Titanic: A Question of Murder

TVS was a relatively short-lived local TV franchise in the UK but still produced two of the best Titanic documentaries made up to that time. 

The first Titanic A Question of Murder, first broadcast on 21 Feb 1983 was one of the few Titanic documentaries to bring a serious journalistic eye to the subject. 

The other, Titanic: The Nightmare and the Dream (1986), in an incredible scoop, was the first documentary produced about the discovery and exploration of the Titanic wreck.

The producer and presenter of each programme was veteran journalist and documentarian Peter Williams.

The Titanic A Question of Murder documentary begins with a seance, in which Titanic survivor Eva Hart, is supposedly connected, through a medium with the father that she lost on 15 April 1912 when the Titanic went down. 

The documentary covers the 1982 Titanic Historical Society Convention in Philadelphia which five survivors - Eva Hart, Edwina MacKenzie, George Thomas, Ruth Blanchard and Frank Aks attended, before moving back across the Atlantic to Bournemouth England, for a fascinating and moving interview with Titanic storekeeper Frank Prentice.

The main premise of the documentary is that Alexander Carlisle, who worked at Harland & Wolff until 1910, had recommended as early as 1909 that the White Star Line should fit the Olympic and Titanic with 48 lifeboats.  It showed how the company did invest in state-of-the-art Welin double-acting quadrant lifeboat davits which were capable of handling up to four lifeboats, but having done so they only fitted one to each, making 16 lifeboats in total, plus four collapsible boats.

The documentary includes interviews with survivors Eva Hart, Edwina MacKenzie, George Thomas, Ruth Blanchard and Frank Prentice, Maritime historian Fred M. Walker (1936–2020), Gunnar Iwards [sp?] and Sir John Andrews (the nephew of Thomas Andrews).

MEDIUM: “I feel the sway and the swell of water. I see your father.”

71 years ago. Eva Hart survived the sinking of the Titanic, but her father died in the disaster. Today, at a saence, she waits for a message from him.

“And your father is just as talkative as ever. I feel that your father's so very, very close. And your mother also is looking... very quietly. She's holding you close, and now she's putting you... taking you to put you to bed. I see your father.”

More than 1500 people died that night in April 1912.

Titanic was the biggest ship in the world. She'd been on her maiden voyage. For those who survived, such as Miss Hart and Ruth Blanchard and Edwina McKenzie life was never quite the same again. For years Eva Hart’s sleep was wracked by nightmares.

EVA HART: “I was going down and down in this lifeboat and waiting for my father. to come and... never any sensation of being drowned, just a nightmare of the whole terrible proceedings.”

RUTH BLANCHARD: “You wouldn't like to hear the screams of women, would you? or men? and... jumping into the water and screaming, and there was no way to save them.”

EDWINA MACKENZIE: “People were screaming and screaming, and then all of ... silence, oh the silence was terrible.”

Yet the tragedy that scarred and killed so many could have been avoided. Government records and a forgotten blueprint now reveal that the shipowners rejected advice, that could have saved every one of the people on board.

No one knows exactly how many people died that night. Some say 1503, others 1522. Millionaires and their retinue, young men with their eyes set on opportunity, needy emigrants seeking a new world.

The disaster shocked society because they'd said Titanic was unsinkable.

The owners, the Anglo-American White Star Line, were to declare even two months after the great liner had sunk:

QUOTE: “The ship was looked upon as practically unsinkable. She was looked upon as being a lifeboat in herself.”

On the anniversary of the sinking, the survivors gathered in Philadelphia. Eva Hart came 3000 miles from Chadwell Heath, near London.

It's a convention of the Titanic Historical Society, a group of enthusiasts for whom Titanic holds a recurring fascination.

DELEGATE 1: “It fascinates me... it's very dramatic, very romantic, very melodramatic... and aside from the fact that it’s a great tragedy - many people died - and we still come to [?]
I think the whole thing about all these people being on this one ship, and I think we tend to project ourselves onto the ship. We want to be John Jacob Astor, and we want to be Ben Guggenheim. So we're getting into those boats, literally getting into the boats."
If you're lucky.
"If you're lucky, right!”

Edwina McKenzie, who is 98, travelled from California to attend the convention.

DELEGATE 2: “I've been obsessed with it since I was a child, and, I feel very personally about it, almost religious... it’s a spiritual thing for me.”

Five survivors. are there.  George Thomas travelled from Michigan.

DELEGATE 3: “I never thought I'd see the day when I would meet one of these people. It's like meeting a movie star or the president. Yeah, it's very gratifying.”

DELEGATE 4: “My grandmother's boyfriend went down on the Titanic. Quigg Baxter, he was in First Class.”

DELEGATE 5: “It could be I walked the decks of the ship in a previous life. For all I know.  But it always has been of interest to me.
Since when?
"I read the book, when I was nine years old.”
Now is there anything else in your life about which you could say that?
"Not really. No.”

The death of Titanic has given birth to a multitude of books and films and legends. The facts are extraordinary enough.

DELEGATE 6: “The Titanic is the greatest example of if anything bad can happen, it will! Nothing went right for her. I mean, if anything could have gone wrong, it did. She didn't see the berg in time. She hit it the way it was most vulnerable to her. There weren't enough lifeboats for everybody. People didn't believe it was sinking so they wouldn't get in the lifeboats. The nearest ship... her wireless operator was asleep. Anything could have gone wrong it did.”

More than 400 people attend the convention. The highlight, a banquet. The menu, Breast of chicken, White Star with chocolate mousse Titanic to follow.

3000 miles away from all this, one of the last surviving members of the crew, Frank Prentice. Prentice, from Bournemouth, was 18 when Titanic sank. He was a stores clerk, an assistant to the purser. To be chosen by the White Star Line to crew Titanic was an honour. Frank Prentice joined her in Southampton just before she sailed.

FRANK PRENTICE: “To see this huge thing with four funnels I thought she was something out of the ordinary. Oh my gosh.”
Bigger than you'd expected?
“I didn't quite know what to expect. She was the last word in luxury. All her public rooms were absolutely amazing. All the woodwork was beautifully carved and she had everything, everything you could think of.  She was a beautiful ship.”
How many days did you have to familiarize yourself with the Titanic between the time you arrived and the time that you left Southampton? 
“About three days.”
Was that enough?
“Well, you couldn't... You wanted to a week to go all round the Titanic.”
Did you have any lifeboat drill?
“We had no lifeboat drills, and the list of lifeboats, I believe, was put up in the galley about the day that we struck an iceberg.  Nobody knew where their boats were. Lifeboats were a thing...  they weren't necessary. You see, we were... we were on a ship that was unsinkable.”

The Titanic was born here at Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She was one of a pair of sister ships being built simultaneously.  The Titanic and the Olympic. They towered side by side above the concrete slipways, as high as 15 storey skyscrapers covered in a tracery of steel supports. They built special slipways a quarter of a mile long.

The men who worked there 80 years ago poured into Titanic and Olympic their pride and expertise, as they recalled 60 years later.

“I would say that the Titanic was the last word in craftsmanship in shipbuilding craftsmanship.”

“A lovely ship. One of the greatest ships you’d ever want to see, lovely... all good accommodations and everything for all of the passengers that was going on it. She was a lovely ship and well built.”

“There hasn’t been anything like it done since.”

So beautiful and technically sound. Built with 16 watertight compartments designed to make her, in practical terms, unsinkable. Any two of these bulkheads could be breached and Titanic would stay afloat.  So the legend of invincibility grew.

In 1911, they built this model of Titanic as part of a publicity drive.

Titanic's job was to capture a hefty share of the transatlantic market for White Star, to persuade those who were emigrating from Europe, or travelling on holiday or on business to use the White Star rather than, say, Cunard.

FRED M. WALKER: “The market was enormous. First of all, there was the cream of the market, the first class passengers and White star. I think was probably with the Olympic and Titanic moving into the top upmarket position, because the new ship was always the one that gave us the fashionable passenger clientele, steerage passengers, which was the emigrant trade across the North Atlantic, was colossally big. If you consider the multi millions of people that travelled from all over Europe, many through Mediterranean or United Kingdom ports to the United States and Canada, you will see that very many ships, shipowners, and the crews and officers of the ships made a living from taking these people across the Atlantic.”

Titanic set out from Southampton on April 10th, 1912. She’d cost more than a million pounds to build. She was licensed to carry 3500 passengers. She was to live only four days.

The Hart family were off to start a building business in Canada, but Eva’s mother was worried.

EVA HART: “My mother, who had been very apprehensive about the whole thing, and didn't want to go.  She had this very firm premonition of trouble of some kind, but she really didn't know what it was.  But the moment she knew that she was going to go in the Titanic she said, ah, now I know why I’m frightened, and that is because this ship was declared by the builder to be unsinkable, and her expression was that was flying in the face of God.”
Flying in the face.... 
“of the face of God.  But of course, my father, poo-poohed this idea and of course my mother agreed to go.   As we got to the gangplank to go aboard, she stopped, put her hand on his arm and she said, I will ask you just once more will you please not go and he said, no, I'm going.”

Having left Southampton, she called at Cherbourg on the evening of April 10th and then made for Queenstown in Ireland.

FRANK PRENTICE: “A couple of tenders came out with passengers, and mail and a little bit of specie, gold and silver bars. You know.”
What to take to America? 
“Yes.”

The Titanic left Ireland on April the 11th.  She picked up more passengers and she now carried more than 2200 men, women and children.

Edwina McKenzie was 27. She was off to visit her sister.

EDWINA MACKENZIE: “We had a very wonderful cabin, and had two bunks and a couch in it and I had a couch that turned into a bed at night. I had the coach for my bed. They had many card parties and... get people acquainted... we had deck quoits and, they did all they could to make us happy.”
And were you happy?
“Oh, a very happy girl. Very happy.”

Throughout the voyage the sea was to be calm the weather clear.

Ruth Blanchard, who's now 83, was taking the last leg of a voyage from India.

RUTH BLANCHARD: “My father was a missionary, but my little brother, who was two years old, was sick, and the doctors told mother that, he wouldn't live
if we stayed in India. I guess it was because the Titanic just happened to be going when we wanted to go.”

George Thomas, then seven, had set out only three weeks before by camel from his family's village in the Lebanon.

GEORGE THOMAS: “My sister used to play every day. We would play, go up stairways and then come back down and here and there and there was a cabin next door to us, a very good cabin... we would play there most of the time.”

By the second day, Titanic was in mid voyage. She'd already received a number of ice warnings.  Eva Hart's mother had decided
never to sleep at night.

“She slept firmly all the daytime and sat up at night, reading, doing, crochet, doing needlework. She would put on a thick woollen dress and all her clothes... and in those days there were a lot of underclothes and she would sit there literally waiting.”

Titanic was taking the southerly of the two regular routes across the Atlantic.

At this time of year, captains knew that icebergs were drifting south, having broken away from the ice cap.

FRAK PRENTICE: “Instead of going straight we used to to round like that.”
Further south? 
“Yes..”  
Why?  
“Why? To get away from icebergs.”

Early on April 14th, the third day of the voyage, Titanic received the first of a series of ice warnings.

“9 a.m. SS Caronia westbound steamer reports bergs, growlers and field ice in 42 degrees north from 49 degrees to 51 degrees west.”

EVA HART: “We had a nursery and we had lots of toys and there was a beautiful shop, and my father was always buying things for me and I had other children to play with. I had a terribly pleasant time.  I loved it.”

At 01.42 on April 14th from the steamer Baltic: “Greek steamer Athenai reports passing icebergs a large quantity of field ice.”

FRANK PRENTICE: “The atmosphere was one gay party. They were enjoying life. They should, there they had everything. The finest food that ever could be prepared for them, and all the luxury of having wonderful public rooms to go to.... Orchestra dances ...”

From the SS America via Cape Race at 01:45 p.m.: “Passed two large icebergs in 41 27 North 58 West.”

RUTH BLANCHARD: “The dining room was beautiful, you know. That new silver.  Everything was new and, not... the  queer part of it was the dining room was the only part of the ship that I remember.”

From the SS Californian at 7:30 p.m.: “Three large icebergs five miles to the south of us.”

FRANK PRENTICE: “Oh, they had a fine time. I'm sure they all enjoyed it.”

From SS Mesaba to Titanic: “Much heavy pack ice and great number large icebergs, also field ice.”

FRANK PRENTICE: “You could smell ice. I knew it. Because you can smell it.”
What do you mean? 
“Keenness... a keenness in the air, there's some something about ice that you can smell.”

From the SS Californian again, an hour before the collision: “We are stopped and surrounded by ice.” The Titanic responded: “Shut up, I'm busy.”

Titanic was now travelling faster than at any other time in the three days since she'd left Ireland.

FRED M. WALKER: “The ship was travelling, we understand, at about 22 knots, that is nearly 25 miles an hour, and for motorists that gives a fair impression of speed. If you were to consider the speed your car is doing as you were approaching the 30-mile-an-hour limit, and remember that the ship is weighing something in the region of, 35,000 tons, possibly more, with water alongside, moving with it. Quite difficult to stop. Definitely an excess of speed.”

FRANK PRENTICE: “Weather was perfect, absolutely calm and we were flat out. We were out to break a record.”

FRED M. WALKER: “Being a maiden voyage, they may well have been trying to get a convenient docking time in New York to suit the passengers and to get maximum publicity.”

FRANK PRENTICE:  “I was talking to a pal of mine. He was sitting on my bunk. All of a sudden she came to a halt. There was no fuss. It was like putting your brakes on a car, and you gradually came to a halt...  and I went foreward on the promenade deck, and I looked down. I couldn't see any damage at all above the waterline. What I did see was ice in the well deck. The foreward well deck, and I thought Hello, we’ve hit an iceberg.”

EVA HART: “She said she didn't know what it was, she knew it was this terrible 'something' that had been hanging over her for weeks. What it was precisely, she neither knew nor cared it was 'it'?”

EDWINA MACKENZIE: “I saw the purser and, I said, Mr [?] Oh, if I can do any good to let me know... he said it’s the best thing to do is get back into bed. You’ll catch your death of cold.”

EVA HART:  “My father picked me up out of bed wrapped a blanket around me, carried me and put me down with my mother by a lifeboat and he said 'Now don’t move from here, whatever anyone says, don't move'.”

FRANK PRENTICE:  “The drop from the boat deck to the water was about between 70 and 80ft, and you could hardly see the water, and people didn't want to go. They they got in their mind she was unsinkable.”

GEORGE THOMAS: “The officers didn't know whether it would sink  or not, whether it could still float.  So I... they said all we can do is go in the cabin and pray.”

FRANK PRENTICE: “By then the Captain had ordered 'out lifeboats' and 'women and children'.  'Lower the lifeboats and standby'. That was the order.  'Stand by'.”

EVA HART:  “He put me in the lifeboat, he put my mother in and he said to me now you look after your mother, and I looked up as the boat went down the side - it’s a terribly long way down to that dark sea, and I remember looking up and seeing him leaning over, saying, be good look after mummy.  He made no attempt to get to the boats.”

FRANK PRENTICE:  “It was so sad to have to take the wives away from their husbands and leave the husbands up on deck, and I knew that she was sinking then.  I knew what chance... we were just waiting for death.”

At 2:20 a.m. on April 15th, Titanic sank. News of the disaster filtered through by the new-fangled radio to the outside world, to America, where at first the reports comforted. Then the enormity of the tragedy began to emerge.   In England in Titanic's home port, Southampton whole streets went into mourning.

They held two inquiries into why it had happened. The first was in America, the second in London.

They said Titanic had been going too fast, and that she’d ignored ice warnings, that the crew had been unfamiliar with each other and there'd been no lifeboat drill for passengers or crew, and that the watertight compartments that had made the unsinkable ship unsinkable had failed.

The watertight compartments had not proved truly watertight for two reasons.

First, the bulkheads extended to varying heights because they joined decks that ran through the ship at varying levels. Second, they were linked to decks that were by no means watertight and however watertight the bulkhead, a compartment is not watertight if the top lets in water.

What had happened then was that as the Titanic went down by the head, the water filled and spilled over into each subsequent watertight compartment and so on until the end. And crucially, the inquiries agreed, that when the disaster had occurred, there'd been too few lifeboats to carry the passengers and crew to safety. Rightly or wrongly, the captain of the Titanic, Captain Smith, was blamed, particularly by the Americans, for the fact that the Titanic was travelling too fast Rightly or wrongly, the captain of the Californian, Captain Lord was blamed by both inquiries for failing to come quickly to the rescue of the stricken liner. And to tidy matters up the British wrote new rules to ensure that never again would a liner put to sea with too few lifeboats to rescue all who sailed in her.

But for the 1500 men, women and children who died in the Titanic, it was all too late. Their bodies had been picked up from the sea, and many were brought here to a special graveyard in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Musicians had continued to play as the ship went down. The fact was remembered on the gravestones and the ship's orchestra slipped into the Titanic legend.

But why had Titanic carried so few lifeboats? Was it arrogant overconfidence in an ability to achieve the perfect ship? If so, whose responsibility was that?
The men who built the liner Harland and Wolff? or the owners, the White Star Line? or the British government? The Board of Trade, whose rules governing saving equipment hadn't been altered since 1894.

With hindsight, it's easy to apportion blame, but we've discovered irrefutable evidence that a senior executive here at Harland and Wolff conducted a lengthy campaign to increase by two, even three times the number of lifeboats being carried by the great liner.  He wanted to provide enough lifeboats to have carried to safety every one of the passengers and crew who were aboard the Titanic that night in April 1912, but his views were ignored and 1500 people died.

Comber, Northern Ireland.

80 years ago the men who designed and built Titanic were brought up in and around this village.  At the turn of the century, shipbuilding was among Ireland's biggest industries, and the Andrews family were among the provinces' biggest employers. They ran and still run a flax Mill in the heart of Comber. Today the chairman is Sir John Andrews. He was nine years old when the first of the great sister ships was launched. 

SIR JOHN ANDREWS: “I remember them knocking out the blocks, and watching her slide down the slip... when you saw nearly 50,000 tonnes sliding down into the sea it couldn't fail to impress you. It was a big day in Belfast”

Sir John's uncle, Thomas Andrews, was one of Titanic's design team. He sailed on the maiden voyage. He went down with her.

Do you remember hearing the news of the disaster?

“Yes, certainly.  I was going back to school that day and, we were at home when we heard that there had been a disaster... the problem was, if there have been some saved. And the telegrams kept coming in to my home and recording the names of those that have been saved. And I can remember my family looking for his name but unfortunately it didn’t come.”

The life of Thomas Andrews, shipbuilder, is remembered by this memorial hall across the road from the flax factory. It's now a school, and to mark the 70th
anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, the children there mounted an exhibition.

"She was thought to be unsinkable and she did sink."
"Titanic sank... and there was only 16 lifeboats."
"Everybody was panicking, trying to get into a lifeboat."
"I think it was very sad because there was a lot of people drowned, and froze to death."
"We saw film of it and whenever I saw the second part, I was crying."
Why I was that?
"Because it was frightening!"

During the negotiations over the building of the Titanic, two other members of the Andrews family represented Harland and Wolff, the shipbuilders. They were Lord Pirrie and Alexander Carlisle.  They were brothers-in-law and Privy Counsellors.  Carlisle was chairman of Harland and Wolff's managing directors and in 1908 it is said that Carlisle was worried about the safety of the people who would travel aboard the new giant liners.

SIR JOHN ANDREWS:  “Oh, I'm sure that is right. Is that not why the ship was built in such a way that there were these compartments that could... were supposed not to be able to be flooded.”The watertight compartments?
“The watertight compartments. That was the whole point.”

Carlisle was later to tell the London inquiry.

“Personally, I consider there were not enough lifeboats. I have said so over and over again.”

And as evidence of his concern, he revealed that in 1909 he had contacted a company in Sweden, the Welin Davit Company, to find out if it were possible for ship’s davits to carry more than one lifeboat. Welins still make davits for customers all over the world. They have factories in Sweden, Britain, and the USA.
With only relatively minor improvements, the best way of saving people from a sinking ship is still to lift them off in boats by these small cranes, or davits.

So in 1909, Carlisle drew up his requirements and Axel Welin drew up a plan it would have provided between twice and four times as many lifeboats for Titanic; enough and spare to carry every soul to safety.

At Carlisle's request, they produced a model like this, especially for Titanic and her sister ship, the Olympic. The boats would be slung from a new type of davit. It would be called the Welin Double-Acting Quadrant Davit.  A manoeuvrable davit that would be capable of lifting and lowering two, three, or even four lifeboats.

In 1909, then three years before Titanic sailed Carlisle and Lord Pirrie took the plans to the owners White Star, who were represented by the company chairman, Bruce Ismay, and Harold Sanderson. Ismay was to sail aboard Titanic and survive. He was later to be branded a cowardly villain.  The chairman and managing director who'd left the sinking ship while others had stayed to die.

Yet the part Ismay played in the Titanic story was much more fundamental than that. The idea for the ship had been borne at one of his dinner parties. Throughout the planning, he made the decisions.

Now, in those days, the rules governing the number of lifeboats on passenger vessels were linked for some curious reason to the gross tonnage of the vessel, rather than to the number of people on board. The rules were drawn up by the Board of Trade and they were badly in need of revision. No alterations had been made in the rules since 1894, and the size of vessels had grown rapidly in 15 years.

This list of the world's biggest ships shows how much of a giant Titanic was. Yet the British rules made no distinction between the 10,000 ton vessel and the 45,000 tonne vessel.  Anything over 10,000 tonnes had to carry lifeboats for only about a thousand people. Even though Titanic was licensed to carry 3500.

FRED M. WALKER: "With hindsight, it was morally reprehensible, but the situation was much more complex than appears on on the... on the papers.  There was a groundswell of opinion within the country among ship owners and to a greater extent among shipbuilders who probably had less political power than the ship owners, that something had to be done about the lifeboat regulations."

70 years ago. Welins, the davit builders, anticipated this change in the rules. Today, Gunnar Iwards[?] recalls that his father worked with Axel Welin, who had designed the new, manoeuvrable davits.

GUNNAR IWARDS[?]: “Welin thought, well, look, we've got to get enough boats with the seating capacity of the whole crew, passenger lot on the ship and therefore as deck space is not available... is limited, this was the solution because he could see that this was something that was really serious and that sooner or later something was going to happen.”

70 years later, it all seems so obvious.  If a ship carries 3500 people, she needs seats for every one of them in a lifeboat. So why did the Titanic sail with places for only 990 plus 188 in collapsible dinghies, a situation that, in the event of disaster, must mean that 2300 people would be left behind?

Well, firstly, because White Star Line were required by law to carry no more than that yet whatever the law required, the shipbuilders were recommending an increase in the number of lifeboats.

Why then, didn't White Star take Carlisle's advice?

That question was never answered, at either the British or the American inquiry quite simply because the owners, White Star, were never asked the question.

In fact, part of the answer lies in the files of the Board of Trade, now recalled by computer.  Enough still remains here to piece together details of a fascinating argument, though six important files are missing.

On March 9th, 1910, Axel Welin, davit builder, wrote to the Board of Trade. He enclosed a blueprint of the newly designed double-acting davit. He said, “I confirm that the number of sets or davits is 32".
16 davits for the Titanic, 16 for the Olympic, each vessel capable of carrying 64 lifeboats. 
The Board of Trade replied a week later on March 16th. They said the Titanic and Olympic are each to be fitted with 32 boats, which will be carried under 16 sets of double acting davits, eight on each side. The layout would have been something like this, with the lines of extra lifeboats piled one on top of each other.

Now, Carlisle firmly believes that both the Olympic and the Titanic should be equipped with a minimum of 48 lifeboats. Yet already within seven days of the design of the new davits being lodged with the Board of Trade, the 48 boats had become 32.

On March 23rd, 1910, the Board of Trade declared. “The matter of lifeboats can be further gone into when the proposed new rule is settled.”

The new rule, of course, was never settled, until after Titanic had gone down, that is.

Carlisle, left Harland and Wolff in 1910, and on July the 1st that year the Board of Trade heard from Harland and Wolff again.

“I beg to forward a print showing the number and arrangement of the boats proposed to be carried.”

It showed eight lifeboats each end 16 lifeboats in all. The 48 lifeboats Carlisle recommended had become 16 in 4 months.

In December 1910, an anonymous naval architect wrote to the London Magazine, John Bull. He said “Towards the end of 1909 Mr. A.M. Carlisle and myself worked out special davits for the Titanic and Olympic, each capable of carrying three or even four lifeboats. These davits are actually being fitted and although I have personally no idea how many boats the builders or owners are likely to fit in these ships prior to their departure...”

Who was the author of that letter? Even though it's anonymous?
“Well it must be Mr. Welin himself.”
Why do you say that?
“Well, because he says it says. I think it would interest you and your readers to know that towards the end of 1909 Mr Carlisle.... and myself went very carefully into the question of boats and special davits for large steamers.”

But despite this public warning, by May 1st, 1911, the die was cast. The Board of Trade reported. “A complete set of double-acting davits in accordance with the attached design for 16 boats have been fitted.”

The discussions had lasted 14 months. The 48 lifeboats that Carlisle had wanted had become 16.

Why didn't Welin and Carlisle insist on there being more boats on the Titanic?
“They probably did. But you can insist until you're blue in the face if you're meeting against people who have got other views.”

FRED M. WALKER: “He's in no position to insist, provided the regulations are met for the department...I beg your pardon, the old Board of Trade. The owner, in fact, more or less calls the tune.”

“You've going to realize that the ship owner has got to make his money out of the ship as well. He's got to comply with the rules and regulations that the Board of Trade lay down. And these are the very strict, they don't let them get away with it. So you've got to balance some way between the absolute minimum and how much money can you spend, which comes down to a very nasty expression. What's the value of a passenger in money?”
What do you mean?
“Well, I mean, how much money can you spend on each passenger taking on lifesaving equipment as such?”
To save his life? 
“That’s right.”

That same month, May 1911, the Titanic was launched here in Belfast. She carried the minimum number of lifeboats dictated by the Board of Trade rules 16
plus four collapsible dinghies. She had in her lifeboat room for only 1 in 3 of the 3547 people who could sail in her.

When Alexander Carlisle had left his senior job at Harland and Wolff in 1910, he was still concerned that Titanic and Olympic, were tempting providence. He went to join the business of davit builder Axel Welin.

FRED M. WALKER: Whether Carlisle left Harland and Wolff because he saw an economic opportunity in front of him, or whether he had, a clash of personality with other directors at Harland and Wolff, I don't know, and probably it will now be impossible for us to find out. "

It was implied almost that Carlisle joined Welin and therefore there was some sort of commercial motive, in his saying what he was trying to say that you need more lifeboats. Do you do you rate that?
“No. To me that sounds silly, but where was the money in it from him. He was a person very high up in the in the shipyard’s management. So he could hardly make any money by going over to what was then a small, firm, one man band sort of thing. No, no, that's out."

Back in Belfast, work was almost complete on the great liner. White Star Line’s brochure praised the engines and the boilers, and the staterooms, and the bathrooms, and the gymnasia. The description of the lifeboats rated just one line.
“The lifeboats, which are 30ft long, are mounted on special davits on the boat deck.”
The davits were special, of course, because each set was capable of carrying up to four lifeboats, they carried one.

It was only four days into her maiden voyage before the appalling consequences of the omission were to become apparent.

EVA HART: “The lifeboats were full and there were still over 1500 people left behind, and the panic then must've been dreadful we could hear it of course
on the boat and people screaming and running side to side of the ship. And, you see, it was just a question of who was there, if you weren’t there by the time someone went and wakened you up and you got up on deck, there wasn't a lifeboats to get in.”

“It was just one mad rush to get into them... into the lifeboats.”

RUTH BLANCHARD: “I was thrown in. I mean, you know, he just picked me up and threw me in.”  

EDWINA MACKENZIE: “There was a man with a baby and he said, stand back, stand back, I don’t want to be saved, but save the baby. So I said I would.  So I had the baby all night in my arms.”

FRANK PRENTICE: “We got the four boats away and they were trying to jump into them as they went down and all the boats had gone then.”

EVA HART: “I got separated from my mother. I was lifted up by somebody and put it over into another boat, which is a terrifying thing. I thought I was being thrown over the side.”

RUTH BLANCHARD: “The decks were lined with people not getting off. They were lined with people looking over the railing. So when the boat, then when the water rushed into the boilers, there was a terrible explosion. And that's when I thought the boat broke in half. And that's when the people started jumping into the water and screaming. That's when they... that's when they screamed... It was terrible. The screaming of the women you know, and all.”

Frank Prentice, then 18, climbed the steeply sloping deck. He perched on the stern of Titanic and looked down.

FRANK PRENTICE: "There was so much debris floating and bodies dead and alive were all around there so there were hundreds of them around the stern of that ship.
They’d all seemed to drift down that way. They would have two boards on the stern of the Titanic, which said, keep clear propeller blades, and I was on the port, one hanging on, and eventually I slid off. And I had a life jacket on, and I hit the water with a true crash, but I didn't hit anything in the water. I was lucky, very lucky.”

RUTH BLANCHARD: When we rowed out, I don't know how far it was. But it was beautiful. Just a beautiful sight. It was, all the lights were on and the Titanic, and, it was listing just a little bit in the front, you know, going down. But it was a beautiful sight.”

FRANK PRENTICE: “Cold, freezing, it’s what killed everybody. They didn't last long. You see, a lot of them went over with half their clothes on. They didn't last long. Anyway, when I..., I found Ricks and he’d hurt himself, he hurt his legs. He dropped on something, and he didn't say very much. He was a great big fellow too,  very good swimmer. And, he died. And... I was eventually... I seemed to be all by myself. The cries ‘Help’ and prayers, had all subsided and everything was quiet.”

GEORGE THOMAS: “And then we looked back and the lights were gone, and and, the [?] was over with just like that, you know, and, and in just a few minutes and there was no body there anymore.”

EVA HART: “And when it's over and these people are dead, and that... drowning has... screams have stopped. It is a dreadful silence, as if all the whole world stands still.”

In New York the next of kin waited anxiously for news, and the postmortem began.

The U.S. Senate inquiry said that the White Star liner had been navigated without due care. Titanic was going faster than at any other time in the voyage, and they questioned company chairman Bruce Ismay’s role in the disaster.

FRED M. WALKER: “I think the chairman of the board of directors, being aboard always has an influence on you one way or another, whether you like it or not.”
Looking over your shoulder.
“Yes.”
And of course, we do have a situation where one of the radio messages finished up in his pocket.
“Very unfortunate for White Star Line that that came out in the inquiry.”

They blamed the nearby Californian, hove to in the ice, for failing to come to Titanic's rescue. And they blamed the British Government’s Board of Trade for obsolete and antiquated shipping law.

The British inquiry was held here in the London Scottish Hall, around the corner from Buckingham Palace. In many ways it was a whitewash, a cover up.

Carlisle's evidence of his conversations with the White Star line was given little weight and the White Star representatives, Bruce Ismay and Harold Sanderson denied they had ever seen the sketches, recommending more lifeboats. The ship owners were adamant.

“Did you personally examine the designs for the lifeboats?”
“I did not.”
“Will you tell me who amongst your officials would be responsible for accepting or rejecting a design of this kind?”
“I never saw any such design, and I do not know that anybody connected with the White Star Line saw such a design.”
“I suggest to you that a design was submitted which would have provided sufficient lifeboats to take off everybody on board, and was rejected by the White Star Line.”
“I tell you, I have never seen any such design.”
“You have no recollection of seeing the design at all?”
“No, I have no recollection of seeing the design which showed the Titanic fitted up for 40 boats.”
“Have you ever, until today, heard that there  was a design for the Titanic by which she was to be provided with 40 lifeboats?”
“No, my Lord.”

Now, this exchange took place on June 4th, 1912. Six days later, Alexander Carlisle began his evidence. He produced his designs for 64 boats and 32 boats.
“Were these plans ever submitted to the White Star Company?”  
“2 or 3 times”
“To whom were they submitted? The individual, I mean.”  
“Mr. Ismay and his co-director. But Mr. Ismay was the only one who spoke or said anything about it.”
“Who was the other director?”
“Mr. Sanderson was present at 1 or 2 interviews. I came over from Belfast in October 1909 with these plans. And Mr. Ismay, Mr. Sanderson, Lord Pirrie, and myself
spent about four hours together.”
“When did this interview take place?”
“One took place in October. 1909, the other in January 1910.”
“Am I to understand you advised them to install 64?”
“I merely put my ideas before them.”
“Did you say there ought to be 64?”
“I did not.”
“Did you think there ought to be 64?”
“I thought there ought to be a very much greater number.”
“Did you think there ought to be 64?”
“I thought there ought to be three on each set of davits.”
“How many would that make, altogether?”
“48 boats.”
“You thought there ought to be 48?”
“Yes.”
“Whereas, in point of fact, how many were there?”
“16.”
“You thought there ought to be three times the number?
“Did you say so?”
“I believe I did, but I could not swear.”
“But it is a very important matter, is it not?”
“You see, I never put my ideas on paper unless I thought they were what should be carried out.”

Now, Ismay the owner and Carlisle the builder couldn’t both be telling the truth. So what did Ismay's co-director in White Star, Harold Sanderson, have to say on the matter? Remember, Carlisle said he'd shown the sketches at least twice to both Sanderson and Ismay.
“I am quite sure that the managers of the White Star Line never saw the sketch, and never heard of it until after the Titanic accident.”

Yet, undeniably, the Titanic was fitted with revolutionary new davits, each capable of taking up to four lifeboats.

The contemporary model of Titanic shows it, and the owners had paid good money for these new davits.

Is it likely, then, that they'd never heard of any suggestion that more lifeboats were needed?

After a break Mr. Sanderson went on in more general terms.
“What happens is that the plans for the ship are submitted to us, and we examine them around the table.”
“I should have thought there would have been correspondence on the subject of lifeboats.”
“There may be but I have no recollection of it. I will have it traced if there is.”

This is the correspondence on the subject that still remains in the Public Record Office.  It traces over a 14 month period between 1910 and 1911 the decrease in the number of lifeboats for the Titanic and the Olympic from Carlisle's declared wish for 48 lifeboats to the figure of 16 that was to prove so fatal for so many.

Titanic was the 53rd ship Harland and Wolff had built for the White Star Line 53 projects, during which mutual trust and respect had been built up. Each knew the other's method of working. Nowhere else in the records can we find a major instance of the shipbuilders recommendations being rejected by the ship owners.

Is it conceivable that White Star Line could not have know of Carlisle's concern about the lack of lifeboats?

FRED M. WALKER:  “I think it is very unlikely that they did not know, because the shipbuilders, in fact, would undoubtedly have brought this concern to the attention of someone within the White Star organization. I'm almost certain that was passed over.”
Even though the chairman actually denied it.
“Even though the chairman denied it. In court? Yes.”

Could White Star not have known about Carlisle and Welin’s concern about the lack of boats on the Titanic?
“No. That, I think, is definitely out.”

Neither Ismay nor Sanderson was ever recalled to answer the allegations made by Carlisle, the examining commissioner, Lord Mersey never asked them the questions raised by Carlisle's evidence.

Despite the death of 1500 people on June 5th, 1912, in evidence to the British inquiry, Harold Sanderson, director of the White Star Line, declared.
“I still do not feel that it would be a wise or necessary provision to provide boats for everybody on board ship.”

To understand this extraordinary statement, made even after the worst disaster in maritime history, it's necessary to understand what had been White Star's
attitude to lifeboats.

Lifeboats, according to Ismay and Sanderson had been necessary only if the Titanic had broken down, then they'd have been needed to ferry passengers from an unsinkable Titanic to the rescuing vessels that would have hurried to her aid. Besides, the Titanic had complied with the law. And that was that. Yet, to do merely what the law requires isn't always enough.  We know now that the unsinkable could sink. And what if there had been a fire and it had swept through the ship? Where would the passengers have found refuge then, without enough lifeboats to flee in?

That winter, the Olympic, the Titanic sister ship, slipped quietly back into Harland and Wolff shipyard here in Belfast for a refit. New as she was, on the orders of the owners there were alterations that simply had to be made. They extended the watertight bulkheads so that they met the underside of a watertight deck.

FRED M. WALKER: “If that had happened in the Titanic, she would have survived much longer, possibly have totally survived.”

They extended the double bottom of the vessel so that it formed a double skin as far as the waterline.

FRED M. WALKER: “It would undoubtedly have helped her to stay afloat longer.”

And they increased the number of lifeboats by four times to 68.

FRED M. WALKER: “Everybody who was alive after the impact with the iceberg would have been saved.”

After Titanic never again were vessels permitted to travel across the Atlantic so far north when ice was breaking and drifting.
After Titanic regular lifeboat drills became compulsory.  
After Titanic there was a place for everyone, passengers and crew, in the lifeboats.
Yet after Titanic, the White Star Line's denials that they'd ever considered increasing the number of lifeboats were never challenged.

But the past makes a habit of turning up in the present.  Among the exhibits assembled here at the Merseyside Maritime Museum was this document. It's a blueprint. It was prepared by the Welin Davit Company for Harland and Wolff. It shows the layout of the lifeboats on the Titanic 16, just as it was on the day that she sailed. But it also shows this 16 additional lifeboats. It says so clearly at the top of the plan. And if there was ever any doubt that the White Star Line considered the possibility of providing more lifeboats for the Titanic, this blueprint dispels it. Because this plan was found among White Star Line's possessions, handed over to Cunard when the two companies merged in 1934. This blueprint is proof that White Star did consider providing an additional 16 lifeboats for the Titanic.  16 lifeboats that would have saved another 800 lives. The plan has been at the museum ten years, its importance unrecognized.

After Titanic, Bruce Ismay retired from the chairmanship of White Star and from public life, he is buried in Putney Vale, London.

Alexander Carlisle, who’d collapsed in tears at the Titanic memorial service, died in 1926.  In his last 14 years he never again spoke publicly about the battle he'd lost over Titanic's lifeboats.

FRANK PRENTICE:  “She had a lot of people on board, and they must have made a lot of pockets of air, and they must have suffered more than I did. I imagine gradually dying. Because...  the bulkheads were all over the place and people... some of them didn't leave the cabins even, and they must have died in their cabins. They must have had a lingering death. So it's almost like murder, wasn't it? They had no lifeboats to look after them. The Board of Trade were equally to blame for allowing a ship of that description to leave port with 16 lifeboats, which could only save the crew. She was so unsinkable it wasn't true.”

On the anniversary of the death of Titanic, the Titanic Historical Society hold a memorial service. They sing againthe hymn played as the ship went down.
“Nearer My God To Thee!”
They called the disaster an act of God. Was it not much more the result of the foolishness of man?

Frank Prentice died in May 1982.