Frederick Fleet (15 October 1887 – 10 January 1965) was a British sailor, crewman and a survivor of the sinking of the . Fleet, along with fellow lookout Reginald Lee, was on duty when the ship struck the iceberg; it was Fleet who first sighted the iceberg, ringing the bridge to proclaim: "Iceberg, right ahead!" Both Fleet and Lee survived the sinking. Fleet testified at the subsequent inquiries into the disaster that, if he and Lee had been issued with binoculars: "We could have seen it (the iceberg) a bit sooner." When asked how much sooner, he responded, "Well, enough to get out of the way." In later life, Fleet suffered severe depression, most likely, or at least in part due to the disaster of the Titanic sinking, Fleet chose to end his life by suicide, and died by means of hanging in January 1965. Early life and maritime career Fleet was born in Liverpool, England on 15 October 1887. He never knew his father, and his mother abandoned him and ran off with a boyfriend to Springfield, Massachusetts, in the United States, never to be seen or heard from again. Fleet was raised by a succession of foster families and distant relatives. In 1903 he went to sea as a deck boy, working his way up to able seaman. Before joining the crew of the RMS Titanic, he had sailed for over four years as a lookout on the RMS Oceanic. As a seaman, Fleet earned five pounds per month plus an extra 5 shillings for lookout duty. It was as a lookout that Fleet joined the Titanic in April 1912, along with five other watchmen. RMS Titanic Fleet boarded the Titanic in Southampton on 10 April 1912. The ship made two stops, first in Cherbourg, France, and then in Queenstown, Ireland. The lookouts, six in total, made two-hour shifts due to extreme cold in the crow's nest. The trip was uneventful until the night of 14 April 1912. At 22:00 (10 p.m.) that night, Fleet and his fellow lookout Reginald Lee replaced George Symons and Archie Jewell at the nest. They were passed the order given earlier by second officer Charles Lightoller to watch out for small ice. The night was calm and moonless, which made it difficult to spot the icebergs due to the lack of waves breaking against the base of the iceberg and reflection. Despite