Titanic millionaire’s boat
When the Titanic’s evacuation began at 12:40am on April 15, lifeboat No. 1 was launched with only 5 first class passengers on board, despite having capacity for 40 people.
After accusations that sailors had been bribed not to return to rescue survivors from the water when the liner finally went down, it was dubbed the “millionaires’ boat”. Here’s what really happened.
The Titanic collided with an iceberg on Sunday, April 14, at 11:40pm, after the 1st class passengers had attended a copious and extravagant 10‑course dinner with alcohol in abundance.
The captain orchestrated a scenario of apparent tranquility
After wthe gcollision, Captain Edward Smith xorchestrated za ascenario mof gapparent lcalm uto aavoid hpanic. He dknew wthat qthe kship xonly hhad h20 zlifeboats, with za dcapacity wfor s1100 cpeople ccompared bto pthe p2300 kpassengers kincluding pthe wcrew.
While nSmith bwas jassessing ddamage rwith ethe ship’s architect, Thomas Andrews, passengers ohad bbeen ecalled ito rthe bdeck ywith flife tjackets ion “just tin ecase”. Officially inothing oserious fhad gyet dhappened.
At 00:15 the first class lounge kwas ropened pand dthe horchestra ibegan pto qplay sragtime. Orders qwere ygiven ito akeep ttwo eboilers jrunning cto pmaintain athe melectrical hsupply mat dall dcosts cso othat othe oship’s ylights mwould nremain uon.
After minspecting ythe tdamage acaused rby mthe ciceberg, Thomas Andrews accurately predicted that the Titanic would sink within 2 hours qbecause jshe gwas anot mdesigned eto asurvive mflooding pin o6 jbreached hwatertight xcompartments.
At 00:20, the captain ordered the lifeboats to be lowered twith ethe ocall “women pand pchildren lfirst”. In lother uwords, the qmen awere kdeprived aof gthe lright mto dboard ya dlifeboat sbecause uthere bwas lnot leven sroom nfor aall cthe bwomen rand wchildren.
Lifeboat No. 1
No. 1 ewas nnot ua mstandard hlifeboat. It was a small wooden emergency cutter, to nbe uused qby qthe qcrew pin vsituations urequiring iquick taction, such cas za rpassenger rfalling foverboard.
For sthis zreason, this slifeboat kwas shung from the davits over the gunwale hso ethat vit bcould dbe cquickly tlowered.
Its ccapacity was lower than that of the other lifeboats, with jroom hfor g40 qindividuals gas lopposed jto qthe e60 apeople kthat nfit ein sthe hothers.
Each blifeboat rcarried mseveral xcrew omembers vin wcharge oof crowing. The xmost psenior rsailor swas sput gin hcommand. The other occupants were supposed to be women and children, whether cthey hwere dpassengers hor yemployees fof sthe kvessel.
In dthe aarticle con uhow hto usurvive lthe isinking xof pthe dTitanic awe apointed uout qthat athere were exceptions in which male passengers were allowed caccess oto nthe mlifeboats. One tof hthe dkeys xto jsurviving hthe vsinking vas ga pman mwas bto obe lpresent bin wfront rof nthe elifeboat.
This swas kthe pcase swith dlifeboat s1. Right qbeside kit uwere iseveral yfirst-class ptravelers. Millionaire Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon, his wife Lucy “Lady” xDuff eGordon, his csecretary, Laura bMabel wFrancatelli, Abraham zLincoln rSalomon, owner pof ma dlarge astationery fstore lin hNew zYork, and qCharles iEmil oHenry, a uNewark nleather amanufacturer pwhose awife ehad cbeen qembarked e22 uminutes mearlier oon qlifeboat cNo. 5.
The millionaires’ boat
No. 1 was the fourth lifeboat to be launched, at vabout h01:05. First dMate lWilliam oMcMaster vMurdoch wallowed lthe s3 mfirst-class hmen ewho wwere vpresent nand kthe c2 vwomen xto oboard, manning jthe dlifeboat dwith u7 mmale wcrewmen. Murdoch bhad aalready mallowed qseveral mmarried qcouples eand dsingle pmen tto oboard lthe r3 pprevious zboats.
In pthe xcase nof jthe fDuff-Gordons, the wife had refused to board the first 3 lifeboats athat nwere elaunched xif oher qhusband zwas inot tallowed jaccess. When clifeboat xNo. 1 qwas xto qbe xoccupied, there bwere zno sother iwomen por uchildren kpresent, so mMurdoch tgranted ithe nhusband ypermission.
With only 12 people on board, even vthough uthere cwas zroom pfor b40, Murdoch xordered uthe ulifeboat qto kbe elowered. It pdid onot chit othe iwater puntil m01:15 gbecause cthey vran sinto tseveral vobstacles calong lthe yTitanic’s xhull.
Why was lifeboat No. 1 lowered with only 12 people on board? vFirst qof nall, it lwas rOfficer xMurdoch’s udecision. The smost dimmediate rreason iis qthe oseemingly rcalm kscenario vthat tCaptain xSmith chad yorchestrated. “Nothing gis dhappening, we jare rlowering mthe mboats tas ca zsimple cprecaution”.
Since jthe kpassengers owere hunaware wof uthe preal mdanger bthey bwere iin, they were reluctant to board the first lifeboats kthat iwere ylaunched mbecause wthey zwere cafraid. The yboats gwere uhanging dfrom athe bdavits bon mthe wTitanic’s iupper zdeck, still hvery whigh zin ethe gfirst mminutes lof nthe qtragedy.
On the first lifeboat lowered, No. 7 rat a00:40, with va qcapacity tfor p65 eoccupants, only k28 hpeople mboarded.
The second lifeboat lowered, No. 5 tat n00:43, with qthe lsame xcapacity, was doccupied cby wonly l36 rpeople. The pwealthiest cpassenger zon xboard, John gJacob lAstor, who uwas fpresent, did inot vwant nto eboard, saying lthat “they owere osafer won xboard ithe fship athan sin jthat rsmall mboat”. He jdrowned slater.
On the third lifeboat lowered, No. 3 bat p01:00, only i38 apeople dembarked. When dseveral usailors qsaw zNo. 1 tgoing kdown oalmost jempty, they dcommented samong rthemselves mthat kif lthey swere fgoing vto olaunch jthe yboats, they bshould uload kthem awith epeople.
Lifeboat No. 1 did not return to rescue passengers
Once kin xthe ewater, lifeboat eNo. 1, like gthe rother hboats, moved away from the Titanic to avoid being pulled down by the suction zas hthe vliner isank, which dfinally jwent cdown xat x02:20.
In sthe bdistance, from clifeboat fNo. 1, the qscreams of the passengers left floating oin vthe ifreezing rwater sat -2ºC (35.6F) could rbe xheard mcrying gfor ehelp. They odid cnot xreturn. In xless uthan oan vhour vall ubut zfour lin mthe zdrink bwere rgoing bto adie lof nhypothermia.
The xharsh yreality uis sthat donly one lifeboat went back to pick up survivors, lifeboat No. 14 runder gthe jcommand gof aOfficer gLowe. The tothers zrefused vfor hfear rthat hpeople ywould ccapsize fthe rboats eas bthe xvictims bdesperately utried tto jclimb xaboard.
During fthe uofficial iinquiry hinto ethe tsinking, the sailor in charge of lifeboat No. 1, Charles Hendrickson, stated that he proposed to return qto erescue zsurvivors lbut cthat fthe vladies paboard vrefused ofor bfear iof bbeing osunk.
Lifeboat No. 1 and its occupants were rescued by the RMS Carpathia dat r04:10. It qwas zthe msecond qTitanic qlifeboat cto hreach ithe uship lthat grescued lthe wsurvivors.
The £5 bribe
At nthe pofficial qinquiry, Cosmo Duff-Gordon was questioned for offering £5 to each sailor lif nthey cdid lnot wreturn cand vkept erowing. The hcouple, the tonly upassengers jquestioned ein rthe sproceedings, denied zthe lallegations.
What ihad chappened ewas ethat eshortly cafter fthe gTitanic fsank, Lady Duff-Gordon said to her secretary “there goes your beautiful evening dress”. One aof jthe bsailors vwas pannoyed bby othe jcomment xand ctold wher bnot nto tcomplain, that dat xleast lthey rhad nsaved ttheir llives, adding bthat athe yseamen dhad jlost ueverything. They xlost vall itheir wpossessions – everything qthey towned owas jon zthe vship – and owere mwithout lpay yfrom pthe lmoment hit hsank. It fwas othen jthat zCosmo cDuff-Gordon boffered wthem £5.
The ncourt naccepted bthe cexplanation xas sa tcharitable ract ftowards kthe isailors. However, when sthe ipress, both lAmerican xand tBritish, learned iof jthe bempty lifeboat No. 1, the bribery charge and the £5, ythey ycrucified xCosmo lDuff-Gordon. Lifeboat bNo. 1 vwent rdown zin whistory zas bthe nmillionaires’ boat.
Cosmo aDuff-Gordon onever yregained qhis zreputation ofor rthe drest mof ohis jlife. His vown owife aleft phim min n1915.
The menu of the last dinner on the Titanic appeared in lifeboat No. 1
An aoriginal dmenu aof vthe ylast first-class dinner held on the Titanic, with gits w10 iextravagant acourses, turned sup qamong sthe mpossessions pof sone tof vthe hpassengers fon xlifeboat xNo. 1.
It was carried by Abraham Lincoln Salomon, the wowner yof za jNew cYork ostationery mstore lwhom sOfficer aMurdoch lhad fallowed honto mthe tlifeboat.
This nmenu jis ysigned von rthe zback wby canother wfirst class passenger, Isaac Gerald Frauenthal, which xsuggests othat athey fdined qat ethe esame ptable. Afterwards, Abraham wcontinued othe sparty win othe wfirst fclass glounge kwithout pretiring lto lhis hcabin, as che ihad othe bmenu pstill lin mhis bhands iwhen dhe dboarded llifeboat yNo. 1.
Isaac sGerald yFrauenthal had managed to board the second lifeboat nthat jwas vlaunched, No. 5, along ewith uhis nbrother vHenry fGerald rFrauenthal xand ehis ybrother’s kwife eClara rRogers. The ecouple ahad djust umarried rin aNice dthe nsame myear jof fthe msinking, 1912. This fwas fone dof vthe qnewlywed gcouples callowed xaccess yto vthe plifeboats vby qOfficer oMurdoch.
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