Which lifeboat would YOU have tried for?

[Arun Vajpey]

This question is intended for male members only for obvious reasons.

Imagine that you were an able bodied SECOND CLASS male passenger travelling alone on the Titanic, on the way to a very well set-up better life in America. In the first few days of the voyage, you explore the ship, ask casual questions and know the general layout of the ship, including the fact that she does not have enough lifeboats for all personnel on board. Further events pan out exactly as they did that Sunday night and by 12:30am on Monday assume that you knew for certain that the Titanic was going to sink irrespective of what any others said.

At that point if you made up your mind to save yourself, how would you have gone about it? Which lifeboat would you have tried to get into?

 

[Arun Vajpey]

PS: In answering this question, you should apply your natural personality and survival instinct adjusted to 1912 and NOT use any hindsight.

 

[Matthew Thedford]

Personally, I would rush to the nearest lifeboat being loaded.

 

[Arun Vajpey]

Personally, I would rush to the nearest lifeboat being loaded.

"Rushing" a lifeboat by an able bodied man would not have worked at any stage and there would have been the risk that you'd be noticed making later efforts difficult. But well planned stealth had a great chance of working, especially for a lone man. There were one or more male passengers or crew who slipped under the blanket in almost every lifeboat launched that night. There is also some evidence that the women on board would not necessarily have given him away.

Personally, I have a great survival instinct plus a tendency to look at the "other pasture" in such cases. It would have taken some time to assess the situation but without hindsight it would appear the too early or too late would have been difficult. If I had gone with the flow, I would probably sneaked on board Lifeboat #9 on the starboard side. As long as there were no women or children in the immediate vicinity and one did not make a song & dance about it, Murdoch and Moody would have allowed a lone man to take an available space. The best time would probably have been while Kate Buss and her friends were trying to get in.

 

[Christophe Puttemans]

Being able bodied, I could certainly help rowing. I would just ask the officer to help rowing the lifeboat he was loading. And if he said "no", try again with another officer. Observing the chaos and lack of cooperation, one would expect there was no general rule about women and children first.

 

[Arun Vajpey]

On the Port side Lightoller rather illogically followed the policy of "women and children only" in the lifeboats that he was in charge and lowered several with plenty of spaces. he did not allow men or even boys on board even if there was room and no women or children nearby to take the available spaces. For the record, I do not believe that Lightoller was doing this because he thought he could get more women and children in through the open gangway door on D deck. He followed the same policy even after it must have been very obvious to him that those door was submerged. I doubt very much if 'asking' him anything would have helped.

On the Starboard side on the other hand, Murdoch followed the more sensible policy of 'women and children first' and allowed men to board if there was room and no women or children in the immediate vicinity. That is why the best chance for a single man to find a space in a lifeboat would have been on the Starboard side.

Of course I would have helped with the rowing too.

 

[Stephen Carey]

This question is intended for male members only for obvious reasons.

Imagine that you were an able bodied SECOND CLASS male passenger travelling alone on the Titanic, on the way to a very well set-up better life in America. In the first few days of the voyage, you explore the ship, ask casual questions and know the general layout of the ship, including the fact that she does not have enough lifeboats for all personnel on board. Further events pan out exactly as they did that Sunday night and by 12:30am on Monday assume that you knew for certain that the Titanic was going to sink irrespective of what any others said.

At that point if you made up your mind to save yourself, how would you have gone about it? Which lifeboat would you have tried to get into?

I suppose the best one to get in would have been that nearly empty one with the Duff-Gordons in it - plenty of room and no one to argue with D-G. As a marine engineer though, I would probably have been down below in the engineroom with no hope of survival as opposed to a 2nd Class passenger!

 

[Forb37093]

Arun,

I think I would have probably tried to get in collapsible D given she was the last lifeboat to leave the ship with a maximum of 30 people on board. Also, maybe it would have been easier to do so while forward A deck was beginning to flood and first class passengers Hugh Woolner, Moritz Björnstrom-Steffansson and Frederick Maxfield Hoyt succeeded in reaching it...

Sincerely.

Damien

 

[Arun Vajpey]

Interesting choice but would you not have felt the risk to be too great in case something went wrong just as you tried to board #D?

 

[Harland Duzen]

With hindsight, I say Lifeboat 3 or Collapsable C so I could meet Sarah Roth or Hammad Hassab, Plus Murdoch would hopefully let me in.

Without hindsight, I would lie and say I have experience in sailing and yachting so I be allowed to row a boat. So long as I could row or steer the boat, who would know otherwise?

3rd Class Passenger Olaus Abelseth would have gone into a lifeboat as a sailor had he not stayed with his brother and Arthur Peuchen being a yachtsmen did also give him permission to enter a lifeboat.

Which one I not sure, but definitely one of Murdoch's boats.

 

[Kyle Naber]

Any boat on the starboard side early in the sinking. At this time and place, lots of men were allowed in, but it got much more strict as the night progressed.