The only known photo of my great uncle whose negligence sank an entire cruise ship in the Middle of the Atlantic in 1928

His name was Gregory and from what I understand, he was the kind of guy who always kept to himself and never liked working in groups. He was also very particular, and though he was usually pretty competent, he could sometimes hyperfixate on "his" way and be blind to better alternatives.

Anyway, he landed a job at a cruise company right out of high school and never looked back. He was a hard worker and when he was 30 he led the entire staff of coal shovelers on a specific cruise liner. Because by that time, cruise failures like the Titanic were anomalies, things went smoothly for about a decade, until one fateful night...

I think this may be slightly exaggerated (you know how family oral tradition is), but from what I understand, a mechanical valve blew up and all responsibility fell on him. Well, he had no idea what to do but pretended he did, so he ordered the workers to turn some valves. Meanwhile, one of his subordinates suggests a way to rechannel the valves output manually that may solve the problem. My uncle realized this would work, but he hated the audacity of that guy, so he mocked him and told the workers to keep doing what he already told them to do.

Long story short, ship sank.