Charles Lightoller was the Second Officer and only surviving commanding officer on the maiden and final voyage of the White Star Line’s ‘unsinkable’ Titanic. After the ship collided with an iceberg, Lightoller oversaw the of loading passengers into lifeboats on the port side, famously only allowing one man on all eleven lifeboats. Lightoller, after a narrow escape from death after going down with the ship, went on to give key testimonies for both the US inquiry and the British Board of Trade inquiry. Twenty-two years after the sinking, Lightoller published his autobiography, which included his own account of and reflections on the Titanic disaster. From Lightoller’s account, we can gather the crew, including Captain Smith, did not believe the
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Lightoller became famous for only allowing one man on the lifeboats and subsequently entitled a chapter in his account “Women and Children—Only” in which he discusses the loading of the lifeboats. Murdoch, in charge of lowering boats on the starboard side, took Captain Smith’s order to load women and children into lifeboats to mean load women and children first. As a result, Murdoch loaded many men on the starboard side while the men who found themselves on the port side were not as lucky. However, Lightoller claimed “the order implicitly obeyed was, ‘Women and children …show more content…
While he was examined for the incomplete loading of some lifeboats and despite his own conscious, Lightoller went down with the ship, thus cementing him as a hero. Twenty-three years after the publishing of his autobiography, the film, A Night to Remember hit the theaters, painting Lightoller as the protagonist who saved many passengers. As the only surviving commanding officer, Lightoller had to take the blame of his deceased officers and although Lightoller’s account exposes the crew’s unpreparedness, his own gendered and racist selectivity that night, and evidence of a repressed guilt, his stubbornness to go down with the ship immortalized Lightoller as a hero. From reading Lightoller’s account, we can learn about the specific instances of the crew’s unpreparedness and unequal value of wealthy, English lives over all others, changing international safety regulations that are still in place to this
Lightoller became famous for only allowing one man on the lifeboats and subsequently entitled a chapter in his account “Women and Children—Only” in which he discusses the loading of the lifeboats. Murdoch, in charge of lowering boats on the starboard side, took Captain Smith’s order to load women and children into lifeboats to mean load women and children first. As a result, Murdoch loaded many men on the starboard side while the men who found themselves on the port side were not as lucky. However, Lightoller claimed “the order implicitly obeyed was, ‘Women and children …show more content…
While he was examined for the incomplete loading of some lifeboats and despite his own conscious, Lightoller went down with the ship, thus cementing him as a hero. Twenty-three years after the publishing of his autobiography, the film, A Night to Remember hit the theaters, painting Lightoller as the protagonist who saved many passengers. As the only surviving commanding officer, Lightoller had to take the blame of his deceased officers and although Lightoller’s account exposes the crew’s unpreparedness, his own gendered and racist selectivity that night, and evidence of a repressed guilt, his stubbornness to go down with the ship immortalized Lightoller as a hero. From reading Lightoller’s account, we can learn about the specific instances of the crew’s unpreparedness and unequal value of wealthy, English lives over all others, changing international safety regulations that are still in place to this