Many of the Crew Weren’t Sailors
On Titanic, waiters, waitresses, and maids were referred to as stewards. Only 60 of the ship’s 421 stewards survived, and 48 of them were women. Above is steward Thomas Whiteley, whose leg was injured by falling debris while boarding a lifeboat. Violet Jessop, another stewardess, had been on Titanic’s sister ship, the RMS Olympic, when it crashed with a British warship the year before. She survived that, the Titanic disaster, and the four-year-later sinking of their other sister ship, the Britannic. She was dubbed “Miss Unsinkable.”
Many Of The Crew Weren’t Sailors
The Captain Did Not Make the Difficult Decision
Titanic Captain Edward J. Smith had gone for the evening on the night of the sinking, leaving First Officer William McMaster Murdoch in command. When Murdoch heard the iceberg warning, he ordered that the ship turn immediately and that the engines be turned down. Regrettably, it was already too late. The boat’s vast size prevented it from turning in time to escape the collision, and the starboard side collided with the iceberg.
The Captain Did Not Make the Difficult Decision