Titanic's Fourth Officer, Joseph Boxhall - BBC Radio Interview (1962)
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- čas přidán 25. 07. 2024
- Joseph Boxhall, the Fourth Officer of the Titanic, gives his account of the night that the Titanic sank. Recorded 40 years after the disaster, Boxhall details his experiences of the mystery ship sighted by many that night, as well as his command of Lifeboat No. 2.
This interview was originally aired by the BBC on October 22, 1962.
Read the full annotated transcript of this interview:
titanicarchive.org/collection...
Chapters:
00:00 - On Watch
01:17 - The Iceberg
02:23 - Investigating the Damage
06:54 - Sending the Distress Signal
08:06 - The Mystery Ship
08:48 - Firing Rockets
10:19 - Lifeboat No. 2
12:03 - Reaching the Stern Gangway Doors
13:46 - The Stillness of the Sea
14:33 - All the Lights were Burning
15:01 - The Screams
15:46 - The Carpathia
Film Sources:
- A Night to Remember (1958), dir. Roy Ward Baker / The Rank Organisation
- S.O.S. Titanic (1979), dir. William Hale / EMI Films
- Titanic (1996), dir. Robert Lieberman / Konigsberg / Sanitsky Company
- Titanic (1997), dir. James Cameron / Paramount
- Saving the Titanic (2012), dir. Maurice Sweeney / Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion
- 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.
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According to witnesses on the Carpathia, the moment Boxhall came aboard was one of the most heartbreaking moments of the night because of what Boxhall told them. The first question Captain Rostron asked Boxhall was, “Where is the Titanic?” Boxhall simply replied, “Gone.” Somebody shouted in disbelief, “Did you say…Gone?!” Boxhall said, “Yes. Foundered before 2:30 AM.” Captain Rostron said in an interview he felt sick to his stomach when he heard that. After asking about the lifeboats and if all got away, Rostron asked, “Were there still people stuck on the ship on when it sank?” Boxhall lost control of his emotions and shouted in despair, “Hundreds!!!! They all went down!! Maybe a thousand…” The Carpathia crew was beyond shocked with the horrible numbers Boxhall just said. “…maybe more.” Boxhall continued, his voice quivering. At that point, he burst into tears, and Rostron tried to comfort him. 😢
😢😢
wow, that's terrible. captain rostron is a hero! he put his ship and passengers in danger steaming to titanic..I always wondered where did these 705 survivors sleep?
@@ArronPI read some passengers gave up their cabins to the survivors and the crew as well. How sad for them all
@@ArronPThey slept wherever room was found for them, including the decks.
@@ArronP They slept in the cabins they were given on the Carpathia. The Carpathia was occupied by approximately 240 crew members and 460 passengers during her big rescue dash for the Titanic and they selflessly gave up their warm clothes blankets, and cabins for all of the Titanic’s survivors.
I love what you have done with the background and the movie and docu bits, it makes the story really come alive
my grandfather was on the CARPATHIA.
Tell me more !@@cathybobalek8069
Sometimes Cameron's film supplies the images and sometimes it's earlier productions such as A Night To Remember. Great selection based on the pathos of the scenes concerned.
His matter-of-fact first-hand telling of this appalling tragedy requires absolutely no enhancements.
Fascinating to listen to his account
I'm so grateful his voice and account are preserved here. Thank you.
The Captain of the Carpathia had STOPPED on the moonless night to avoid iceburgs, Then put 24 Men as lookouts (not 2) to steam straight for the Titanic, weaving around iceburgs and only slowing as they neared because of ICE. If he had been Captain of the Titanic, he would have stopped her and waited until daylight and had 24 Men as lookouts.
Very creepy that they sailed around in the dark still water without seeing it, but hearing the ice all around them. That combined with what had just occurred with the Titanic is almost horror movie stuff.
I found a book written maybe 30 or 40 years ago that attempted to put the story of the Titanic together from the inquiries done on both side of the atlantic. It wasn't written to be entertaining but it was very informative with eyewitness testimony with a few "updated" information as time carried on. This video was of course far more fascinating hearing directly from someone who lived thru it
It's called "A Night to Remember"....excellent book, because of the eyewitness accounts.
Fascinating thank you so much for sharing
He’s got a nice voice
Old school gentleman isn't he.
@@FloatingOnAZephyr yes indeed
You want a bit of Boxhall.
Hes terribly calm about something so horriffic
I like his accent
I'm from Scarborough and he sounds similar to posh old folk from round here, I'd guess he's a yorkshireman definitely,
@@danielpinder3490 I believe he was from Hull originally.
@@danielpinder3490 would you like to be pen pals? Or text pals? I have WhatsApp
This is fascinating stuff. I've heard Lightoller's radio broadcast of some of his experiences that night that was recorded in the 1930's, I believe. But I'm surprised to hear that this was recorded in 1962. I had thought that most of the principal characters were all dead by then.
The Californian was recklessly cruel, or ignorant (so, as a Californian myself, I think her name and behavior was prescient and highly symbolic of the people who run the state at the present time) if she was as close as Boxhall says, so much so he could see the portholes....k
The timeline is insane. 11:45 or so iceg hits. 2:00 am people are jumping into the water. 2:20 warch dies indicating 20 mins in the water for a survivor. By 2:30 he is picked up. By 3:00-3:30 everyone is frozen dead in the ocean. Only 6 survivors pulled out of the water. At 3:55 the first boat is reached.
No one speaks about just how close they all were to survival. They always talk about how badly it was. Yet they were only 30 minutes to an hour away from living if they could have just stayed above the water a little longer, or if the water had been a little warmer, or if they wore more clothes, where is the bulkheads have been higher, or if it hit one less compartment.
Literally everything that was supposed to go wrong that night came for them. It was almost as if the hand of death reached out to take this ship no matter what. Of course there are no special forces in the world, it was just a bunch of mathematical coincidences that will happen at the same time due to a bunch of decisions that had been happening prior to that. The construction of the ship, the speed that they were going, the failure to alert to ice, etc. Had everything been done and the laws have been in place correctly even with everything that went wrong every one of them could have survived. It just takes people using common sense.
No special forces? How do you explain the book futility by morgan Robertson. Spooky stuff
Have you read the secret of a steering error from the helmsman piloting the Titanic the night she went down? Look for this revelation by 2nd officer Lightollers granddaughter Lady Louise Patten she tells the tale of how and why the truth was never revealed. 2010 is the date to look for .
Or the incident with the New York. If they would’ve been hit by the New York, the maiden voyage would’ve been interrupted in the first place and they would’ve sailed maybe a few weeks later when there wouldn’t have been no ice field. It’s like you said: Titanic was just fixed on its path of death with no other outcome for it.
He sat there and listened to the people screaming for hours.
nice
Presumably recorded 50 years after the disaster, rather than 40?
With the power of hindsight they saw the iceberg at the worst possible time, another 100ft and they would of not been able to turn the ship enough to side swipe it, it would of hit more direct on and the ship would of stayed afloat with only the first one or two compartments damaged, the amount of things to go wrong for them that night it’s like it was just meant to sink
Love the matter of fact of his story. No emotion whatsoever 🤣
Boxhall and his Captain were reckless, how come after several warnings of the ice bergs they still sailing with a speed of 20 knot in a dangerous place
Muito triste
14:24 LOL that model was broken, making it seem like the ship was turning to port
It was the angle of the camera. The way it was pointed at the model made it look like she was turning.
Indeed @@Fishycheese99
I will always believe that this was no accident!All do respect but I have heard this story over and over again and watched all the movies and it still makes me believe this was no coincidence that’s just my opinion. Too many red flags for my ears and eyes to think any different. God bless the survivors and there family members.
So you believe this was a purposeful event ?
Now the red flags r obvious. There were so many customs, expectations, language barriers, complete trust n the ship and crew, no available binoculars for the crows nest. Not intentional, just a horrible tragedy due to a comedy of errors
14:39 Her stern? Don't you mean stem, mr Boxhall?
18:18 I cannot believe this.... He forgot his colleagues names???? He forgot Lowe and mentioned Moody, who was dead
I thought Pitman was a senior Officer?
He was old when this was recorded, and it is known he struggled with his memory.
Right. Okay, yeah that's fair@@Fishycheese99
It’s believed by his family and researchers that he was suffering from a form of dementia near the end of his life, and pitman was the senior junior officer. The senior officers were captain, chief, first, second. Juniors were third, fourth, fifth and sixth.
I understand @@enveenva5584
The man probably worked on a hundred different ships in his career and hundreds of colleagues
Very poor seamanship coupled with design flaws. A tragedy that needn't have occured but for greed and complacency.
Many more could have been saved had C. Lighttoller not been so stubborn with his "women and children only" order. The boats were no where near capacity and in this emergency with calm seas and help arriving in 4 hours, it would have made sense to overload the boats 10% beyond max capacity.
Lightoller wasn’t the only one filling lifeboats underfilled and it was really because of how undertrained he and most of those other lifeboat filling crew members were. Lightoller expected those people he helped into lifeboats to help more people into them once they reached the water. It was just unfortunate that those people didn’t have the courage to do so and he at least filled the overturned lifeboat he made it onto to capacity, had absolutely no problem with those people being ONLY MEN, and did a great job with guiding those men to shift their weight with swells to keep that lifeboat floating decently until other lifeboats came back for them.
Formula 1 desperately needs more knowledgeable pundits like Peter Windsor.
15:58 One of the most annoying things about the darn Cameron movie, they gave too much screen time to Lowe, who along with Lightoller killed plenty of men by prohibitting them to get on a lifeboat, also stealing Boxhall's role as the one who lit green roman candles.
Lightoller knew of to many ship wrecks where literally all of the woman and children died. Not one survived while hundred of men saved themselves including the crew and captain. Plus at that time it was sinking so slow they didn't know how bad it was . People were literally having snowball fights with the ice (that would soon be there cause of death) . And no one knew it would take 4 hours for a ship to come . The California was there 15 miles away . Plus most refused to get off the ship the first hour because no one believed it would be safer on a lifeboat
I believe Capt.Smith could have saved most if not ALL on board Titanic. It is an undisputed fact that a stationary ships light could be seen on the horizon- most probably the Californian. Had Capt. Smith ordered full speed ASTERN and headed for that light it would have IMPEDED the inflow of water into the ship by creating a suction effect and after approx 1 hrs steaming at 10 knots he would be within touching distance of the said ship. The ships boats would have been used to trans ship everyone aboard.
I was under the impression that a moving ship takes on water more rapidly.
@@kaalen24 If the damage to the ship is along the starboard bow ( which it was ) and you went full AHEAD then obviously the water is going to pour in more rapidly . However if a ship with a damaged bow went full speed ASTERN then a certain amount of suction would be created and it would IMPEDE the ingress of water - thus buying valuable time.
@@scabbycatcat4202 Wouldn’t there still be moving water against the hull therefore undoing your efforts to reduce, wait for it, water FLOW?
@@kaalen24 Yes of course there would be water against the hull and I accept that the impedence of water into the ship would be slight but don;t forget when the ship was stationary and the water was able to simply pour in through the damage she still lasted for over 2hours afloat. Had she been steaming at perhaps 8 or 9 knots ASTERN towards the ship on the horizon many lives would have been saved .
@@scabbycatcat4202 I believe this is incorrect. Movement promotes water flow which increases flooding. You are not creating sufficient suction in a large ocean liner by sailing in circles. You are just creating water flow.
Insurance scam
You're a loon.
Wow what a liar and coward, this is bull
Prove it, 🤡
Tell us the trueth since you know better than him.
Two things I will never understand ! If the binoculars were locked up , why the hell did not one of the officers give the look outs one of theirs , they had them on the bridge . The other thing is , when the California's captain was informed of the rockets from the Titanic , why did he not tell the wireless operator to contact it ? I know he turned it off , but it was the only way to find out for sure . Poor ass seamanship at its best !
To address your points, in regards to the binoculars, while the lookouts absolutely should’ve had access to binoculars the truth is that binoculars wouldn’t have made any effect on the night of the sinking. The titanic experienced a very rare visual phenomenon on lightless nights when the water is completely flat calm where the horizon would appear much higher than it actually was. That night the false horizon completely covered the icebergs mass, hence why they didn’t see it until 40 seconds before collision. The phenomena would’ve affected the lookout men even with binoculars and likely would’ve made very little difference to the outcome. It’s been postulated that this visual phenomenon is why the Californian couldn’t properly make out the titanics Morse lamp signals. In regards to your second point, you’re absolutely right. The biggest mistake made by the Californians crew that night was they simply didn’t do enough. Why in earth they didn’t wake the wireless operator god only knows.
@@enveenva5584 false. That wasn't the only night in history with the same conditions . Now I don't know for sure but neither do you, but with binoculars even the officer himself said he would of most likely seen it minutes ahead. And every second counted. The binoculars COULD have had a different outcome.
The Californians captain claimed he was so tired he didn't even remember the conversation with the officer
@@jkephart4624 I did not say it was the only night ever where this phenomena occurred, this was perhaps just the most destructive one. You’re right, lightoller stated that he believed he would have been able to see the berg with binoculars before the lookouts and that he never relied on the lookouts to do all the work, however he did not know what we know now, the rare visual phenomena is a relatively recent discovery. Lightoller was acting on the assumption that the only problem at play was both the moonless night and completely calm waters, when in reality we now know that a combination of things caused the perfect environment for this rare visual phenomena, even with binoculars it really wouldn’t have made a difference under those conditions.
A load of bull. Anyway she might not have been the ship Titanic saw. There's more evidence it was rather the Mount Temple of Captain Moore, who fled like a coward, was very close to Titanic and Californian only saw the white rockets of Titanic, not the colored ones. She was further northwest, as much as 20 miles, while Mount Temple was 5 miles near and later pretended to be stuck in ice and 50 miles off. @@jkephart4624