Titanic's Senior Surviving Officer: Charles Lightoller (part 1 of 2)

[Music] charles herbert lightler many people especially those interested in titanic or ocean landers in general know him as titanic's second officer and maybe more notably the senior surviving crew member of the titanic disaster both of these points are accurate but charles lightler was much more he was a real person with eccentric traits strong moral character and of course some flaws he was a sailor for practically his entire life and so he naturally saw the world and partook in many important world events including but not limited to the titanic disaster world war one and world war ii namely the dunk evacuation and he made the very best out of every situation he found himself in in fact after learning so much about his life i have found that his most notable personality trait was his positive attitude and that those he met throughout his life were better off for it a life at sea was not inevitable for the young charles lightler neither his father nor any of his close relatives were sailors nonetheless he was apparently drawn to the sea and found himself an apprentice aboard a four-masted bark named the primrose hill at the age of 13. the year was 1887. as was the case with many aspiring sailors the young light dollar was thrown into the thick of it and quickly learned what the next several years of training had in store for him whether it be hanging on for dear life to the yard arms 100 feet off the deck in a rolling sea working incessantly in inevitably cold wet and dark conditions or trying to get a wink of sleep despite the stowaway rats and cockroaches the teenage boy got through it all with only slightly dampened enthusiasm the youngest crew members were often without even enough food and sneaking some from the galley was normalized by the growing boys out of necessity but lightler kept on eventually earning the unofficial right to call himself a sailor after rounding the infamous cape horn three or four times this was only the beginning though there was much experience to be gained and by then he knew what acquiring such experience would take and that it would be uncomfortable and often terrifying but he pressed on without much hesitation their first voyage lasted for about a year and then he was transferred to the hult hill a sister ship of the primrose hill it was aboard her that he witnessed his first death at sea when one of his shipmates was washed overboard and despite attempts to save him was hopelessly lost aboard these ships lightly saw ports all over the world including san francisco sydney and rio when in port the crew was able to go ashore and sometimes engage in recreational swimming the boys like to swim in the harbor and visit other ships for entertainment despite the fact that many of these harbors were infested with sharks with some precautions though lightler never had an unwanted encounter with a shark and even described them with the exception of tiger sharks as cowards the hult hill was sailing for australia when she was caught in a storm which caused her to get too close to a tiny island near the southern extremity of the indian ocean by the time captain jock sutherland realized the situation it was too late and he allowed a ship to run aground rather than risk a potentially deadly maneuver by some miracle with the storm still raging all but one of the crew survived despite having to scale a vertical and slippery cliff in order to escape the storming seas and by morning it was clear that their luck had run out the island they happened upon was absolutely barren there was not a single tree or bush the island which at the time was called saint paul did thankfully have a source of water it took the crew of the holt hill nearly two days to find it though in terms of food the men survived mostly off seafood although peckings were far from desirable lightly reluctantly preferred the penguin as if the harsh material conditions were not enough to contend with the surviving crew were dealt a severe psychological blow when they cited a full rigged ship be calmed in the distance they set a fire to raise a column of smoke and get the ship's attention but the ship either never saw or chose to ignore the signal they were determined not to let this happen again if they were so lucky as to ever see another ship the boats which survived the wreck of the hult hill were allowed to fish but from then on had to be within calling distance so as to start rowing out to any ship that might be passing by since you know that lightler lived to serve on the titanic you know that another ship did pass by but that was anything but certain for the stranded crew of the whole hill a ship did pass by though and the survivors were able to flag it down this ship was the quran under the command of a captain hayward who initially would only agreed to take half the men of the island due to a lack of provisions on board thankfully he was finally convinced that any men left behind were doomed to perish and captain hayward determined that he would find a way to provide for all of them in addition to his own crew when the ship arrived in adelaide australia lightler took his sweet time recovering and frankly enjoying himself in this hospitable region this was typical of lightler in his youthful years as much as he seemed to love the sea he also liked to enjoy himself ashore and only took up station on a ship when he was out of money or his career ambitions demanded it after returning to england on a tea clipper lightler got on with its ongoing apprenticeship until he was finally eligible to sit for the exam for a second mate certificate he passed the exam as he would on the first attempt on all future exams and joined a four-masted ship at bound for new york as second mate the skipper on that ship though was a piece of work and lightler remained in new york after that westbound crossing it's a lucky thing too because that ship and her captain were lost on the very next voyage light tillers still wanted desperately to get home for christmas though and he found that in order to make that happen he would have to sign on to a steamship there was a stigma surrounding steep ships among sailors at the time and light taller too was reluctant to partake even though he knew that it was likely to be his own future although he acknowledged the comforts that steamships provided especially to their crew he hated the smell of coal smoke and the notable absence of the sounds and sights of a sailing ship but at least he made it home for christmas light taller would get one more stint on the sailing ship though it was a grand feeling and one i thoroughly enjoyed having once again a big ship with her mountains of towering canvas under my sole charge during my watch after that last hurrah was in his wake light taller signed on as third mate on a western ocean packet under the command of a captain who is affectionately nicknamed bully waters the men one meets at sea make up a mixed bag and not all of the bad apples are caught in the filter before giving a command this was just one of the many realities light toller and every other aspiring merchant marine officer had to overcome and overcome he did after a year-long trip to the canadian north west in search of gold with his pals charles lightler sat for the exam which stood between him and his master's certificate and he passed after briefly being bamboozled into a third mate spot on an apparently horrible ship called knight bachelor light toller found himself employed by the white star line the white star line as he put it was the pinnacle of his dreams in the british merchant service and he had finally made it he could have made it to this point a bit sooner where not for his shenanigans along the way but he made it nonetheless and according to him he was still ahead of his similarly aged peers the shenanigans weren't quite over though and at the age of 26 light taller found his maritime career in jeopardy as a result lightler's first assignment which came almost immediately was to the ss medic medic was one of the five jubilee class ships and served on the australia run from england light toller along with some lower ranking members of the medics crew created and executed an elaborate practical joke on the city of sydney australia while the ship was in port i won't go into all the detail but essentially this posse of sea men led by charles lightler rode one of medic's boat discreetly out to fort denison in the harbor fired a large cannon and raised the boer flag in the middle of the boer war in which australia still part of britain was a major player authorities and the public were incensed at the offense but laitola and his crew got away with the prank or so he thought when he got back to england he was called to the office of the white star line at 30 james street in liverpool he was berated and compelled to tell the full story to the company's marine superintendent after hearing the story and already having done his duty by verbally punishing light toler the superintendent allegedly burst out into laughter and declined light taller's resignation charles lightler's career with the white star line lived to see another day and as far as i can tell the shenanigans more or less ended there with a bang in fact light tuller ended up being transferred to the atlantic effectively a promotion he served on multiple ships including the first majestic and the oceanic which would eventually become his favorite ship and one that he would continue to fawn over for the rest of his life i can't say that i blame him either because oceanic is one of my favorite ships too and i wasn't even born in the same century as her moving up through the ranks light toler was eventually transferred from oceanic to the company's new flagship titanic as you might already know charles lightler was supposed to be the first officer on titanic's maiden voyage but due in part to a logistical hiccup with olympic service white star shifted some officers around which ultimately caused lightholer to be dropped down to second officer lightler of course was not the only one to get bumped william murdoch was supposed to be chief officer but would instead serve as the first officer the original second officer david blair was removed from the voyage altogether regardless of all the changes light taller was back under the command of captain edward j smith for whom lightly had nothing but praise and admiration even in hindsight titanic was a gargantuan change for light toler oceanic the biggest ship to which he had been assigned until that point was just over a third of the size of titanic he says it took him a full 14 days to feel confident in his ability to find his way about the ship so that he could reliably travel between any two points in the most efficient way possible something that would only take him a day or two to learn on most other ships he like the rest of the crew was thoroughly impressed with titanic not only for her incredible size as some of her officers and crew were already used to due to their service aboard her sister olympic but for her sturdiness many new ships especially at the practically untested scale of titanic would experience severe vibration issues upon entering into service before corrections could be made titanic though was stiff as a rock at 2200 ship's time on april 14th 1912 first officer william murdock reported to the bridge for his watch second officer light tiller's watch was ending the two men exchanged friendly banter while murdoch's eyes adjusted to the dark then lytora was off to do his rounds which on titanic would have taken about 30 minutes and then he retired to his cabin it took him a short while to wind down but he was just about to fall asleep when he felt a disruption in titanic's movement he later describes as quote just a distinct and unpleasant break in the monotony of her motion in other words something that a passenger might not even notice he briefly went out on deck but seeing nothing he returned to his cabin in case someone called for him sure enough fourth officer box hall came looking for him and said simply we've hidden iceberg on the boat deck light taller began preparing the port side lifeboats under the oppressive roar of steam exhaust as passengers started to come up on deck there was little he or anyone else could do to communicate aside from the use of body language at this point lytor did not know the severity of the situation although he knew it was serious even he admits that at that point he did not think the ship would ultimately sink nonetheless he knew that it was his duty to minimize the risks to the souls under his protection and that preparing the lifeboats as soon as possible was the best way to accomplish this once the lifeboats were all swung out lytoller found captain smith on the boat deck and asked him we better get the women and children into the boat clearly james cameron read charles lightler's autobiography but decided to take plenty of liberties with flight tiller's character nonetheless but i digress it should be noted that light taller reported seeing the running lights of a ship in the distance a ship we now believe to be the ss californian and that some of his decisions that night were made under the assumption that the ship would come to titanic's aid we now know of course that she would not light toller continued to load and launch the lifeboats often the boats would not be full and he gave orders for the boats to fill up with passengers from a deck and the gangway doors on the decks below the reason he gives for this is that even though the lifeboats and davits were theoretically strong enough to be fully loaded it could be dangerous to load them with anxious passengers who lacked boat sense as he called it throughout the night lightler would run to the stairwell just after the bridge when he had a moment to responsibly do so the sterol went down to sea deck and allowed him to gauge the state of titanic it was one of these quick check-ins with the stairwell that finally made him realize that titanic would found her and he says that the sight of quote that cold green water crawling its ghostly way up that staircase was a sight that stamped itself indelibly on my memory at one point during the night chief officer henry wilde practically forced a firearm upon lytoller who insisted that on modern merchant ships firearms were almost without a purpose to chief officer wild's credit though he may have seen something that knight to warrant his precaution not long after this though lightler famously came across isidore and ida strauss who despite his encouragement refused to board a lifeboat without her husband interestingly this was not the only such instance lightly encountered that night it was just the most remembered by the public because of the couple's social status only once it was clear that the ship was moments away from foundering based on the progression of water up the aforementioned stairwell did the engineers appear on deck light taller saw by his count 35 of them emerge on deck to a solemn but probably expected sight empty davits and no lifeboats light taller himself and knew some of these men from his time on other ships and sadly not a single one of them was to survive of course light taller probably thought his own chances of survival at that moment to be quite low and in fact they were low [Music] so [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: The Great Big Move

Views: 67,746

Keywords: titanic, Lightoller, white star, ocean liner, officer, captain, white star line, Cunard, Murdoch, second officer, sinking, lifeboat

Id: xb5zgr6-VZ8

Length: 15min 4sec (904 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 14 2021