As the “unsinkable” Titanic sank slowly into the frigid waters of the north Atlantic on the morning of April 15, 1912, a fire-stoker called George Kemish, who had scrambled his way up from Boiler Room no. 5, happened to notice a single elderly gentleman sitting quietly reading a book in the first class smoking room.
As the rest of the passengers, gripped by pandemonium and terror, struggled to save their lives, the old gentleman, said Kemish, “looked as if he planned to stay there whatever happened.”
This evocative account of Stead in his final hours, asserted years after the event, is, in all probability, just one more myth among the many that were generated by the disaster. Its only written source seems to be Walter Lord’s quintessential account of the tragedy, A Night to Remember, published in 1956 and made into a film of the same name in 1958. According to Lord, Kemish noticed Stead as he scurried past the first-class smoking room on his way to the lifeboats. Kemish escaped the stricken ship in lifeboat no. 9 and lived to correspond with Lord during the latter’s research for his now famous book.
There are, however, obvious problems with Kemish’s testimony that cast considerable doubt over its credibility: Firstly, despite Stead’s international notoriety, it is questionable whether a twenty-four-year-old fire-stoker would be sufficiently familiar with the world of literature and politics to be able to recognise the editor of the Review of Reviews. Secondly, Stead’s apparent indifference (according to Kemish) to the horrific scenes about him fly in the face of every contemporary account of his character. And thirdly, other far more credible sightings of Stead in his final hours place him on deck helping women and children into lifeboats or in the sea struggling for his life.
Survivor, Mrs. William Shelley, for example, said that her “last glimpse of the Titanic” showed Stead standing “alone at the edge of the deck” in a “prayerful attitude of profound meditation.” Another later sighting, by survivor Philip Mock, has Stead clinging to a raft with Col. John Jacob Astor. “Their feet became frozen,” recalled Mock, “and they were compelled to release their hold. Both were drowned.” 
Yet, despite such perfectly plausible eyewitness accounts, it is Lord’s portrayal of Stead gallantly going down with the ship that endures to this day. Friends and colleagues who lived long enough to see A Night to Remember took comfort from Stead’s portrayal because it represented him as being fearless in death as he had been in life. Spiritualists likewise seized on the smoking room scene because it fulfilled their projected image of Stead as the gifted precognitive fatalist who had predicted the Titanic disaster (and his own death) in a number of “sinking stories” penned decades earlier.
Unfortunately, Stead’s own expectations of his final voyage, as recorded by him in the Review of Reviews, seem to be considerably less fatalistic and suggest that his supposed prior insight into the disaster has no basis in fact whatsoever:
“I expect to leave by the Titanic on April 10th and hope I shall be back in London in May.” 
See also:
How the Mail Steamer went down in Mid Atlantic
Hi, very nice post. I have been wonder’n bout this issue,so thanks for posting
How do we pronounce this man’s name? Does it rhyme with “NED” or “FEED”?
Pronunciation is short, as in “bed”
Very interesting! Well done.
However, I must say the last sentence:
“I expect to leave by the Titanic on April 10th and hope I shall be back in London in May”
does NOT contradict his purported fatalism.
If anything, it shows a person cautious with his words: notice that he didn’t say - as people, so foolishly, often do - “I shall” (or even “will”) be back in London (etc.).
To a man - or a woman, as is my case
- who makes his living by using and exploring the power of words, wording is not irrelevant.
He seems to have been a wise - and very interesting - man.
I wish he had met a fate less cruel; but maybe he found solace and comfort within himself.
Is this the most comprehensive resource for info on W. T Stead?
I am a direct descendent of Mr Stead, and am interested in learning a bit more about him (and a few of my other “famous” antescendents).
Yes, the WTSRS is the most complete Stead resource on the web.
I am a descendant of W.T.Stead and found this very interesting. I grew up hearing about him helping others into the lifeboats. My nephew is named William Stead….after him. My mother kept his books in the library of our home as well of many books about the Titantic that mentioned him. I also have many old photos of relatives from England from the 1800’s that they sent over to America corresponding with relatives.
Very cool, I am also a relative of Stead. He was my great, great uncle I believe. Well done with the site I am learning things about him I never knew. Sounds like he was one of a kind.
I am also a descendant of stead, he was my great great grandfather… if anyone has any other information on him please let me know. I here there is also a theory that there was a cursed mummy on board and that somehow Stead had a premonition about this. If anyone has any further information in connection with this please let me know. Unfornutately the stongest link to Stead my grandmother, died when my dad was just 10 so we never had a chance to get any information about her grandad from her.
It would be interesting to do a post W.T Stead Family tree, to see where we all fit in, and also wherabouts in the world his descendants ended up.
I have Steads signature i picked it up years ago at a collectors fair i never knew there was so much to read about him
There are several biographies of Stead out there, and some even more interesting recent academic articles. Go to Worldcat.org and, on the “Advanced Search” enter
“W.T. Stead”
with the quotes in the title field. Worldcat will tell you what the closest libraries are for each book. Just enter your zip code to have the results sorted that way.
Or else, go to Amazon, and buy them used.
There are several biographies on this website, too, some as full test pdfs. http://www.attackingthedevil.co.uk/worksabout/index.php.