First time meeting, last time to say goodbye

Meeting Mr Fleet

For many years I have been reading about Mr Fleet and wondering how Southampton would appear if I ever visited. Southampton is two hour trip from where I live in Essex; a day trip there for a quick visit to see the docks, to walk around the town and possibly introduce myself to Mr Fleet at ten years old seemed like a big deal. At age twenty eight the trip was still a very big deal.

I have been reading and exploring text books for information about Mr Fleet since a young age. My dad introduced me to Titanic around seven years old and I remember looking at a photo of Frederick and just wondering: 'how was it for you?’ Of course he never answered me. Mr Fleet was the lookout on duty when Titanic struck the iceberg, he will be forever remembered as the lookout that spotted the iceberg that sunk Titanic. Many people forget that Reginald Lee was the other lookout with Frederick, but sadly Reginald died from pneumonia on August 6^th 1913 after testifying before the Board of Trade Inquiry. Fred returned to the sea after the Titanic sinking, going from ship to ship before retiring from the Oceanic as a deck crew.


As Fred became elderly he lived in Southampton with his wife Eva, and he worked for some years handing out newspapers for Southampton Daily Echo newspaper. Sadly on December 28^th 1964 Fred’s wife died, and her brother, with whom the couple were living with, evicted Fred from their home. We are not sure what happened to Fred during these two weeks (we do not know where he stayed, or what he did) but the despair, unhappiness, and the loneliness he would of felt becomes clear, because two weeks after his wife death on the 10^th January 1965, Fred went into his back garden and hung himself from the clothes line.
Until 1993, Fred was buried in a paupers grave in Hollybrook Cemetery and his gravestone was unmarked.  The Titanic Historical Society paid for a new gravestone for him with the bearing of Titanic on the stone, and every year of the anniversary of the sinking, and I hope for the anniversary of his death, his grave is filled with flowers.

14^th April 2012
As it was the 100^th anniversary of the Titanic sinking, I finally went to Southampton to visit the famous dock where she set sail from, to walk around the town, to see the memorials for the dead and to finally visit Mr Fleet. Before we had even set off to Southampton from Essex, my best friend suggested to me that we should go visit Fred to pay our respects, and to finally say hello (or goodbye) to him. Good plan Batman! Problem was, we did not know where his grave was, which part of the cemetery he was in, or what his grave looked like.

Hollybrook Cemetery is near one of the hospitals in Southampton, and as we drew closer to the cemetery we remembered that we do not know where to look, or that we have any flowers for his grave. Daffodils was the choice in the end, because they were the only flowers we could find and plus they would stand out. Bright and cheerful. As you walk in Hollybrook, there is a certain hushed silence you can find in any cemetery. Flowers were in full bloom and balloons around young children graves bounced gently in the breeze. As it was Saturday, other mourners walked around the graves, tidying up dead flowers from their beloved or sitting quietly beside them.
There was only one road that leads into Hollybrook and on one side of the road there were rows beyond rows of graves. Some were bold and were over filling with flowers, other graves were crumbling and forever alone. As we did not know where Fred’s final resting place was, we decided to hit the overflowing grave yard and split up. We didn’t have any luck because there were simply too many graves, too many white graves but none with his name and the picture of Titanic on them. In the end, I had to use the wonderful Wikipedia and other useful websites to find out where his grave was. It didn’t help very much.

As we were walking back towards the road, we saw an empty space with only a few little stones dotted around the field. A few gravestones stood proudly, but they were spaced away from each other. We suddenly noticed that one of the gravestones was a shining white colour and was filled with colourful flowers: we had found Frederick Fleet. I must admit, we did run towards him, but as we drew closer, we slowed down and became quiet. I would honestly love to say I was filled with peace, respect, and wonder towards his grave. But I would be lying. Instead I felt sadness, and a great sense of despair. Here laid Frederick Fleet, the man who first spotted the iceberg, the man who sounded the bell and hoped (and possibly prayed) that the ship would turn and to be saved. Again I found myself questioning his grave, ‘How was it for you?’ and the only answers I could come away with was despair, sadness and guilt. He survived the sinking, where others had perished.
Others had come to pay their respects to him, leaving messages of their love and thanks to him, and one had given him binoculars, which we found to be very touching. Fred did not have binoculars on the night of the sinking, and this kind person had given him a pair. Very moving and honourable. The newspapers had a field day of them and thought they were a sick joke: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4265240/Sick-joke-at-Titanic-grave.html

After giving my respects to Mr Fleet at his grave, it has left me feeling more determined to write something about him. A book (or a blog) in his memory. There are no books about him, only what is written in text books, Titanic stories, internet searches (which is linked into the Titanic) or what is written on Wikipedia. From what I have found so far, this man has had a very difficult life, starting with a sad childhood to finally committing suicide when he was a elderly man.