James Paul Moody
James Paul Moody (
21 August 1887 –
15 April 1912) was the Sixth Officer of the
RMS Titanic and the only junior officer of the ship to die in the disaster.
Little is known about Moody's youth. He was born in
Scarborough,
England, the son of John Henry Moody and Evelyn Louis Lammin. He went to sea at the age of 14 and attended the King Edward VII Nautical School in
London, obtaining his Master's Certificate there in
1911. Moody joined the
White Star Line that same year and served on their liner
RMS Oceanic (along with fellow
Titanic officer
Charles Lightoller) before being transferred to the Titanic in
1912 at age 24. At that time he was living with an uncle at St. James House,
Grimsby,
Lincolnshire.
Along with the other junior officers, Moody received a telegram early in 1912 ordering him to report to White Star's
Liverpool offices on
26 March. From there he travelled to board
Titanic at the
Harland & Wolff yard in
Belfast.
Titanic then sailed for
Southampton to take on passengers. Moody's service as Sixth Officer earned him about $37 a month, although he was allowed his own cabin as compensation for his small salary.
On
Titanics sailing day, 10 April, Moody assisted, among other things, in aiding Fifth Officer Harold Lowe in lowering two of the starboard lifeboats to satisfy the Board of Trade that Titanic
met safety standards. He was also in charge of closing the last gangway, and most likely saved the lives of six crewman who arrived too late to board by turning them away. Once the ship had put to sea, Moody stood the 4-5 pm watch and both 8-12 watches, which meant that he was on watch, together with First Officer Murdoch, when the Titanic
struck an iceberg at 11.40 pm on 14 April. After spotting the iceberg, lookout Frederick Fleet rang the warning bell three times and phoned the bridge. It was Moody who answered the famous call, asking, "What do you see?" Fleet replied, "Iceberg, right ahead."
In the ensuing evacuation, Moody helped in the loading of lifeboat Nos. 12, 14, and 16. While loading No. 14, Fifth Officer Lowe remarked that an officer should man the lifeboat. While the younger and lower-ranker Moody would traditionally have been given this task, he valiantly deferred to Lowe. It was a decision that would seal his fate. Moody was last seen trying to launch Collapsible A, an emergency lifeboat, just a few minutes before the final sinking. Although his final fate is unknown, it is likely that, like most of Titanics victims, he succumbed to
hypothermia in the frigid
North Atlantic waters. He was 24 at the time of his death. His body was never recovered.
A monument in Woodland Cemetary, Scarborough, commemorates Moody's sacrifice on the
Titanic with the words, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
Moody was portrayed by Edward Fletcher in the 1997 blockbuster
Titanic.
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