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Titanic Survivor’s Stories Are As Dramatic As The Sinking

Aimee Heidelberg December 14, 2023 28 min

A young boy with long hair and a wide collar, and a lifeboat from Titanic. — Frank Goldsmith as a young child (l) and a collapsible lifeboat from Titanic, possibly the one carrying Frank Goldsmith. Public domain.

The Truly Unsinkable Arthur Priest

Titanic's sister ship Britannic, painted for medical use in World War I.

Priest returned to sea after Titanic. He sailed on the Alcantara in the North Sea during a February 1916 battle with the German raider Greif.Despite this second wreck, Priest again returned to sea. Priest served, with fellow Titanic survivors Violet Jessup and Archie Jewell, on the medical ship Britannic during World War I. In November 1916, Britannic hit a mine, quickly sinking. Thanks to lifeboats for everyone and help from nearby vessels, only thirty perished in the wreck.

Arthur Priest, again, escaped harm. He returned to sea once more, aboard the Donegal when it sank in April of 1917. Priest served on board for six incidents and four wrecks in less than ten years. He said, possibly not really joking, that he was forced to retire from his seafaring career because nobody wanted to sail with him. Arthur Priest died at age 49 from pneumonia in 1937.