Bruce ismay

I think Bruce Ismay getting off the Titanic into a lifeboat was one of those "you had to be there" decisions. I'm not saying it was an honorable choice but I can't blame him for being afraid. Unfortunately for him, I think he paid for that choice for the rest of his life.
 
I don't see where "Blame" has anything to do with it. The ship was sinking, he knew it, he had an opportunity to escape certain death and he took it. Can't say as I wouldn't do the same myself. Wheather or not he made the honourable choice by any standard is open to debate, but I would think he made the sensible choice.
 
There was room for over 500 more people on the lifeboats so I see nothing wrong with Ismay getting on a lifeboat. There may have been unanswered questions had he not survived to testify at the hearings.
 
The 500 extra places existed only in the vivid imagination of the Board of Trade. Read my e-book for the sorry reality. The boats were not as underloaded as is commonly made out.

As to Ismay, this has been argued up hill and down dale. Some have even said it was his duty to go and face the inevitable inquiry.
 
i think it was cruel what the people did to him after all he was thier as a passanger
 
Well he was hardly just a passenger and that must be questionable. He was President of a shipping line which had just drowned 1500 of its customers including some of the most influential people in the western world.

Would you not think some reaction to him being saved was understandable?
 
yes but he lost everything that night he proberbly had nightmares till the day he died
 
Poor thing!! At least he lived to have nightmares. 1500 people did not have the choice. I expect he got over it. After all he was not in charge of the ship.
 
>>1500 people did not have the choice. I expect he got over it.<<

What's known of his life afterwards would suggest that he did not. While Mr. Ismay remained interested and active in a number of charitable affairs, and enjoyed hearing the latest news on shipping, any discussion of the Titanic was known to be a taboo subject in his presence and in his house. I think he was the first one to "Get It" in regards the question of lifeboats as he made adaquate boat provision for all an order for every White Star vessel long before the regulatory bodies got around to it.


His wife was supposed to have remarked on the Titanic "That ship ruined our lives" and I believe it. It didn't take much to drop one of the upper crust into "ruin" in those days. A tarnished reputation was all it took.

While I haven't really made much of an in depth study of Bruce Ismay the man, I don't really buy into the reductive stereotyping which casts him as the evil Snidely Whiplash. I think at his very core he was a decent guy who had the misfortune of getting in the way of history and thereafter, no matter what he did to try make things right, it was always seen with a Machiavellian spin.

Catch-22 in other words.
 
Hi Michael

I don't have any strong feelings for or against Ismay. I just don't see him as the poor creature, cruelly treated, painted by liam.
 
>>I don't have any strong feelings for or against Ismay. <<

Nor do I. It's the stereotyping I tend to question, but in that respect, I suspect you and I are on the same page.
 
>>when the lights touched the water does whould they explode cos of cold water<<

The lights,or lamps, being very hot, would most likely have exploded when the cold sea water (below freezing temperature) reached them. Then the filaments would have been exposed and electricity would have arc'ed across them....salt water is a good conductor of electricity, effectively a low resistance path (short circuit) for the electricity . Just my theory that possibly this was a true depiction in the Cameron movie.
 
Robert,

I have noticed Liam's apparent question about lights answered several times on different threads. It's his punch line or whatever you call it - same as your "hardly any rats"

Quite clever of Liam really??
 
Dave, thanks for that information. I have always thought that 500 more people could have been placed in the lifeboats. Is there a correct estimate on just how many more people could have been saved?
 
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