captain edward james smith (far right) and first officer william murdoch (far left)
FACT: Thomas Andrews had originally planned for there to be 64 lifeboats. Mr Ismay confronted him, saying that he had final say on the design, and that he would not have so many lifeboats cluttering his decks. So Mr. Ismay had the number of lifeboats reduced to 20.
“Just then the ship took a slight but definite plunge - probably a bulkhead went - and the sea came rolling along up in a wave, over the steel fronted bridge, along the deck below us, washing the people back in a dreadful huddled mass. Those that didn’t disappear under the water right away, instinctively started to clamber up that part of the deck still out of water, and work their way towards the stern, which was rising steadily out of the water as the bow went down. It was a sight that doesn’t bear dwelling on - to stand there, above the wheelhouse, and on our quarters, watching the frantic struggles to climb up the sloping deck, utterly unable to even hold out a helping hand.” - Charles Lightoller, Titanic’s second officer (shown in the above picture on the right)
