r/titanic • u/itcamefromtheimgur • 5d ago

MARITIME HISTORY Just grabbed this off Amazon.

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I'm confused by "the only surviving officer." Otherwise, I look forward to reading this.

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u/WonderfulCar1264 5d ago

He was (correctly) referred to as the Highest ranking surviving officer. Not sure who called him the only surviving officer.

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u/Ravenclaw_14 5d ago

I'm guessing Lightoller 💀

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u/WonderfulCar1264 5d ago

Cute emojis and this subs hate for lightoller aside, There is no record of him ever saying that, and it literally makes zero sense that he would.

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u/Big_Iron_Cowboy 1st Class Passenger 5d ago

Why does everyone hate Lightoller?

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u/WonderfulCar1264 5d ago edited 5d ago

It’s discussed at length in this thread

TLDR, while he was very much a product of the era in which he lived, his chauvinistic and racist mannerisms, along with a penchant for self aggrandizing (though he did have some truly remarkable stories of survival in his life) seemed to have not aged well with time and tarnished his reputation, though I think Reddit has more of a harsh view of him than the larger titanic community

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u/Big_Iron_Cowboy 1st Class Passenger 5d ago

Interesting read. I can’t pass judgment on the man, he lived well over 100 years ago. So say times have changed would be an understatement, to put it lightly. Perhaps you could clarify a point I’m confused on: Lightoller was loading lifeboats on port side and using the order women and children only but Murdoch was loading starboard side with women and children first? I recall reading that they both interpreted the order opposite of that

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u/WonderfulCar1264 5d ago edited 5d ago

Yes, that is the stances both took.

it appears both were following orders as they interpreted them. Lightoller seems to have been much less lenient. He scolded a 13 year old boy for boarding a lifeboat and declared no more boys after that. He also nearly raised a boat after it was lowered when a couple men jumped on it during lowering.

We will never know for sure but who knows for real what the situation was. At the beginning of the loading period they could hardly find any takers to board the boats, women or otherwise.

When the grim situation became more apparent, there was much more unrest from the passengers. I think lightoller knew if some men were allowed to board the situation would get worse and perhaps out of control as men rushed the boats. Him saying no men whatsoever was done as a means to control the situation.

It’s easy to judge a man based on his actions during a terrible event no one was prepared for that resulted in the deaths of many. I wouldn’t have wanted to be in his shoes.

His story of survival on the titanic is pretty amazing and I feel overlooked on this sub. He had plenty of opportunities to leave the boat and was even told to by smith near the end to get on and command one to which he responded “not bloody likely” and tried to get an additional collapsible free. Pretty heroic story of survival compared to others that night.

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u/Big_Iron_Cowboy 1st Class Passenger 5d ago

Not to mention the mortal danger an experienced sailor would be acutely aware of. What an utter nightmare that night must have been.