Thomas Byles in ministry and his final hours on board the RMS Titanic. Thomas Byles Thomas Roussel Davids Byles (26 February 1870 – 15 April 1912) was an English Catholic priest who was a passenger aboard the "RMS Titanic" on its maiden voyage when it sank after striking an iceberg during the night of 15 April 1912. He was reported as being amidst the throng of trapped passengers on the ship's rear deck in its final moments of descent, audibly praying. Thomas Byles was born Roussel Davids Byles in Leeds, Yorkshire, the eldest of seven children of the Reverend Alfred Holden Byles,
RMS Titanic with the plot bearing a number of similarities to the "Titanic" disaster. In the novel the ship is the SS "Titan", a four-stacked liner, the largest in the world and considered unsinkable. And like the "Titanic", she sinks after hitting an iceberg and does not have enough lifeboats. Only recently has the significance of "Titanic" most notably been given by Northern Ireland where it was built by Harland and Wolff in the capital city, Belfast. While the rest of the world embraced the glory and tragedy of "Titanic", in its birth city, "Titanic" remained a taboo subject throughout the 20th