The Slade brothers—Alfred, Thomas, and Bertram—were brothers, all in their mid-twenties at the time Titanic was berthed in Southampton.

And they were all of them seasoned seagoers.

Alfred had just wrapped up a gig on a ship called Highland Glen, while Bertram and Thomas had both transferred off of Titanic’s elder sister Olympic before she departed Southampton for New York City on March 30th. 

On April 6th, the Slade trio successfully signed onto Titanic’s maiden voyage as firemen. All three brothers listed their address as 21 Chantry Road in Southampton, where they lived with their mother.

The Titanic was scheduled to depart Southampton at noon on April 10th.

The Slade boys were expected to muster alongside their fellow sign-ons at 8:00 a.m. And they did so.

Names were taken down, and orders were issued. The crew were instructed to stand by until the ship departed. Most of the men, including the Slades, elected to return to shore to while away the time.

A fellow fireman named John Podesta, who according to his sign-on record was a neighbor of the Slade family on Chantry Road, also chose to go ashore. 

John continued, stating that he and his “watch-mate” William left the Newcastle around 11:15 a.m., bound for the docks.

But they shortly thereafter decided they had more than enough time to sneak in one more round at The Grapes, a public house on Oxford Street.

There, John and William ran into the Slade brothers, perhaps alongside three or four other wayward firemen—among them a boy with the surname Penney, who reportedly boarded with the Slade family and for whom Titanic was his first-ever ship.

According to John Podesta, the group of six or so finally exited The Grapes at only ten minutes to noon to make their harried way to the Titanic.

But then fate rode in.

So, while John Podesta and William Nutbean risked crossing the tracks as the train approached, the Slade trio decided to hang back.

The brothers have been described as "relaxed" in that moment--perhaps euphemistically.

Alfred, Tom, and Bertram Slade, along with their housemate Penney, finally reached the Titanic at 11:59 a.m.

Her final gangway connecting the ship to the dock had just been pulled away.

Thanks to their daring, John Podesta and William Nutbean had managed to make it just in time.

But the Slade brothers and the others with them were simply out of luck.

Sixth Officer James Moody oversaw that particular gangway.

After Podesta and Nutbean had presumably barreled their way on board, Officer Moody had withdrawn the gangway, only to briefly drop it back into place to allow a delivery boy to disembark the Titanic.

And as Officer Moody ordered the gangway pulled back for the second time, the disordered Slades ran up.

Still on the dock with bags hung ready from their shoulders, the boys shouted their appeals up the ship's side. They demanded to be let on board.

But Officer Moody would not give in.

The errant Slades had been already substituted by other able firemen who had been standing by on the dock, who no doubt had been waiting for just such an opportunity to arise.

Second-class passenger Lawrence Beesley likewise observed the confrontation from afar, and he chronicled it in his memoir.

Lawrence's retelling--so characteristically detailed--buoys the report that Officer Moody was not of a permissive temperament that day, and the Slade boys were hardly calm as they pled their case.

Tom, Bertram, Alfred, and their friend Penney were unceremoniously left behind by the Titanic.

Because the Slade boys had successfully mustered on Titanic that morning only to no-show at zero hour, they were marked as "deserted". So was Penney.

And so were other firemen and trimmers by the names of B. Brewer, Frank Holden, and J. Shaw, who perhaps due to their shared status as deserters, are sometimes claimed to have also been part of the fated group at The Grapes that day.

John Podesta and William Nutbean were lucky to have beaten the clock on April 10th, and luckier still only days later: they both survived the sinking of the Titanic.

The firemen brought on the replace the Slade trio, however, did not.

Mrs. Slade is reported to have been interviewed by the Southampton Times & Hampshire Express about her sons' most fortunate mishap in an article published on April 20, 1912.

"What a good job they missed their ship!" she supposedly exclaimed. "I have thanked God ever since."