The Ultimate Fate of Titanic's Captain! (Complete series)
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- čas přidán 9. 09. 2022
- This video contains episode 1 and 2 of my series on captain smith. In this video we go back and try to retrace the steps of captain smith and try to figure out exactly what happened to him on the night the Titanic sank.
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I cant even begin to imagine the amount of stress this man must have gone through for those 3 hours or less. I highly respect what he did and feel so sorry for him
Captain Smith esperaba que El California los rescataria cuando SE dio cuenta de la traicion intento desesperadamente salvar la mayor cantidad de personas, Todo fallo, como lo habian planeado y le habian prometido nunca llego El auxilio, la idea original era solo hundir El Olympic llamado Titanic y cobrar El seguro, la reserva federal y El control mundial, por ESO SE convirtio en El barco mas famoso del Mundo porque asi como SE partio en dos tambien SE partio la historia en 1914 estallo la primera guerra mundial y la reserva federal financio los 2 bandos, no pueden ocurrrir tantos errores por casualidad, Todo lo planearon, con predimeditacion, alevosia y ventaja, fue un asesinato en primer grado de 1,500 seres humanos y 705 sobrevivientes que quedaron traumados por El resto de su vida, es una burla a la inteligencia Humana y un monumento a la corrupcion de jueces, Empresarios y autoridades, la ambicion y El dinero lo cortompen Todo, desde niño nunca Crei la historia que nos contaron siempre Crei que fue un conspiration, a ojos vistos, cualquier persona con dos dedos de frente lo pueden ver y entender, El que Tengo ojos que vea y El que Tenga oidos que oiga😢
I don’t know how people can be so mad at the poor dead guy for being slightly distracted after realizing that half of the people he was responsible for were going to die in the best case scenario… He took like 4 minutes to understand and accept that he was going to be the most infamous sea captain in history, and he wasn’t reduced to a quivering sobbing mess in his cabin for any of it. Could you handle being the captain of something that kills half of the people onboard?
Not only that half the passengers would be lost but also, he realized that his own life would be lost.
@futurevegan8617 completely agree with you, At least Captain Smith stayed on board until the end, unlike the Captain of the Costa Concordia.
Half....70%
@@leesnowdon9009 yeah captain Francesco Schettino when he relized Costa Concordia was gonna sink he did just abandoned Costa Concordia. In the trail court after the disaster he just excued his abandoning away with that he never abandon the ship, just that he somehow fell in to a lifeboat. He deservingly got scentenced to 16 years in prison.
At that point, the only thing he could do to redeem/preserve his memory was to act and save as many as possible. I mean, the worst thing a man can do in a crisis is cower and cry. That's for others to do.
It was especially sad for Captain Smith when this was to be his last voyage before retiring.
Just a thought of speculation, not trying to stir a pot here or be disrespectful in anyway to you, or to the lives lost. But is his not enjoying retirement actually a sad thing for us to determine? What I mean is, is this a person who actually loved his job, or hated it? Being able to retire could either of been good or bad as depending on the person you take their job away and they die quickly after. Because that job brought meaning in their life. There are others that can enjoy life to the fullest only after retirement, but it depends on the person and situation.
I guess In the end all I can say is he was the right person in the right place for a real sh## situation. When you spend your life sailing the seas you accept all risks and rewards that follow, Captain Smith accepted this fact, that much we do know. At least we can reasonably assume that when we can compare to an incident like the Costa Concordia.
@@danielkapp9468 He may or may not have wanted to retire. In many companies people are forced to retire as soon as they turn 65. If he was looking forward to retirement it was especially sad for him personally.
I think it’s a myth that it was to be his last voyage. More likely it was to be his last ship as he was rumoured to be retiring at the end of the year.
@@wattage2007 I meant it was to be his last voyage as captain of a ship. He likely would have taken more voyages after retirement as a passenger.
@@canadianfortrump4057 I don’t think it was to be his last voyage as captain though. Im sure I read he was staying on for a few voyages on Titanic then retiring and passing the job to someone else.
Nice username by the way 👍
We've known Edward Smith as the Titanic Captain, but a film about his whole life and career could be interesting.
“Smith” sounds like a cool movie title
Yeah, that would be cool, Same with Thomas Andrews
@@michaelbrady1948 Smith was, from memory, born in Halifax ( County of Yorkshire, UK). I'm a Yorkshireman, and a qualified skipper. Another great sea captain from Yorkshire was Capt. Cook, but my favourite Yorkshire Captain was Jean-Luc Picard
@@Pikmin2Fan2010 I was just about to post that but you beat me to it lol
Just add some things like his drug problems or some different women he was involved with and then we'd have a movie lol
Unpopular opinion: It is a rare and honorable death that the captain met. Not everyone gets a respectable death like him. He died doing what he loved & saved people till his last breath. Such people leave their indelible mark in history. What a way to go captain 🙏
“Saved people till his last breath”
Maybe you forgot that little detail that IF HE HAD CHANGED COURSE after repeated iceberg warnings, slowed the ship down or even managed the boarding of safety rafts a bit better, THOUSANDS of people would be alive.
Actually no one knows how he died
@@Weegiegreek If the captain was on the bridge as it submerged, then it is logical that he died on the bridge.
Show the dead some respect.
@Ichigo Kurosaki there was no proof he was there no one saw him the death scene in the film was fiction
@Ichigo Kurosaki FYI don't give me fucking orders either
I can't really speak as to why, but the recreation of Captain Smith calling to the lifeboats absolutely chills me. I think it's just the solemn reminder of the desperation of the entire situation.
Stephen Viator, I felt the same way.
There is a deleted scene from the movie with that same scene
SAME how powerless must he have felt? He’s surrounded by passengers on a sinking ship, with not enough lifeboats for everyone, and he sees these half full boats disappearing into the distance 😢 the passengers around him, including women and children, are begging him to do something, and the only way to save them is to have the lifeboats come back so that more people can be put on them, so he tries to use whatever authority and loyalty his crew may still have to call them back. But they won’t come back 😔 I couldn’t imagine the feeling of hopelessness and helplessness he must have felt in his final moments.
Well he deserved it if not more. He cancelled the lifeboat drill on that very morning. Had they done that, the life boats wouldn’t have left less than half full. The crew would have known exactly what to do. They had enough time to rescue Atleast half of the passengers. And the sea was very calm.
@@reenumariabasil4947 Imagine being under so much pressure as a literal captian going down with his ship and knowing thousands of people around you could possibly die
I retired after sailing for 40 years and 20 years in command and having been thru 3 wars and many incidents I am still overwhelmed with the bravery of the titanic screw and captain and their sacrifices in the face of death our prayers for all who have died for whom there is no grave but the sea amen
What?
Are you serious?!?
Captain Smith could have easily avoided the collision by changing course or even slowing down, yet he didn’t do it and the Titanic hit the iceberg. And then, they botched the evacuation so hard that THOUSANDS of people died!! It’s literally HIS FAULT!!!
I completely agree. Btw, u may wanna fix this. I know u meant “Titanic’s crew” but wrote “Titanic screw”…
@@Stardust_7273
Maybe he was subconsciously thinking "Titanic screwed".😄 No offense but just kidding.
@@chris93703 lol maybe. Maybe he wrote the scene after Jack and Rose’s… ride in the car 😉😆
I love how professional men were back then. Staying on the ship for honor, every Bridge staffer being basically a engineer/knowing Titanic well, the Captain noticing about his own ship minor critical details as soon as they arise no matter how obscure. All these accounts make it a fascinating scenario to look at since you can be confident the human factor of this was peak against the odds.
It is not a universal thing- not even on the titanic, where there were several cases of men throwing themselves into lifeboats before mothers and children. No matter the times, men are honorable and unhonorable. There was another video on youtube about a sinking of another ship, where men, after finding out the ship is about to sink and they will die, decided to go around the deck, get drunk and rape other passengers. I'll tell you the name of this video when I find it.
@@Pelenaiful the story of Titanic crew members raping women comes from a 1996 mini series called Titanic...Tim Curry played the part of one of the crew men doing that. Whoever made a CZcams video stating that as true event is a complete moron as there are no accounts of that happening anywhere and is another reason why people should not believe everything they see and hear on the Internet 😂😂
@@Pelenaiful How dare they want to live!! My god what animals! SAVAGES!!! Men!
The video recounts that the Captain was not aware that lower decks, where he sent passengers to board life boats, were glassed in and useless for that purpose.
I think you may have rose-colored glasses... Captain Smith may have been brilliant, but he was clearly not as familiar with his ship as you may believe. Humans were still very human in 1912 - and made all of the mistakes you would expect. For instance, Smith being unaware certain decks were glassed in.
I can’t even begin to imagine what he went through emotionally and mentally
Knowing how many people are going to die… In my mind Smith and Andrews had the heaviest hearts that night
He is the reason they died. He was warned over and over again. His own stupidity killed thousands.
Totally agree. I’m still crying almost 111 years later. It’s just too sad. RIP Captain Smith, Thomas Andrews and everyone lost on the Titanic.❤🌻
Who knows about heaviest hearts. Wives split from husband's. Children from parents etc. So many tragedies .
Not only that. In theory, everyone in that ship had a right to pursue survival to some degree. Other officers were placed in life-boats in order to control them, but the Captain never had the right to even pursue any salvation. Even though the situation was dire, his fellow officers could hope for good fortune, some miracle, but he did not have that perk. He was supposed to die in this disaster. Can anyone contemplate that horror? And him, being a man of his era, knew that he had to die and was going to die. Can you guys imagine what that does to a person's mind? To be certain of his own death?
@@talesle_roi7991God doesn’t put anything in front of us that we can’t handle. Smith was ready to face that reality and still act with dignity and in accordance of what is right. He was up to the task
My heart breaks for Captain Smith for everyone on the Titanic. Captain Smith on his last time as a Captain before retiring and this happened. I can’t even imagine what went through his head to see his beautiful ship sinking. I’m actually crying listening to the end of the story. So utterly heartbreaking.
I thought I knew just about everything about the Titanic. My interest was spurred by a book I read in fifth grade. I have an entire section of my library dedicated to the doomed ship. However you taught me quite a bit about Captain Smith that I did not know.. Thank you!
The Captain is the person I feel most for in this tragedy. He DID change course prior thinking he would avoid the area of the ice. When he understood he had miscalculated, when he realized the ship was doomed, that they let too much time pass before contacting other ships, that the ship nearby was not responding, and especially when Carpathia told the time needed to arrive, all these moments of incredible desperation I totally feel with the poor Captain.
Of course, there's no guarantee that not changing course meant they wouldn't have hit one of the bergs that the Californian was surrounded by, as the latter had stopped for the night due to being in an ice field. It's all these what ifs that keep the story so fascinating over a hundred years later.
I feel most sorry for the children still trapped on board. At least he lived a full life.
Why do you feel sorry for the guy who went full speed ahead after he got warnings of a dangerous ice field at night time? Smith is the reason the ship sank.
@@Makaveli_93 I answered that. He had changed course southwards to steer away from the ice. It turned out to be just not enough. Also, the last warning from Californian about that ice field was not received by him.
@@mori.kurogawa7936 Nah, just changing course in a moonless night while still going full speed does nothing. Even James Cameron said it was Smith's fault for going full speed, it's inexcusable.
It's easy to pile on Captain Smith based on what we know NOW, but I'm really glad you gave his side of the story. It was a combination of errors that led to such a tragic loss of life and he seemed to do the best he could under terrible circumstances.
I agree with you. I believe that Capt. Smith was a true hero.
Do you agree that it was arrogant for Smith to order the ship to speed through icy waters after having received multiple ice field warnings and that his actions led to the accident? Is that what you consider a "true hero"? If he had slowed the ship or stopped until daylight the accident likely would not have occurred.
@@billbarrett6285 it was not arrogant at all. It was common practice back then to get a ship out of an ice field as fast as possible, especially when the ice warnings mention "perfect visibility"
@@lolloblue9646 It wasn't common practice to run a ship full speed into an ice field. That would be monumentally reckless. Even if it had been common practice, it would make it no less arrogant or asinine. None of the ice warnings indicated "perfect visibility". They mentioned calm seas which makes it more difficult to see ice at night not less. Growlers can only be seen at night by waves washing against them. Additionally, the bridge knew the lookout did not have glasses to spot icebergs before the ship was almost upon them and that the Californian which was nearby had stopped for the night due to ice. It was reckless to call the ship unskinable. It was reckless to run the ship at full speed into an ice field at night, and it was reckless not to have enough lifeboats on the ship for everyone on board. It is ridiculous to call Captain Smith a hero just because he died along with the other people that perished. The fact is that if he had taken appropriate precautions the ship would not have struck an iceberg and would have arrived safely at it's destination. The 1st officer who survived admitted during the investigation that upon receiving the ice warnings, the ship should have been slowed immediately and stopped for the night, then navigated safely through the ice field after daybreak. They claimed not to have received the ice warning from the Musaba which placed the ice field directly in the path of the ship but they had already received numerous ice warnings and knew full well the risks. The fact remains that Edwardian arrogance caused the deaths of over 1500 souls when the ship struck an iceberg and sank.
I had an old friend, who said he knew the final words of the Titanic captain. Being the ship was HMS Titanic all the crew were part of the English maritime fleet, and as such part of the English Navy. He said that the standard call of a captain as their ship was lost was, "you have servered your duty to the crown, it's now every man for himself. " releasing each sailor to save themselves. I have heard many other versions, but this seems to be the most realistic.
RMS Titanic
While mistakes were definitely made, I admire the courage and dedication the captain and crew displayed while they tried to save as many people as they could, especially in comparison to a few modern ship disasters like the Costa Concordia, Oceanos and Sewol Ferry where the captain and majority of the crew abandoned ship and left their passengers to fend for themselves.
The crew did not abandon the Costa Concordia, the captain did the crew made up most if not all the fatalities.
RE: telling the crew: Also, Captain Smith didn't have to inform the crew (or the officers) that the Titanic was doomed. All he had to do was issue orders. The crew (from the officers down) were obliged to carry out those orders, no matter what.
It's crazy the officers loaded the life boats half full..
You ever hear of a ship called the artic?
@Jens Nobel relax.
BTK Rader was obliged to follow the orders of batter and factor x
I've just discovered your excellent channel.
My Grandfather's friend actually worked at H / W. He sailed on Titanic to Southampton. After the sinking, he gave my Grandfather a big tea / coffee mug. It was marked simply White Star Line.
So he was on the ship during her sea trials?
@@ChairmanPaulieD Hi, he must have been, yes. Interestingly, my Grandfather used to tell us that a lot of men were asked if they'd stay aboard for the voyage to America. Apparently most of the workers refused and returned to Belfast. They knew things weren't right but were hushed up, especially over reports of poor quality rivets and low grade steel, not to mention the bunker fire.
As my Grandfather said "what kind of fool goes to sea with a raging fire on board."
@@philipmason3218 It wasn’t a “raging fire”, it was a slow burning smoulder, the temperature of which was hundreds of degrees below the steel’s rated tolerance. The poor rivets and steel theory was never proven, quite the opposite: the fact that the ship is still standing 110 years later after all it’s been through would suggest the steel was of premium quality.
A fifty thousand ton object with flexible hull scraped a 1,000,000+ ton immovable object made of compact ice. It’s no surprise Titanic sank, it’s more remarkable how long she stayed afloat.
@@wattage2007 Smouldering or inferno, nonetheless, putting to sea with a bunker fire is almost beyond belief.
The issues regarding the steel and rivets maybe just rumours, but its true that a lot of the welders / rivetors wouldn't go to sea aboard her.
Obviously we'll never know, it's all part of the fascinating history of Titanic.
@@wattage2007the steel was tested and found to be 10 times more brittle then other ships steel. Source Science Today 12-27-1997. There are also documentaries on the steel. I think it’s called Titanic, The New Evidence.
So sad. The Titanic was such a stunningly beautiful ship and had marvelous talent in its officers. Captain Smith should have gotten a post humous medal.
I’m sure that he had times during the sinking after the realization that help wasn’t coming in time to rescue everyone where he was overcome with grief and other emotions.
He must have felt like he had failed to keep the crew and passengers safe, angry and sad that he wouldn’t see his wife and daughter again and mourning opportunities that he’d never have with them and they with him.
He must have been stressed and, as you said, momentarily confused Titanic with Olympic.
Outstanding job! Thank you. I agree that Captain Smith was a hero under extreme stress.
Great presentation. Great to have Capt. Smith's complete chronology during that night.
Fantastic video as always thank you for this! Captain Smith is a relation of mine, fourth cousin once removed, on my mums side and I’m so proud to be related to this great man even if it’s distant and I’m sure he did everything within his power to help everyone on that ship until the very end. Can’t imagine the stress and pressure he felt that night.
I loved watching this series! It really brings light on Captain Smith’s crucial role in the sinking.
Awesome job Sam hitting of 80,000 thousand
Great Episode Sam! I think i speak for all of us when i say Congratulations on hitting 80K subscribers. U deserve it my friend.
Sam, you're so informative and your videos are always interesting and memorable. My 5 year old son still remembers you from last year when I first started watching your channel. Thanks for another interesting video. 🙂
I can totally understand Captain Smith pausing for a few minutes to grapple with the overwhelming realty of what was about to happen. He’s a hero for doing all he could in a crappy situation. All the “would of, could of, should of’s” have been taken care of by the lessons learned and continue to be learned.
The Titanic disaster has always fascinated me for as long as I can remember. Your accounts of Captain Smith were very interesting. Might I suggest, too, that maybe another reason captain Smith became confused or overwhelmed when he learned of Titanic's fate, was because he not only realised half the people on board were going to die that night... but that he came to the realization that HE, too, would be dying within an hour or two. ... The captain always goes down with the ship. I can't imagine how that feels.
I was also thinking that he realized his own fate.
So very sad :(((
He deserved it, because it’s due to his stupidity that all those people were faced with almost certain death.
It was supposed to have been his last trip too. What a weight to have on your chest all at once.
Exceptional offering, as usual, from this Historic Travels presenter. He never fails to illuminate and entertain. Thank you for all the effort you put into these essays. They are remarkable.
An additional fact is when Captain Smith learns how long it'll take Carpathia to arrive, he knows at that time that not only are at least half of the Titanic's passengers and crew doomed, he himself is now a dead man. If a ship could've arrived in time to take on all the Titanic's passengers and crew, there was a chance for he himself to make it off alive. Suddenly learning hundreds would die and he himself was going to be one of them could easily have left him mentally reeling for a time.
Must have been such a horrible feeling as he realised help wasn’t coming in time. I think Smith did the best he could in an impossible situation
I disagree. His failure and that of his senior officers to evacuate the 3rd class woman and children was a hugh dereliction of duty on his part, there was time and lifeboat space to save all the children on board along with their mothers and their deaths fall on Smith in my opinion.
@@murraymusic2633 75% of all women on the titanic were saved. 25% of the crew were saved, 89% of which were women. The fact that you don't seem to acknowledge the main party of victims is pretty sad. Of the 1500 victims a quarter were women of any age. 75% Were all Male adults and children. The only injustice done was to men whether adult or child. You have absolutely no reason to be whining about how women were treated. Lifeboats were easily given to any woman that was around of any age or class and men were forced out at gunpoint. Forced to drown. And by a guy who ended up in a lifeboat himself.
@@Coryiodine they would've had to shoot me, cause I'm fighting for a spot on a lifeboat and yes I know women and children first. What I mean by fighting is if I have a family I'm getting on with them especially when he said every man for himself.
@@jamesclarke279 I agree. We'd be rioting together
@murraymusic2633 Yeah who cares about the men?
The actor who played Captain Smith in the movie Titanic just passed away
You have taught me so much about the Titanic and it's actually brought my family closer from watching your videos so thank you 🥰!
Thank you Sam, another great video, I'm always looking forward to your new videos while catching up on your earlier ones. BTW, congrats on hitting 80K+.
What wonderful information you’ve given us. I thought I knew everything about the titanic but you proved me wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed your lecture and will look forward to more.
I LOVE When you make a complete series video, and more when you talk of titanic! i really love how you do tour videos and i learn a lot, and i can say that i learn more with you instead on my school
Captain Smith did everything he was able to do so you have to understand that watching her going down God bless him
I had been watching this channel since you only had like 2000 subscribers maybe even as Little as 800. I learned so much. But as new viewers came along they would just have you answering the same questions. So I haven’t checked in for a while.
your content is just incredible! you are so impressive knowing all of this, thank you for sharing your passion with the world!
This came at a great time! Just finished watching the whole Lusitania series!
I just want to say I really enjoy your videos and how much effort you put into them.
Great work. I have watched a ton about the Titanic & this was a real good run down of what went down.
What you also need to keep in mind is that not only did Captain Smith realise that so many of the passengers will perish, he also realised that he is very likely to die as well. He probably would have told himself beforehand that if something like this occurs that he would be one of the last ones saved because that is what it seems he was doing, he stayed on the ship until the very end. The realisation that you are going to die would also contribute massively to a person's mental state.
I get overwhelmed playing Age of Empires I cannot even possibly begin to imagine what it must've been like there that day for real. Impending doom is probably the worst thing I can imagine. It's like how the anticipation is by far the most scary part of skydiving, for example, imagine waiting several hours on a sinking ship knowing you're dead because of how cold the water was. It's like "the floor is lava" game but it was no game, it was very, very real.
@@SeattlePioneer No that was Californian, Carpathia was steaming the other way 55 miles south, out of the ice field. The Californian was on the horizon approximately only 13miles away and both Titanic and Californian were aware of each other's presence, but they were not able to communicate because of the time period. Smith didn't exactly have an iPhone with "Lord Stan" in his contacts lol. Carpathia made the exact same blind dash through the ice field as Titanic did they just didn't hit any bergs, but they ALMOST did right when they got to the debris field.
Smith used his judgement based on all the information he had, but that information just wasn't enough. To insist that he was the sole cause of the ship's sinking is totally asinine and a very "Soviet Union" way of seeing the world lol. The sea was glass. You could see for several nautical miles, but there was no moon, and the glassy sea was a detriment because the foam and waves breaking at the base of bergs weren't there, so they were effectively invisible. The movie and every recreation makes it seem like it was a full moon, but it VERY wasn't. The key problem was that it was just SUPER dark out that night.
@@djjazzyjeff1232
Make all the excuses you like. Smith was STILL soley responsible for the sinking of the Titanic. You offer a number of reason why he SHOULD have slowed down or stopped, as did Carparthia.
\
You seem to suggest that had you been Captain Smith, you too would have run the Titanic on the iceberg and killed more than a thousand people too. After all, you would have had plenty of excuses for doing so.
Had I been Captain Smith, I would hope I would have stopped or at least slowed down.
You make it sound like it would be easy to understand. The Monday morning quarterbacks that love to pile on make it sound as bloody easy to avert disaster. But there is a compilation of error, indeed the Captain takes the blame, but we all owe grace as imperfect fallen beings we are. There was poor communication and the ice warnings were missed in various stages of the disaster. Captain Smith was going to die so were several of the crew had rescue gone as best case scenario would occur. The unfortunate conditions of weather mirage, of radio communications, and the sad fact is Captain Smith had an awful weight of the impending deaths of many under his ship and his own death would be inevitable. Captain Smith's confused state of mind was minimal considering his fate being sealed, it's admirable that he handled an awful situation as well as he could. Ultimately, the Captain takes all blame on his ship, but grace is owed considering that all men in his situation would likely have made human errors equal or greater to Captain Smith's.
The poem is called Master and Man
The Captain stood where a
Captain should
For the Law of the Sea is grim;
The Owner romped while the ship was swamped
And no law bothered him.
The Captain stood where the Captain should
When a Captain's ship goes down
But the Owner led when the women fled,
For an Owner must not drown.
The Captain sank as a man of Rank,
While his Owner turned away;
The Captain's grave was his bridge and brave,
He earned his seaman's pay.
To hold your place in the ghastly face of Death on the Sea at Night
Is a Seaman's job, but to flee with the mob
Is an Owner's Noble Right.
As a lover of Titanic since I'm a little kid, thanks for a fantastic channel!
Love your videos man! Thanks for all the content you share with us
Another great video Sam, thank you.
Smith must’ve surely known early on that even had the “mystery ship” been able to come, with Andrews’ estimate of an hour to an hour and a half until the ship would go under, there wouldn’t be enough time to ferry all 2,000+ people aboard Titanic to the other ship. There was going to be major loss of life that night no matter what.
I think that captain smith felt guilty that alot of the passengers would end up dying under his watch and that overwhelmed him emotionally more than anything; especially since it was order persuaded by mr ismsy to keep going full speed even at night when the visibilty is extremely low. All of these thoughts running through his mind made him go into shock mode. He was a true hero though as he really wanted to save as much of the passengers as possible and he even sacrificed his own life to make that possible.
oh my god why are you lying
Ismay did not pressure him to do anything, they weren't going full speed and they *thought* visibility was great. The illusion of being able to see for miles and would spot anything far in advance
He wasn't a hero he is responsible for 1496 deaths
I thank you for all the work and investigating you did.. because as much as I was going to have to start searching into everything but.yiu have all the info in one video!! Thank you!!
After one zillion videos on the subject, new stuff keeps popping up in this one. Great job.
In those days the Cpt was expected to go with his ship. I can’t imagine what was going through his mind. Also the distress signal CQD sounds far too much like CQ which is a general call. Even a seasoned telegrapher could mistake that. I used to teach morse and have had this discussion many times. Great video buddy. Best regards Retired Cpt MV Believe
That's a great point! I remember hearing or reading somewhere that the night of Titanic's sinking was the first time CQD was either used or used at sea.
@@gregventurevids it was supposed to be Come Quickly Distress but a general call on radio is CQ from the words “seeking you” which you hear constantly on all bands. My morse isn’t amazing like operators in that time but when I hear CQ I just go a little deaf from hearing it so much so I’d never hear the “D”.
>
We disagree. As a frequent CW amateur radio operator, CQ is probably the most frequent CW signal heard on amateur radio bands. The addition of the "D" after that would be distinctive, in my view.
In any case, as I understand it, the Titanic radio operators sent out SOS as well. In any case, there weren't any other ships out there who might have received the message and be in a position to respond. There was only the California, and the Carpathia.
You might make a dramatic point by sending some of Titanic's distress messages as part of your Morse Code instruction! Even those just learning would likely recognize SOS being sent repeatedly!
And they likely would not have to translate the sounds into letters to understand what it symbolized. Just hearing the sounds would likely have been recognized, the best way to understand a Morse Code message.
I’m a ham (amateur) radio operator in the United States, and my call sign is N4CQD.
@@Deus-Too I would like to see a You Tube video that consisted enitely of radio traffic sent out by Titanic, Carpathis and any other ships participating in that traffic on the night Titanic sank. That would be REAL CW drama!
Extra credit if the signal used a spark gap transmitter, with it's distinctive character, in the mock transmissions. I understand thast the Titanic had a rotary spark gap of some kind that produced a purer tone than the conventional spark gap transmitter of the day.
CQD CQD CQD de Titanic RMS Totanic x,,,x We have struck an iceberg asnd are sinking x...x
N4CQD N4CQD de Titanic RMS TITANIC we are sinking come at once k
Now THAT would add some drama to code practice!
When my father, who died in 1976, was a boy, sometime in the late 1920's or early 30's, his father (my Grandfather) took him St. Albans, England and the home of Charles Lightoller the Second (and senior surviving) Officer of RMS Titanic to buy a mastiff. As far as I know nothing about the sinking was discussed. In the summer of 2017 I was in Halifax, Nova Scotia and went to Fairview Cemetery where many of the Titanic dead are buried including J. Dawson.
I just found this AFTER I had been thinking that there should be a film about this man. This chapter in his life is more interesting and tragic than people would imagine.
Thanks guy for explaining the situation with the Californian (21:18), because I’ve always wondered about the attitude of that ship!
Capt. Smith's story has always made me sad. He and the wireless boys, and the band. Can't even imagine. Great video Sam!
The wireless operator on the Californian was angry at the wireless operators on the Titanic because he had tried to warn them about icebergs earlier in the evening and Bride had arrogantly told him to F off because he was busy with Cape Race. The Californian operator pretty much said F you too and went to bed.
@@ZVT946mtr36 Not true in the slightest. Cyril Evans, the Californian’s wireless operator, was finishing a long shift when he sent a message to Titanic that more or less sounded like “Say OM, we are stopped and surrounded by ice”. It did not include a position or the code that indicated the message had to be sent to the bridge. Jack Phillips’, Titanic’s senior operator, was indeed busy working Cape Race, he had a huge workload. He sent the Californian the “silent signal” : DDD. This meant “keep the line free”. Evans turned off his equipment and went to bed, just as he had already planned. He did not feel insulted by Phillips’ reply, he confirmed this when he testified at the inquiry. This was part of their usual Morse slang.
If I remember correctly the Capt. of the California was held accountable for his inaction.
Which was a gross display of injustice.
@@JohnS-il1dr No it was not an injustice. The in justice was the fact he failed to act and by doing so cost lives.
@@JohnS-il1dr Gross display of injustices seem to run in this story, same thing happened with the Olympic/Hawke business when Smith and White Star were held to be at fault, even though Olympic was under the control of the Southampton pilot at the time and evidence clearly points the other way.
What an absolute hero. Truly inspirational.
He doomed everyone by ignoring the warnings, he’s no hero
Wow! What a story! I had not heard all these details and certainly, Captain Smith was overwhelmed. I feel like him and Andrews jumping into the water is open to debate if that is truly heroic as they could have tried to comfort people, help with the last life boat. Perhaps I am being arm chair quarterbacking….I kinda have my doubts about the swimmer being Captain Smith- but no one will really know. It sounds like the ship had about 10 minutes left when Smith jumped in the water, so he would have been pretty cold by the time he would have reached the collapsable boat. No matter the case, I do believe he tried his best.
I'd read that a mangled body with white hair in an officer's uniform was found floating around some time later, with Smith being the only officer aboard who had white hair. Theory was that it had been the captain, who was crushed in the water when the forward funnel collapsed.
Very well put together sir. I am at tears right now.
Well done ! Very informative. thank you for your work.
You have an excellent way of explaining the human and technical aspects so clearly, balanced, and intertwined. With the extreme heat and pressure, I do wonder if they had catastrophically ruptured when being suddenly flooded with ice water when the stern imploded, or if they had sufficiently cooled to not have any extreme cracking or ruptures.
Having worked around boilers, I can tell you that those size boilers would require at LEAST two days to burn through residual coal inside of them and sufficiently cool. The reason they were still exhausting steam was because they were still producing it. Coal burns long and hot. Captain Smith had ordered top speed so the boilers were well loaded.
@@ohioguy215 cool, thank for your insight. There's some theories that there were small-scale explosions from at least one boiler during the final plunge (ie, the gust of hot air that pushed Lightoller out as he was starting to get sucked down with the ship). What are your thoughts? Idk if it would have to be hot enough to cook him though.
@@jordanjoestar-turniptruck Lightoller lived for another 40 years after the sinking. He stated that he was pinned against a grate from inrushing water and that a blast of hot air blew him to the surface. He couldn't say whether it was a boiler explosion but most likely it was. He would not have been scalded as the inrush of seawater would have prevented that. However, the concussive force of a blast would have blown him free of the grate.
Those of you who have not been in combat or stressful situations such as the Titanic (this is not an experience you would regret for not doing it), I am as a veteran, leaders are told and trained that during fight or chaotic situation, they should act as calm as possible and should speak with low tone of voice when assessing the situation to avoid creating any panic among the crew members or passengers in this case. I believe Captain Smith must have been a great leader because he acted the right way to assess the situation during that period of over two hours of chaos.
very interesting, in depth stuff, Cap'n Smith would be proud
This was fascinating. Thank you. You got a subscriber.
Wasn't there a story of Captain Smith jumping from the ship at some point with a baby clutched in his arms, and he swam to a lifeboat handed the infant to the people in the boat and said "I'll go with the ship" or something to that effect, before swimming back to the Titanic? I swear I've heard that story somewhere before.
I have heard that story too, not sure where though.
Captain Smith=Legend
Sam=Legend
i am= legend
Dear Fellow,
Yours presentation is good, clear, concise, coherent and non technical, which enables everyone understand what happened to this I'll fated ship on that night.
I was suggested your channel because of the titan tragedy. I enjoy watching your videos. Always loved marvel’s like the titanic. I admire men and women pushing boundaries. I love giant ships, huge skyscrapers and all the previously impossible achievements.
I have been researching Titanic and maritime history in general for the past 33 years and obviously there have been numerous reports of E.J. Smith from the night of April 14th through the early morning of April 15th, 1912, but me personally, I'd like to believe that after being told that his only real sea calamity sent him into a catatonic state (as reported by his officers), and he went either to the bridge, or his quarters, and went quietly as Titanic's bridge went underwater. There were other reports that he was crushed by the falling of the first funnel, there were other reports of him jumping off the bridge wing as it went underwater, and there are even reports of him swimming up to a lifeboat with a baby in his arms and then swimming away after he had passed the baby to someone in the boats. I am a pacifist, so I'd love to know for a fact that Captain Smith swam to a lifeboat with a baby in his arms only to swim away heroically, but no one can say for certain. This was well over 100 years ago at this point and no survivors remain. He's been quoted as saying, "Be British!" into a megaphone, but he's also been quoted as saying, "it's every man for himself!" There are stories claiming that he demanded that the lifeboats return to pick up more people from the lower gangway doors on the starboard side, but many of the occupants of the lifeboats believed that if they had returned that they would easily have been swamped by the rush of so many people (which is clearly true, 705 survivors left with roughly 1525 people left on-board the sinking ship). At this point we can only speculate the last hours of Captain Smith's life and his actions. Yeah, nowadays we can make educated guesses based on survivors testimonies, but we'll never know for certain what all went on that fateful night in 1912. Rest in peace Captain Edward John Smith RD RNR (January 27th, 1850-April 15th 1912, aged 62 years).
"his only real sea calamity" is being INCREDIBLY generous. He knew in the moments after the collision exactly how badly he'd screwed up and probably thought he'd be remembered as a total bumbling failure, which is ironic considering history has whitewashed his questionable career and made him a hero. I think he was a fool who shouldn't have ever been allowed to grace the bridge of an Olympic class vessel let alone command and wreck two, the second (Titanic) being a complete loss and the first (Olympic) having to be removed from service for 6 weeks for repairs while also delaying the completion of titanic. Utter incompetence.
There's another theory that Smith was swept off the bridge when it flooded and there is evidence to support this. Three years later, this is exactly what occurred to Captain Turner of the Lusitania and it's how he survived the disaster. But, the water wasn't as cold as the night of Titanic's sinking. About 52 F compared to 28 F the night the Titanic went down. This lengthened survival time considerably, allowing more people to be rescued from the water than otherwise would've been. So this is the theory I tend to subscribe to.
Another thing is that when a ship is sinking, most captains are seen inspecting the areas belowdecks that are flooding or checking up on the engineers. Since none of Titanic's engineers survived we can't know for sure if this is where he went to as there's no one around to say for certain. But based on testimony from other ships sinkings, the engineering spaces is where captain's tend to go, most likely to ensure power was still available for lighting, sending distress calls etc. And we do know Smith was concerned about the power situation based on his conversations with surviving officers as well as Harold Bride.
@@johnthemachine Mind you he wasn't given the icefield warnings by Phillips & Bride, last he knew he changed course to avoid it and had no idea he was steaming INTO it, if he had known, the story would have been different.
@@johnthemachine An interesting opinion, what facts do you have to support it? From what I have read the collision with the HMS Hawk was actually the Hawk's fault, the investigation was bascially a sham. The investigation being run by the Admiralty was a case of the Navy investigating itself and finding in it's own favour and absolving itself of the blame and the resulting costs.
@@ToreDL87 Bride delivered as much warnings as he could, while Phillips chose to set them aside to focus on sending the passengers' messages, since they had priority.
I’m kinda curious how loud the safety valves were. I’m a railway enthusiast and love steam locomotives and have been next to one with her safety valves blowing off and their quite loud. Nice video BTW, perhaps at one point you could do something on the Southern Railway’s (UK) Boat Trains, the railway had full control over the harbour lines at Southhampton
The steam escaping the valves was loud enough for the crew to have to cup their hands over their mouths and shout into other crew members’ ears in order to hear. I believe that is how Officer Lightoller described it.
If you have heard a safety valve go then you know, you can't communicate anywhere near the boiler is. A steam locomotive is very close to what the Titanic's system would have been like.
Amazing Vid! Good job! wow.
Awesome job with telling the story of the Titanic sinking. I’ve really enjoyed it
Captain Smith had spent almost a year captaining the Olympic, so some of his behaviours make sense in that context - he was 62 and probably hadn't adjusted so easily to the differences between the two ships' promenades. But also as captain of the Olympic he'd had at least two incidents in which the ship collided with other vessels and survived, so probably thought that Titanic could survive this collision "I could not imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that"
I'm not saying they were the right or wrong decisions, just giving some background
One may have been the tug in New York harbour, but the big one on Olympic was the Hawke collision which is interesting as the official narrative puts the blame on him and the Southampton pilot, which was quite wrong. That incident is well worth furthur research.
I have to wonder just what the mystery ship thought of the flares..I mean..even if they were not sent off at 60sec intervals,.just what did they think the flares were sent up for ? I did read once that it was assumed they were celebratory flares from some party on board..but I still think it crazy that they were ignored
They likely weren't seen. The weather that night was somewhat strange and made distance viewing strange. Sort of like a mirage in a desert setting.
@@sstroh08Cheers and I appreciate your explanation ...which makes more sense than "they were ignored"..which would have been a criminally silly thing to have done.
I mean, if I were Stanley Lord, I would’ve had my wireless guy contact the ship *and* order my ship to go there directly. Best case scenario? A party and we part ways. Worst? We end up saving a whole lot of lives.
I was alone a lot from you tonight and you’re going stuff that I never knew about the titanic relief valves just say that you really love your homework . Very very impressed on your knowledge of the titanic
"If you had been the Captain of the Titanic and your arrogance had led to a situation where the bow of the ship is now heading straight into an iceberg and there's no way of avoiding it, what would you have done differently than just trying to sort of steer away from it that could have saved both the ship and everyone's lives?"
"The answer: hitting the iceberg head on and there are quite a few examples of ships that did that and lived to sail another day, no loss of life, the ship took the impact and was able to sail into port."
Arrogance? What arrogance? By the way, Smith was not on the bridge at the time of the alarm being given.
Question. The Californian was approx 5miles away from a crippled Titanic. Titanic still had approx 1.5hrs left to live. Why not use the huge amount of steam pressure in the boilers to simply sail the Titanic under her own power over to the Californian? Even at half speed, say approx 10knts, the Titanic could cover those five miles in approx 30mins. A ship the size of the Titanic heading for the Californian on an apparent collision course would most certainly have got the attention of any night watch on the Californian and got a response that would almost certainly have got the Californian to contact the Titanic and ask what they were doing.
I would love to hear the Fate of Thomas Andrews if you haven't made it already!
All your videos are so good. I appreciate your hard work please continue your work.
Wow! Fascinating but also very sad story.
Whos here today RIP
Great video and very informative. The SS Californian and its captain Stanley Lord do get a bad rap from history, much of it rightly but what a lot of people forget is that the Californian tried to contact the Titanic earlier about the ice. They were so close that the volume of the Morse code practically blew the ears off the Titanic's wireless operator, who then told them to "SHUT UP! I'M WORKING CAPE RACE!" (basically sending a load of miscellaneous messages from the passengers). If that crucial ice warning from the Californian hadn't have been dismissed like that, it could've changed history...
However, it was unforgivable that they completely ignored the Titanic's rockets. It was about midnight by then; why would a ship be firing rockets for any other reason than "HELP!!!! WAKE UP YOU DUMMIES! WE'RE IN DEEP SHIT HERE!"
Context. The cold water mirage had convinced Capt Lord that the ship he had seen was not the Titanic. Before he turned in, his (sole) wireless operator had informed him the only ship close he had close by was the Titanic. Ergo: this other ship, if not the Titanic, was not equipped with the new wireless technology. So why wake his wireless operator? Titanic was not firing her rockets within the prescribed 1 minute intervals for distress. Capt Lord was stopped for the night, due to the dangerous ice conditions. He undoubtedly felt he could investigate come daylight what was going on with this slack mystery ship.
Yes
Another factor into the SS Californian was the Ice Field encountered. The captain ordered the ship be brought to a halt and wait till daylight so they can navigate the Ice field, this was due to being surrounded with Ice. I do agree much more could of been done to assist but it would of been very delayed and extremely risky.
I think you are correct ! Thank you for the video !
Very interesting video. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
The number of lifeboats on the Titanic actually exceeded the legal number of lifeboats needed to pass the safety inspection at that time, to allow the Titanic to operate. Even though, in reality there were insufficent lifeboats for all passengers and crew. And of course, the rich people went first.
Well who SHOULD go first? The people who paid 10 dollars or the people who paid 1200?? Stop shaming the rich people. They deserved to go first simply bc people like them made it possible for ships like that to exist
@@lsimon343 Hypothetically then, let's imagine there was a doctor onboard who had discovered a cancer cure and was going to America to find funding to test his ideas. Should he drown because he is not rich? Measuring someone's worth to society purely on how much money they have is a flawed and sad assumption. You obviously worship the rich.
The dude crashed the Olympic a year earlier. My faith in him wouldn't have been at 100% to begin with in all honesty.
That wasn’t even his fault, technically it was Harland and Wolf because the Olympic had overpowered engines that sucked the Hawk into the stern.
When Olympic collided with HMS Hawke she was under the command of a harbour pilot, not Smith.
It was Hawke`s fault, any day of the week. Good job for them they didn`t have CCTV in those days.
Congrats on 80K
Hey Sam congratulations on 80k subscribers hope you will get another milestone of 100k subscribers!
I thought Thomas Andrews’ last known location was near the clock in the smoking room. Hence James Cameron’s reference to it in Titanic.
Yeah unfortunately not he was with Captain Smith jumping off the bridge wing on the port side. It also showed that in the 1958 film “A Night To Remember” where Andrews was talking to that couple what would he do if his wife and baby girl was with him that fateful night 🥺😢 I’d definitely get my 2 kids and my kid’s mother into a lifeboat right away
Cameron's is a fantasy softcore porn love story. I dont care how popular that film was but it just doesn't set right with me. I prefer a night to remember. Although that was made before the wreck was found and discovered it actually did break in two.
@@justina249 a fantasy soft core porn love story 😅😂🤣 well uh 🙄 there you have it ladies and gentlemen
What I'm really confused about is why was the Californian airbrushed from history in the 1997 Titanic movie?? It's kinda quite important to the story...
I believe it may have been one of the scenes that were omitted as the film would have been too long, not surprising as those two took up about 70% of the running time. Box Office was the priority, he didn`t want another ANTR which apparently lost money.
Thank you for this video. I appreciate the reasearch you did to give the viewer the best details of what the truth might be. Sometimes movies make up the story even though it is not true.
From Charles Joughin, badass survivor of the sinking of RMS Titanic:
"My conclusions of cause: Grave error on part of Captain Smith kept course in spite of ice warnings and severe drop in temperature from 5 P.M."
It's his actions before they hit the iceberg that I'm concerned about. The ship should have been stopped because of all the ice. God bless them all and like 🙂
How would a Commodore, a man with 30 some~odd years of experience handle an emergency? He *should* have compartmentalized his feelings away from the issue and been a LEADER, just like every other Captain is trained for.
He did a lot of things right. Remember they didn’t have enough lifeboats. And they didn’t do regular lifeboat drills. Regulations like that are written in blood. I feel for the man.
The only thing anyone really did wrong was the partial loading of life boats, however the why matters.
Why they did that is because of a combination of unfamiliarity with the boats and poor, untested design. The boats were intended to simply ferry people from the stricken boat to another. I don't think the viability of lowering the boats fully loaded was ever fully explored. Also remember that many, many people have been killed in lifeboats that capsize, become unbalanced or shake hard enough. It wasn't an unrealistic fear that it would be more dangerous to try to fully load and fully lower the boats ..hence the order to open the D deck door.
That said .. because it was untested it became readily apparent that it was just as unsafe to try to load from the door because of the risk of swamping. As evidenced by them abandoning the partial loading of boats and filling them up pretty well at the end. None of that is any of the crews fault. They didn't design the boats or the davits or human nature. Perhaps if they had done the lifeboat drill it may have changed their approach but at the end of the day there wasn't enough for everyone and we're arguing about saving maybe a hundred more people at significant risk of having lost and entire boat due to capsizing or being rushed by swimmers.
great video..keep making titanic vids!!! yu are really goid at it
A very good video and a very fair portrayal of Capt. Smith.