Jack Thayer

Jack Thayer
Jack Thayer aged 17, 1912
Born	John Borland Thayer III (1894-12-24)December 24, 1894 Philadelphia, U.S.
Died	September 20, 1945(1945-09-20) (aged 50) Philadelphia, U.S.
Spouse(s)	Lois Buchanan Cassatt (1917-1945) (his death)
Children	7

John Borland "Jack" Thayer III (December 24, 1894 – September 20, 1945) was a first-class passenger on the RMS Titanic who survived and provided several first-hand accounts of the disaster.

John (Jack) Borland Thayer, III was born into a wealthy family of aristocrats and was the son of John Borland Thayer II, a Director and Second Vice President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and Philadelphia socialite Marian Morris Thayer. Seventeen-year-old Jack had been traveling in Europe with his parents and a maid named Margaret Fleming and heading to New York, when they embarked aboard the RMS Titanic at Cherbourg on Wednesday, April 10, 1912. Jack's stateroom, cabin C-70, adjoined his parents', C-68. Shortly after 11:30 p.m., on the ship's collision 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.

Jack woke his parents, who accompanied him back to the port side of the ship. Noticing that the Titanic was developing a list to port, they returned to their rooms, and put on warmer clothes and life vests. They returned to the deck, but Jack lost sight of his parents. After searching for them, he assumed they had boarded a lifeboat.

Jack soon encountered Milton Long, a fellow passenger he had met hours before over coffee. Both Milton and Jack tried to board a lifeboat but were turned away because they were men. Jack then proposed jumping off the ship, as he was a good swimmer. However, Milton was not, and he advised Jack against it.

Eventually, as the ship was sinking quickly, the two men decided to jump and attempt to swim to safety. Milton went first, jumping while facing the ship; it was the last time Jack ever saw him. Jack launched himself from the rail, back facing the ship and pushing outward. Once in the water, Jack reached the improperly launched and overturned Collapsible B. Too exhausted to save himself, he was pulled from the water. He and a number of other men, including Harold Bride, Archibald Gracie IV, chief baker Charles Joughin, and second officer Charles Lightoller, were able to balance on the boat for some hours. Jack 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.