and Wolff as an apprentice but only a few years later embarked upon an inspection of the ports and harbours on the Atlantic coast of Ireland in the hope of opening up new transatlantic routes. Cameron states that Andrews 'was to travel widely for the Company and in doing so [made] a study of the design of hotels, ships and ports that could later be used in the internal layout of new ships.' Andrews was making his way north along the western coast of the island when he stopped in at the Westport Hotel in County Mayo to send a letter home to Ardara. The letter to his mother is reproduced here in full although, unfortunately, the last section of the message is missing:

Westport Hotel

Sunday Evening

My dear Mother,

                I wired you yesterday evening on our arrival here by rail, as we were unfortunately unable to make the passage by sea owing to the storm. I was very sorry to leave the steamer yesterday as she is most comfortable, and good food. We proceed tomorrow to Achill Island where we hope the steamer will pick us up again, when we will proceed to Blacksod Bay afterwards to Killala Bay, Sligo, Killybegs, Buncrana and Londonderry; a letter or telegram to the post office of any of these towns may find me. I cannot possibly give you dates, as it largely depends on the weather.

                The captain and I are having great fun, he is an extremely nice fellow and we get on the best together. We were joined this morning by a Mrs. Green who belongs to the Congested District Board.

                Before leaving Galway yesterday I noticed in the Galway Express a short article that Capt. Murray and Mrs. Andrews had arrived in the city to make an inspection of the Bay and Harbour for the Canadian Government. Who am I next to work for? Is it H & W, [J. P.] Morgan, White Star, W[illiam]. J[ames]. P[irrie]., Congested District Board, or lord knows who? Well I don’t give a hang I always get plenty of experience and have a good time.

We drove out to Old Head this morning, a distance of about 10 miles, and had the weather been anywhere good it would have been most interesting. Bad weather however assists us most at our work so we need not grumble.

I was here once before with father and Johnnie; the Marquis of Sligo is the landlord and is very well spoken of; we went all through his place last evening we always manage to get in a good deal of sightseeing and conversation with car men and fishermen, Priests etc.

In Galway we saw a very interesting sight in the old part of the town; the window in a house where the Mayor, a Mayor Lynch, hung his own son who had shot another fellow because they both loved and courted the same girl (Johnnies and my case all over again, why we allowed brotherly love to contuse), the poor father had to hang his son because he could get no one else to do it.

The townspeople ... [Rest of letter missing].     

Thomas Andrews (seated) with family including his mother Eliza (seated)
and his brother John M. Andrews (first from right)

Andrew's short letter to his mother Eliza is interesting for a number of reasons. Through it we catch a glimpse of the shipbuilder as a young enterprising businessman embarking upon one of his early assignments on behalf of Harland & Wolff, exploring the ragged terrain and ports of the western counties, keeping company with captains and landed gentry, and encountering a legend from Galway's medieval history (which triggers a memory concerning his brother). 

When he wrote to his mother from Co. Mayo, Andrews had been travelling for several days and, despite his absence from Belfast, the shipyards were never far from the his mind; whilst in the west, Andrews became aware of potential changes to Galway's bay and harbour, causing the young engineer to consider the uncertain climate of the shipping industry at that time. Andrews lists a number of potential employers that he could eventually work for, providing us with some dating evidence for the letter. Amongst the list of firms and individuals that he mentioned was the Congested District Board, an organisation tasked with alleviating the economic and social deprivation of the west of Ireland. The Board attempted to achieve this end by developing industry and agriculture in the area, with the construction of public works and the improvement of small ports, and by providing financial assistance to those who wished to emigrate. The Board was established in 1891 but was dissolved in 1923 when it was incorporated by the Irish Land Commission. The letter was obviously sent after the establishment of the Congested District Board in 1891, but Andrews' mention of his uncle William James Pirrie as a possible employer suggests that it was written after 1895; in that year Pirrie became Chairman of Harland & Wolff with the death of Edward Harland. 

The inclusion of both the American financier John Pierpoint Morgan (1837-1913) and the White Star Line on the list of potential employers leads me to believe that the letter was written before Morgan's acquisition of J. Bruce Ismay's shipping firm in 1902. Prior to that date Morgan's International Mercantile Marine was in direct competition with Ismay and it was only after a massive buyout of the firm in 1902 that the White Star Line and J. P. Morgan became business associates. With the exception of the Congested District Board, Andrews came to work closely with all of the individuals and organisations that he listed in his letter. On the 31st May 1911 the R.M.S. Titanic was launched from the slipways at Harland & Wolff with Lord Pirrie, J. P. Morgan and J. Bruce Ismay all in attendance. 

In the letter to his mother, Thomas Andrews also recounted the Legend of Mayor Lynch, a 15th century Galway Mayor who hung his own son for committing murder. Whilst in Galway Andrews had visited the Lynch Memorial Window on Market Street and there learned the myth surrounding this local monument. The romanticised version of the legend states that the Mayor's son killed a Spanish trader who he discovered was attempting to elope with his lover; upon learning of the crime, Mayor Lynch was forced to execute his son himself as no one could be found to carry out the sentence (Cameron).

Lynch Memorial Window,
Galway

Like all legends this tale has been embellished and altered over time and the historical account of the legend of Mayor Lynch radically differs from Andrew’s romanticised description; in the late-15th century James Lynch Fitzstephen, a merchant and Mayor of Galway, sent his son to Spain to collect a cargo of wine. Lynch’s son embezzled the money on the journey and, upon arriving on the Iberian peninsula  purchased the cargo using his father’s credit; the Spanish wine merchant was wary of the Irishman and made his own son accompany Lynch home to Galway to guarantee payment. Fearing his father would discover his embezzlement, Lynch murdered the Spaniard on the return journey by throwing him overboard into the Atlantic with the assistance of his crew. Some years later Mayor Lynch uncovered the particulars of the crime and, as chief magistrate, sentenced his own son to death by hanging. On the day of the execution the people of Galway attempted to prevent the sentence from being carried out; as a result Mayor Lynch was unable to transport his son to the site of the gallows and so the father entered his own house and hung his son from an upper floor window. The building that Thomas Andrews saw during his visit to Galway was not the actual 15th century Mayor’s house but a memorial structure erected in the 19th century that is believed to incorporate the original window frame from the tale. The term ‘Lynched’ or 'Lynch mob' is believed to have originated from this legend.

In recounting the romanticised Legend of Mayor Lynch to his mother, Thomas Andrews was reminded of a quarrel that he had with his brother 'Johnnie' over the courting of the same girl when they were boys ('Johnnies and my case all over again, why we allowed brotherly love to contuse'). 'Johnnie' was Thomas Andrew’s elder brother John Miller Andrews (1871-1956), who became the director of the family’s linen interests in Comber and was also the director of the Belfast Ropeworks in East Belfast. A politician as well as a businessman, John M. Andrews was elected M.P. for Co. Down after the partition of Ireland; between 1921 and 1937 he served as Minister of Labour and between 1937 and 1940 as Minister of Finance in the Northern Ireland Government. In 1940 Andrews became the second Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, a post he held during the Second World War until his resignation in 1943. John M. Andrews died in 1956 at the family home in Comber.

The letter Thomas Andrews sent to his mother from the west of Ireland is an intimately personal source and gives us an impression of Andrews as a young man, exploring the ports and towns of Ireland at the turn of the twentieth century and embarking upon a career that would ultimately end with his death on board the Titanic in 1912. This letter is one of a number that were written by Thomas Andrews and are held at the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (see PRONI Ref: D3655/A/6/2); in time i will hopefully transcribe and post them here. 

Further Reading:

• Cameron, S., 'Belfast shipbuilders: A titanic tale' Newtownards, Colourpoint Books, 2011. 
• Cameron, S., 'Titanic: Belfast's own' Newtownards, Colourpoint Books, 2011. 

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