Card with the signature of TITANIC survivor Frank W. Prentice

autograph

A card with the signature of Frank W. Prentice, a survivor of the TITANIC. Prentice was an assistant storekeeper aboard the ship. After the iceberg collision, he helped people into lifeboats. In interviews, he said he had convinced a Mrs. Clark to get into a lifeboat by telling her that her husband would catch another boat. After the boats launched, Prentice ended up at the stern of the ship as it lifted out of the water, and he and his friend Cyril Ricks jumped some 100 feet off the side. Ricks hit something when he jumped, and he was unconscious when Prentice found him. Prentice stayed with him until Ricks died. Eventually Prentice was able to swim to a lifeboat, where he was pulled in. He found himself sitting next to Mrs. Clark, who wrapped him in her cloak or blanket, and he believes they both saved each other's lives that night. Prentice continued working at sea after the disaster, and he was aboard HMS OCEANIC when it wrecked off the Faroe Islands in 1914 during World War I and he once again found himself jumping into the water and being rescued by a lifeboat. At that point, Prentice enlisted with the Royal Tank Regiment. He gave many interviews during his life, talking about the nightmares he still suffered and showing the pocket watch he had that night, which stopped at 2:20.