"Robert Hichens was one of the most vital witnesses and it is his testimony that forms part of the traditional story that we know today. "The problem was that his fellow crewmen saw him as jinxed."
After the Titanic sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912, hundreds of the survivors, families of victims, and owners of cargo filed claims against the White Star Line for loss of life, property, and for injuries sustained. Their claims totaled $16.4 million.
That said, Christoher Shulver, a Titanic fireman (boiler room worker) who survived the sinking, was a thief with a long record. No wonder he had signed up as “J. Dilley.” Another fireman, George McGough, who also survived, had been convicted of murder in Brazil in 1900.
From the beginning, some blamed the Titanic's skipper, Captain E.J. Smith, for sailing the massive ship at such a high speed (22 knots) through the iceberg-heavy waters of the North Atlantic. Some believed Smith was trying to better the crossing time of Titanic's White Star sister ship, the Olympic.
Iceberg warnings went unheeded: The Titanic received multiple warnings about icefields in the North Atlantic over the wireless, but Corfield notes that the last and most specific warning was not passed along by senior radio operator Jack Phillips to Captain Smith, apparently because it didn't carry the prefix "MSG" ( ...
1. Icebergs – the ultimate hazard. The poor navigation of icebergs is undoubtedly the most well-known and momentous of mistakes that caused the sinking of the Titanic. Indeed, the collision between the Titanic and an iceberg – on 14 April 1912 at 11:40pm – is what caused the tragedy.
After the disaster, Ismay was savaged by both the American and the British press for deserting the ship while women and children were still on board. Some papers called him the "Coward of the Titanic" or "J. Brute Ismay", and suggested that the White Star flag be changed to a yellow liver.
Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller was the most senior crewman to survive the sinking of Titanic. Lightoller first boarded Titanic in Belfast for her trials and then took his place as First Officer on the voyage to Southampton.
White Star paid nothing until December 1915, when they agreed to pay compensation of $664,000 to to be be divided amongst the survivors. Worked out at about $950 per person. Adjusted for inflation, that works out to be $22,000.
Third-class passenger Rhoda Abbott jumped from the Titanic deck along with her two sons. The two boys drowned, but Abbott was the only female Titanic survivor to be pulled from the water.
No letters of regret or sympathy were sent to the families of the dead, no personal visits made to grieving families, no Murdoch-style apologetic advertisements taken by the White Star Line. Almost a century later, in fact, no one has said sorry.
But what of Titanic's dead? Most of the more than 1,500 victims were lost to the North Atlantic. Crews aboard four recovery vessels pulled just 337 bodies out of the water.
It was her sister, Edna Kearney Murray who survived the sinking of the Titanic but it wasn't in an overloaded lifeboat. “My great aunt Edna was in England at the time and had purchased a ticket for return passage to America on the Titanic,” Chris said.
Oceanographers have pointed out that the hostile sea environment has wreaked havoc on the ship's remains after more than a century beneath the surface. Saltwater acidity has been dissolving the vessel, compromising its integrity to the point where much of it would crumble if tampered with.
On the night of 14 April, after Titanic had hit the iceberg, Isidor and Ida were directed to lifeboat eight. However, the ageing Isidor refused to board the lifeboat while there were younger men being prevented from boarding. Ida also refused to get into the lifeboat saying, 'Where you go, I go'.
Titanic was celebrated as the biggest, safest, most advanced ship of its age, but it was a lowly stoker in its boiler room who truly deserved the name 'unsinkable'. John Priest survived no fewer than four ships that went to the bottom, including Titanic and its sister ship Britannic.
Joughin survived the sinking, swimming to upturned collapsible lifeboat B and remaining by it until he was picked up by one of the other lifeboats.
The Titanic Had 5 Postal Mail Clerks With salaries “somewhere between $1,000 to $1,500 a year, which is a lot of money in 1912” Sea post clerks were highly skilled and respected postal workers who sorted, canceled and redistributed the mail in transit.
This included the ship's baker, Charles Joughin, who is believed to be the last person who survived the ordeal to leave the ship, and made his improbable escape to safety in part because he got drunk. Joughin was born in England in 1878 to parents of modest means.
Stoker William Mintram inhabited a suitably Dantean inferno after the crime of killing his wife. He slaved in punishing heat to propel the souls aboard a White Star liner to a far-flung shore. AB George Francis McGough, on the other hand, sauntered the decks, almost rubbing shoulders with the passengers.
Answer: That's wrong – it would probably have survived. When a ship hits an iceberg head on, all the force would be transferred back to the ship, so it wouldn't have ripped open, but crumpled round, so only 2-3 compartments would have been breached. It was built to survive with 4 compartments breached.
The dubious honor of the worst sinking of all time goes to the Wilhelm Gustloff, torpedoed by a Russian submarine on January 30th, 1945. She was crammed to the gunwales with German refugees, fleeing the advancing Russian Army in the waning months of World War Two.
The Titanic would founder. (By reversing the engines, Murdoch actually caused the Titanic to turn slower than if it had been moving at its original speed. Most experts believe the ship would have survived if it had hit the iceberg head-on.)