A Titanic mystery: the fate of Frederick Watson Ommanney (1864-1912)

The biography of George Campbell Ommanney, Ommanney of Sheffield, has the following to say about the descendants of Francis Molyneux Ommanney, once the MP for Barnstaple:

The grandfather of George Campbell Ommanney was Sir Francis Molyneux Ommanney. He had nine sons and three daughters. They all married and thus a large family connection was formed. It is interesting to observe that the only direct descendant of Sir Francis Ommanney’s eldest son was a victim of the Titanic disaster.

This information was supplied by George's brother, Admiral Sir Robert Nelson Ommanney. It is clearly incorrect in part, because Francis Molyneux’s eldest son Frederick Woods Ommanney had several grandchildren who lived on beyond 1912, including (if the gallant Admiral was discounting girls) a grandson, William, carrying the Ommanney name. But it is hardly likely that Admiral Ommanney got it entirely wrong – the book was after all published only two decades after the Titanic went down, when many of those who would have known would still have been alive. 

William had a brother, though – Frederick Watson Ommanney – and the probate report surely shows that Admiral Ommanney had been thinking of Frederick when he spoke to George Campbell Ommanney's biographer:

Anyone with an interest in the Titanic will immediately spot the significance of 'died 14 April 1912 at sea.'

I turn to the lists of Titanic passengers and crew, but unusually for a ship, no Ommanney is to be found. So what is going on?

The answer, perhaps, lies in the earlier history of Frederick Watson Ommanney.
A Ship’s Master, he was found to have been partly responsible for the wreck of the Dahomey in 1908:

Dundee Evening Telegraph, 31 December 1908
ELDER-DEMPSTER LINER
RUNS ASHORE ON A SMALL ISLAND
And has to be Beached in Order to Prevent Her Sinking.
New York, Thursday.
A cablegram received from Nassau, Providence Island, in the Bahamas, states that the Elder-Dempster liner Dahomey, a vessel of 2000 tons, is ashore on the small island of Elbow Gay.
She is reported to be badly damaged, and has to be beached in order to prevent her sinking.
The crew are all safe.

Board of Trade Wreck Report for 'Dahomey', 1908
"DAHOMEY" (S.S.). 
The Merchant Shipping Act, 1894. 
In the matter of a Formal Investigation held at Liverpool, on the 6th, 7th, and 8th days of April, the 30th day of June, and the 1st day of July 1909... into the circumstances attending the stranding of the British steamship "DAHOMEY," between Whale Cay and Grand Guana Cay, Bahamas, on or about the 28th December last, and of her subsequent loss off Nassau. 
The Court having carefully inquired into the circumstances attending the above-mentioned shipping casualty, finds for the reasons stated in the annex hereto, that the stranding and subsequent loss of the steamship "Dahomey" were caused by the negligent act and default of the master, Frederick Watson Ommanney, in navigating the ship, and the Court suspends his certificate, No. 013970, for a period of three months. 
Dated this 1st day of July, 1909. 

As an experienced Master, was Ommanney perhaps among the crew, rather than the passengers, of the Titanic? And if it were so, had he changed his identity to avoid having to reveal his history, and in order to secure such a desirable post?

I cannot leave the matter, though, without noting the following, which suggests however that Frederick's responsibility in the case of the Dahomey might not after all have been so great:





Lancashire Evening Post, 14 April 1909
The captain of the Elder Dempster liner Sokoto states that on the morning of the 26th March, while voyaging from Vera Cruz for Progreso, he saw breakers dead ahead at a spot at which, according to the chart, there should have been many fathoms of water. The course of the vessel was altered and observations taken. It is believed, says the “Yorkshire Post,” that other portions of the Gulf of Mexico, and also the neighbourhood of the Bahama Channel, have suffered considerable alterations. No fewer than three large vessels, the Elder Dempster liner Dahomey, the Newcastle steamer Hesleyside, and the Newcastle steamer Alnmere, have been totally list in the West Indies during the last six months, without any reason being ascribed. Allegations as to faulty navigation were at first made, but there now appears to be little doubt that the accidents have occurred solely through the new subterranean configurations.