Jonathan and others,
The evidence that Lifeboat 15 (as well as Lifeboats 11 and 13) were loaded from Deck A is not as contradictory as one might think. It is important to understand the context of the loading of these boats. There is detailed testimony by Stewards Wheat (Brit. Inq. 13198-13206) and Mackay (Brit. Inq. 10740-10759) that First Officer Murdoch, who was in charge of the starboard-side boats, mobilized some seventy crewmen, primarily stewards, to assist in the loading of the three boats on Deck A.
That this was in fact the case was confirmed in detailed testimony by Fireman Barrett (2121-2133; 2256-2273) with respect to Lifeboat 13, and Steward Rule (Brit. Inq. 6487-6525) with respect to Lifeboat 15. The allusion to Rule saying some men were loaded from the Boat Deck must be seen in this context. Rule specifically testified that Murdoch told him to take around six men down with him in the boat to Deck A to help in its loading. When specifically asked whether Lifeboat 15 was lowered to a deck below Deck A before being launched Rule testified “No, she filled up from A Deck.”
Many of the stewards (and other crewmen) who helped in their loading naturally entered Lifeboats 13 and 15. This was confirmed by yet another detailed account of the loading of these boats, which is in agreement with the others, by the First Class passenger Dodge Washington, in a speech given in May, 1912.
Steward Hart (Brit. Inq. 9964-9991) does not give an account of the loading of Lifeboat 15 at all, but merely claims that he delivered some 25 women and children to the boat, and that both he and they entered the boat from the Boat Deck. He is alone as far as I know in making the claim that any such thing occurred, and in my view his testimony is reason to distrust his story rather than seriously challenging the fact that these boats were loaded from Deck A.
Cavell’s testimony, as suggested by Lester Mitcham, is more mysterious, but it is not at all credible, not least because it is uncorroborated and contradicts all the other accounts. Cavell (4292-4368) seems to testify that he was one of the crewman mentioned by Rule who were lowered from the Boat Deck to A Deck. But then he claims there were only five people loaded into the boat from A Deck, that there were no men at all on A Deck, and that sixty Third Class women and children were loaded from B Deck. Particularly the statement that he saw no men on A Deck flies in the face of all the other testimony, and there is no suggestion anywhere else that such a large number of women and children were loaded from B Deck into any boat.
It is not inconceivable that Cavell felt the need to deny that primarily men were loaded into Lifeboat 15 and concocted this story as a way out of being questioned about it. But of course that is pure conjecture.
For those interested in a fuller account of the loading and launching of the lifeboats in general, it is found in my recent book, Rescue of the Third Class on the Titanic (Research in Maritime History 31).
DG
