In my novel Sheltering Angel, you’ll meet intriguing minor characters based on actual people aboard the Titanic. One of them is third-class steward Charlie Savage.

Charles James Savage was born December 31, 1888, in Brightlingsea on England’s east coast. His father, a mariner, wasn’t around much, but Charlie had plenty of company with three older siblings. His sister Winnie, four years Charlie’s senior, married Titanic first-class steward Sidney Conrad Siebert, also a player in my novel.

Charlie was a prominent member of the Brightlingsea football (soccer) team, an athlete, and a devoted sports fan. When he signed on with the Titanic crew, to save money he moved his belongings in with Winnie and Sidney at 8 Harold Road, Southampton, around the corner from White Star Line steward Andrew Cunningham with whom he was good friends. Previous to Titanic, Charlie served aboard the Rannoch, earning £3 15s per month (about $15 or $470 in today’s money). Of course, the ship provided room and board and he had little need of clothing other than his steward’s uniform.

The toughest assignment on the ship was working as a fireman shoveling coal into hot furnaces, but stewarding in third-class, called steerage, was no picnic. Steerage was located on a lower level of the ship without portholes and near the noisy steering mechanisms.

All steerage passengers shared common bathrooms with toilets that flushed automatically because many in third class were used to outdoor privies without plumbing. One bathtub for men and one for women sufficed for all 700 as daily bathing was considered drying to the skin.

Four were assigned to each sleeping cabin, and Charlie didn’t have to worry about changing bedsheets because none were provided. Since most in steerage were leaving their native lands for good, they likely brought their linens with them.

Passengers were served three meals a day, unlike on other steamships that expected third-class passengers to bring their own food for the six-day journey. Diners sat at long rows of tables in a dining hall that accommodated 475 people, requiring Charlie and his fellow stewards to serve six meals a day.

Steerage passengers socialized in the General Room perched on wood benches to discourage passing lice to one another. They could sit, read, play cards, and chat with other third-class passengers, but they were prohibited from using the gymnasium or the pool. A smoking room furnished with spittoons was strictly for men.

When Titanic crashed into the iceberg and began to sink, Charlie was directed into lifeboat 11 to assist second-class passengers. Desperate steerage passengers were locked behind metal gates until nearly the last minute before the ship went down. When they were released, most of the lifeboats had launched. Only 25 percent survived the disaster, a mere fraction of them men. In contrast, 97 percent of first-class women were boarded into lifeboats. Charlie was taken aboard the rescue ship Carpathia, housed and fed in New York, and given passage back to Southampton, where he continued working at sea.

Whether the Titanic tragedy affected him deeply, whether Charlie preferred bachelorhood, or whether he stayed single to look after his pregnant widowed sister, he took a long time finding the right woman. Finally, in his forties he wed Edith Monica Brown, a divorcee who had been married three times previously, twice to the same man. She was five years older than Charlie and had two grown children. Several years later the couple emigrated to Canada and settled in British Columbia. Strong in body and spirit, Charlie outlived Edith by three years and died at his adopted home at age 68.