Titanic Lifeboat No. 1 was a lifeboat from the steamship Titanic. It was the fifth boat launched to sea, over an hour after the liner collided with an iceberg and began sinking on 14 April 1912. With a capacity of 40 people, it was launched with only 12 aboard, the fewest to escape in any one boat that night. [1]
Boat No. 1 was one of two small "emergency" wooden cutters that were located one on each side of the Titanic; No. 1 was on the starboard side. Although they performed double-duty as lifeboats, their primary purpose was to serve the crew in the event of an emergency, such as a man overboard, and were therefore already swung out from the rail to be launched quickly. Each standard clinker-built lifeboat on the ship had a capacity of 65, [2] while the smaller emergency boat's capacity was 40. [3]
Boat No. 1 was the fifth lifeboat launched from RMS Titanic at 1:05 A.M., well over an hour after the liner collided with an iceberg and began sinking on 14 April 1912. The lifeboat had a capacity of 40 people, but was launched with only 12 aboard, the fewest to escape in any one boat that night. [1] Most of the occupants of Boat 1 were men, despite Captain Smith's call for "women and children first." First Officer Murdoch, in charge of the evacuation effort on the ship's starboard side, allowed a number of First-Class male passengers to board lifeboats. Murdoch permitted five passengers and seven crewmembers to board Boat 1. The passengers included Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon; his wife Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon; her secretary, Mabel Francatelli; Abraham Salomon and C. E. Henry Stengel. The crewmen were Lookout George Symons, whom Murdoch placed in charge of the craft, Charles Hendrickson, Samuel Collins, George Taylor, Frederick Sheath, Robert Pusey and Albert Horswill.
Boat No. 1 did not clear the side of the ship for some time, perhaps not until about 1:15 am, owing to a mishap encountered on its descent from the boat deck. A protuberance called a spar, at about the B-Deck level, caught on the boat's gunwales, arresting the lowering process. It was not until the crew used a wire cutter to chop the obstacle away that the boat was freed and able to reach the sea.
Boat No. 1 and its occupants were picked up by RMS Carpathia sometime shortly after 4:10 am, being the second Titanic lifeboat to reach the rescue ship. The boat's occupants were subsequently photographed as a group on the Carpathia. The boat was hoisted aboard the Carpathia along with other Titanic lifeboats and brought to New York. One of the davits from which Boat 1 was lowered remains upright on the wreck of the Titanic in relatively good condition.
Due to rumors that Sir Cosmo had bribed the crew in his boat not to rescue people left in the water after the ship went down, some New York press reports dubbed Boat 1 the "Money Boat". [4] [5] The appearance of Cosmo and Lucy Duff Gordon as witnesses at the British investigation into the disaster drew the largest crowds seen during the inquiry.
According to the British Inquiry testimony of crew member Charles Hendrickson, he had proposed returning to rescue survivors after the Titanic sank, but "the women objected." Consequently, he claimed, the boat did not go back to pick up swimmers, although he admitted there was "plenty of room for another dozen". [6] It was also claimed during the course of the inquiry by crewman George Symons and others that it was Lucy Duff Gordon who expressed concern that the lifeboat might be swamped if it returned. She denied the charge and her testimony was supported by other crewmembers who revealed they had not heard her objection nor any proposal to turn back.
According to the testimony of Robert Pusey, a conversation concerning money occurred in the boat at about 3 a.m., nearly an hour after the Titanic sank. He claimed the discussion was prompted by a private comment Lucy Duff Gordon made to Mabel Francatelli: "There is your beautiful nightdress gone." [7] Overhearing the exchange, Pusey replied, "Never mind, you have saved your lives," afterwards complaining that he and the other sailors had not only lost everything but their pay had stopped from the time the ship went down; to which Cosmo Duff Gordon responded, "I will give you a fiver each to start a new kit." [lower-alpha 1] [8] On 16 April, the day after their rescue by the Carpathia, each Boat 1 crew member received a £5 [lower-alpha 2] cheque from Cosmo Duff Gordon. [11]
The British inquiry issued a report after reviewing the evidence of their probe, which included sworn testimony from every member of Boat 1's crew as well as an affidavit from Mabel Francatelli. [12] [lower-alpha 3] The report stated:
The very gross charge against Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon that, having got into No. 1 boat, he bribed the men in it to row away from the drowning people, is unfounded.
The report, however, admonished the occupants of Boat 1 for not making an effort to rescue survivors from the water. [13]
| Name | Age | Class/Dept | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collins, Mr. Samuel | 35 | Engine | Fireman [lower-alpha 4] |
| Duff-Gordon, Sir Cosmo Edmund | 49 | First Class | 5th Baronet; [lower-alpha 5] Scottish landowner and sportsman who was a fencing competitor in the 1906 Olympic Games in Athens, and served on the committee for the 1908 London Olympics. |
| Duff Gordon, Lady Lucy Christiana | 48 | First Class | Née Sutherland; couturier known as Lucile, founder of and chief designer for Lucile Ltd, considered the first global couture house. |
| Francatelli, Miss Laura Mabel | 31 | First Class | Lucy Duff Gordon's secretary [lower-alpha 3] |
| Hendrickson, Mr. Charles George | 29 | Engine | Leading fireman [lower-alpha 4] |
| Horsewill, Mr. Albert Edward James | 33 | Deck | Able seaman |
| Pusey, Mr. Robert William | 24 | Engine | Fireman [lower-alpha 4] |
| Salomon, Mr. Abraham "Abram" Lincoln | 43 | First Class | Owner of a wholesale stationery business in New York. [14] |
| Sheath, Mr. Fredrick | 20 | Engine | Coal trimmer |
| Stengel, Mr. Charles Emil Henry | 54 | First Class | Leather manufacturer from Newark, N. J.; his wife Annie May survived, having boarded lifeboat #5 earlier [15] |
| Symons, Mr. George Thomas Macdonald | 24 | Deck | Lookout; placed in charge of No. 1 |
| Taylor, Mr. George | 24 | Engine | Stoker; signed on under his brother's name: "James Taylor" [16] |
In a deleted scene in James Cameron's 1997 film Titanic , Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon (Martin Jarvis) and Lady Duff Gordon (Rosalind Ayres) are shown seated in Lifeboat No. 1 when Fireman Hendrickson recommends rescuing people in the water. Sir Cosmo looks at his wife, who appears distressed, before replying, "It's out of the question." [17]
In the 2012 television mini-series Titanic , Lady Duff Gordon (Sylvestra Le Touzel) is shown standing in Boat 1, urging her secretary to get in with her, saying, "Don't be a fool Francatelli, this boat isn't sinking, that one is," pointing to the ship. She is later shown telling Officer Murdoch to allow some men to board, including her husband, then ordering him to lower the boat.
The loading and launching of Boat 1, and the occupants' decision not to return to the wreck site after the Titanic's sinking, was also portrayed in the 1958 film A Night to Remember , based on Walter Lord's namesake book. Miss Francatelli (who was still alive at the time) was completely omitted.
SS Californian was a British Leyland Line steamship. She is thought to have been the only ship to see the Titanic, or at least her rockets, during the sinking, but despite being the closest ship in the area, the crew took no action to assist. The United States Senate inquiry and British Wreck Commissioner's inquiry into the sinking both concluded that the Californian could have saved many or all of the lives that were lost, had a prompt response been mounted to the Titanic's distress rockets. The U.S. Senate inquiry was particularly critical of the vessel's captain, Stanley Lord, calling his inaction during the disaster "reprehensible".
Harold Sydney Bride was a British merchant seaman and the junior wireless officer on the ocean liner RMS Titanic during her ill-fated maiden voyage.
William McMaster Murdoch, RNR was a Scottish sailor, who was the first officer on the RMS Titanic. He was the officer in charge on the bridge when the ship collided with an iceberg, and was one of the more than 1,500 people who died when the ship sank.
Lucy Christiana, Lady Duff-Gordon was a leading British fashion designer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who worked under the professional name Lucile.
Sir Arthur Henry Rostron, KBE, RD, RNR was a British merchant seaman and a seagoing officer for the Cunard Line. He is best known as the captain of the ocean liner RMS Carpathia, when it rescued the survivors from the RMS Titanic after the ship sank in 1912 in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean.
Sir Cosmo Edmund Duff-Gordon, 5th Baronet, DL was a prominent Englishman and sportsman who owned land in Scotland, best known for the controversy surrounding his escape from the sinking of the RMS Titanic.
Commander Harold Godfrey Lowe, RD was a Welsh naval officer. He was also the fifth officer of the Titanic, and was amongst the four of the ship's officers to survive the disaster.
Herbert John "Bert" Pitman MBE was an English Merchant Navy seaman, who was the Third Officer of RMS Titanic when it sank in the North Atlantic Ocean with heavy loss of life after striking an iceberg during the night of 14 April 1912 on its maiden voyage. Pitman was notablely the only member of the command crew of the Titanic who was not a member of the Royal Naval Reserve.
Harold Thomas Cottam was a British wireless operator on the RMS Carpathia who fortuitously happened to receive the distress call from the sinking RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912. Cottam's decision to awaken Captain Arthur Henry Rostron and relay Titanic's message in spite of the scepticism of the officer on watch allowed Carpathia to arrive at the scene hours before any other ship and is "credited with saving hundreds of lives." He was a personal friend of the Titanic's wireless operators Harold Bride and Jack Phillips.
The Titanic sank in the early morning hours of 15 April 1912 in the North Atlantic Ocean, four days into her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. The largest ocean liner in service at the time, Titanic had an estimated 2,224 people on board when she struck an iceberg at around 23:40 on Sunday, 14 April 1912. Her sinking two hours and forty minutes later at 02:20 ship's time on Monday, 15 April, resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 people, making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.
Charles John Joughin was a British-American chef, known as being the chief baker aboard the RMS Titanic. He survived the ship's sinking, and became notable for having survived in the frigid water for an exceptionally long time before being pulled onto the overturned Collapsible B lifeboat with virtually no ill effects.
A total of 2,240 people sailed on the maiden voyage of the Titanic, the second of the White Star Line's Olympic-class ocean liners, from Southampton, England, to New York City. Partway through the voyage, the ship struck an iceberg and sank in the early morning of 15 April 1912, resulting in the deaths of 1,517 passengers.
RMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson in their shipyard in Wallsend, England.
Lifeboats played a crucial role during the sinking of the Titanic on 14–15 April 1912. The ship had 20 lifeboats that, in total, could accommodate 1,178 people, a little over half of the 2,209 on board the night it sank.
The sinking of the RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912 resulted in an inquiry by the British Wreck Commissioner on behalf of the British Board of Trade. The inquiry was overseen by High Court judge Lord Mersey, and was held in London from 2 May to 3 July 1912. The hearings took place mainly at the London Scottish Drill Hall, at 59 Buckingham Gate, London SW1.
Dickinson H. Bishop was an American businessman who traveled on board the ill-fated maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic while on his honeymoon with bride Helen, née Walton. They both survived the sinking of the Titanic on 15 April 1912.
George Thomas Macdonald Symons was a British sailor who worked as a lookout on board the ill-fated RMS Titanic. Symons, who was 24 at the time of the sinking of the ship, was put in charge of one of the first lifeboats to be launched, lifeboat #1. The boat was an emergency cutter which was launched with only 12 people on board, including seven crew members, and had gained notoriety after the disaster.
Mauritz Håkan Björnström-Steffansson, was a Swedish businessman who survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912. In early 1913, Steffansson filed by far the largest claim for financial compensation made against the White Star Line, for the loss of a single item of luggage or cargo as a result of the disaster.
Frederick William Barrett was a British stoker. After having served as a stoker on several ships, on 6 April 1912, he was hired on board the RMS Titanic as lead stoker. On April 15, 1912, while the ship was sinking, Barrett boarded lifeboat No. 13 and took command of it, thus surviving the disaster. He later testified before commissions of inquiry into the sinking of the ship and continued to work in the navy until the 1920s. In 1923, after losing his wife Mary Anne Jones, he remained in Liverpool and worked ashore as a logger.
Frank Oliver Evans was a British Able Seaman of the RMS Titanic as part of its Deck Crew. He was known for being a survivor of the ship as well as being one of 18 crew members of the lifeboat drill.
Witness testimony of Boat 1 occupants, from Titanic Inquiry Project
