Why would an experienced professional master mariner like Edward Smith randomly announce to everyone at roughly 01:30 when Lifeboat 12 was being lowered - "Now, every man for himself. She's going down." ? There were still another five boats left on the port side to attend to.To return to the topic...
By the time Captain Smith ordered the firing of rockets, he knew the Titanic was not sinking as quickly as initially feared. Although ship's designer Andrews had told him barely ten minutes after the Titanic hit the iceberg that the ship would sink in a hour to an hour-and-a-half, Captain Smith had subsequently been informed by the Chief Engineer that the pumps would keep her afloat for much longer, possibly long enough for rescue ships to arrive. (Bruce Ismay met the Chief Engineer who told him the same thing, likely only moments after speaking with the Captain.)
I believe the evidence shows that Captain Smith decided shortly before 1:20 a.m. Monday morning that the Titanic was doomed. That was the time the order was given to evacuate the boiler rooms. It was right after that, that Smith began going around the ship releasing the crew to save themselves.
For example, Lillian Bentham, 17, who left the ship in Lifeboat No. 12, said:
"Just as our boat was being launched, the Captain called,"Now, every man for himself. She's going down." (Rochester Union and Advertiser, April 19, 1912, P.1)
For more details read:
'Abandon Ship' said the Captain to the boiler room crew
A strong trail of eyewitnesses and the clock reveals a page of Titanic history that's been waiting to be written for a hundred years. The...titanicsecrets.blogspot.com
(source for boat lowering times: https://web.archive.org/Titanic/revised.html - authored by: Bill Wormstedt, Tad Fitch & George Behe)
How do we know that these people (except AB Hopkins) genuinely knew who Smith was April 14/15 ?
Dorking may have had a rough idea of where the the engine room was from feeling the vibration of the engines during the voyage or seeing the engineers entering and leaving it for their own quarters and mess facilities. But you said "So when Dorking saw Capt. Smith in the engine room" - "in the engine room". Inside the engine room ? Why would a passenger follow Smith in there, indeed why on earth would a passenger be allowed in there ? Not buying it.
"Its not hard to imagine the conversation that had taken place between the captain and the engineers. The ship will sink in a very short time. How many men are necessary to keep the bare minimum power flowing?"
The captain had to decide which engine crew would be given a chance to live and which would be sacrificed, kept at their posts to the last minute. Only he could make this life-and-death order. And he did it in this never-before-known personal trip to the boiler rooms."
For someone who claims to be a historian that is a massive, irresponsible assumption you are stating as fact there. How on earth do you know if (i) Smith actually made this trip ? (ii) what on earth could possibly have been said by him and others in engine room (iii) are you aware that the bridge and the engine room were actually linked by telephone ? There was no need to go down to convey a message. Again I'm not buying it.
(If a man in his sixties, with white hair and whiskers and wearing an officers uniform truly was seen going to the engine room at some point after the initial inspection, then it's possible it might have been Dr O'Loughlin going to attend to Jnr Asst 2nd Engineer Jonathan Shepherd who had broken his leg. However, I do not state that as fact and concede it is probably unlikely.)
Smith in steerage with a gun in his hand ? Nope, still not buying it. In fact you have him in all these places in a ten-fifteen minute time frame, saying and doing different things. He would have to have been a shape-shifter to have truly done so !
The problem throughout your blog is that you interpret every survivors testimony as totally truthful.
Many did tell the truth but got confused about times and places or were mistaken about personalities. A handful of survivors told unbelievably silly, wildly melodramatic stories (held onto an iceflow for several hours, gold & silver bullion loaded at Cobh and the crew marching on deck with rifles being my three personal favourites) but many were pounced upon by unscrupulous journalists in the USA and UK and had their stories twisted with many colourful "blood and thunder" additions made before going to print.
George, I'm sure your a really lovely bloke who really does means well but research into the Titanic disaster clearly is not for you. Why not just leave it to the professionals and simply just join the rest of us mere enthusiasts in talking about it ?
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