Titanic's Second Officer, Charles Lightoller - BBC Radio Interview (1936)
Vložit
- čas přidán 14. 06. 2024
- In this detailed narration, Charles Lightoller, the Second Officer of the Titanic gives his account of the Titanic's maiden voyage and sinking. As one of the senior officers of the ship and one of the last survivors to leave the Titanic, Lightoller's account is a great companion to his testimony at the inquiries and his memoir, "Titanic and Other Ships" published in 1935.
This interview was originally aired by the BBC on November 1, 1936 as part of the series, “I Was There.”
Read the full annotated transcript of this interview: titanicarchive.org/collection...
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:45 - The Maiden Voyage
01:51 - The Night of April 14th
04:53 - The Iceberg
07:40 - All Hands on Deck
08:40 - Loading the Lifeboats
09:25 - The Californian
11:06 - Continuing to Load the Lifeboats
15:03 - Collapsible B
16:05 - The Final Plunge
17:00 - In the Water
18:21 - Titanic's Final Moments
19:37 - On the Upturned Boat
21:04 - The Carpathia
Film Sources:
- A Night to Remember (1958), dir. Roy Ward Baker / The Rank Organisation
- Titanic (1996), dir. Robert Lieberman / Konigsberg / Sanitsky Company
- Titanic (1997), dir. James Cameron / Paramount
- Titanic (2012), dir. Jon Jones / ITV
About Titanic Archive:
Titanic Archive is dedicated to digitally preserving the cultural memory of the RMS Titanic disaster and the stories of those who sailed on her tragic maiden voyage.
Support Titanic Archive:
To learn more about supporting Titanic Archive’s digital preservation efforts, please consider becoming a member: / titanicarchive
Follow Titanic Archive:
Website: titanicarchive.org
Instagram: / titanic.archive
Patreon: / titanicarchive
![Eminem - Houdini [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/22tVWwmTie8/mqdefault.jpg)
The most important point is that
T this guy was an amazing human being and a real hero. From the Titanic to WW1 to coming out of retirement to take his craft to Dunkirk. 3 Wonka movies in 30 years and nothing about this amazing man. Where are our values. He’s more than a footnote in some documentary about Dunkirk.
I guess he joins history's long list of unsung hero's.
Not quite, in the dunkirk movie although the name is changed Mark Rylance's character is essentially lightoller, and in the movie a night to remember lightoller is essentially the main character and his actor Kenneth Moore is given the top spot as the star.
Movie makers probably see the "I was having none of the hands up business" on the wiki and decide he might be too controversial to make a film about.
Hero ??? Are you serious !! He turned hundreds of people away from lifeboats ffs with his company man attitude,even tried to refuse a 13 year old,he was distanced from as time went on and any sort of rescue was the least he could do to repay society for his despicable behaviour on the Titanic !
@@shanet5604 That doesn't sound too good.
Never in my life have I ever, Listened to Lightoller's interview/testimony before. This is the first time and while I was listening to it, It gave me goosebumps that I've not felt in a long time
He never says what an obnoxious company man he was,power tripping by refusing men to board,he knew the ship was going to sink and he denied life ??? An early narcissistic lowlife !
Agreed
It’s so clear it could have been today. He almost sounds like Ringo Starr
He was responsible for a lot of people dying that night by being a total company man,hence why he’s been distanced from as time went on…
Just can't believe the answer Lightoller gave to question 14197 at the British inquiry
Can you suggest at all how it can have come about that this iceberg should not have been seen at a greater distance?
- It is very difficult indeed to come to any conclusion. Of course, we know now the extraordinary combination of circumstances that existed at that time which you would not meet again once in 100 years; that they should all have existed just on that particular night shows, of course, that everything was against us.
That's not a ship's officer, that's a teen. The court wasn't impressed either and the message seemed to be, as Walter Lord put it so well, that the accident was of the one-in-a-million variety. Friend of mine said to me one time that the accident was of the "preventable variety."
It's interesting hearing one of the Titanic's officers recount the events of that fateful night.
Second officer Lightoller was so much more in life than just an employee helping people onto the lifeboats of a doomed ship. Most will never look at him beyond that, or invest a short bit of time into reading his story. I suggest that you do to see for yourselves. He is a shining example of what it is to be a British gentleman.
Agreed
Just can't believe the answer that Lightoller gave to question 14197 at the British inquiry
Can you suggest at all how it can have come about that this iceberg should not have been seen at a greater distance?
- It is very difficult indeed to come to any conclusion. Of course, we know now the extraordinary combination of circumstances that existed at that time which you would not meet again once in 100 years; that they should all have existed just on that particular night shows, of course, that everything was against us.
That's not a ship's officer, that's a teen. The court wasn't impressed either and the message seemed to be, as Walter Lord put it so well, that the accident was of the one-in-a-million variety. Friend of mine said to me one time that the accident was of the "preventable variety."
I didn't leave the ship. The ship left me. Quote Charles Herbert Lightoller.
I wish people would more like that today."We started together and we'll finish together."
"As we have lived, so we will die: together" (Ida Strauss)
Lightoler was clearly a fine officer. Very fine. Very well done video. Good editing. Thank you.
Just can't believe the answer Lightoller gave to question 14197 at the British inquiry
Can you suggest at all how it can have come about that this iceberg should not have been seen at a greater distance?
- It is very difficult indeed to come to any conclusion. Of course, we know now the extraordinary combination of circumstances that existed at that time which you would not meet again once in 100 years; that they should all have existed just on that particular night shows, of course, that everything was against us.
That's not a ship's officer, that's a teen. The court wasn't impressed either and the message seemed to be, as Walter Lord put it so well, that the accident was of the one-in-a-million variety. Friend of mine said to me one time that the accident was of the "preventable variety."
A quite interesting story I've heard about Ismay is that around the time "A Night to Remember" was released in November 1955 Walter Lord got a letter from England about the "remarkable finish" at the 1913 Derby in Epsom Downs. Craganour, the favourite, crossed the line first and was escorted to the winners' circle. Then, without a protest from anyone, it was placed second to Aboyeur. Craganour, Lord's correspondent said, was owned by Bruce Ismay, and I guess it doesn't need saying that after what happened the year before the establishment would never let an Ismay-owned horse win the hallowed Derby. Walter Lord then went to check the story. Everything turned out to be accurate except for one important detail. Joseph Bruce Ismay didn't own Craganour. His brother, Charles Bower Ismay, did. Still, Craganour remained second to Aboyeur. The reason? Craganour's original jockey had been replaced by an American one, Johnny Reiff. I don't know why that was but the move was immensely unpopular, and the discussions at the end of the race were a golden opportunity for the judges to discredit Reiff. Walter Lord, though, said that he still got letters afterwards still linking Bruce Ismay and Craganour together
It's amazing how he speaks about the plunge and that lowering your chances for survival yet I forget the man's name but he was an 18 year old crewman who climbed right up to the port side & held onto a sign that said to avoid the blades. Heat let go and didn't hit anything and ended up switching to a boat. He lived until the 1980s
I wonder if they ever spoke to each other?
Frank Prentice
Yes, Frank Prentice, he was a steward on board TITANIC.
Some very ill informed comments here, I’d like to address a few of the points. Firstly, he is correct, they were not going for speed records. They weren’t stupid, they knew there was a distinct chance of encountering ice, they likely should’ve slowed but it’s not like they were actually doing anything unusual by maintaining speed. Secondly and I reckon the easiest to debunk, the titanic could not have simply steamed towards the Californian, she was badly stricken and if they’d gone full ahead then she’d have been taking on water at a much quicker rate, speeding up the sinking. Thirdly, lightoller was in absolutely no position to see whether or not the ship had broken in two. He dove into the water and swam for the crows nest, then was dragged under at least twice by the rich of water heading into the bowels of the ship, then swam for collapsible B, then had to regain his bearings after the first funnel almost crushed him. Quite likely the only time he really saw the ship was when the stern was sticking upwards out of the water, thus he’d had assumed the bow was simply below the water line. Not to mention, the night was absolutely pitch black, one of the main reasons they hit the berg in the first place. That sound he states he though was the boilers and engines crashing through the ship, obviously not true because the engines and boilers are visible in the wrecks stern, is most likely the point of the break up. Finally, his handling of the evacuation. This is the most difficult topic and the one spoken about with the least understanding or nuance. Lightoller in my opinion mishandled key elements of the port side evacuation, but not as badly as is made out. He followed pretty standard procedure of the time of partly filling the boats to ferry passengers between the stricken vessel and the rescue vessel. He didn’t know how bad the sinking was until later which can be seen in the numbers rescued in the boats as the night went on. Being an experienced seaman he’d have known of certain recent shipwrecks in which there were many male survivors, but few of any women or children survivors, likely why he went to hard enforcing the women and children only rule. Now this was a mistake. I believe Murdoch handling of the evacuation made a lot more sense and was a lot better, but remember that only 40 more people were saved from the starboard side than the port side, so not as stark a difference as made out. He was doing all of this with absolutely no illusions of his own survival, it was pure chance that he managed to save himself aboard collapsible B. Lightoller was a company man and covered details up to protect his employer, but don’t forget he still saved hundreds of lives in a situation which thankfully basically none of us will ever face and we have no idea how we’d personally behave in his circumstances, so give him a bit of Lee way.
Not a speed record, but a coal bunker fire was the reason they hastened so recklessly.
You are ill-informed.
The ship that was spotted was the Mount Temple and the Captain was a liar and a bigger coward than the Californian's.
FALSE. Lightoller saw the ship break. Victor Sunderland's account exposes him as a liar:
in the Cleveland Plain Dealer of 26 April 1912 he said:
“A lifeboat, bottom side up and evidently one of those that overturned under its load floated up to the rail and we grabbed for it. We climbed upon it and drifted over the submerged part of the Titanic. We passed under the forward funnel and just as we were clear, it fell. At that minute, the Titanic broke in two just aft of amidships and the stern stood straight in the air. “Make for the stern. It looks like she will float,” Lightoller shouted, but just as he spoke, the stern plunged down. “
Also, FIND THE DAMN ENTER BUTTON YOU WOOLMOUTH
How could he not know how badly stricken the ship was ? They had definitely told him and all other officers
Exactly! I don’t know what I would do, but it sure as hell wouldn’t have been tryna get onto a lifeboat. I mean, your on a ship the size of a small neighborhood, and you want me to go 70 feet down into a dark cold ocean on a lifeboat, when this ship is deemed unsinkable? And leave my husband? That’s not an easy choice to make! Ppl have to remember this was something new and scary to these poor folks. Everyone did as they should and could have done. We’re blessed to have the survivors and surviving artifacts that we have now, thanks to the brave souls who put their job first, instead of themselves. It’s just no pleasing some ppl.
@@Firemarioflower there was likely no meeting of the officers as seen in the main two film depictions, orders were disseminated through the crew by word of mouth and lightoller probably assumed they had a lot longer than they did end up having because realistically only the captain, carpenters, Thomas Andrew’s and a couple of others knew the ship would be lost in two hours. Lightoller stated he had confidence the ship wouldn’t sink and only realized later on that she was going, as can be seen by the increasing number he put into each lifeboat.
It's known the Captain ignored ice warnings they also hit the berg at speed of 20knots
Charles Lightoller was a true man's man . Rip sir
Just can't believe the answer Lightoller gave to question 14197 at the British inquiry
Can you suggest at all how it can have come about that this iceberg should not have been seen at a greater distance?
- It is very difficult indeed to come to any conclusion. Of course, we know now the extraordinary combination of circumstances that existed at that time which you would not meet again once in 100 years; that they should all have existed just on that particular night shows, of course, that everything was against us.
That's not a ship's officer, that's a teen. The court wasn't impressed either and the message seemed to be, as Walter Lord put it so well, that the accident was of the one-in-a-million variety. Friend of mine said to me one time that the accident was of the "preventable variety."
@@fmyoung he was absolutely right. The binoculars being missing, the Marconi radio not working and the operator having to fix it leaving him behind on his transmissions, to the point where he was so swamped he failed to hand over important ice warnings, a pitch black moonless night, the sea eerily calm, ice coming further south than is usual for that time of year. It all went wrong for them on that night.
@@JasonEagles-hw4rl I think they could've prepared
@@fmyoung sometimes things go wrong that are out of everyone’s control. That was one of those tragic nights.
@@JasonEagles-hw4rl I think the Titanic would've made it to NY had they slowed down. I know, they were on a tight schedule that was the navigation practice at the time and all that but still that in itself was wrong
Criticise how we might, still, we can never know how we would have performed. Always a heartbreaking story.
I wont judge the actions of a man who has been through something i have never been through. But the testimony of the wireless operator is an incredible coincidence.
Just can't believe the answer Lightoller gave to question 14197 at the British inquiry
Can you suggest at all how it can have come about that this iceberg should not have been seen at a greater distance?
- It is very difficult indeed to come to any conclusion. Of course, we know now the extraordinary combination of circumstances that existed at that time which you would not meet again once in 100 years; that they should all have existed just on that particular night shows, of course, that everything was against us.
That's not a ship's officer, that's a teen. The court wasn't impressed either and the message seemed to be, as Walter Lord put it so well, that the accident was of the one-in-a-million variety. Friend of mine said to me one time that the accident was of the "preventable variety."
Heartbreaking to hear him say what a missed opportunity it was by the Californian and that almost everybody on the Titanic could’ve been saved
The Californian was 18-20 miles away. The ship was stopped for the night. It would have taken probably two hours to get to the Titanic. The rockets were sighted by the Californian around 12:30-1:00. The ship is unlikely to have made it in time, certainly not capable of rescuing 1500 souls.
@@mariamatheson5300 I heard they were only 5 miles away.
@@mariamatheson5300 They had no radio contact and apart from the flares had little information about what was happening. All the captain knew was they were in a field of ice he considered dangerous enough to have stopped engines. Had he known for sure The Titanic was sinking, as the captain of The Carpathia did, maybe his actions would have been different. The Carpathia herself was almost struck by ice as she sailed towards The Titanic.
@@thesedreamsarefree agree. Blaming the Californian isn't fair IMO. A lot of mistakes were made that night.
@@mariamatheson5300on the contrary its perfectly fair to blame the California. Bloxhall testified to firing almost a full box of distress rockets. His testimony is live on youtube. You can listen. Here Lightholler confirms this fact.
California testified to seeing rockets being fired which they decided were " company rockets" for intercompany messaging.
No competent officer can mistake distress rockets for anything else. Its literally beyond belief.
The " company message" testimony is pure BS to cover their arses. Sadly they were never held accountable for these lies. The captain also gave several different versions of events which is further evidence of a liar.
Smith = speeding into an icefield
Philips = failing to pass on the Mesaba ice warning which would have avoided the catastrophe.
Rostron = ignored distress rockets
Mr Lightoller
I was watching a 1957 episode on Titanic's survivors which refers to this interview existing so of course I had to go find it. I had never known it existed before but obviously they must be even more older and numerable interviews around once the 800 survivors landed in New York the newspapers must have been eating them up for interviews. I want to go through every one of those interviews that are printed in the press on both sides of the world
Mr Lightoller was a bad ass
Facts
I just don't see much to respect him for and that also goes for Cpt Smith
Also I just can't believe the answer Lightoller gave to question 14197 at the British inquiry
Can you suggest at all how it can have come about that this iceberg should not have been seen at a greater distance?
- It is very difficult indeed to come to any conclusion. Of course, we know now the extraordinary combination of circumstances that existed at that time which you would not meet again once in 100 years; that they should all have existed just on that particular night shows, of course, that everything was against us.
That's not a ship's officer, that's a teen. The court wasn't impressed either and the message seemed to be, as Walter Lord put it so well, that the accident was of the one-in-a-million variety. Friend of mine said to me one time that the accident was of the "preventable variety."
Incredible ✌️
Walter Lord once said that "Lightoller;s feathers were clearly ruffled" at having to make room for Henry Wilde as Chief Officer
Interesting how many believe didn’t actually believe the ship was sinking and in any danger. It was the same on Costa Concordia
3:22 This is a good shot from "A Night to Remember". BTW The soundtrack composer of that film was alive only for a few more days after Robert Ballard's expedition found the wreck. His name was William Alwyn, and he passed away on September 11 1985
April 10th is a day to remember, and April 14th-15th is "A Night to Remember"
These comments though lol
Re the breaking of the ship..... It was pitch black.... only the stars and a black, deep shape against them would have given any sign of what was happening when the lights gave up. I don't think we can underestimate the effect that would have on the eyes and our memory, especially when we have such vivid images in popular media burned into our own minds.
BTW the part where he said that there was a rumbling roar is that in theory the ship have split at that point.
@@Torentino_Ian_no_channel_2006 indeed, that's right. That would not be enough for someone floating in a life boat nearby to say under oath that the ship broke apart 🙂
Hey windbag!
Do some fact-checking and more research before you judge.
Victor Sunderland exposed Lightoller as a liar in the Cleveland Plain Dealer of 26 April 1912.
“A lifeboat, bottom side up and evidently one of those that overturned under its load floated up to the rail and we grabbed for it. We climbed upon it and drifted over the submerged part of the Titanic. We passed under the forward funnel and just as we were clear, it fell. At that minute, the Titanic broke in two just aft of amidships and the stern stood straight in the air. “Make for the stern. It looks like she will float,” Lightoller shouted, but just as he spoke, the stern plunged down. “
Yeah and also he was probably more focused on trying to keep the overturned collapsible from sinking from all the people splashing in the water trying to climb on, so that could also be why he didnt see some of the things going on with the ship
If you have ever experienced a moonless night with absolutely no external light source, you can easily see why there was so much confusion regarding whether the ship actually broke up or not.
Hero and legend
Just can't believe the answer Lightoller gave to question 14197 at the British inquiry
Can you suggest at all how it can have come about that this iceberg should not have been seen at a greater distance?
- It is very difficult indeed to come to any conclusion. Of course, we know now the extraordinary combination of circumstances that existed at that time which you would not meet again once in 100 years; that they should all have existed just on that particular night shows, of course, that everything was against us.
That's not a ship's officer, that's a teen. The court wasn't impressed either and the message seemed to be, as Walter Lord put it so well, that the accident was of the one-in-a-million variety. Friend of mine said to me one time that the accident was of the "preventable variety."
So according to lightoller, Jack Phillips was on the collapsible, and then died. Huh
That’s possible. He said they were up to their knees in freezing cold water and they’d already been in the water before getting onto the boat. Dying of hypothermia was still a possibility for those who weren’t fully immersed in the icy water.
Phillips was lying on the collapsible and died.
many people died on the upturned collapsible, they were waiting 2 hours or more for some
@@Knappa22 But i believe the second wireless operator harold bride said that jack philips was not on the collapsible, and that he saw him running towards the stern
Lightoller’s testimony was riddled with inconsistencies but to be fair a lot was probably due to honest mistakes. I understand why he could have believed Titanic sank in one piece for example. He was fighting for his life at the time.
Great job, moon. What were you doing?!
Where were you when we wanted you?
@@mariamatheson5300 I go through a set of regular phases it's not my fault if that ship chose to speed through ice-infested waters when I wasn't around
I go through a set of regular phases it's not my fault if that ship chose to speed through ice-infested waters when I wasn't around
0:13 - Cutter boat shouldn't be cranked out at this point until they were out to sea.
OMG 😲 😱 in heaven help 😭 them be at peace now. This is horrible. Its almost like you are there.
Can’t help but think that this guy’s voice sounds just like Uncle Colm from Derry Girls!
Titanic First Class passenger Henry Sleeper Harper, after spending the night in lifeboat #3, boards the Carpathia and spots his friend Mr. Ogden, a passenger on the Carpathia. Sleeper Harper, with understated swag, asks his friend, "Louis, how do you keep yourself looking so young?"
So detached from the world…
I simply don't believe that Jack Phillips with his dying breaths admitted that he never gave the ice warning to the bridge. Jack Phillips himself refuted this claim.
How would he deny that if he’s dead, he died in the sinking 💀💀💀 it was Harold bride who might have said that but not phillips
Through a 13-year-old boy out of aLifeboat I guess it was the sign of the times
Lightoller was just evil. No reason for a 13 year old not to be allowed into the boats.
@@GermanShepherd1983 Lightoller did his duty and got hundred of people into the lifeboats and to safety.
But a 13 year old boy wouldn't weigh much?
In that day and age, teenagers were not considered children.
By doing so he probably even killed some of the mothers who refused to leave their children behind.
I hear Ismay requested that the Olympic not come over to help as he thought passengers might be affected negatively by the sight of the near-identical sistership. I think that didn't really matter in the least; all the survivors wanted was to get rescued of course and I think the Olympic would've handled it very well. It also would've added to her colorful career in the end
The Olympic was nowhere near..
@@fiachramaccana280 I know she was rather far away but the idea was contemplated before Ismay decided against it
@@fmyoung yeah..I dont doubt Ismay was primarily concerned about optics.
@@fmyoung she was however 505 miles away. At 30 knots per hour it would have taken her most of a day to make it.
There are a lot of stories about Ismay but precious little evidence. His share of the blame was lobbying against additional lifeboats. To ensure a nice promenade view.
Whilst waiting to drown, the steerage class had a lovely view. Thanks to Ismay.
Interesting he did not say the ship broke in half. Other witnesses saw that happen.
he was busy surviving
he actually did say it, but he though it was the boilers falling down within the ship while in fact the ship was actually breaking in half. But he didnt see it as he tryed to swim away at the same time, so its not like he was looking at it happening. He just heard it and assumed it was the boilers.
He was trying not to freeze to death, he was in the water during that. Some Other survivors who were in boats closer saw it
@@CoolCademMAnimates-fz1ui that’s true enough 👍🏻
@@jurgenkoks9142 that makes sense 👍🏻
I'm still miffed that his book seemed to complete throw Phillips under the bus.
Charles Lightoller eventually became an RAF pilot who lost his legs but still flew in the Battle of Britain...
I think you’re mistaken. I know this was the case for one RAF pilot, but this pilot was not lightoller. Lightoller served with distinction with the Royal navy in the First World War, attaining the rank of commander, then undertook spying missions for the British government against Germany just before the Second World War in his yacht the sundowner, the same yacht he would take to Dunkirk to rescue 130 soldiers the next year. He was then in charge of an armed patrol vessel during the invasion scare and later ferried supplies for the RASC. One of his three sons was indeed in the RAF as a bombed crewman and was on of the first British casualties of the war, being KIA in a raid over northern Germany a day after Britain declared war. His other son roger was a Royal navy officer, killed in action in the Granville raid in 1945, and his sole surviving son was a colonel in the army.
Er no. I believe you're thinking of Douglas Bader. That's most wildly inaccurate, and hilariously avoidable, piece of reckless misinformation I've seen online in years. Thanks for the laugh though!
Charles Lightoller did not fight in World War II, he was to old. His children did. One of his sons was killed in the RAF on the first day of the war.
You're referring to the actor Kenneth More who portrayed Charles Lightoller in a night to remember and Douglas Bader in Reach for the sky
@@susannehunter4017 It was a joke. I was referring to Kenneth More who played both parts on film.
Titanic broke apart and sank in TWO pieces.
They didn’t actually know that until 1985 when it was found on the sea floor. There were differing firsthand accounts from the sinking, but it sinking intact was the general consensus until Ballard found the wreck.
@@robertshiell887 Ballard determined that she broke in two at or near the surface
@@fmyoung Yes he did, but not until 1985, until that point it was widely assumed that the ship sank in one piece. The night that the Titanic sank was pitch black and firsthand accounts varied, once the wreck was discovered it was proven that reports that the ship broke up before sinking were correct. This interview was conducted well before the wreck was discovered, so Lightoller was giving his narrative from his perspective, a view that has proven to be incorrect given the evidence that was later revealed.
@@robertshiell887 Well yeah not until September 1985; Ballard determined by the debris pattern that she broke in two at or near the surface. Ruth Becker said at a convention in '82 that she broke in two and then - I don't know if this is really true - her mic was taken away from her, or turned off
@@robertshiell887 The main problem is there were 13+ accounts of the breakup at the hearings. And the only ones who denied the possibility of a break were employees of the White Star Line.
Why wasn't there a bright spot light mounted on the bow shining to illuminate the darkness.
Because that's stupid.
@@Urijah-li5lk Why is that stupid?
They be a video explaining this somewhere. but basically it wouldn’t have made a difference. No light would have been able to show the iceberg in time. As any light they had would only show a few hundred metres ahead. It also would have messed with the lookouts night vision meaning that a spot light could have made any obstacle harder to see.
spotlights wouldnt light up the whole ocean, it would only be able to light up a tiny area of water in front of the ship, so it wouldnt have have been able to illuminate the iceberg any sooner. And also if they did have a spotlight, anything outside of the light would have been harder to see cause the light would make your eyes adjust so that the its harder to see in the dark
@scarletina5137 number one, lights weren't powerful enough for that back then, number two, the price of maintenence and such would be too great, and number three, the glare from the light would blind the helmsman.
13:12 fatal mistake ill judged cost lives
Let me open by saying we “Weren’t out for any records” sounds like they were unofficially going for a record and the evidence supports it.
They weren’t, Titanic’s max speed was 21 knots, the fastest ship in the world, Mauretania, had a top speed of 25-27 knots. White Star stopped going for speed records after the liner Majestic, as it was too expensive to fuel the engines. Titanic could never reach any record aside from largest ship and greatest loss of life.
Lightoller was very strict with the women and children rule. Thats why some boats were only 1/4 full.
Yes and that was idiotic given the circumstances. Sure, prioritise women and children all you want, but before actually lowering the boat fill the remainder of the space with whomever there is at the moment. Also, the lowered boats should have immediately started to reorganise the half empty ones into full ones and send the empty ones back. In one case they did this, but it was a bit too late by then. It is an unforgivable crime that most of the boats just stood by ignoring the cries for help.
@@someone3187 Lord Mersey rebuked the Duff Gordons for not picking up swimmers
@@someone3187 It was a fault of duty on part of Cpt Smith to allow lifeboats to leave less than full
@@fmyoung Yes, however even if they were not full, merge two half ones while on water and send the empty one back immediately. Wouldn't that be common sense?
@@someone3187 Maybe but still it was a fault of duty of Cpt Smith's to allow lifeboats to leave a sinking ship less than full besides I don't know if they had the means of hauling empty boats back up
Yes, he kept the fact she broke in two out of it, but you have to understand he was a company man, plus the embarrassing situation of admitting the ship broke in two would have been seen as bad workmanship, even though it wasn't, as it wasn't ever designed to be under such stress as that, but back in those days it was a stiff upper lip etc and tow the company line, terrible loss of life.
Not entirely sure this is because he was necessarily protecting anyone... It was pitch black.... only the stars and a black, deep shape against them would have given any sign of what was happening when the lights gave up. I don't think we can underestimate the effect that would have on the eyes and our memory, especially when we have such vivid images in popular media burned into our own minds.
@@hyperballadbradx6486 he was very close to sinking ship yet he did not report the ship breaking in two. There were people in boats that were far away from ship and saw it broke in two. Surely he must have saw it but was covering it up or smartly not mentioning it. He went on to work with white star line's HMS olympic, so obvious he was careful.
@@jabesfuntashtic8818 viewing from a distance, people may have been able to see a vague silhouette of the ship, being close (not to mention the slight distraction of being immersed in water that was slightly colder than freezing) he would not be in much of a position to say one way or the other.
Nice Lancashire accent. Thought he sounded American at first! He was portrayed as almost mouth-eatingly posh and plum-mouthed in the 1997 film.
I'm from Lancashire (Manchester) it's in the Northwest. Lightoller is from down south, Portsmouth or southampton or Dover, kent it's over 300 miles away from Lancashire on the coast. He was born in Lancashire but that's it, his accent is from the south coast.
We will never know whether Lightoller really saw the titanic break-up or whether he lied …
Pitch black darkness and freezing cold water. I imagine it would be hard to tell.
@@Royimtheguy yep, not to mention the angle is commonly exaggerated. Tests show she would have only reached a 25-30 degree angle before her structure failed, and it’s likely the break was merely a slight fall back.
@@Royimtheguy it wasn’t entirely pitch dark. Survivors said there was little skylight and some said they were able to see the Titanic break in half from their lifeboats. Lightoller was probably just watching it from an angle where it would’ve been hard to see her break in half from.
Just can't believe the answer Lightoller gave to question 14197 at the British inquiry
Can you suggest at all how it can have come about that this iceberg should not have been seen at a greater distance?
- It is very difficult indeed to come to any conclusion. Of course, we know now the extraordinary combination of circumstances that existed at that time which you would not meet again once in 100 years; that they should all have existed just on that particular night shows, of course, that everything was against us.
That's not a ship's officer, that's a teen. The court wasn't impressed either and the message seemed to be, as Walter Lord put it so well, that the accident was of the one-in-a-million variety. Friend of mine said to me one time that the accident was of the "preventable variety."
❤😢 This is intriguing the miss communication is glaring in the Titanic 😂 disaster and cannot be stated enough that even in 2024 the Radio men or Marconi operators should have been at some level been held some what responsibilities for the inability to communicate to the senior officers on watch that evening certainly the captain Smith. I know plenty of room for blame the communication was key in my opinion. No ill will or disrespect. God bless each and every victims of the Titanic disaster that also included a great many crews.
I completely agree. It's extremely frustrating that the Marconi operators were focused on sending private messages over the Atlantic and even told the California to "shut up" with their ice berg warnings, because "they were busy". It's unforgivable. Also how the boats were mismanaged. More of them should have started to immediately reorganise the half empty boats and turn back with empty ones. Only one came back. It's an absolute disgrace.
My questions today is who where the crew's members who parished on Titanic and
A gazillion pictures but no names
@@someone3187 the problem was that the Marconi operators were not employees of white star line, they were employees of the Marconi company. The operators wages were paid by the number of transmissions they could send. The problem was that the radio wasn’t working on the titanic, and Phillips had to repair it which wasn’t part of his remit. This meant he was well behind on his transmissions, meaning that he hadn’t earned any money. So when he was receiving warnings about ice, he was far too overly focused on the job at hand that he disregarded them in favour of catching up on the transmissions he had to send. The whole situation was just a tragic series of events that resulted in a terrible disaster.
Are there no English AI? The officers were British, right? Not American.
its a lancashire accent, sounds like american. Ask any lancashire man if the accent lightoller speaks by is from lancashire, and they will most definitely agree.
I'm pretty sure this isn't AI. It sounds like it was recorded in the 30's like the title says.
It’s neither AI nor an American accent.
@@xvqcxous7203 No its not, he was born in Lancashire but lived most of his life down south in Dover. I live in manchester in Lancashire and lightoller accent isn't even remotely close to a northern Lancashire accent. He talks with a thick southern almost west country accent. Honestly pal I'm not trying to be clever I'm from Lancashire he doesn't have a Lancashire accent his accent is from over 300 miles away on the coast of southern England. He was just born here and lived here for a few years until about 12 I think but he's totally lost the accent here.
@@paulanthony5274 don’t forget that elocution lessons were given to private school children, and as an officer on a ship like titanic he likely was privately educated. I hear a northern twang in his accent for sure, but the elocution lessons likely lessened it significantly.
He was responsible for the unnecessary death of hundreds of passengers
Just can't believe the answer Lightoller gave to question 14197 at the British inquiry
Can you suggest at all how it can have come about that this iceberg should not have been seen at a greater distance?
- It is very difficult indeed to come to any conclusion. Of course, we know now the extraordinary combination of circumstances that existed at that time which you would not meet again once in 100 years; that they should all have existed just on that particular night shows, of course, that everything was against us.
That's not a ship's officer, that's a teen. The court wasn't impressed either and the message seemed to be, as Walter Lord put it so well, that the accident was of the one-in-a-million variety. Friend of mine said to me one time that the accident was of the "preventable variety."
Shame he interpreted women and children first as women and children only. Lots of unnecessary empty spaces.
At the early stage the people were not that willing to get to the boats anyway, not realizing the grave state of affairs.
He was also very undertrained for lifeboat filling and lowering and feared that the weight of filling them completely would cause them to break off their ropes.
Hmm, still supporting the popular - but incorrect - narrative that the Titanic didn't break apart, instead sunk in one piece. Charles here even claims the ship made it nearly 180 degrees in the air before fully submerging.
At that point, he was only operating on what he knew. Hard to blame him, it was nearly pitch black and chaotic.
No offense to Charles but... The sound of thousands of tonnes of steel and iron tearing apart would be pretty hard to miss. The over 13 other accounts from survivors confirmed it was like that of a cannon blast.
It was very dark and he was well forward of where the breakup occurred, plus his attention would have been on trying to stay alive rather than what was happening to the ship. I believe him when he says it sank in one piece. The true failing lay with the inquiries, who decided to take his word as gospel because he was the highest ranking officer to survive, while ignoring many other survivors who clearly stated they heard/saw the ship break up as it sank.
The crew believed the sound of the ship breaking apart was the very large boilers falling off of their stabilizers and rolling around, it was pitch black and they couldn’t see the ship break
NOPE. He was exposed as a liar, through Victor Sunderland by his account in the Cleveland Plain Dealer of 26 April 1912. He said:
“A lifeboat, bottom side up and evidently one of those that overturned under its load floated up to the rail and we grabbed for it. We climbed upon it and drifted over the submerged part of the Titanic. We passed under the forward funnel and just as we were clear, it fell. At that minute, the Titanic broke in two just aft of amidships and the stern stood straight in the air. “Make for the stern. It looks like she will float,” Lightoller shouted, but just as he spoke, the stern plunged down. “
No, Lightoller did not use good judgment in the lowering of lifeboats. Anyone should know, or at least double check with the captain, if it is "women and children only", or "women and children first", and Captain Smith should have insured that the latter was carried out. Nonsensical to lower lifeboats half full when plenty of men, and teenage boys were standing about. Husbands could have gone with their wives. Sons could have gone with their sisters and mothers. But Lightoller chose not to do this, whereas Murdoch did allow men. However, Captain Smith is to be held responsible for this horrendous loss of life. He was in charge and he failed miserably, as did "Lazy Bones/Sleepy Head", Captain Stanley Lord of the Californian. It appears Captain Arthur Rostron was the only clear thinking captain on the high sea that night.
I completely agree with you ; although Lightoller did save many lives he kept to a protocol that was first a result of his times and second as a result of him
Thinking there would be more time . He does say that later he realized the absolute urgency of the situation and started to load more people in .. at first he seemed to be simply Going through the motions because he did not know how bad it was
It is mind boggling that more people who were on deck early ( men & older boys ) did not jump and then swim for boats which were already down and half filled . 70
Feet is not that far to the water and at least several ropes were on board along with iron rails to tie off from. Not saying they would have survived but you would think a rope system would be part of the story Somewhere the water being still that night .
Lightoller was just very undertrained for lifeboat filling and lowering. He feared that the weight of filling them completely would cause them to break off their ropes before reaching the water. He at least had absolutely no problem with having ONLY MEN with him on the upturned Collapsible B lifeboat, organized it to fit as many on it as he could, and gave them great guidance to shift their weight with swells to keep that lifeboat floating decently until other lifeboats came back for them.
A lot of nonsense talk by Lightower after the fact. In reality the pressure was on to arrive in NY as fast as possible. The captain was not going to stop the ship. The captain and the officers were responsible for this terrible tragedy.
I agree, this is a tragedy that should never of happened had everyone there was competent and doing thier jobs properly. The fact that the Titanic was speeding through an ice field even when they were being warned by other ships within the vicinity of large icebergs was criminal.
They tried to cover up the fact that there was a fire raging well below the bunkers. If they slowed down, they would have run out of coal.
Thats BS, but carry on.
@@Firemarioflower They put the fire out in Queenstown, and they were commonplace in coal bunks on ocean liners, and rarely caused any problems, so the fire would have made no difference in the effect of the iceberg.
Actually I read an article where they had stated that once that steel of the ship below which was heated up from fire reached a certain temperature and was burning for a long enough then it would affect the strength of the steel, therefore they never even bother to fully put the fire out and the steel was compromised. That with the combination of the speed that the ship was traveling at caused such a major tear in the ship
Lightoller was not a hero, he was a war criminal who ordered the murder of surrendered U-Boat crewmen during World War I.
"You either die a hero or you live long enough to become the villain" seems to have worked in reverse in Lightoller's case: He didn't die a villain and he lived long enough to become a hero: He was a child killer (by today's standards when humans are considered adults at 18 instead of 13) on Titanic and war criminal in WW1, but he became a hero in WW2 when he risked his life to save the British soldiers from Dunkirk.
@@AndreiPopescu Seems pretty morally bankrupt and an insult to the prisoners who were executed for no reason. Lightoller was a war criminal, and no amount of putting British soldiers on boats is going to negate that.
@@meddlingamateur5899 I didn't say he wasn't a war criminal I said he was also a hero. Just like saving the soldiers at Dunkirk doesn't negate that he was a war criminal neither do his actions on the Titanic and in WW2 negate the fact that he risked his life to save those soldiers. Nobody is 100% good or 100% bad.
@AndreiPopescu You said "he lived long enough to become the hero," not state that he did both good and bad things, that's a different argument. What you said in essence was that his good deeds outweigh the bad, which is morally bankrupt.
@@meddlingamateur5899 I said it more like "He live long enough to finally do something good".
There’s a ship within eyesight not responding to our distress calls and rockets. We are still able to steam ahead to that ship but hey, let’s lower the lifeboats and wait for other ships that are unable to reach us on time.
Steaming ahead would make the ship sink faster, genius.
You want a ship that's breached six compartments to sail toward the ship on the horizon that was by some estimates 5-19 miles away? You're a genius why didn't they think of that 🤦♀️
They’d have been down in 10 minutes if they tried to carry on, but then again I take it you know that and made your comment for effect.
@@SchmuelGoldstein-mj8rk This is why Captain Bartlett is a big criminal, responsbile for killing 30+ people
It wouldn't have mattered Battleheim. The ship on the horizon was a ship with a coward of a captain, the Mount Temple. They wanted nothing to do with Titanic and fled the scene.
Shameful beast of a man. Caused the death of so many men and let the life boats leave with a handful of people
Oh I dare you to be in 2nd in command of a ship since your so high and mighty
@@jacobblackard2574 Sigh..... you people are really big sheeples..... I better hope someone like you doesn't go in command.....
On top of that, he was a liar, a corrupt conspirator that helped his corrupt company out of the embarrassment and payment to stricken families and aided in whitewashing the whole inquiry.
Even worse, he was a war criminal that killed unarmed men that had surrendered.
@@Firemarioflowereasy to speak ill of a man who can’t defend himself
@@FiremarioflowerDon`t forget the deep state, and the democrats who held 3rd class passengers slaves on the bilge. 😂😂