Frederick Fleet
By Anthony D’Amato

Frederick Fleet was born on October 15, 1887 in Liverpool, Merseyside UK.  He never knew his father and his mother ran away with someone else and was never heard from again.  Therefore Frederick was raised by foster families, distant relatives and orphanages until twelve.  When Fleet turned twelve he was sent to a training ship for four years and then went to sea as a deck boy in 1903 working up to be an able seaman.  Before joining the Titanic, Fleet was a lookout for the Oceanic and earned 5 pounds per month and 5 extra shillings for lookout duty.  In April 1912, Fleet joined the Titanic as a lookout. 

On April 14, 1912 Reginald Lee and Frederick Fleet took watch at 10 p.m.  Just after seven bells, Frederick saw a big black mass right ahead of them.  “Iceberg right ahead” said Fleet to the sixth officer James Moody.  The iceberg hit the Titanic 37 seconds after Fleet said anything about the iceberg.  Frederick was assigned to load and launch lifeboat 6, the first lifeboat on the port side, into the water.  Therefore Frederick Fleet survived.

 After the Titanic, Frederick served as Seaman aboard the RMS Olympic.  Fleet sailed on other ships until he retired after he was on the RMS Olympics’ final voyage to New York.  Fleet’s wife died on December 28, 1964 and Frederick was soon evicted from his wife’s brother’s home.  About two weeks after he was evicted, Fleet hung himself and his body was discovered on January 10, 1965.  Fleet’s body was later buried in Holly Brook Cemetery in Southampton.  

Works Cited 

"Frederick Fleet Wiki." Wikipedia. 16 Apr 2008. Wikipedia. 22 Apr 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredrick_Fleet.

"Mr. Frederick Fleet Titanic biography." Encyclopedia Titanica. 2007. Encyclopedia Titanica. 22 Apr 2008 http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/1332/.

"Titanic's collision with the Iceberg." Titanic Titanic. 2008. Titanic Titanic. 22 Apr 2008 http://www.titanic-titanic.com/collision.shtml.