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Frederick Fleet

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Military Personnel

The Resume

    (October 15, 1887-January 10, 1965)
    Born in Liverpool, England, United Kingdom
    Crewman on the Titanic
    Lookout who spotted the iceberg that the ship collided with
    During the evacuation, was assigned to man the oars of lifeboat 6

Why he might be annoying:

    His iceberg warning proved to be too late.
    During the inquiry into the Titanic sinking, he claimed he could not remember how much time passed between his calling the bridge with the warning and the collision, saying it could have been anywhere from ten minutes to an hour.
    He committed suicide by hanging himself in the garden of his brother-in-law's house.
    He was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He never knew his father and his mother abandoned him to run off with the boyfriend to the US, leaving him to be raised by distant relatives and foster families.
    The night of the Titanic disaster was calm and moonless, making it difficult to spot icebergs, due to a lack of reflections and of waves breaking against the bases of the icebergs.
    He and his fellow lookouts had repeatedly asked for binoculars, but were never provided with any.
    His wife died two weeks before his suicide, after which his brother-in-law expelled Fleet from his home, where the couple had been living.
    A headstone was provided for his grave using funds raised by the Titanic Historical Society (1993).

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2022, Out of 10 Votes: 10.0% Annoying