Family's Titanic secret revealed

[Barman]

Confusion about steering orders was responsible for the Titanic sinking, according to a relative of one of the ship's officers.

Novelist Louise Patten, granddaughter of Titanic's Second Officer Charles Lightoller, said an officer had steered into an iceberg instead of away.

The Belfast-built luxury liner sank in the Atlantic Ocean on her maiden voyage in April 1912 with the loss of 1,500 lives.

Source

I listened to this woman on Forces Radio yesterday... quite fascinating that she had kept this most amazing secret for so long!

Has anybody read Charles Lightoller's book, 'Titanic and Other Ships'? He was an incredibly brave man (if a little unlucky when it came to ships sinking under him) who saved many lives at Dunkirk...

[Nick]

What kind of idiot would steer a ship towards an iceberg?












I should point out I have no marine experience

[Barman]

What kind of idiot would steer a ship towards an iceberg?

The wheelman simply turned the ships wheel under orders from the officer in command. There were two (opposite) systems in use at the time - one for steam ships and one for sailing ships... he chose the wrong one... 

[Snoopy]

Confusion about steering orders was responsible for the Titanic sinking, according to a relative of one of the ship's officers.

Novelist Louise Patten, granddaughter of Titanic's Second Officer Charles Lightoller, said an officer had steered into an iceberg instead of away.

The Belfast-built luxury liner sank in the Atlantic Ocean on her maiden voyage in April 1912 with the loss of 1,500 lives.

Source

I listened to this woman on Forces Radio yesterday... quite fascinating that she had kept this most amazing secret for so long!

Has anybody read Charles Lightoller's book, 'Titanic and Other Ships'? He was an incredibly brave man (if a little unlucky when it came to ships sinking under him) who saved many lives at Dunkirk...

Since my Grandfather's cousin was a crew member on the Titanic and in fact on the same life raft as Lightoller (according to all the records) I have some serious doubts about this story. That it has taken so long to come to light would be reason enough to doubt its accuracy. Sounds to me very much like someone trying to sell a book.
As for Dunkirk ~ he wasn't the only one by any means.
Other sources paint a picture of him as a bully to those who served under him and a man well able to ensure his own skin was saved.
He was supposed to be in charge of loading the life boats ~ he ordered many to be launched when only half full and made certain he was himself on one of them.
Largely depends on which books on the subject you read. What we can be certain of is that the Kenneth Moore depiction was more fiction than fact and Kate Winslett was never on the bloody ship.

[Darwins Selection]

What kind of idiot would steer a ship towards an iceberg?

The wheelman simply turned the ships wheel under orders from the officer in command. There were two (opposite) systems in use at the time - one for steam ships and one for sailing ships... he chose the wrong one... 

"Left hand down a bit"

[Barman]

Confusion about steering orders was responsible for the Titanic sinking, according to a relative of one of the ship's officers.

Novelist Louise Patten, granddaughter of Titanic's Second Officer Charles Lightoller, said an officer had steered into an iceberg instead of away.

The Belfast-built luxury liner sank in the Atlantic Ocean on her maiden voyage in April 1912 with the loss of 1,500 lives.

Source

I listened to this woman on Forces Radio yesterday... quite fascinating that she had kept this most amazing secret for so long!

Has anybody read Charles Lightoller's book, 'Titanic and Other Ships'? He was an incredibly brave man (if a little unlucky when it came to ships sinking under him) who saved many lives at Dunkirk...

Since my Grandfather's cousin was a crew member on the Titanic and in fact on the same life raft as Lightoller (according to all the records) I have some serious doubts about this story. That it has taken so long to come to light would be reason enough to doubt its accuracy. Sounds to me very much like someone trying to sell a book.
As for Dunkirk ~ he wasn't the only one by any means.
Other sources paint a picture of him as a bully to those who served under him and a man well able to ensure his own skin was saved.
He was supposed to be in charge of loading the life boats ~ he ordered many to be launched when only half full and made certain he was himself on one of them.
Largely depends on which books on the subject you read. What we can be certain of is that the Kenneth Moore depiction was more fiction than fact and Kate Winslett was never on the bloody ship.

I'll be honest, if I was in charge of loading the lifeboats I wouldn't have got wet feet either... 

I know Lightoller wasn't the only one at Dunkirk but the fact that he was there at all says something about his courage - Didn't he make several trips? Bugger that, my father was there (Royal Navy) and never recovered from the horror of his experience. 

As for the film, I thought they made a good job of A Night To Remember which was fairly faithful to Walter Lord's book... the second film (while utter shite) included some details from Lord's second book such as the officer shooting a passenger...

[Snoopy]

If you haven't seen the website it is worth an hour or two. It manages to combine the provable with the imagined and the supposition.

http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/


Also this book, published in 2009, is pretty good as it contains letters from the ship (written by survivors and some who didn't make it written before the sinking obviously) as well as reports of the various boards of enquiry set up after the sinking and statements taken from those who built it, sailed it and survived it.

"Lost Voices From The Titanic" (The Definitive Oral History) by Nick Barratt.

[Miss Creant Commander of the picklement and baking BAb(Hons)]

I have never really had a great interest in the Titanic until recently when, going through, for the first time in a couple of years, a Victorian photograph album that I bought about 18 years ago from a junk shop in Wales I found a couple of photographs of Joe Boxall.  The inscription written under one read 'Joe on board Titanic' he was the fourth officer!

He survived, and was an advisor on the set during the making of the original Titanic film.

I have a a rather beautiful, if somewhat tatty Boxall family album.  It's fascinating.

I am currently in negotiations with a museum with a view to lending them the album for display.

[Pastis]

Each time I join a ship as a supernumerary I am required to undergo certain safety drills from which passengers are excluded. One of these is an 'introduction' to watertight doors where we go down into the bowels of the vessel and witness the correct procedures for coping with the ingress of water through a punctured hull. In spite of having been through this drill many times I still shudder at the prospect of the possibility and pay attention to the officer's instructions. 

[Barman]

I have never really had a great interest in the Titanic until recently when, going through, for the first time in a couple of years, a Victorian photograph album that I bought about 18 years ago from a junk shop in Wales I found a couple of photographs of Joe Boxall.  The inscription written under one read 'Joe on board Titanic' he was the fourth officer!

He survived, and was an advisor on the set during the making of the original Titanic film.

I have a a rather beautiful, if somewhat tatty Boxall family album.  It's fascinating.

I am currently in negotiations with a museum with a view to lending them the album for display.

How cool! 

Without wishing to set the hound off again, have you read Charles Lightoller's book?

[Snoopy]

Or my family history? 




Isaac Maynard ~ Grandfather's cousin... Chef on Titanic .... survived ...in the same life boat as Lightholler 

Picture as it appeared on his company records.

Same man as pictured in the New York press, dressed in donated clothing.



This picture was also used by the Daily Sketch in GB.