Thread by @Bigbounce01

A #thread about John Priest, one of the luckiest men to ever walk the Earth.

Imagine surviving the Titanic by swimming through the arctic water with nothing more than a pair of shorts, then being one of the only survivors out of your 70 friends being blown up in WWI, and then escaping another sinking ship on the coast of Greece.

This was a reality for John Priest- a British stoker (someone who puts coal into the ships’ furnaces) who survived so many ship crashes by the skin of his teeth that he was nicknamed the unsinkable stoker by the media.

Born in 1877 in a working class district in Southampton, England, it seemed like John naturally had luck on his side.

In 1912 when jobs become increasingly rare thanks to strikes and riots, John was one of the very few who was able to get a job as a Stoker onboard the Olympic,

spending hours a day hauling coal into massive furnaces for a few shillings an hour.

It was there when one of John's nine lives were spent.

When the Olympic collided into the HMS Hawk in 1891, John was nearly killed on immediate impact.

However, being the lucky sonofabitch he was, John slipped away at the right moment, sparing him being one of the 576 men who died that day.

Incredibly, this wasn't his first close call with death.

He had previously worked aboard a ship called the Asturias that was badly damaged in a collision on its maiden voyage.

After surviving two ship crashes you would expect that maybe it was time to find a new career.

However, John decided to take a job on the Titanic simply because it seemed “safer” than other ships.

And who could blame him. The Titanic was a massive cruise-liner, with thick walls and virtually indestructible. Hell, the Titanic was nicknamed “the unsinkable” by its crew.

No way in hell could something like the Titanic topple to the bottom of the sea.

They were wrong. On Sunday, the 14th of April 1912, the Titanic hit a whopping iceberg off Newfoundland. 

John and his comrades had to swim through the arctic flood wearing northing but shorts and a light cotton shirt.

Many of his friends drowned or simply froze to death, but John climbed his way through the Titanic floor by floor, hall by hall until he finally was able to get onto the deck.

However, he was too late. By the time he got onto the deck, the last lifeboat had left the Titanic.

In panic, he decided to jump over the edge into the ice-cold water, where he bobbled alongside passengers and crew members alike.

Screaming for help and pushing through frozen bodies, he was finally rescued by lifeboat No. 15; he ended up being one of the only stokers who survived the crash.

Yet his greatest feat would happen in 1916 during WW1.

In February 1916, The Alcantara, a battleship that John worked on, intercepted the German raider Grief, which was disguised a Norwegian ship.

As Alcantara approached, Grief opened fire.

There was a short, ferocious, close-range battle, at the end of which both ships were sunk.

The part of the ship John was on got hit directly by one of the missiles.

A couple of his friends were blown up in front of him but John managed to escape with his life.

When he returned to work, it was aboard Britannic, Titanic's other - even bigger - sister,

...which was serving as a hospital ship ferrying wounded soldiers back to Britain through the Mediterranean.

Having already survived a collision on Olympic and the loss of Titanic, it must have been with no small amount of trepidation that he joined the third of the celebrated White Star Liners.

If Priest did feel any nervousness, it was entirely justified. On 21 November 1916, the great ship struck a mine and sank near the Greek island of Kea.

Once again, he emerged from the very depths of a foundering ship alive.

Luckily, this crash wasn't as bad as the Titanic or the Alcantara where he saw his friends die beside him. Nearly everyone made it—however 30 people did perish.

After Britannic, Priest would achieve one final escape from a sinking ship.

On 17 April 1917, he was a stoker aboard the hospital ship Donegalwhen it was torpedoed and sunk in the English Channel.

He suffered a head injury and would not serve again during World War One. 40 men died but yet again, John made it out alive.

Most likely realising that his luck was gonna run out any time soon, he decided to retire and have a family.

He was often at the very worst part of a vessel from which to escape, and yet he survived an astonishing litany of torpedoes, mines, icebergs and

...collisions to live out his days spinning tales in the pubs of Southampton.

In 1937 his luck ran out. He died peaceful in his sleep. I bet he was dreaming of a shipwreck.

#curated