Unsinkable: The Full Story of the RMS Titanic by Daniel Allen Butler

Author:Daniel Allen Butler [Butler, Daniel Allen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 2012-01-22T21:38:51+00:00

No one ever knew how well or how poorly John Jacob Astor met his end. It would be nice perhaps to say that, like the Thane of Cawdor, “nothing in his life so became him as the leaving of it,” but little is certain. Legend has it that Astor placed a girl’s big hat on the head of ten-year-old William Carter, saying “Now he’s a girl, and he can go.” Surprisingly enough it may be true: Astor had already watched Lightoller bar another boy from entering Boat 4, and such a gesture would not be out of place for the eccentric but not entirely unlikable millionaire. Dr. Washington Dodge later stated that Astor and Major Butt went down together, saying, “They went down standing on the bridge, side by side. I could not mistake them.” Even though Dr. Dodge was in Boat 13, a good half mile away at the time the bridge went under, there is an element of truth in his statement: if Astor was standing on the bridge when it went under that would explain how he came to be in the water on the starboard side of the ship. When his body was later recovered, it was crushed and covered with soot: Astor had been one of those hapless swimmers caught under the forward funnel as it collapsed.28

Likewise the fate of Captain Smith remains a mystery. Later rumors would spring up claiming that he shot himself, but never with any proof. At around 2:10 A.M. Steward Brown saw the captain walk onto the bridge, still clutching his megaphone, but just minutes later Trimmer Hemming found the bridge empty. The most likely situation is that Captain Smith was washed overboard when the forward superstructure went under, for Fireman Harry Senior saw him in the water, holding a child in his arms, just moments before the Titanic began her final plunge. Still later, a swimmer approached Collapsible B, encouraging the men struggling atop the overturned lifeboat. “Good boys! Good lads!” he called out over and over again, in a voice tinged with authority, never once asking to be taken aboard. Greaser Walter Hurst tried, holding out an oar for the man to grasp onto, but the rapidly rising swell carried the man away before Hurst could reach him. To his dying day Hurst believed the man was Captain Smith.29

There is the nagging possibility that Chief Officer Wilde did indeed take his own life. Eugene Daly and George Rheims would later write to their families, each unknown to the other, describing how each man had watched a senior ship’s officer (exactly who they did not identify) put a gun to his head and pull the trigger. Wilde was one of the great mysteries of that night: unlike Captain Smith, First Officer Murdoch, or Sixth Officer Moody, all of whom were also lost, Wilde was almost totally missing in survivors’ recollections. No one remembered watching Wilde overseeing the loading of any lifeboats, shepherding any passengers to the Boat Deck, or

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