Titanic’s forgotten Australian hero

At 11.40 pm on 14 April 1912, the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic and sank less than three hours later, resulting in the loss of more than 1500 lives, but while there have been hundreds of books and dozens of movies about that night, what has been overlooked is the heroic role played by an Australian.

Albert Nichols was born in July 1864 on Lord Howe Island. He was the eldest son of Thomas Nichols, a whaling captain from Hobart, and Mary Nichols, the only daughter of two of the island’s pioneers, Thomas and Margaret Andrews.

After a violent falling-out with his parents, 17-year-old Albert fled from Lord Howe to Sydney, where he got a, then RMS and, finally, the .