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- [00:01]
Narrator
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Historian
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Narrator
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- [00:24]
Historian
Make the most of it at Best Western. Best Book direct and save@bestwestern.com It's 1:41am on April 15, 1912. RMS Titanic has developed a 10 degree list to port. It's bad enough that Fifth Officer Wild is ordering passengers to move over to the starboard side to compensate. The ship is not only down at the head, but twisting too, like a whale about to roll on its side as it plunges beneath the surface. By now, all but four of the ship's wooden lifeboats are already in the water. Wild and Second Officer Lightoller are still working on filling boats 4 and 10 on the port side, while on the starboard side, now more crowded than ever, First Officer Murdoch and Sixth Officer Moody are lowering boats 13 and 15. But there's a problem. Boat 13's route down the side of Titanic is blocked by a surge of water exiting the ship. The pumps down below are sending large quantities of seawater up and out of the sinking vessel. And now it Looks like number 13 may be swamped by it. Soon the flood of water is rushing into the boat. The passengers must act first or they'll be sunk before they've even reached the ocean. They scrabble about with the lifeboat's long wooden oars, hoping to push themselves off from Titanic's hull. But the oars have been lashed together for safekeeping and several people are sitting on top of them. Eventually they manage to get at the oars and pushed themselves clear of the rushing torrent. They hit the surface of the ocean with a splash. But now there's a new problem. The outflow from the pumps is shunted lifeboat 13 towards Titanic stern. And another boat, number 15, is directly above them. The men up on deck working the davit cranks have no idea that the boat they're lowering is heading for a collision. The passengers in 13 are shouting up at them. But in the chaos, no one can hear their cries. 15 is getting closer by the second. Soon 13's passengers can stand up and touch the bottom of it. They're going to be crushed or drowned or both. Fireman Fred Barrett has pulled out a knife. He's hacking away furiously at the ropes, still holding them to the side of the sinking ship 15 edges ever closer. Finally, Barrett's blade cuts through. 13 is free. They push off, clearing boat 15's landing zone. Just as it crashes down onto the water. The screams of Titanic's passengers die down. For now at least. Soon, both 13 and 15 are moving away from Titanic. They need to get to a safe distance and fast. No one wants to be sucked into the whirlpool when the biggest ship in the world goes down. From the Noiser podcast network, this is Titanic Ship of Dreams, Part 8.
- [04:27]
Narrator
The panic seemed to me to start after the boats had gone.
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Historian
Titanic survivor Eva Hart when we were.
- [04:36]
Narrator
In the boat rowing away, then we could hear the panic of people rushing about on the deck and screaming and looking for lifeboats. I mean, you imagine being awakened, going up on deck to get in a lifeboat. You're told the ship is sinking. Where are the lifeboats? They've all gone. That's when the panics really started.
- [04:53]
Historian
With all 14 of Titanic's regular lifeboats now launched, as well as two small wooden cutters, there are still almost 1600 people left on the ship. Their only hope of survival is finding a place on one of the four collapsible lifeboats. A, B, C and D. Life rafts might be a better term for them. Flat hulls made of a mixture of wood and cork with canvas sides that can be pulled up to make them slightly more seaworthy. Each collapsible has room for another 47 passengers, so this is very much the last chance saloon. Professor Jerome Chertkoff, author of Don't Panic.
- [05:41]
Narrator
People were calm, orderly, installing the lifeboats. At least at the beginning, that's true. Actually, in most emergency situations, in buildings and land, when there's a fire, people usually file out in an orderly, even a slow fashion. They may help somebody who needs help being carried. People are generally calm, collected and helpful. Where it tends to fall apart if it does, is at the end when it becomes clear that not everybody's going to get out alive.
- [06:19]
Historian
It's just over two hours since Titanic hit the iceberg. The watertight compartments designed to keep Titanic afloat in the event of a collision have at least bought the ship some time. But many of them only go up as far as Edeck. Once the water level rises above that, things start happening much more rapidly.
- [06:46]
Narrator
If the bulkheads gone higher, this disaster wouldn't have happened. The transverse walls didn't go that high in the ship. One went to C deck, the others went to D deck and E deck, which meant that when water Flooded into the front compartments. It went over the top.
- [07:07]
Historian
Professor Stephanie Bachevsky the compartments didn't have.
- [07:10]
Narrator
A watertight top was the issue. And so what happened when that many compartments were opened is that as the ones in the front filled up and that pulled the bow of the ship down, then the water would spill over into the next compartment. And the next compartment tim molten. As the water filled into the bow, the ship a bit like an ice cube tray that gets heavier and heavier at one end, it just dragged down the bow.
- [07:32]
Historian
Once water begins flowing along Scotland Road, the long corridor that runs down the port side of Edeck, the game is truly up. This massive passageway provides a clear route to the compartments further aft. Soon, water is rushing into the third class dining room, the Turkish baths, the swimming pool.
- [07:59]
Narrator
Eventually the whole, what we call the forecastle, which is basically the front triangular deck on the ship that actually gets submerged with water as well.
- [08:17]
Historian
On the boat deck, Second Officer Lightoller knows they don't have long. He's been keeping an eye on an emergency stairwell that leads down below, watching as the water level creeps higher and higher. Right now, Lightoller's priority is getting the four collapsible boats afloat. Another 200 lives may depend on launching these. Unfortunately, it's far easier said than done. C and D are located on the boat deck, pretty much good to go. But A and B are stored on the roof of the officer's quarters eight feet up. And the piece of equipment normally used to lower them is in the boatswain store, which is already underwater.
- [09:05]
Narrator
You know, you could tell how much they were thinking they were never gonna have to use them because they put them in this position that you basically couldn't get them down in any way.
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Historian
It's around this time that my great uncle Jimmy McGann arrives on deck. Until now, he's been down in the boiler rooms helping to keep the water at bay. My brother Stephen, the firemen were all busy.
- [09:32]
Narrator
They were all downstairs, the compartments rushing with water, rushing in. They tried to control it, but eventually the water was going from one end to the next. The game was up about 20 to 2, fully up. My great uncle was in the bottom of a ship with more than 2,000 people, some already away, 2,000 desperate people above him on walkways and gang pipes. And he's at the bottom.
- [10:02]
Historian
Thanks to the accounts of Titanic survivors, Stephen has managed to piece together Jimmy's movements that night. He even found him mentioned by name in the first book published about the disaster, Colonel Archibald Gracie's the truth about the Titanic.
- [10:20]
Narrator
From about 10 to 2, he's up on deck. I know because I then started to give you a sense, triangulate the different stories. Suddenly I realized I can do what detectives do. I can say, all right, it's 2:00. Where is he at 2:00? Because according to his story and Grace's story and Lightoller's story and the telegraphist's story, they're starting to come together.
- [10:39]
Historian
Colonel Gracie is a former soldier and an amateur military historian. His father was a brigadier general in the Confederate Army. With his broad walrus moustache, he cuts an imposing figure. And at 54, he remains a man of action. Along with second officer Lightoller and telegraphist Harold Bride, Gracey works to free the collapsibles from the roof of the officer's quarters, helped by Uncle Jimmy.
- [11:14]
Narrator
By the time he gets up there, there's desperation. The ship is already angled in and the front of the bow is already in the water. People are looking towards the stern because the stern's getting a bit higher. The people have still got their heads. Lightoller, helped by Gracie, helped by Bry, the telegraphist. They noticed that two of these boats are still undetached. And so they tried to get these away, but they got stuck. The first one, A, couldn't move at all. They gave up on A, so then they tried to move B. And this is a race. This is a real race against time because they can literally see the waves coming in. There's madness all around. They're trying desperately. Gracie famously said, I threw them my penknife to help. Jimmy's up there trying to help them. They finally get it released. And what they do on top of this first floor, like a sort of porter cabin, if you can imagine a porter cabin. They've laid oars up at the top of this porter cabin to try and get this. Cause it's heavy. It's huge oak thing. So they're trying to slide it down onto the main deck after they've released it and to see if that works. And then maybe try and get it into a lifeboat condition so when the waves come over the ship, they will be able to float away. It comes down, breaks the oars and lands upside down on the deck. And they look at it go fight find.
- [12:47]
Historian
Below them on the boat deck, collapsible C and D are already being loaded with passengers. But by now, thanks to Titanic's heavy lists to port, deploying these last choppers out of Saigon is desperately difficult.
- [13:04]
Narrator
One side the lifeboats are hanging way far out on the side of the ship, and it's very hard to even get in them, right? You're having to literally jump from the side of the ship into a lifeboat with a very steep fall if you happen to miss. And some people do miss, right? Or they kind of, you know, end up grabbing the side of lifeboat and have to be hauled in. So it's a very, very terrifying thing on the other side. The problem is that the lifeboats are now hitting the side of the ship as they're being lowered, and so they're kind of bouncing down the side of the ship. So it's a very, very scary process.
- [13:33]
Historian
Anxiety levels are rising. Lightoller now brandishes his revolver. There are no bullets in the chamber, but the passengers don't know that. Lightoller gets a group of crewmen to link arms, forming a barrier around collapsible D. He's still determined that only women and children will be allowed to board on the port side. Among those let through are two young French boys, Michel and Edmond Navratio. They've been traveling under aliases with their father, Michel Senior, who's involved in a bitter custody dispute. He abducted the boys a week earlier, determined to bring them with him to America. But now the only thing on Michel's mind is making sure his sons survive the sinking. Tell your mother I loved her dearly and still do, he whispers in Michel Junior's ear. He then disappears into the crowd, never to be seen again. Michelle Jr. And Edmund will survive the disaster, but it will be over a month before they're finally reunited with their mother. The two boys don't speak a word of English. And they're not the only ones. By now, a number of Titanic's Lebanese passengers have arrived on deck. Among them Jairios Abisap and his cousins shanina and Banura. Dr. Josiane Abisab is Jairios great granddaughter.
- [15:20]
Narrator
My great grandfather apparently led Shanina and Banura to collapsible sea, which was the before to last lifeboat being lowered, and kind of pushed them into that lifeboat at that moment before they went down. Shanini offered to disguise my great grandfather, her cousin, in women's clothing, like with her coat and with her hat. And he refused and said, I was born a man. I will die as a man. And then he cut a lock of his hair and gave it to her and said, give this to my wife Marta when you go back to the village and tell her that I love her. He knew he was going to Die. Shanine said that she last saw him wear his cork life vest and then jumping into the ocean with the other male cousins trying to swim to safety. That's what she said. And yes, he could swim because he grew up on the Mediterranean. His village was literally within a few hundred meters of the Mediterranean, so he could swim. But I don't think he died drowning because he was wearing a cork life vest. He most likely died from hypothermia.
- [16:35]
Historian
Jairios is far from unique in abandoning the deck of Titanic. Hoping to find a space in one of the lifeboats that have already been launched, two engine room greasers try to climb down the side of the ship to Lifeboat 16, which is floating in the water below them. One of the men lands in the boat, the other splashes into the water nearby and is soon hauled aboard lifeboat 16 rows away. Despite Lightoller's best efforts on the port side, one of the last wooden lifeboats to leave number 10 did so with at least one man on board, a Japanese civil servant called Masabumi Hosono. Hosona's last minute decision to jump into Lifeboat 10 rather than wait for an honorable death on Titanic is one that will dog him for the rest of his life. In his home country. Hosanna will go down in infamy, he'll lose his job and school textbooks will cite his behavior as an example of dishonourable conduct. The mores of Western culture may be slightly more flexible, but for one man at least, the decision to take up a place in a lifeboat will be equally damning. White Star boss, J. Bruce Ismay. Throughout Titanic's four days at sea, Ismay has occupied an ambiguous position. Part ordinary first class passenger, part super captain, offering suggestions, if not orders to the captain and crew. Since the collision with the iceberg, he's been trying to make himself useful with mixed results. Bruce's fifth cousin, Clifford Ismay.
- [18:43]
Narrator
Bruce didn't really know that much about the workings of lowing lifeboats. He'd never been trained for it, so he was trying to help, but it was kind of getting in the way. So one of the crew members started shouting at him, what do you think you're doing? Get away from this lifeboat at once. We'll manage much better without your help. He used some colorful language, I believe. Well, of course, that poor seaman didn't know who Bruce was.
- [19:07]
Historian
By 2am, Bruce's May has undoubtedly helped to save a few lives. Among them a young stewardess, Evelyn Marsden.
- [19:16]
Narrator
She wasn't getting on the lifeboat and Bruce looked at he Said, why aren't you getting on this lifeboat? You should be on it now. And she replied to him, but I'm a stewardess. I'm one of these stewardess. And Bruce replied to her, you are all women now get on board this lifeboat.
- [19:40]
Historian
When the time comes to load the collapsibles, Ismay is still trying to assist, coaxing anxious passengers to their seats, among them the Lebanese migrants Shanina and Banura.
- [19:53]
Narrator
It was collapsible lifeboat Sea, which was the last lifeboat to be successfully lowered from the starboard side just before the ship slipped under the water.
- [20:04]
Historian
But as the lifeboat begins to be lowered, there are still a few spaces left in it.
- [20:09]
Narrator
He looked around and there was no one else about. Of course, he couldn't see who was on the port side at that time, but he believed that everyone had gone from the port side as well.
- [20:20]
Historian
It's at this point that the White Star chairman makes one of the most controversial decisions in the entire Titanic story up there, with Captain Smith choosing to maintain speed when entering an ice field and the White Star top brass rejecting the extra lifeboats proposed by Harland and Wolff. Although in this case, it's a decision that can't really be said to affect anyone other than Isma himself.
- [20:48]
Narrator
Should I stay on board the ship and go down with the ship or should I get on board the lifeboat?
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Historian
Ismay quietly steps into the boat and takes a seat.
- [21:09]
Narrator
Who else would have been saved if he hadn't got onto lifeboard? No one else, because there was no one else there and there was spare seats, so it wasn't as if he was going to take anyone's place. Plus, of course, he had wife and children at home. He didn't want to die if he didn't have to. He wasn't taking somebody's place away from them. My own feeling is, if I were Ishmael and they were about to lower a boat and there was plenty of empty room and there was nobody else on the boat deck but me, I'd have probably gotten in, which is what he did.
- [21:45]
Historian
It's a decision that will come to define the rest of Bruce Ismay's life in the American press. He'll be slammed as the coward of the Titanic. A man who presided over the worst maritime disaster in history and didn't even have the decency to go down with his ship.
- [22:04]
Narrator
That was the greatest mistake he made in his life, that he preferred to survive. I mean, his life was ruined afterwards, but he survived. Yeah, everyone does. Life, he lived there was a semi isolated life from Then on, Ismay was pilloried because he was the owner. He was the person ultimately in charge even of the captain. And I think that his bad press has more to do with people perceiving him as being probably the main person that should not have survived. I don't want to bask judgment on this. I think it's, you know, it's very. It's a human strong emotion. And he probably had a lot of different conflicting emotions. He was scared whether he was going to make it. He is extremely human. Bruce is made, and that is his great mistake, that he is a human being and wants to live. The Titanic tragedy is very humbling. It's a reminder of how small we are in the face of nature. The hubris of the Titanic builders who boasted it as unsinkable. And it's also a very interesting story about human choice. It's like a Greek tragedy where some made heroic choices to save others rather than themselves. Others chose to play music to until the end. Some kneeled and prayed. Some were motivated by chivalry and honor, others by survival. And as such, you know, these are enduring human stories that we, in a way, still grapple with today. There's a Irish philosopher by the name of Jack Foster who said, we are all passengers on Titanic.
- [23:55]
Historian
Eczema isn't always obvious, but it's real. And so is the relief from Ebglis. After an initial dosing phase of 16 weeks, about 4 in 10 people taking Eglis achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin. And most of those people maintain skin that's still more clear at one year with monthly dosing.
- [24:13]
Narrator
EBGLIS Lebricizumab LBKZ a 250 milligram per 2 millimeter. The 2 milliliter injection is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema, also called atopic dermatitis, that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies. EBGLIS can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you're allergic to ebglis, allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with EGBs before starting EPGLIS, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection.
- [24:46]
Historian
Searching for real relief? Ask your doctor about Epglis and visit epgliss.lilly.com or call 1-800-LILYRX or 1-800-545-5979. The Hoover Dam wasn't built in a.
- [24:57]
Narrator
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- [25:52]
Historian
With Collapsible C and D successfully lowered, all that's left on board Titanic are the two final lifecrafts, A and B. This is it. Collapsible B on the port side is the one Uncle Jimmy helped get off the roof of the officer's quarters, but it's still lying upside down on the deck. Meanwhile, First Officer Murdoch, with help from Officers Moody and Wild, has managed to maneuver Collapsible A off the roof on the starboard side. He's attempting to attach it to the davits recently vacated by Collapsible sea. By now, more and more people are taking their lives into their own hands, leaping into the water and swimming for the lifeboats already launched. Someone even releases the dogs from the kennels so they can have a chance to save themselves too. Rumor has it the anonymous animal lover is none other than the richest man on the Titanic, John Jacob Astor iv. His Airedale terrier, Kitty is among the nine canines still on board. Two Pomeranians and a Pekingese have already made it into the lifeboats of their owners. Around 2am Captain Smith formally dismisses the.
- [27:18]
Narrator
Crew and the captain gives this announcement to the men around and he says, you've done your duty. You know the rule of the sea, lads. I release you all. It's every man for himself.
- [27:35]
Historian
At 10 past 2, the bulkhead between boiler rooms 4 and 5 collapses. Thousands of gallons of water surge through to the next compartment. The lights on deck start to glow red, a sign they will fail within minutes. The ship is now tilting forward steeply enough that it's hard for those on deck to keep their footing. From the lifeboats, passengers can see Titanic's giant propellers rising up out of the water as the ship tips head down. And then there's that heavier and heavier list to port, making Lightoller's collapsible B on the lower side of the deck pretty much unlaunchable. Murdoch's collapsible A on the starboard side is the passenger's last real hope of survival.
- [28:39]
Narrator
We were down on the ocean. We could hear them running about on the decks and screaming. No lifeboat tearing around the other side. Gosh, there was panic. We could hear it.
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Historian
Julian Fellowes.
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Narrator
The one thing they were afraid of was panic. They were afraid that panicking crew would frighten the women and frighten the children and all the rest. I think what is remarkable is that there were so few people panicking and screaming at the time, and I don't think that would be the same today. Let me comment briefly on panic. Panic is a concept that researchers in this field don't agree on. Whether you can control it or not, we have no way of knowing. And whether it's rational or irrational is subjective from a viewer's point of view. And what you may think is irrational might seem to the person the perfectly rational thing to do. When you're caught in a situation where you're confronted with immediate death, you do what you need to do to save yourself.
- [29:46]
Historian
The loading of collapsible A is the most chaotic of all the boats and in some ways the most controversial. After the disaster, survivors will describe an officer shooting two male passengers who attempted to storm the boat before turning the gun on himself.
- [30:07]
Narrator
There is a French person who wrote a letter at the time, and he seems quite clearly to say that the officer stepped back and made a salute and then shot himself.
- [30:22]
Historian
According to the Edwardian rumor mill, the man holding the gun was William Murdoch, Titanic's first officer and the person in command of the ship when it hit the iceberg two and a half hours earlier. But even more than a century after the disaster, the question of who really fired those shots remains contested.
- [30:45]
Narrator
The stories about shooting and people killing other people, it's very, very difficult to prove anything whatsoever. It could have been wild. It doesn't have to have been Murdoch. But I think having looked at all the evidence, I think on the balance of probability, it probably was Murdoc. But if more evidence comes to light, it may be Shown otherwise. There were certainly stories about Murdoch. You know, I would say those stories were probably, you know, post sinking inventions that were sort of, you know, blaming Murdoch because he was in charge of the ship at the time. And so this assumption that he felt guilt. There were certainly reports of passengers seeing officers shoot themselves. Know, as an historian, I can say that, you know, eyewitness accounts, much as we like to rely on them, are often not very accurate. Right. So I would, you know, be a little bit skeptical. I started not believing this. And the more accounts I've read about it, I actually think he did shoot himself. All the officers had revolvers, they were all issued with revolvers. And I think he had shot someone who was storming the boats. And I think the combination of him feeling guilty for all the sort of carnage that was going to happen and the fact that he just shot someone, I think he did step back and shoot himself. So I do actually believe that. But you know, at the time there was a sort of stigma against that.
- [31:59]
Historian
It's a stigma that persists through the decades. When James Cameron makes his epic Titanic movie in the 1990s, he includes a scene showing Murdoch shooting himself in the head. Murdoch's 80 year old nephew is furious and writes to 20th Century Fox to complain. Cameron is forced to apologize and a Fox executive is sent all the way to Scotland to smooth things over.
- [32:27]
Narrator
I've been to his hometown in Scotland and people there are quite sensitive about, you know, how Murdoch has been treated. Mrs. Murdoch, the nephew of William, his wife, wrote to me from Scotland and said that not even Hollywood can say somebody's a murderer without proof, which is so, so true. You can't because William Murdoch is the person who saved most people from the Titanic. I met Cameron and tried to point this out that how wrong it is. I think he's changed his mind now, but the damage is done. They should cut that scene away from the film. That's my belief. I've seen the film many times, but I close my eyes when that part comes. I don't want to see it.
- [33:15]
Historian
In the utter chaos, it's not surprising that so much mystery surrounds the loading of collapsible A Only a minute or so after the incident with the gun, Titanic suddenly lurches forward as water floods another compartment below decks, a huge wave surges over the boat deck. At the same time, the ship's lights go out, plunging everyone on board into darkness. Then Titanic begins to tear herself apart.
- [33:55]
Narrator
The story of Titanic is told in a very romantic way. In fact, the whole sinking sequence Almost from the collision was utterly terrifying. It's an incredibly violent event. The ship starts to tear itself apart as the hull is subjected to these incredible forces. You know, because the bow is full of water, the stern is not. And so the weight of the bow just pushing on the stern and literally breaking the ship apart.
- [34:21]
Historian
One by one, Titanic's four giant funnels begin toppling. Each of them weighs a good 60 tons.
- [34:29]
Narrator
A great wave swept Titanic as she lurched down forwards. And this wave actually caused the forward funnel of Titanic to become unmoored and smash down on a lot of people swimming in the water.
- [34:50]
Historian
Among those believed to have been killed by the funnels is John Jacob Astor.
- [34:56]
Narrator
They recovered his body that was covered in suits and everything else. Yeah, I mean, to be somewhat gory about it, his face was utterly. I mean, and this is a famous man, you know, everybody knew what he looked like and his face was utterly unrecognizable. So it was just the fact that because he was a rich person, his clothing was monogrammed. Right. So everything was jja. And that's how they were actually able to identify him.
- [35:20]
Historian
The collapse of one of the funnels also has an unexpected consequence. The water displaced by this 60 ton hunk of metal is enough to get collapsible B afloat. The stranded raft is suddenly propelled out to sea with telegraphist Harold Bride and writer Archibald Gracey clinging on for dear life.
- [35:42]
Narrator
The front funnel falls down onto the starboard wing bridge and then sploshes down into the water and it creates a tidal wave, if you like. It creates a huge wave that flips over collapsible B and pushes it away from the ray.
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Historian
Sh.
- [36:07]
Narrator
Hear that? Big waves are calling.
- [36:10]
Historian
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- [36:12]
Narrator
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- [36:19]
Historian
Join Kona on the Big Wave bonfire tour. More information@konabigwave.com BigWaveMusic Kona Big Wave Liquid Aloha Copyright 2025 Kona Brewing Company, St. Louis, Missouri. Mahalo for enjoying responsibly.
- [36:34]
Narrator
This episode is sponsored by Friskies. Who would like to tell your cats hi. Now, if that didn't get your cat's attention, there's one thing that always does the trick. Just pour some Friskies crunchy food in the bowl and you'll hear those paws come running. Works every time. With so many Friskies choices, you can always bring your cats running from their secret napping spots. There's always more to explore. See for yourself@friskies.com or visit your local store.
- [37:04]
Historian
This episode is brought to you by Stay Farm.
- [37:06]
Narrator
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- [37:14]
Historian
Bundle and save with the personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer availability, amount of discounts, and savings and eligibility vary by state. It's now about a quarter past two on the morning of April 15th. With the last lifeboat gone, the 1500 souls still on board Titanic are all out of options. Some rush desperately to the stern of the ship, which is now rising precariously up in the air. Others take their chances diving into the icy ocean. Among them, second offers the Lightoller. He swims in the direction of the Crow's Nest, which by now is only just above the water. But as he ploughs forwards, he can feel something pulling him down, and it's getting stronger. Lightoller is swimming over an air intake shaft that runs all the way down to the engine room, and the rush of water being sucked into it is now pulling him down, too. A few meters beneath the surface, he slams into the metal grating at the top of the shaft. He can't move. It looks for all the world like he's going to drown. Then suddenly, a massive air bubble is released, pushing Lightoller back to the surface. He swims away from Titanic, making for collapsible B. Only a couple of minutes after Lightoller's desperate plunge, Captain Smith is seen leaping into the water as the bridge of the ship begins to sink underneath him. Though accounts of the captain's final moments vary. Some have him nobly standing at his post as the bridge is submerged. Others see him valiantly rescuing babies.
- [39:35]
Narrator
There's this idea that captains are supposed to go down with their ships in this kind of heroic way, you know, help to save all the passengers and then nobly go down with a ship, because that idea is so strong. There were certainly myths about Captain Smith that were invented later. So there were stories about him that he was seen swimming around in the water with a baby, and he sort of swam up to a lifeboat and handed them a baby. And then they were, you know, they tried to convince him to, you know, to get on board the lifeboat, and he was like, no, I can't do that, and swam away, never to be seen again. What account there is in the test of od, I've read, is he stayed on the bridge, and when the Titanic sank from under him, he just stepped off into the water and nobody saw him again. I suspect he accepted the idea that the captain could go down with the ship or at the least, should be the last person to get off alive. And obviously lots of people were going to die. He made no attempt to escape at all. And I think one can interpret from that that he felt responsible. Whether he felt sort of spiritually responsible or practically responsible, I don't think we will ever know. But I personally, I think he was responsible and he knew it. You know, it's a great question of what was Captain Smith doing while the sinking was going on. He's a curiously absent figure. I don't really mean that to criticize him, but we don't really know. He certainly wasn't swimming around in the water handing babies off to lifeboats. I think that's safe to say.
- [41:07]
Historian
Perhaps I'm biased, but one source I find hard to dismiss out of hand is the account of my great uncle. Supposedly he and the captain were together right up to the end.
- [41:21]
Narrator
According to Jimmy. And in fact, it's corroborated by Harry Senior, another fireman, who said there were children there. And he said he picked up some Italian kids. Jimmy. And the captain, according to Jimmy, said, we picked up little kiddies. We picked up these children who'd come towards us and jumped. They grabbed these kids and him and the captain jumped off with these kids and what they call a medical term, a rough nickname of hydrocution. When you hit very, very cold water, it's like an electric shock to the system. And he describes the shock of it. You just let the children go immediately because it's so shocking, even if you think you're prepared. When you jump into icy cold water.
- [42:16]
Historian
Somehow Uncle Jimmy ends up in the water near Collapsible B, the very lifeboat he himself helped to launch. He clambers onto its upturned hull, shivering with the excruciating cold. Against almost unimaginable odds, this lowly trimmer has found his way off the Titanic.
- [42:40]
Narrator
When I first heard about Jimmy, cynically and through ignorance, I didn't know where he was or how he might have survived. I didn't know how he got into a lifeboat. And my first cynical view was, did he sneak in like they say some of the stories? Where did he take a wound? Woman's place? Did he wear a frock? How did this man. Was he a coward? You don't know. Was he brave? Was he a coward? You don't know the story. And so finally finding this out, you actually find out. No, no. By sheer dent of luck, he finds himself near the collapsible he's been trying to let loose. It's turned upside down, it has an air pocket in the bottom and one or two men are already beginning to try to scramble on it. He swims up, he manages to get onto it. He's joined in the next few minutes by Gracie, by Lightoller, by a number of famous others. And very quickly it starts to fill up with crew members, people who are tough enough, lucky enough to get there.
- [43:42]
Historian
It's from collapsible B that Uncle Jimmy will witness Titanic's final moments as the ship snaps in half and then plunges under the surface. From a distance, there's a brutal elegance to it, but up close it's utterly horrifying.
- [44:02]
Narrator
The reality of Titanic after the lifeboats left is just too ghastly. It was like a living hell. It was absolutely like carnage on the battlefield. Everybody who's still on the ship will have retreated to the stern by that point. Right, because that's the part of the ship that's the most out of the water. But the stern, you know, I think probably, you know, all kinds of things were exploding and blowing up, you know, just as it went under. The keel itself was actually ripped in half, if you can imagine that, by the forces of the water logged bow and the buoyant, still airtight if you like, stern sort of fighting against each other.
- [44:45]
Historian
Titanic stern is 30 degrees up in the air now. Water is gushing down the grand staircase. Anything not bolted to the floor and not already underwater is crashing down towards the bow of the ship, putting even more pressure on its metal spine.
- [45:08]
Narrator
Titanic did then sort of break her back if you like. And what happened was the keel stayed attached, but the superstructure split away.
- [45:16]
Historian
The stern crashes down to the water.
- [45:28]
Narrator
And then for a moment all the passengers who mostly are on this little sort of stern, it's called the poop deck of Titanic. They think they're going to survive because once the bow has shaken itself free, the stern actually settles a bit and goes a bit more on an even keel.
- [45:45]
Historian
The ship is quite literally in pieces now, but the bow is still attached to the keel. The forward section is almost totally submerged and is doing its best to pull the rest of Titanic under. For the passengers still on board the stern, all they can do is pray. Catholic priest Thomas Biles turned down a place in a lifeboat to minister to the steerage. Passengers hearing confessions and performing the last rites. He's now on the poop deck surrounded by kneeling men and women praying the rosary. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Titanic's Lebanese passengers, meanwhile, are facing the end in their own way.
- [46:44]
Narrator
At the very end, when they realized that they were doomed, that they weren't going to be saved, one of them said, let's all break out in the traditional Lebanese folkloric dance called the depke. And so they all, you know, lined up together, shoulder upon shoulder and started dancing this traditional folkloric dance.
- [47:06]
Historian
Susie Miller's great grandfather Thomas is one of almost 700 crew members still on board in the ship's final moments. Recently widowed, he's left his two sons behind him in the little village of Bonny before.
- [47:24]
Narrator
He probably knew for most of the time that Titanic was sinking that he wasn't going to have a chance. He was trying to give his kids a better life and he was actually ending up leaving them orphaned through no fault of his own. But those thoughts must have been going through his head that, oh, what have I done to my children? I've left them with nobody.
- [47:46]
Historian
At 2:20 on the morning of April 15, 1912, Titanic's bow slides beneath the waves. Then the keel finally drags the rest of the ship down with it.
- [48:03]
Narrator
Some people say they were able to just step off the stern without any waves. One person says they didn't even get their head wet when they stepped off the back of the ship.
- [48:12]
Historian
But as Titanic plunges towards the seabed almost 4,000 meters below, the forces acting upon it begin to increase. At some point, the ship's spine is broken altogether, leaving two separate shipwrecks to make their way to the bottom. Marine archaeologist James Delgado.
- [48:45]
Narrator
The bow detached and tore away. And because it is designed as a bow to move hydrodynamically, it basically just kept going. It turned a bit and just slowly dove into the seabed and struck at an angle and came, came in. The stern dropped more or less straight down. There was an enormous air pocket inside the stern, and if you compress air, it becomes explosive. So the whole stern more or less imploded. So if you look at the wreck today, the whole stern is just like a junkyard. The deck is turned upside down and everything is more or less completely destroyed because of this enormous pressure. The stern is just a mess. It's just a tangled mess of metal and cables and, you know, and, and it's hardly recognizable at all. And you get a sense of the kind of violence of the last moments of the ship from seeing that and what then rains down afterwards is all of the smaller stuff, particularly those items that aren't metal, which are also sinking to the bottom.
- [50:08]
Historian
In the next episode, with the world's largest ship disappeared without a trace, those in the lifeboats are left there in horror, bobbing in the waves. Fierce arguments break out over whether to row back and search for survivors. And as the cries of the dying give way to an eerie silence, the lucky ones must huddle together, waiting desperately for dawn. Is anyone coming to help them? That's next time, Sam. You can listen to the next two episodes of Ship of Dreams right now without waiting by subscribing to Noiser Plus. Just hit the link in the episode description to find out more.
- [51:29]
Narrator
Thank you. I couldn't have completed this project without a little extra coffee. And since I brush with Colgate's pro series toothpaste with an expert level whitening for a vibrant glow, I could show up to set each day, camera ready and smiling wide.
- [51:43]
Historian
Well Kelly, looks like a little Colgate gave you a lot of confidence.
- [51:48]
Narrator
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- [51:54]
Historian
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