Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Captain B. Steel, Royal Naval Reserve, who as Marine Superintendent, White Star Line, at Southampton, was reputed to have been the last man to step off the R.M.S. Titanic having collected the vessel’s final muster list from Captain E. Smith prior to the start of her ill-fated maiden voyage

East and West Africa 1887-1900, 1 clasp, Benin 1897 (Lieut. B. Steel, R.N.R., H.M.S. Forte.); Transport 1899-1902, 1 clasp, S. Africa 1899-1902 (B. Steel.); Royal Naval Reserve Decoration, E.VII.R., silver and silver-gilt (hallmarks for London 1909), nearly extremely fine (3) £4000-5000

Benjamin Steel was born in Birkenhead, Cheshire, in 1863, and passed his Master’s exam at Liverpool in 1887. Joining the White Star Line in 1894, he served with the Royal Naval Reserve as Acting Lieutenant in H.M.S. Forte in the punitive naval expedition commanded by Rear-Admiral Rawson, and landed from the Squadron to punish the King of Benin for the massacre of the political expedition of 1897, ending in the capture of Benin City on 18 February 1897. Appointed Mate of the White Star Line’s S.S. Britannic in October 1899, he was awarded the Transport Medal for service as Chief Officer in that vessel the following year. After commanding the White Star Line’s S.S. Nomadic in 1902, he was appointed assistant Marine Superintendent at Liverpool in 1903, and became Southampton Marine Superintendent for the Line in 1908, a post he held until his retirement in 1927. He died at Eastleigh, Hampshire, in October 1944.

As the White Star Line’s Marine Superintendent at Southampton, it was Steel who collected the R.M.S. Titanic’s muster list from Captain Edward Smith, and was reputedly therefore the last man to leave the Titanic prior to her embarking upon her maiden voyage from Southampton on 10 April 1912. Five days later she sank beneath the waves. Steel testified at the Wreck Commissioner’s Inquiry into the disaster, and when asked by counsel ‘Did you inspect the life boats to see whether they were properly equipped’, he replied, ‘I did in a general way, yes’.

Sold together with a photographic image of the Titanic leaving Southampton on her maiden voyage, with Steel pictured sitting on the quayside.