Joseph Boxhall - Later Years and Death

Later Years and Death

Following the Titanic debacle, Boxhall briefly served as Fourth Officer on White Star's Adriatic before joining the Royal Naval Reserve as a sub-lieutenant. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1915. During the First World War, he was commissioned to serve for one year aboard the battleship HMS Commonwealth before being dispatched to Gibraltar, where he commanded a torpedo boat.

Boxhall returned to White Star following the war in May 1919, having married Marjory Beddells two months prior. He signed on as second officer onboard RMS Olympic (sister ship of Titanic) on 30 June 1926. After the White Star-Cunard merger in 1933, he served in senior capacity as first and later chief officer of the RMS Aquitania, although he was never made a captain in the merchant marine. After 41 years at sea, he retired in 1940. Boxhall was a generally taciturn and quiet man, usually reluctant to speak about his experiences on the Titanic. However, in 1958, he acted as a technical advisor for the film adaptation of Walter Lord's documentary-style novel, A Night to Remember, and also gave a BBC interview in 1962.

His health deteriorated sharply in the 1960s, and he was eventually hospitalised. The last surviving deck officer of Titanic, Boxhall died of a cerebral thrombosis on 25 April 1967 at the age of 83. According to his last wishes, his ashes were scattered to sea at 41°46N 50°14W – the position he had calculated as Titanic's final resting place over 50 years earlier (within about 15 miles of the actual Titanic wreck site at 41°43N 49°56W). Ruth Becker and Frank Goldsmith also had their remains scattered over Titanic's final resting place.

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