Name
Lifeboat from Titanic
Lifeboat to Carpathia
Confidence Level
Prangnell, Mr George Alexander
? ? 1.00

 


Prangnell made wild claims about his survival, stating that he ended up in the water for three days aboard a life raft, and was rescued by an unnamed cargo ship.  His alleged condition was detailed in The Hampshire Magazine, 1980:
    “So maybe Prangnell was the only survivor to be rescued by other means? He was picked up, half-dead, by a cargo vessel, the name of which may never now be discovered, and was recognised and revived with whisky by a Southampton seaman, Mickey Shields, who recognised him the moment he was hauled aboard. After being treated for severe frostbite, exposure and swollen genitalia in a New York hospital he re-enlisted with the White Star Line on July 20, 1912, as a fireman aboard the ''Oceanic''. Maybe a New York medical establishment contains a record of his admittance, or possibly there was tiny mention in an American newspaper of the time?”

George Behe wrote the following about Prangnell’s claim in a letter dated May 20, 1989:
    “A few years ago I found an interesting titbit which, I believe, clears up any mystery surrounding how he was saved. His photograph appears in the May 4, 1912 issue of the Illustrated London News along with other crewmen who had returned to England. The caption of the photo says that he was in the water, for his hand and feet were frost-bitten. It seems clear that Prangnell was picked up by the Carpathia along with all the other survivors, and that he returned to England along with the majority of the crew. The only mystery appears to be, 'Why did he invent the story of being picked up by another ship?' The photo makes it clear that he didn't remain in hospital in America for a long time after the disaster as he later claimed. We'll probably never know the whole story behind Prangnell's account, unfortunately, but I feel reasonably confident in saying that he was rescued by the Carpathia.”

Given the existing information, it is entirely possible that Prangell was indeed rescued from the water, although there simply isn’t enough information to be certain about a specific lifeboat.  However, his story of being on a raft for three days before being rescued by a ship other than Carpathia is clearly fabricated.  Due to the uncertainty, we were forced to vote 1, for no particular boat.