"NOTHING COULD HAVE SAVED HER" | Titanic account #2 Commander Lightoller IT'S HISTORY

Charles Herbert Lightoller, DSC & Bar, RD, RNR (30 March 1874 - 8 December 1952) was a British Royal Navy officer and the second officer on board the RMS Titanic. He was the most senior member of the crew to survive the Titanic disaster. As the officer in charge of loading passengers into lifeboats on the port side, Lightoller strictly enforced the women and children only protocol, not allowing any male passengers to board the lifeboats unless they were needed as auxiliary seamen.Lightoller served as a commanding officer of the Royal Navy during World War I and was twice decorated for gallantry.During World War II, in retirement, he provided and sailed as a volunteer on one of the "little ships" that played a part in the Dunkirk evacuation. Rather than allow his motoryacht to be requisitioned by the Admiralty, he sailed the vessel to Dunkirk personally and repatriated 127 British servicemen.Two weeks before the sinking, Lightoller boarded the RMS Titanic in Belfast, acting as first officer for the sea trials. Captain Smith gave the post of chief officer to Henry Wilde of the Olympic, demoting the original appointee William McMaster Murdoch to first officer and Lightoller to second officer. The original second officer, David Blair, was excluded from the voyage altogether, while the ship's roster of junior officers remained unchanged. Blair's departure from the crew caused a problem, as he had the key to the ship's binocular case. Because the crew lacked access to binoculars, Lightoller promised to purchase them when the Titanic got to New York City. Later, the missing key and resultant lack of binoculars for the lookouts in the crow's nest became a point of contention at the U.S. inquiry into the Titanic disaster. On the night of 14 April 1912, Lightoller commanded the last bridge watch prior to the ship's collision with the iceberg, after which Murdoch relieved him. An hour before the collision, Lightoller ordered the ship's lookouts to continually watch for 'small ice' and 'particularly growlers' until daylight. He then ordered the Quartermaster, Robert Hichens, to check ship's fresh water supply for freezing below the waterline.[14] Lightoller had retired to his cabin and was preparing for bed when he felt the collision. Wearing only his pyjamas, Lightoller hurried out on deck to investigate, but seeing nothing, retired back to his cabin. Deciding it would be better to remain where other officers knew where to find him if needed, he lay awake in his bunk until fourth officer Joseph Boxhall summoned him to the bridge. He pulled on trousers, and a navy-blue sweater over his pyjamas, and donned (along with socks and shoes) his officer's overcoat and cap. During the evacuation, Lightoller took charge of lowering the lifeboats on the port side of the boat deck.[9] He helped to fill several lifeboats with passengers and launched them. Lightoller interpreted Smith's order for "the evacuation of women and children" as essentially "women and children only". As a result, Lightoller lowered lifeboats with empty seats if there were no women and children waiting to board, meaning to fill them to capacity once they had reached the water.[2] Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Godfrey Peuchen has the distinction of being the only adult male passenger Lightoller allowed into the boats on the port side evacuation, due to his previous nautical experience and offer of assistance when there were no seamen available from the Titanic's own complement to help command one of the lowering lifeboats.[15] There were fears from some of the officers that the davits used for lowering the boats would not hold the weight if the boats were full, but they were unaware that the new davits on the Titanic had been designed to do so. Under this misapprehension, Lightoller's plan was to fill the lifeboats from the waterline and sent 10 men to open the gangway doors in the ship's port so that passengers would have access. The men failed in this task and were never seen again (presumed drowned carrying out this final order). The under-capacity boats then pulled away from the ship as soon as they hit the water, rendering the plan a failure. At least one boat is confirmed as wilfully ignoring officers' shouted orders to return.
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[@brantodb01]

First one definitely felt more reliable, while this one had more detail it does also feel like he's quite defensive against any blame that might come from his account

[@ITSHISTORY]

I wondered if he didn't feel ashamed having lived to tell this story when so many passengers passed.

[@MrPanzerTanzer]

@@ITSHISTORY I don't think there is a shame to survive a catastrophe, if you couldn't prevent it and did your best to save as much passengers as possible.

[@shaunmcclory8117]

Yes even down to "i know YOU'VE struck something" as opposed to "We've struck something"

[@detcordxxxi]

Ole Lights sure did love to embellish a good story.

[@lashany2626]

Good to hear it from him.

[@craighutchinson1125]

Certainly does a hatchet job on the radio operator, who he states failed to pass the message on which, he if informed, would have taken action for icebergs. Also he states the radio operator confided in him that he left the iceberg warning under a paperweight at his elbow - seems somewhat convenient that dead men tell no tales. 🤔 Really interesting primary sources, thanks for sharing.

[@niki75]

The reason the message from the S.S Masaba was not delivered to the Bridge was it lacked the prefix "MSG" (which stands for Master Service Gram) which it was a priority message.
You have to remember Mr. Bride and Mr. Philips, the marconi operators were *not* employed by the White Star Line and thus were more focued in passenger telegrams. Especially at the eve of the disaster as The Titanic had just come within reach of Cape Race in Newfounland so the operators would've been swamped by messages to North America.

[@martinevans3863]

Remember as well the radio officers had a huge backlog of work because of a fault they had just fixed.

[@afz902k]

"Nothing could've saved her"
Proceeds to tell how having properly received and handled that vital message, the ship would have been slowed down or even stopped until morning light.

[@ssherrierable]

I think he meant after it hit the iceberg

[@SoulKhepri]

I liked both comments..

[@rogerhwerner6997]

What a horrifying accident and such a horrible thing to have witnessed.

[@jasona9]

Second Officer Charles Lightoller interpreted the order of "Women and Children FIRST" as "Women and Children ONLY". This unexplained and catastrophic mistake was a contributing reason why approximately 400 seats in the Titanic's lifeboats launched EMPTY.

[@Lisa1987lisa]

I think there’s been stories of 3rd class passengers not being allowed up to the deck untill after a certain time so this could have made a difference. That’s why only a few third class passengers survived. All the second class children passengers were saved while a large portion of third class children died.

[@jasona9]

@@Lisa1987lisa Also more First class men survived than Third class women. The Third Class on the Titanic was neglected to death.

[@JB-od1pi]

The reason is not unexplained. Lightoller says at the British Inquriy on Day 12 "- After I had swung out No. 4 boat I asked the Chief Officer should we put the women and children in, and he said "No." I left the men to go ahead with their work and found the Commander, or I met him and I asked him should we put the women and children in, and the Commander said "Yes, put the women and children in and lower away." That was the last order I received on the ship." This is contradicted later, by him saying that Wilde ordered him into a lifeboat, but it seems to be the last order from Smith that Lightoller received. Of course, this is just one reason for the empty seats. Lowe had said that he would not like to put more than 50 in a boat, despite Edward Wilding's weight tests after the boats and davits could easily hold the weight of 65 people. Also, based on the boats Lowe helped lower, there were quite a few less than 50 in them. Murdoch lowered the boat with the least amount of people, lifeboat 1 with only 12 people, 10 of them being men. Of course, Murdoch lowered boat 10, Smith and especially Wilde were also seen on the Port side, all of them superiors to Lightoller.

[@DANIELLE_BREANNA_LACY]

I think he had some rage issues which was why he was so strict on letting men into the lifeboats and he mainly let lifeboats be lowered underfilled because he was afraid the weight might cause them to fall from the ropes before getting close enough to the water which I kinda understand, though he really should’ve given the people in them instructions on how to help some who had fallen in the water into those lifeboats with them. I’m glad Lightoller at least didn’t act so strict about who was with him on the upturned Collapsible B lifeboat, especially considering they were mostly men.

[@jasona9]

@@DANIELLE_BREANNA_LACY In the inquest, Charles Lightoller admitted that he didn't think Titanic would actually sink! He believed that since the bulkheads were new and the watertight compartments closed, the Titanic wouldn't founder. He didn't understand that the watertight compartments were not fitted with watertight tops and made no difference once FIVE compartments were breached. Many believe that ONLY Captain Smith, J. Bruce Ismay and of course Thomas Andrews knew from the beginning how serious the situation was.

[@stephanieperry1119]

Interesting recording. What is this the phrase he says near the end where speaking of saying Our Father "since I was six --- to the caughers."?
Is the blank benefits and do have rest of it right?

[@LiamE69]

Sounds to me like "since I was the height of six penneth of conkers"

[@slikh]

I heard him speak in another interview and he has a very interesting accent.. If I had to guess I would have said he came from NE America, not the UK.

[@8G00SE8]

He could have been Irish who moved to America, it's an interview years after the event.

[@hedlnes3202]

He sounds very very English to me

[@JB-od1pi]

@@8G00SE8 Lightoller was born in, lived in, and died in England. He had also been around the world, from San Fransico to Sydney Australia, From helping fight the Nazi's to transporting Boer war soliders.

[@rayjames6096]

A different maiden voyage crew could have saved her.

[@corbincurtis7334]

Lovely 😍💋 💝💖❤️

[@ITSHISTORY]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@kid9893]

@@ITSHISTORY bro that's a bot comment.

[@AbrahamLincoln4]

@@ITSHISTORY Keep in mind that is a bot.

[@talirhettmanf4210]

13:43 I love that. Do you love me? 😍💋 💝💖❤️

[@AbrahamLincoln4]

No.

[@silvesby]

@@AbrahamLincoln4 Thanks Abe

[@PewPr0]

@@silvesby They don't call him "Honest Abe" for nothing

[@carolinedarlene8184]

You hot for officer lightoller??