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 in popular culture The Full Story of the RMS Titanic". Robin Gardiner's 1995 and 1998 books "Riddle of the Titanic" and "Titanic: The Ship that Never Sank", put forward a conspiracy theory that the wreck is actually that of the RMS "Olympic", which supposedly the White Star Line had secretly switched with "Titanic" as part of an insurance scam. A variety of novels set aboard the "Titanic" has been produced over the years. One of the earliest was the German author Robert Prechtl's "Titanic", first published in Germany in 1937 and subsequently in Britain in 1938 and in the US in 1940 (translated