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Charles Joughin was the chief baker aboard the RMS Titanic, running a kitchen staff that churned out fresh bread for thousands of passengers every single day. He wasn't famous, wasn't wealthy, and wasn't supposed to be remembered at all.
When the ship struck the iceberg on April 14, 1912, Joughin didn't panic. He ordered his team to load lifeboats with over 50 loaves of bread so survivors would have something to eat while waiting for rescue.
He spent the next hour helping women and children into lifeboats, then gave up his own assigned seat in Lifeboat 10 so someone else could take it. In between his heroics, he kept slipping back to his cabin for whiskey.
As the ship began its final plunge, Joughin threw about 60 wooden deck chairs overboard, hoping they'd give people in the water something to cling to. Then he walked to the stern and simply stepped into the ocean as the Titanic disappeared beneath him.
The water that night was roughly -2°C, cold enough to kill most swimmers from shock within 15 minutes. Joughin stayed in it for nearly two hours, treading water until sunrise without ever losing consciousness.
Experts have since pointed to an unlikely factor in his survival: the alcohol in his system may have blunted his panic response enough to keep him calm instead of thrashing himself into exhaustion. Alcohol normally accelerates hypothermia, which makes his case even harder to explain.
By the time he was pulled onto an overturned collapsible boat, Joughin had swollen feet and little else wrong with him. He lived for decades afterward, an ordinary baker who outlasted one of history's deadliest nights almost by accident.
