Jack Thayer III: Titanic Survivor

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RMS Titanic departing Southampton on April 10, 1912.

John Borland "Jack" Thayer III.

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John Borland "Jack" Thayer III (December 24, 1894 – September 20, 1945) was a first-class passenger on RMS Titanic who survived the ship's sinking. Aged 17 at the time, he was one of only a handful of passengers to survive jumping into the frigid ocean. He later wrote and privately published his recollection of the sinking.

Early life ~

John was born into the Thayer family, a wealthy Boston Brahmin family. He was the son of John Borland Thayer II, a director and a second vice president of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and his wife, Philadelphia socialite Marian Thayer.

Aboard Titanic ~

Seventeen-year-old Thayer had been traveling in Europe with his parents and a maid named Margaret Fleming. They boarded the RMS Titanic at Cherbourg on Wednesday, April 10, 1912, to return to New York. Jack's stateroom, cabin C-70, adjoined his parents', C-68. Shortly after 11:40 p.m., after the ship collided with the iceberg, he dressed and went to a deck on the port side to see what had happened. Finding nothing, he walked to the bow, where he could faintly make out ice on the forward well deck.

The sinking, based on Thayer's description. Sketched by L. P. Skidmore on board Carpathia.

Thayer woke his parents, who accompanied him back to the port side of the ship. Noticing that the ship was beginning to list to port, they returned to their rooms to put on warmer clothes and life vests. They returned to the deck, but Thayer lost sight of his parents. After a brief search, he presumed they had boarded a lifeboat. Thayer soon met Milton Long, a fellow passenger he had met just hours before. Thayer proposed jumping off the ship, as he was a good swimmer, but as Long was not, he initially opposed jumping.

As the ship began listing more, the two men went ahead with attempting to jump off the side, intending to swim to safety. Long went first, jumping while facing the ship; he perished. Thayer launched himself from the rail, his back facing the ship, and pushing outward. Once in the water, Thayer was able to reach Collapsible B, one of the last lifeboats to be launched; it was also overturned as a large wave had swept it off the deck before it could be lowered into the water. He and other crew and passengers, including Junior Wireless Officer Harold Bride, Colonel Archibald Gracie IV, Chief Baker Charles Joughin, and Second Officer Charles Lightoller (who was the most senior surviving crew member), were able to keep the overturned boat steady for some hours. Thayer later recalled that the cries of hundreds of people in the water reminded him of the high-pitched hum of locusts in his native Pennsylvania.

After spending the night on the overturned Collapsible B, Thayer was pulled to safety into Lifeboat 12. He was so distraught and frozen that he did not notice his mother in nearby Lifeboat 4; nor did she notice him. Lifeboat 12 was the last lifeboat to reach the RMS Carpathia, the first rescue ship to arrive at the scene, at 8:30 a.m. Thayer's father did not board a lifeboat and perished in the sinking. Thayer was one of about 40 persons who jumped or fell into the water and survived.

Thayer had climbed onto the overturned Collapsible B.

In his privately published 1940 account of the sinking, Thayer recalled what life was like before the Titanic sank, "There was peace and the world had an even tenor to its way. Nothing was revealed in the morning the trend of which was not known the night before. It seems to me that the disaster about to occur was the event that not only made the world rub its eyes and awake but woke it with a start keeping it moving at a rapidly accelerating pace ever since with less and less peace, satisfaction and happiness. To my mind the world of today awoke April 15th, 1912".

Later life and death ~

Thayer went on to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a member of the fraternity Saint Anthony Hall. On December 15, 1917, Thayer married Lois Buchanan Cassatt, daughter of Edward B. Cassatt and Emily L. Phillips. Her grandfather was Alexander Johnston Cassatt, President of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The couple had two sons, Edward Cassatt and John Borland IV, and three daughters: Lois, Julie, and Pauline. A third son, Alexander Johnston Cassatt Thayer, died a few days after his birth in 1920. During World War I, he served as an artillery officer in the U.S Army.

During World War II, both of Thayer's sons enlisted in the armed services. Edward, a bomber pilot, was listed as missing and presumed dead after his plane was shot down in 1943 in the Pacific theatre. His body was never recovered. When the news reached Thayer, he became extremely depressed.

In 1939, Thayer became treasurer of the University of Pennsylvania, and was appointed to the newly created office of financial vice president in February 1944, a position he held until his death in September 1945.

Thayer's mother Marian died on April 14, 1944, on the 32nd anniversary of RMS Titanic collision and sinking. Her death seemed to push him even further into a downward spiral. Thayer died by apparent suicide on September 20, 1945. He was found in an automobile at 48th Street and Parkside Avenue in West Philadelphia, his throat and wrists cut. He was buried at the Church of the Redeemer Cemetery in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

Titanic accounts ~

In 1940, Thayer self-published his experiences of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in a pamphlet titled The Sinking of the S.S. Titanic; 500 copies were printed for family and friends. Oceanographer Robert Ballard used Thayer's account to help determine the final resting place of the shipwreck. The discovery helped prove that the ship had split in half before sinking. Thayer, among many other survivors, including crew members, reported it breaking into two pieces, but others reported it sinking in one piece, and the question remained unsettled until the wreck was found.

Thayer's account is sometimes included with fellow survivor Archibald Gracie IV's account of the sinking, in modern editions of Gracie's book Titanic: A Survivor's Story.

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Titanic survivor Jack Thayer III.

1915 Junior Eight Oar Shell group photo with Jack Thayerat upper left in all white.

Colorized photo.

Jack in college at the University of Pennsylvania.

Yearbook. c1916.

John B. Thayer, III and Mrs. Harry Curtis.

Jack Thayer with Lois Cassatt at Camp Meade in 1917.

Captain Jack Thayer during WWI, 79th Division, 304th Ammunition Train.

Jack Thayer in 1933.

Jack Thayer competing in a golf tournament in 1936.

Jack Thayer in 1943.

John B. Thayer, Jr. Jack's father.

John Borland Thayer II as a young man on a baseball team.

John Borland Thayer, circa 1900, Vice President of the Pennsylvania Railroad and victim of the Titanic disaster.

Marian Longstreth Morris Thayer. Jack's mother.

Marian Longstreth Morris Thayer. c1895.

Marian Longstreth Morris Thayer.

Marian Longstreth Morris Thayer.

Marian Thayer, circa 1900, a survivor of the Titanic disaster.

The house on the Dundale Estate, Villanova where Marian spent much of her childhood.

Frederick Morris Thayer. Jack's brother.

Frederick Thayer's Yale class photo.

Margaret Thayer. Jack's sister.

John Borland Thayer IV. Jack's son.

John B. Thayer IV with his wife Charlotte Toland Thayer after their wedding in 1942.

Second Lieutenant Edward Cassatt Thayer. Jack's son who was killed in action during World. War II.

Lois Cassatt Thayer in 1917.

Alexander Johnston Cassatt.

Edward Buchanan Cassatt (1869–1922) from Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania Biography, Volume XV, 1924, pages 172–173.

Ernest Thayer, American poet.

Julie Thayer.

Sylvanus Thayer, the Father of West Point.

Lois Cassatt Thayer in 1935.

Edward Thayer with sister Lois in August of 1937.

Edward Smith, captain of Titanic, on board the Olympic in 1911.

Archibald Gracie IV. Another Titanic survivor.

Arthur Rostron RD, RNR. Under his command, Carpathia responded to Titanic's distress call and rescued survivors.

Charles H. Lightoller, second officer of the RMS Titanic.

Titanic's Chief Baker Charles Joughin..

Colorized photo of Ned Parfett, best known as the Titanic paperboy.

Survivors of Titanic gathered on Carpathia's forward well deck.

Robert Ballard in 1999 with a VHS copy of the film Titanic. He was the first to find the wreck site.

Statement of A. S. Franklin, president of the International Merchant Marine Company (The Manchester Guardian, 16 April 1912, p. 9).

Staunton Daily Leader, Staunton, Va., April 26, 1912.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, Sun, Oct 25, 1936, p 66.

RMS Titanic departing Southampton on April 10, 1912.

RMS Titanic pictured in Cobh Harbour.

The à la carte restaurant on B Deck (pictured here on sister ship RMS Olympic), run as a concession by Italian-born chef Gaspare Gatti.

The First Class Turkish baths, located along the Starboard side of F-Deck.

The gymnasium on the boat deck, which was equipped with the latest exercise machines.

A collapsible lifeboat with canvas sides.

Titanic at the docks of Southampton.

Titanic departing Belfast for sea trials on 2 April 1912.

The ship's bell, recovered from the wreck.

Size comparison.

Diagrams explaining the Titanic's breakup.

The Titanic itinerary on the Northern Atlantic, from Fastnet Light (Ireland) to Ambrose Light (New York).

The Titanic's final plunge. Joughin was at the topmost part of the ship by this point.

The Cunard Line's RMS Carpathia, which rescued the survivors of the RMS Titanic's sinking.

The Titanic brochure Marian inadvertently carried with her in her overcoat pocket, when she escaped from Titanic.

Frederick Thayer's home. Mill Hollow Farm on Crum Creek when it was listed for sale.

Mill Hollow Farm on Crum Creek.

Markers of Titanic victims, Fairview Cemetery, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Edward's name is inscribed on the veteran's memorial wall.

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From: Find A Grave.com

This is Jack's obit in the Philadelphia Inquirer, 23 Sept. 1945:

Survivor of the Titanic at age 17. Jack's father, John B. Thayer, II, died on the Titanic

John B. Thayer, 3d, financial vice president of the University of Pennsylvania and a member of an old Philadelphia family, who had been reported missing since Wednesday, was found dead, his wrists and throat cut, in a parked automobile near the P.T.C. loop at 48th St. and Parkside Ave. yesterday morning.

Coroner J. Allan Bertolet, one of the first to arrive on the scene after the body was discovered by to P.T.C. employees, said Mr. Thayer probably had died 40 hours before the body was found at 8:50 A.M.

The Coroner, who was accompanied by his chief deputy, Matthew A. Roth, said he believed that the death was a suicide.

Frederick M. Thayer, a brother, of Newtown Square, and Lieutenant Governor John C. Bell, Jr., a lifelong friend, identified the body at the Morgue.

Mr. Bell said that Mr. Thayer had been suffering from a nervous breakdown during the last two weeks. "The breakdown," Mr. Bell explained, "was due, I believe, to worrying about the death of his son, Edward C. Thayer, who was killed in the service."

Mr. Bell said that he had reported Mr. Thayer missing to the State Police when the latter failed to return to his home in Grays Lane, Haverford, Tuesday night.

The Lieutenant Governor stated that a few days ago Mr. Thayer had "seemed to develop amnesia." Mr. Bell added that Mr. Thayer had not been seen since he left his office in the University of Pennsylvania Tuesday morning.

The son, one of two who went to war, was Second Lieutenant Edward C. Thayer, a co-pilot of an Army bomber, who was killed in action in the Pacific last October, the first member of the First City Troop to die in the Second World War. The other son, John B. Thayer, 4th, is a lieutenant (jg) and a Naval Air Force pilot.

The P.T.C. employees who found the body on the front seat of the car with the feet under the steering wheel are George E. Wharton, of 2036 N. 54th ST., a supervisor, and Daniel Petetti, a mechanic, of 1247 N. 54th St.

They said they first saw the automobile, a sedan, registered in the name of his wife, Mrs. Lois C. Thayer, parked adjacent to the trolley loop on the south side of Parkside Ave. at noon Thursday. When they saw the same car parked there yesterday, they investigated.

The auto, with Mr. Thayer's body in it, had gone unnoticed by trolley-car passengers and boys who played football nearby.

The P.T.C. men, after finding the body, telephoned police. Patrolmen John Berry and John Joynes, of the 50th St. and Lancaster Ave. station, took the body to Presbyterian Hospital.

Deputy Coroner Roth, after the body was identified, said that there was no doubt that Mr. Thayer used razor blades, which the police found in the car, to kill himself.

Dr. Thomas S. Gates, chairman of the University of Pennsylvania, in a formal statement, declared: "In the death of Mr. John B. Thayer, trustee, financial vice-president and former treasurer, the University of Pennsylvania has lost a trusted and loyal servant. He has given unsparingly of himself to his university and to community affairs, and he had redoubled his efforts in the war period, especially after the death of his son, Edward, in the Pacific, which was followed closely by the death of his mother."

Mr. Thayer's mother, Mrs. Marian Longstreth Morris Thayer, died at her Haverford home April 14, 1944, which was the 32nd anniversary of her husband's death on the liner Titanic, which sank after striking an iceberg in the Atlantic.

Mrs. Thayer and a younger son, Frederick, had been placed in a lifeboat, while John stood with his father on the Titanic's deck when the ship went down.

The younger Thayer was rescued. (Note by PG: Frederick Thayer was not aboard the Titanic and Jack stood on the deck with Milton Long-not his father-as the ship sank.)

Mr. Thayer, who was 50, came from a family which had long been active in the affairs of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1928 he was elected a trustee, and on October 2, 1939, he became treasurer of the university. In February, 1944, he was appointed to the newly created office of financial vice president. He also was a director of the bi-centennial celebration of the University of Pennsylvania in 1940.

A graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences at the university, Mr. Thayer was active in athletics and on undergraduate publications, and was a member of the Phi Beta Junior Society, Sphinx Senior Society and the Delta Psi Fraternity.

During the First World War he served a captain in the artillery of the 79th Division, and was an honorary member of the First Troop, Philadelphia Cavalry. In 1919 Mr. Thayer entered the employ of Lee, Higginson & Co., bankers, in charge of their Philadelphia office. He left that firm in 1932 to become a partner in Yarnall & Co., from which he resigned in 1937.

He also served as a member of the managing committee of the university, as a member of the General Alumni Society Board of Directors and as vice chairman of the Alumni Annual Giving Fund Committee.

He also was a director of the Academy of the Fine Arts, and chairman of the board of trustees of the Haverford School, of which he was a graduate. He was president of the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society, and his hobby was figure skating.

Mr. Thayer was president of the Racquet Club, and former president of the Bond Club of Philadelphia. He was a member of the Rose Tree Fox Hunt, the Rabbit Club and the Gulph Mills Golf Club. His father was a vice president of the Pennsylvania Railroad and was a member of the class of 1882 at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mrs. Thayer, who was the former Lois B. Cassatt, is a granddaughter of the late Alexander J. Cassatt, former president of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Her parents were Colonel and Mrs. Edward B. Cassatt. Colonel Cassatt, a graduate of West Point, served throughout the Spanish-American War, Philippine campaign and the First World War.

Separately included in the same newspaper is the following notice:

THAYER.--Sept. 21, 1945, JOHN B. THAYER, son of the late John B. and Marian Longstreth Morris. Funeral services, Church of the Redeemer, Bryn Mawr, Pa., Mon., 4:30 P.M.

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