Norman Campbell Chambers
Norman Campbell Chambers was a very nearly 28-year-old first class passenger returning home aboard Titanic, with his wife Bertha Chambers, from Europe to their home in New York City. He was employed as a Mechanical Engineer.
Early Life
The son of James Campbell Chambers and Jeannette Hargleroad Chambers, Norman Campbell Chambers was born in Olean, New York on 27th April 1884. Norman spent a large part of his childhood in Europe, due to his father's job looking after the interests of American citizens abroad as a consular.
In 1905 Norman Chambers graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
In Ithaca, on 12th March 1906, Norman Chambers married Bertha Griggs, born in 1879. By 1912 he worked for Niles-Bement-Pond Company, an engineering company which produced tools and machines for heavy industry.
Aboard Titanic
On 10th April 1912, Norman and his wife boarded Titanic at Southampton, and onboard occupied stateroom E8, located on the starboard side of E Deck. During the voyage Norman is known to have used Titanic's swimming pool. To get to the swimming pool on F Deck, passengers had to walk through an open watertight door located within the bulkhead; being a mechanical engineer, he took an interest in the door and looked it over "rather more than casually".
At 11.40pm on 14th April 1912, Norman was in bed reading at the moment Titanic collided with the iceberg. He did not recall it feeling like any great shock but felt as if the ship had run into floating timber, followed by what sounded like jangling chains dragging along the side of the ship.
Norman was seemingly unconcerned, assuming something had gone wrong with the engines on the starboard side, perhaps the loss of the starboard propellor. His wife was more concerned, so he put on some clothes and left their stateroom to investigate.
He made his way to the A Deck promenade deck, where he looked over the side of the ship but saw nothing of interest. Noting how very cold the air was on deck, he decided to return to his stateroom. On the way he passed other passengers who seemed not to be concerned but merely interested in what had happened and observed one passenger laughingly exhibiting a piece of ice which had come in thru a porthole in his stateroom.
After returning to his wife, they decided to both go and investigate more thoroughly, but again, found nothing of interest, other than the loud sound of steam escaping through the funnels from the ship's boilers. Having made up their mind to return to their stateroom, he then noticed Titanic was listing slightly to her starboard side and seemed to be a little down by the head.
Back on E Deck, approaching their stateroom, they noticed at the forward end of the corridor, which had at the end access beyond first class to third class and the crew quarters, a group of crew members with some passengers, which they decided to join.
On joining the group, they noticed that two of the ship's mail clerks were nearby, wet up to their knees and had bags of mail with them, which had been rescued from the ship's flooding Post Office.
Looking down a staircase, Norman observed the baggage room was flooded and that letters were flouting around on top of the water. Seemingly reassured by the presence of a bulkhead and no apparent damage beyond it, he did not at all seem to have been particularly concerned, there were even jokes made about the scene bellow, but still he and Bertha had decided to stay up for the night, and they went to return to their stateroom, where he would properly get dressed.
On the way to their stateroom, a steward told them that there was no danger and they could go back to bed. However, while Norman was dressing, Bertha had gone outside the stateroom to keep up to date with the situation and came rushing back in to say she had heard that orders had been given to put on lifebelts and go up to the Boat Deck.
After going outside to confirm the order with a steward, Norman and Bertha left their stateroom for the last time, but not before Norman had filled his heavy overcoat with certain necessities, including his pocket compass, and finally took with him, an unusual item for a passenger to have with them in their cabin aboard a ship today, but perhaps not so in 1912, an automatic pistol hand gun.
Norman and his wife proceeded to the port side A Deck promenade deck, where they managed, with the assistance of a steward, to obtain their steamer rugs, which were heavy blankets designed to keep passengers warm while seated outside on deck.
They then proceeded up to the port side Boat Deck, where the crew were preparing the lifeboats but found a lack of passengers out on deck. With Titanic listing to the starboard side, Norman decided that it would perhaps be easier to lower the lifeboats on that side than the port side, and so they made their way over to the starboard side, by walking over the roof of the first class smoking room.
Upon the starboard side boat deck, Norman and his wife initially stood around with some other passengers, who seemed unconcerned and were joking with each other, although they had to shout as, at this time, steam continued to loudly escape from Titanic's boilers. Norman filled his pipe and at Bertha's request, he finally put on his lifebelt.
Despite him assuming the loading of the lifeboats was simply a precaution, Norman and Bertha decided to make their way forward to the lifeboats; from the entrance to the Boat Deck landing of Titanic's grand staircase, a number of passengers were making their way out and were being instructed by a steward to make their way aft. Norman and Bertha ignored the steward's instructions and waited until people stopped coming and then proceeded towards the lifeboats.
With seemingly few passengers around it Lifeboat 5, which was to row away under the charge of Herbert Pitman, Titanic's third officer, was almost ready to be lowered away when Bertha decided they should join the lifeboat, jumped into it and told her husband to join her, which, with some reluctance, he did so. Lifeboat 5 was only the second lifeboat to be lowered away from the sinking ship.
Unlike on the port side Boat Deck which followed a very strict women and children only policy, the starboard side was more relaxed about men joining the lifeboats after the women and children were in; other men had likely already joined, and Norman recalled that a further two men joined the lifeboat after him.
Lifeboat 5 eventually rowed a safe distance away from Titanic and then had nothing to do but watch the ship go down. He later said, "she merely continued to go down by the head, slowly but surely", and it was when Titanic started to send distress rockets that they realised the ship was doomed and being in the lifeboats was not just a precaution.
Norman and Bertha Chambers and the other occupants of Lifeboat 5 were rescued by Carpathia and taken to New York City, where Norman and Bertha continued with their lives.
After Titanic
Less than a month after the disaster, on 3rd May 1912, Norman Chambers gave evidence before Senator William Alden Smith on the 13th day of United States Senate Inquiry into the Titanic disaster, held within the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.
Despite the First World War raging in Europe and the sea being a dangerous war time place to cross, Norman Chambers, still employed by the Niles-Bement-Pond Company, and his wife travelled to Russia where he lived and worked in Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg), Russia from late 1914 until early 1916, when they returned home to the United States, and then returned again to Russia later in the year where they stayed for a number of months before again then returning home.
After the war had ended, on 4th September 1919, Norman and Bertha, heading on a trip to South America, set sail from New York City aboard the SS Vestris, a British steamship, launched in 1912 and operated by the Lamport and Holt Line. On 9th September, while in the Caribbean Sea, a fire was discovered within a cargo hold, containing a large amount of timber, as well as bales of twine, machinery and bags of paraffin wax. With the fire out of control within the cargo hold, the ship called for help and was helped to Saint Lucia, an island in the Caribbean, where the passengers, including Norman and Bertha were evacuated to accommodation on land; the cargo hold was flooded, and the fire was eventually extinguished. Despite the seriousness of the fire, the ship was able to eventually take all the passengers back onboard, and on 23rd September left Saint Lucia and continued with the voyage.
Norman, alongside his wife continued to live a seemingly adventures life, and continued travelling, including trips to South America and Europe. In June 1940, during the Second World War, with the German Army already having invaded France, Norman and Bertha Chambers were in Paris, France just a small few days before it was occupied by the German Army; they drove through France in their car and escaped into neutral Spain, continued travelling until they reached Portugal, and eventually, nearly a year later, made their way back home to the United States.
Later years
Norman's wife of 53 years, Bertha Chambers passed away on 18th October 1959.
Eventually, Norman married again, to Isabel Finegan, born in 1909.
Norman Campbell Chambers died on the evening of 9th February 1966 within the Hotel Estoril-Sol, Cascais, Portugal. Caused by a Cerebral Thrombosis stroke. The hotel, in which he had been staying in, with his wife Isabel, was a new luxury hotel, located on the west coast, said to have been the largest hotel in Portugal at that time.
His remains were flown back to the United States, and he was buried beside Bertha Chambers within Kensico Cemetery, Westchester County, New York.
Isabel Chambers lived until 1999 and was also buried within Kensico Cemetery.
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