James Cameron was dead wrong.
I’m Paul DuVall, and you’re about to meet Titanic’s Top 10 Bravest Heroes who stared
death in the face for the sake of their fellow man.
Now, let’s dive in.
Titanic hero number 10, fifth officer Harold Lowe actually slept through Titanic’s collision
with the iceberg and was awakened 30 minutes later by the sound of panicked voices.
Once awake, it didn’t take long for this career seaman to get dressed and spring to
action.
He loaded and launched lifeboat No. 5 before boarding lifeboat No. 14, firing three warning
shots to frighten away a group of men attempting to leap into the lifeboat.
After reaching the water, Lowe ordered his lifeboat to be rowed about 150 yards away
from the Titanic and formed a flotilla with several other lifeboats.
Upon redistributing survivors to the other lifeboats, Lowe fearlessly returned to the
site of the sinking and rescued four more passengers, making him the only officer to
go back for survivors.
Titanic hero number 9 became a living legend for her sharp tongue and indomitable spirit.
First-class passenger Margaret Brown was selflessly helping other passengers board lifeboats before
a crewman literally had to pick her up and throw her into lifeboat No. 6.
Not only was this lifeboat not filled to capacity, but it also only had three men who were able
to row.
So, Margaret took charge and urged the women in the lifeboat to grab oars and start paddling
to keep warm.
She even suggested they go back to look for survivors, but the man in charge of her lifeboat,
Quartermaster Robert Hichens, refused to go back.
So, Margaret retorted to Robert that he should hand the tiller over to a woman and row instead.
When Robert disagreed, Margaret grabbed an oar and began to row back in the direction
of the wreck.
At one point, Margaret grew so exasperated at Robert that she even threatened to throw
him overboard.
If I were ever on a sinking ship, I’d be honored to have this stout-hearted lady as
a fellow passenger.
Titanic hero number 8 saved many lives by breaking the rules.
You see, the day before the Titanic struck the iceberg, wireless operator Jack Phillips
detected an issue with the wireless telegraph.
So, just fix the issue and we’re right as rain, right?
Not quite.
You see, according to the Marconi manual and company policy, telegraph operators were not
allowed to attempt to fix it and were to wait until getting into port for a Marconi engineer
to repair the faulty component.
Jack Phillips and his colleague Harold Bride faced a critical decision.
Should they follow the rules or break them?
Unbeknownst to them this decision would ultimately mean the difference between life and death
for hundreds of people.
Jack made the decision to troubleshoot and fix the problem, working through his allotted
time to sleep.
After hours of work, the fault was repaired by the afternoon of the 14th, just hours before
the Titanic’s fatal collision with the iceberg.
Jack valiantly remained at his post till the very end, sending out a distress message from
the newly repaired wireless telegraph, and ensuring the eventual rescue of over 700 survivors
by the Carpathia.
Some rules truly were meant to be broken.
Speaking of breaking rules, Titanic hero number 7 is a perfect example of what not to do when
a ship is sinking.
Chief Baker Charles Joughin’s half-baked plan involved racing down to his cabin multiple
times and sinking a glass of whiskey on each visit.
Yet, as he stumbled precariously about the listing deck, the stalwart and inebriated
baker still managed to toss deck chairs overboard for helpless passengers to grab onto.
He then slid down the stern into the water and began paddling around.
In his state of drunkenness, he barely noticed the freezing water.
In fact, Joughin remained in the water for 2 whole hours before he was finally pulled
into a lifeboat.
This is quite astounding, considering other passengers died of hypothermia in a quarter
of that time.
Joughin was the last survivor to the leave the Titanic.
Titanic hero number 6, Noël Leslie, Countess of Rothes, was asleep in her bed when the
Titanic collided with the iceberg.
An hour later, she found herself on lifeboat No. 8, which was the first lifeboat afloat
on the port side of the ship.
Instead of succumbing to her fear, she took the lifeboat’s tiller and taught the others
on board to row, something she had learned from her yacht-owning spouse.
As the night progressed, she slowly took charge of the women on board, comforting them and
encouraging them to row and sing to keep their spirits up.
If not for the bravery of the countess, as well as her efforts to care for her fellow
survivors aboard the RMS Carpathia, many would have given up hope.
Titanic hero number 5, Thomas Andrews, was the naval architect in charge of Titanic’s
plans, and if he’d had his way, perhaps every last one of Titanic’s passengers could
have been saved.
You see, Andrews had proposed that the Titanic have enough lifeboats for all her passengers,
but that proposal was regrettably shot down by Joseph Bruce Ismay, the president of the
White Star Line.
Andrews boarded the Titanic as a first-class passenger on her maiden voyage, as he had
done on the Olympic, to ensure everything went smoothly.
When the ship struck the iceberg, it was Andrews who evaluated the damage it had caused and
went to tell Captain Smith.
Many were skeptical that the “unsinkable” ship had been seriously damaged, but Andrews
convinced them to evacuate.
His prediction of the Titanic’s fate undoubtedly saved countless lives as passengers were able
to board lifeboats early.
He was last seen moments before the ship went down, standing in the first-class Smoking
Room, with his lifebelt lying discarded nearby, silently awaiting his imminent death.
But what comes after death is what Titanic hero number 4 was most concerned with.
When the Titanic began to sink, instead of boarding a lifeboat, Pastor John Harper ensured
that his six-year-old daughter was safely tucked into one of the boats before he returned
to the slanting decks of the ship, helping others to safety with no thought for himself.
When no more lifeboats could be found, the preacher began to comfort those who had no
chance of escape and spoke about the promise of a glorious afterlife. Harper even gave
his life jacket to a man who refused to accept the gospel message at that late hour, commenting
that the man would have another chance for salvation.
Harper himself died after jumping off the ship and trying to comfort a fellow passenger
in the water even as he perished.
He told the man, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”
The preacher took his final breath a moment later, but the man he converted was rescued
by a lifeboat, and he always believed it was Harper who saved his life.
Amidst all of the chaos and death, lively melodies arose from the deck, led by Titanic
hero number 3, Wallace Hartley.
Hartley was leader of Titanic’s quintet band which generally played after dinner concerts
and Sunday Services.
As the seriousness of the situation became apparent, he assembled the band on deck and
started playing to help keep the passengers calm as the crew loaded the lifeboats.
This would be their last concert, but without a doubt their most famous.
None of the band members survived the sinking, and the story of them playing to the end became
a popular legend.
One survivor claimed to have seen Hartley and his band standing near the entrance of
the Grand Staircase.
Three of them washed off while the other five held on to the railing on top of the Grand
Staircase's deckhouse, only to be dragged down with the bow, just before Hartley exclaimed,
"Gentlemen, I bid you farewell!"
If you think you’re having a bad day, try getting sucked underwater by a sinking ship.
That’s exactly what happened to Titanic hero number 2, Second Officer Charles Lightoller.
He had just retired to his cabin for the night when he felt the collision.
Lightoller was summoned to the bridge and given charge of lowering the lifeboats on
Titanic’s port side.
When one lifeboat was found to be full of men, he jumped onto it and forced the men
out of the boat at gunpoint so that women and children could be saved.
When diving into the water became inevitable, Lightoller described the shock as being like
"a thousand knives being driven into one’s body".
He spotted the ship's crow's nest, now level with the water, and started to swim towards
it before remembering that it was safer to stay away from the foundering vessel.
Then, as water flooded down one of the forward ventilators, Lightoller was sucked under.
He was pinned helplessly against the ship by the pressure of the incoming water, until
the Titanic’s boiler exploded and blew him to the surface right next to Collapsible B,
which was floating upside down with several swimmers hanging on to it.
Lightoller managed to climb onto the boat, calm and organize the survivors, and teach
them to shift their weight to prevent the craft from being swamped.
The resilient and unflinching officer was the last survivor taken on board the Carpathia.
Now here’s where James Cameron went wrong.
Titanic hero number 1, First Officer William Murdoch, was in charge of the night watch
when the iceberg was sighted.
He was also the one who gave the order “Hard-a-starboard” in a futile attempt to avoid the iceberg.
When the Titanic was evacuated, Murdoch was in charge of the boats on the starboard side.
But what happened next is where the details begin to blur.
You see, the most reliable eye-witness evidence says he spent his final hours organizing and
launching the lifeboats.
However, in the 1997 film, Titanic, Murdoch was portrayed as firing his gun and mortally
wounding a man trying to charge a lifeboat.
Murdoch then placed the gun against his own head and pulled the trigger.
Murdoch’s surviving family took issue with this portrayal, stating that he was not a
“cowardly murderer.”
While Cameron later revealed his intention was not to portray Murdoch as a murderer,
he did apologize to Murdoch’s family stating, "I think I have come to the realization that
it was probably a mistake to portray a specific person."
James Cameron, you may have been dead wrong, but my heart will go on.
I’m Paul DuVall.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the future.