Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Jim Currie, post: 450860, member: 144215"] Halo Semas, tha mi an dòchas gu lorg seo gu math thu. As you say - these men weren't daft. However, if they were ordered to do something and could not. for any reason carry out that order, then the man in charge was duty-bound to report back to the person who gave the order - that was how it worked. Only in Hollywood are arbitrary decisions made. It follows that either the doors were, or were not, opened and events overtook protocol and the Bosun forgot - or was waylaid by another, more pressing need. If, as Lightoller said, he sent the bosun below on that errand, then he did so after the boats were ready and before the men were needed to lower and man the boats. This puts the time somewhere before any of the port boats were filled and launched, so there would have been very little evidence regarding heel or trim. Additionally, Captain Smith would have temporarily lost the skills of his most senior Petty Officer and almost 25% of his skilled sailors. We have no idea whether Lightoller's gangway door order was general or specific, (or if he was "gilding the lily), we can only assume that he meant the gangway doors on D deck, since these were the only viable option as far as transferring large volumes of passengers to boats was concerned. At the time ion question, the bottoms of these doors would have been around 20 feet above sea level. Anyone opening them would have night blindness and be unable to make any meaningful judgement regarding viability as a means of escape. However, if any gangway doors [I]had[/I] been opened on D deck it would have been very obvious since these entrances were 6 ft high -almost 5 ft wide, and when opened, would have exposed a brightly lit hallway. Boxhall was questioned about this since he lay, close-by off both sides of the ship for a space of time This was his answer: "[I]15474. Was that to stand by the gangway door or what? - I do not know whether it was to stand by the gangway door[/I][B][I]; I do not remember any gangway doors being open."[/I][/B] Food for thought? [/QUOTE]

Verification: In which year did the Titanic sail?