You are probably right and that's the reason all of my posts mentioning that
supposed order at 01:05 am by Lightoller to Nichols to take six men etc are preceded with a big "IF". My main interest in that is linking it with the fate of Alfred Nichols.
Let us suppose - just suppose - that Lightoller really did give that order. I have made some private notes of the probable eventualities as follows:
I stress that this is my conjecture only but in doing so I am trying to fit in various survivor statements by Symons, Johnstone and Barrett about seeing Nichols at various places later and also possible reasons why Littlejohn and Rule did not see him. IMO, none of those sightings or non-sightings of Nichols are mutually exclusive.
12:55 ~ 01:05 am: Having helped load and launch #3 as instructed, Symons too arrives at #1
to see Nichols once again working with Murdoch. Symons takes Nichols' place while the latter crosses over to the port side to the vicinity of Lifeboat #6, arriving there around 01:00 am. Here on the port side, Lightoller is in charge of Lifeboat #6 and Nichols briefly helps to continue loading. A few minutes later, around 01:03 am, Lightoller instructs Nichols to take 6 men and go to E-deck and open the gangway door on the port side in order to load additional passengers from there, presumably starting with #6. Nichols departs and quickly picks his 6 sailors.
Meanwhile on the starboard side, Murdoch
lowers the partially filled Lifeboat #1 at around 01:05 am with Symons in it.
1:05 am ~ 01:15 am: Nichols and his picked men go down to E-deck and open the Gangway door. But they find that the waterline is almost to the threshold of the doorway by then and realize that Lightoller’s plan would not work, at least not from the E-deck door. So they
close it again and cogitate about the next step. Meanwhile, Lightoller continues loading
Lifeboat #6 and lowers it at 01:10 am.
Someone, probably Nichols himself, suggests opening the portside
D-deck door instead, which is not only a deck level higher but further aft, thus well above the sea level at that time. As the group starts-up again, Lifeboat #6 goes past the
closed E-deck door (
which explains why no one on the boat noticed an open gangway door)
01:15 ~ 1:30 am: Nichols and his six men go to the D-deck and open the gangway door. By then it is around 01:20 am and Lifeboat #6, launched 10 minutes earlier, has long gone past the spot. Having done that Nichols and his men return to the boat deck; Nichols dismisses his 6 sailors who then
disperse to help at other spots while he himself goes forward to report their actions to Lightoller.
But the Second Officer is not on the boat deck by then and unbeknown to Nichols has moved to A-deck to work on Lifeboat #4. Nichols finds Chief Officer Wilde instead preparing Lifeboat #2 to be loaded and reports to him. By then #2 is being loaded and seeing that Johnstone is about to go in it,
Nichols instructs him about “watching the star”. Fourth Officer Boxhall, (who eventually ended-up on charge of #2) is still busy with the rockets and not yet in the vicinity and so does not see Nichols near Lifeboat #2.
There are two crucial points here. First, when (and if) Nichols returned to the boat deck after carrying out a modification of Ligtholler's order, the Second officer had moved down to A-deck to start his shenanigans with Lifeboat #4 and so could not see Nichols. In that case, Nichols would have reported to either Wilde or Captain Smith, most likely the former, who was working near Lifeboat #2 at the time. Second, there is the timing of that 'star tip' that Nichols reportedly gave Johnstone near #2; I think this was around 15 minutes before that boat was lowered and not
just before as Johnstone's statement appeared to suggest. Boxhall was still firing his rockets at the time and not yet arrived near Lifeboat #2, which explains both the delay in launching that boat and the reason why the fourth officer did not mention seeing Nichols, because the latter had left the spot by then.
Further on:
01:30 ~ 01:40 am: Seeing that there is enough crew help around #2, Nichols departs and heads to the starboard side aft. There, Lifeboat #13 is loaded initially from the boat deck by Murdoch with Beuchamp and Littlejohn helping out. After some
First Class passengers are loaded, Murdoch orders Littlejohn into the boat and has it lowered to A-deck where Moody supervises loading of a lot of Third Class passengers just as Nichols arrives there at around 01:30 am to help out. In the general crowded confusion Littlejohn, already in the lifeboat, does not notice that Nichols is helping out on A-deck. Barrett arrives just as the loading is complete and
Nichols orders the Leading Fireman into the boat and 'pull an oar'.
#13 is launched at 01:40 am.
01:40 ~ 01:45 am: Murdoch on the boat deck aft on the starboard side has started loading Lifeboat #15 immediately after #13 was lowered to A-deck, with Rule as one of the crew helping.
Murdoch tells Rule to go down to A-deck to help to load more people from there and presumably to make sure that #13 is launched before loading of #15 above it is completed. Rule complies and upon arrival on A-deck sees Moody (but does not know him by sight) who has started lowering #13. Rule knows Nicholls by sight but does not see the latter in the vicinity
. That is because as soon as #13 was loaded and ready for lowering, Moody sent out scouts to find women and children to load into #15 when it is lowered onto the A-deck and it is likely that Nicholls was one of those scouts. Meanwhile, Lifeboat #15 is lowered onto A-deck as planned and further loading is quickly completed. Rule gets into #15 along with a crowd of passengers just
as #15 is lowered at 01:45 am, almost on top of the struggling #13 on the water.
While all that is going on, Boxhall finally arrives at the davits of Lifeboat #2 on the port side, where Wilde has returned and completed loading of the lifeboat. Wilde orders Boxhall to take charge
and lowers #2 at 01:45 am, with Johnstone (who had received the ‘star tip’ from Nichols about 15 minutes earlier) in it. The delay could be due to the fact that Wilde wanted to wait for Boxhall to finish sending-up the rockets and arrive to take charge of Lifeboat #2.
By the time Nichols returns to starboard side aft with a few women and children, #15 is almost ready to be lowered and so he hands his charges over and proceeds to the port side with Murdoch to where Lifeboat #10 is still attached to its davits on the port side. (This may seem like too much conjecture, but Murdoch
was involved with loading and launching of Lifeboats #13, #15 and #10 and whose presence near #10 was noted by Evans. If Nichols was also near Lifeboat #15 just before it was lowered, with nothing more to do on that side aft, it would be logical to assume that the boatswain followed Murdoch to the port side to help with #10). Murdoch, Nicholls and others complete loading and
lower #10 it at 01:50 hours.
Further up on the port side, Lightoller also finally
lowers Lifeboat #4 at 01:50 am.
But with the combination of darkness, milling crowds and general activity, Lightoller, from his vantage point on A-deck, would not have been able to get a clear sight of Nichols near Lifeboat #10 on the boat deck. If things really panned out that way, what Nichols did afterwards would be subject to further conjecture. If he was with Murdoch near Lifeboat #10 when it was lowered, the boatswain would likely follow the First Officer to starboard side forward, where Collapsible C was being loaded. By then everyone would have realized that the
Titanic was going to sink and that there were not enough lifeboats for all still on board the ship. The mindset would have increasingly been of survival and so noticing “who-was-doing-what-where” would have been far less likely than, say, 20 minutes earlier. With Wilde, Murdoch and Moody all being lost and Boxhall none the wiser, Lightoller could not have had any fellow-officer update on Nichols’ whereabouts and actions after the two parted company at 01:05 am. And no survivor knew for certain the identities of the 6 men that Nichols had chosen to help him with the gangway doors and so whether any of them survived.
