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00:00Things I saw made impressions, I can never forget.
00:20I can't describe it. I can't say how it was.
00:25It was just terrible.
00:34A dream of being trapped on the ship with no means of escape.
00:43But I always wake up before the boat sinks.
00:55He told me that apparently we'd struck something.
01:07Iceberg!
01:08Get ahead!
01:08I didn't become alarmed.
01:18There was no danger, they said.
01:24I told her to come at once. We were sinking.
01:26I can imagine the chaos and the fear and the terror of finding water in your cabin and you're in the bowels of the ship.
01:37It makes me panic just thinking about it.
01:40The story of the Titanic is the human condition spread out, pinned on a board for us to examine.
01:47Then came the terrible cry.
01:51Women and children, women and children.
01:54Two men lifted me up and put me in a boat.
01:59It's these small decisions, these little butterfly effect moments that change the outcome.
02:03It really was every man for himself.
02:22My heart stood still.
02:32Hurry up!
02:33It's a split-second decision. What would you do? What would I do?
02:54It was a terrible sight.
02:56Men swinging and sinking.
03:03I'd been brought up to believe in a hell after a death.
03:18For now, I think I went through a hell that night.
03:21Splash.
03:34I don't know.
04:04I nipped along to have a look down the emergency staircase to gauge the speed the water was rising, that cold green water crawling its ghostly way, the electric lights shone under the surface with a weird effect.
04:34Sir Lightoller knows now things are getting more serious. He thought this thing could not go down and now he knows it could sink. This is a terrible shock for him.
04:48Captain Smith is at fault here. He has not informed his senior officers of what he has known for some time. It's very hard to know why Captain Smith did not give out the information to his most trusted command.
05:06Maybe it's important to keep this away to stop them panicking and to keep control.
05:42So if you don't get in, you're going to die.
05:46He's moving up and down the deck.
05:58Lightoller is going to continue doing exactly what he's done before, but with even more fervor and rigidity enforcing the plan. It's the only thing he can do.
06:08And children only.
06:10Charlotte Collier is just about holding herself together in her family unit, her husband Harvey and her little daughter Marjorie.
06:22Mr. Lowe rushed among the passengers and ordered the women into the boats. Many of them followed him in a dazed kind of way.
06:40And others stayed with their men. A sailor caught Marjorie in his arms, tore her away from me and threw her into the boat.
06:55I was crying for my doll. Then two men lifted me up and put me in a boat.
07:05Marjorie! Marjorie!
07:08She was not even given a chance to tell her father goodbye.
07:13You too, a man, yelled, you're a woman. Take a seat in that boat or it will be too late.
07:24I heard my husband say, go Lottie, for God's sake, be brave and go.
07:36and saw my husband's back as he walked steadily down the deck and disappeared among the men.
07:48If they'd not wrenched Marjorie away from me,
07:54I wish I had gone with him.
08:00The courtier's deferential veneer is not there anymore.
08:10The officers will pull apart women from their men and make them go into the boats,
08:17whether they want to or not. This is new in the course of the night and it's frightening.
08:30There's a really stark disadvantage facing third-class passengers from the beginning.
08:38They are stuck in the bowels of the ship, trying to get to where the lifeboats are.
08:46I've been seasick the whole trip.
08:48All I wanted was to be left alone so I could lie down.
09:07Anna Heerblom is a teenager from Finland. She's a Swedish speaker.
09:11A third of seerage passengers on the Titanic were from Nordic countries.
09:16There were so many people who did not speak English. They spoke Spanish, Arabic, Swedish.
09:21Swedish is the second most spoken language.
09:24When the boat struck the 14th of April, which was my birthday, I was 18.
09:35I didn't become alarmed. I just couldn't believe that this wonderful ship could possibly be in trouble.
09:46There are 14 stewardesses in first class to help those passengers leave the ship.
09:53In third class, there's only one.
09:59There was no tunneling system or announcement of what was going on, of what to do.
10:05They had to work it out themselves.
10:16There was no tunneling system or something like that.
10:17There was no tunneling system or something like that.
10:19There was no tunneling system or something like that.
10:23A crash woke me up.
10:27Nearly jolted me from my bed.
10:32I put on my trousers and shoes and got up.
10:36Eugene Daly is a 29-year-old textile worker from County Westmeath in Ireland.
10:46After years of saving, he's immigrating to America along with his cousin Maggie,
10:52her friend Bertha and his beloved Irish pipes.
10:55The stewards came through and told the passengers that they shouldn't be frightened.
11:03There was no danger, they said.
11:08Everything was all right and that I might go back.
11:11The third class passengers don't know what's going on because they're not being told.
11:24And there's nothing worse than having an idea that something's really wrong,
11:28but not knowing exactly what it is.
11:31Above deck, the first and second class passengers and the crew,
11:35they can all see there aren't enough boats left.
11:38And there are hundreds of them on deck.
11:45I stood at the bulkhead with the other stewardesses.
11:49A ship's officer ordered us into the boat.
11:53Some lifeboats are only at half capacity.
11:56Now, there's fear everywhere, so they're filling them up as quickly as they can.
12:04Looking along the length of the ship,
12:08I noticed the forward part of her was lower now.
12:15Much lower.
12:21My heart stood still.
12:22You know, in the military, this is what we talk about triaging.
12:37This is a case of thinking, how many people can we save at this point?
12:41There's only room for 800 people in the lifeboats that remain.
12:45So that's best case scenario.
12:47But in crisis situations, you're not getting the best case scenario.
12:51Within the panic, the confusion.
12:53The boat was full now.
13:01As the boat was being lowered, the ship's officer called,
13:05here, Miss Jessop, look after this baby.
13:15Someone had dumped it on the deck beside his feet.
13:19At this stage, Violet is handed a baby that has been sort of separated from their family
13:29or whoever was caring for them at that point.
13:32It's hard to fathom that.
13:36That panic beginning to spread, it's making their circumstances worse.
13:41It's making everybody's chance of survival worse.
13:44But it's such a natural reaction.
14:04I could hear the commotion overhead increasing.
14:09I decided to go up even though I still felt very ill.
14:13I was fully clothed and I had a life belt.
14:20My railroad ticket to Tacoma and a small amount of money were
14:25sewed in a little bag and hung around my neck so that I couldn't lose it.
14:32I went down into the room where Maggie Daly and Bertha Mulville Hill were.
14:38The men and women in third class are separated.
14:41So for Eugene to find Maggie and Bertha, he has to cross from one end of the ship to another.
14:47No one is guiding them.
14:48No one is saying this is the best way to get around the flooding.
14:52They have to work it out themselves.
14:53Come with me.
15:00Come with me.
15:01The ship is sinking.
15:02The ship is sinking.
15:06There's hundreds of third class passengers trying to navigate the warren of corridors, hallways,
15:12staircases, and they're trying to get to a part of the ship, the boat deck, that they've never
15:16been allowed onto before.
15:18It's difficult to convey the size of a ship like the Titanic.
15:24It took me 14 days before I could find my way from one part of that ship to another by the shortest route.
15:31Eugene, Maggie, and Bertha must navigate up several decks to the boat deck.
15:39It's now a very challenging situation and the feeling of a loss of control on the part of the crew is
15:44getting stronger and stronger.
15:46It was about this time that the chief officer came over from the starboard side and asked,
15:52did I know where the firearms were?
15:54I told the chief officer, yes, come along and I'll get them for you.
16:02Drawing weapons is very unusual.
16:07The officers clearly were aware of how panic was setting in and order and discipline amongst people
16:14were falling apart.
16:17There are guns on board the Titanic.
16:20Like the lifeboats, nobody expected to ever have to use them.
16:29Into the first officer's cabin we went.
16:31The chief, the captain, and myself.
16:37I hauled them out, still in all their pristine newness and grease.
16:44Here you are.
16:49I was going out when the chief officer shoved one of the revolvers into my hands with a handful of
16:55ammunition and said, here you are, you may need it.
17:00The fact of the matter is there are far more passengers than crew.
17:07British and American society at this time is hierarchical and it's rules based.
17:12People will do what they are told, but not when their lives are at stake.
17:17This is what the officers fear.
17:19But you know, Chekhov said you can't put a gun in the room and not use it.
17:36Third class passengers naturally gravitated towards the aft well deck, which is the outdoor space
17:44they've had use of.
17:46But it is still three decks below the boat deck where the lifeboats are.
17:50There was a lot of confusion with people running around, crying, swearing and, and praying.
18:13Since I couldn't speak English, I hardly knew what was happening.
18:19I had to push people apart to find a place to walk.
18:24She doesn't speak English. There's no one experienced to advise her.
18:33So she's working this all out with so much against her.
18:37There's a sea of passengers already gathered there.
18:40So Eugene and Anna are joining this throng of people.
18:43I went up on deck. People were running around.
18:48The Titanic being an immigrant ship must conform to American and British immigration laws.
18:57And one of those laws is around quarantine, maintaining steerage class passengers in areas
19:04separate from the first and second class passengers to stop the spread of disease.
19:09Before the third class passengers have even boarded Titanic,
19:12they've had to be subjected to medical examinations.
19:16They're hemmed in by locked gates.
19:19And these same gates that were meant to prevent ill health are now blocking their access to the
19:23lifeboats. Eugene's cousin Maggie tries to go back to her cabin, but that corridor is under
19:29five foot of water. There's no chance she can make it. And she turns back.
19:35All this time, we knew that the water was coming up and up rapidly.
19:39To know that safety is on the other side of that locked gate, it must make them despair.
19:58The boat was practically full and there were no other women anywhere near it when
20:12Fifth Officer Lowe jumped in and ordered it lowered.
20:16A young lad, hardly more than a schoolboy, was standing close to the rail. Now, realising he was to be left behind,
20:30he leapt down into the boat and crawled under a seat.
20:35But the officer dragged him to his feet and ordered him back onto the ship.
20:47We begged for his life.
20:48Please give him a chance.
20:49The officer drew his revolver and thrust it into his face.
21:02I gave you 10 seconds to get back onto that ship before I blow your brains out.
21:08Please, please.
21:12The lad only begged harder.
21:14Please, please, please, please don't.
21:17My mother said I called out, don't shoot.
21:27The officer suddenly changed his tone.
21:32He lowered his revolver and looked the boy squarely in the eyes.
21:42For God's sake, be a man.
21:44We have got women and children.
21:46For God's sake, we have women and children here.
21:49The little lad turned round and climbed back without a word.
21:59He was not saved.
22:03Allow the boats!
22:04To avoid another occurrence of that sort, I fired my revolver as I was going down each deck.
22:15Because the boat wouldn't stand a sudden jerk.
22:17She was loaded already with people and would not stand anymore.
22:26Actually, drawing the gun shows that the ship's officers realized that things were very, very desperate indeed.
22:33And, of course, we did not have enough lifeboats for everybody on board.
22:37There are ten lifeboats left on deck now and 1,960 people still to save.
22:45Titanic now was so low in the water that iconic areas like the Grand Staircase and some of the luxury
22:52state rooms were flooding.
22:54There's no doubt at all that this was unstoppable.
22:57It was merely a question of time.
22:59Phillips told me the wireless was growing weaker.
23:15Jack Phillips has spent the last few hours trying to communicate with other wireless operators.
23:27Carpathia is sailing at full speed towards Titanic, but she's still two hours away.
23:34On the nearest ship, the Californian, nobody recognized or responded to the distress flares,
23:41but Phillips still believes that as long as he can get signals out, he may be of some use.
23:49But now the electricity is starting to fail.
23:54Then he does get a message from his sister ship, Olympic.
24:05But she seems not to understand at all what is happening to Titanic and thinks Titanic must be
24:11limping along, limping along, sailing towards them.
24:15The frustration here is now clear because the messages are not getting through.
24:20For this young man in his mid-twenties, I think this is the place of utmost distress.
24:28Right now, it's clear on board ship that no rescue vessel is going to reach Titanic before she sings.
24:41The third-class passengers are at most risk at this moment.
24:47There's the language difficulties, there's probably a bit of aggression,
24:50I think that's setting in annoyance, frustration.
24:55We had quite a number of hot-headed Italians and other people who got crazy and made for the stairs.
25:04These men tried to rush the stairway, pushing and crowding and pulling the women down.
25:13At this moment, we would expect the adrenaline to kick in.
25:19The body wants to survive and it gives us some sort of innate choices.
25:23You might fight your way to the front physically, people might freeze where they're just stuck,
25:27they're in terror, they don't know what to do. We also see people who are turning inward,
25:33and that would be turning to God as well, making the sign of the cross and so on.
25:38The first-class deck was higher up than the steerage deck,
25:41and there were some steps leading up to it and a gate at the top of the steps.
25:46They tried to keep us down at first on our steerage deck at the back of the ship.
25:49They're trying to keep order, but by doing so in such a chaotic way,
25:57they probably contribute to a greater loss of life than they realised.
26:05I can't say who they were. I think they were sailors.
26:11They didn't want us going up to the first-class place at all.
26:13Even though there's no direct policy preventing third-class passengers from accessing lifeboats,
26:22it's clear from their testimony after the sinking that there was not a level playing field.
26:28The third-class were left marginalised and endangered by cruise actions.
26:38There was no help of any kind to reach safety.
26:43So, time is ticking down, the water's rising, they're sandwiched in between the sea and the locked gate.
26:57They're having to make life-or-death decisions in moments with very little information.
27:07I got talking to a young Swedish girl returning to the United States.
27:14She knew about an emergency stairway to where the lifeboats were.
27:25Anna's interesting because she's come from a different environment. She's come from Finland,
27:29where the social strata isn't quite as defined as it is in England at the time.
27:35Perhaps she has a little bit more leeway to not rely on following the authority figure's orders.
27:42We climbed the ladder up to the first-class deck,
27:46and then an officer saw me and dragged me up to the next deck.
27:59We passed a window and we looked into a beautiful room where the tables were so beautifully set,
28:10the silver and all the furniture.
28:16The other girl, she wanted to kick the window out and walk in and help ourselves.
28:23I told her that they might make us pay for the broken window, so we didn't.
28:35There's some evidence that growing up in adverse situations actually gives you a kind of cognitive
28:40toolkit to be able to get through those situations. All kinds of skills where you've needed to survive
28:46and depend on yourself, and that translates really quite well to an emergency scenario.
28:52The third-class passengers have survived so many different challenges already.
29:02They must have felt their confidence and trust in the crew and officers had gone.
29:09I think these are people who are not taking no for an answer.
29:13They couldn't keep them down.
29:21The gate was broken.
29:25All the stearage passengers went up onto the first-class deck.
29:28They're going to take fate into their own hands, and they will get to those boats.
29:33In the same way that I think when Officer Lowe fired his gun, he changed the terms.
29:38By breaking the gate, they changed the terms.
29:40I rushed to the lifeboats.
29:50There seemed hundreds of people around me.
29:52Half the lifeboats have already gone. They're in the water.
29:58There's only four lifeboats at this end of the ship, and the others are hundreds of yards ahead.
30:03Seeing only four lifeboats available, and nearly 2,000 people trying to get into them.
30:10There is such panic in that crowd.
30:13Everywhere, everybody was confused.
30:20I saw a lot of people, Catholics, make the sign of the cross.
30:29I had to step on many of these people to reach the side of the deck.
30:37The crying of children, and the screaming of a woman.
30:44You know, these are terrifying sounds that we are programmed to have a sort of visceral reaction to.
30:51I remember from living through my trauma, my wounding in Afghanistan,
30:55sounds stay with you far more than sights.
30:58That is a powerful thing for the senses to take on board,
31:02and for ultimately you to then have to live with.
31:04I tried to get into a lifeboat, and I was pushed back.
31:18It seemed as though I would go down with the ship.
31:34It seemed as though I would go down with the ship.
31:36It seemed as though I would go down with the ship.
31:40Ideas about self-control and stoicism and self-sacrifice are celebrated as forms of gentlemanliness,
31:49as well as manliness.
31:50These are the values that they've been told to hold to.
31:55And it means putting yourself second.
31:59That is the ideal as far as Edwardian society is concerned.
32:06Bruce Ismay, who is the managing director of the White Star Line,
32:09his father had founded the White Star Line.
32:12And the Titanic is basically his idea.
32:15This is the crowning achievement of his career.
32:17The creation of this amazing, opulent ship.
32:21And now he can see that it is all going to the bottom of the sea.
32:38Did you think it was in a very serious condition?
32:42As time got on, I did.
32:45And that the ship was sinking?
32:47I did.
32:51I helped for nearly two hours, as far as I can judge, at the starboard boats,
32:56helping women and children into the boats and blurring them over the side.
33:02I think the sense of responsibility for Bruce Ismay must have been huge.
33:07And we see this in the fact that he spends time patrolling the boat deck,
33:12putting people into boats, instructing crew how to behave.
33:17But he knows that there aren't enough lifeboats on board.
33:22He knows by this point that there's no rescue ship coming anytime soon.
33:27These lives are on his conscience.
33:30The ship was listing heavily in the bow.
33:47Somebody gave me a push towards the boat.
33:54When I got in, that girl and I went together.
33:57The lifeboat was so crowded.
34:04When I got to the deck, the lifeboat was hanging from the davits.
34:23Number 13 boat.
34:26It was pretty well filled when I got there.
34:28Fred!
34:32The boatswainer knew me, as I'd sailed with them and all the ships before,
34:37said to me, you get on this boat and pull an oar.
34:39Get in the boat.
34:40I need all this boat.
34:43Fred is in the lifeboat, and because, you know,
34:46he's one of those strong enough to be able to row it.
34:48And at this stage, the crew is now starting to really fill the lifeboats.
34:54So I took his orders, and I got on as she swung from the davits.
34:59We had women, men, and two little babies.
35:04One two months old, and the other ten months old.
35:08There is no real order. People are sitting on top of one another,
35:14and, you know, you're sort of being crushed underneath this mass of people.
35:18It's suspended by davits off the side of the ship at this point.
35:23It's about 18 metres above the water.
35:26But every person that gets in adds that weight, adds that movement, adds that risk.
35:32And so there has to be a point at which you say, that's enough.
35:36About three more people get in after I did.
35:39And then the orders were given, let no more on that boat, or the falls will break.
35:45That means looking into the whites of people's eyes and saying,
35:49there's no more space.
36:02The boat was being filled with women.
36:13Maggie and Bertha got in, and I got in.
36:23The officer called me to go back, but I got in.
36:28Life was sweet to me, and...
36:32I wanted to save myself.
36:35It was the early hours of the morning.
36:37The lifeboats are being filled to the brim now, overfilled.
36:40Naturally, some male passengers want to get in.
36:43They want to be with their loved ones, and they just want to save their lives,
36:46as any of us would.
36:49They told me to get out, but I didn't stir.
36:55Then they got a hold of me and pulled me out.
36:58Eugene's testimony makes me like him.
37:03I think he's honest, he's frank.
37:05He's not trying to put a spin on his own behaviour or anyone else's.
37:11I get the feeling of a real historical account in its Watson-All attitude.
37:16What's sad about this story is that most of those officers knew the people that they were turning
37:21away in the sense that they were from the same class, the same kind?
37:27Well, if I didn't save myself...
37:29at least I saved the two girls.
37:46Captain Smith had severe doubts about whether a fully laden lifeboat could be lowered properly.
38:04He knew there were a lot of people waiting down at the gangway doors to get into boats,
38:09and therefore he thought, how can I manage to get these boats full?
38:13How can I save as many of the people whose lives I am responsible for as is possible?
38:21The captain came and said, Mr. Boxall, you go away in that boat, pointing to boat number two.
38:27I tumbled into this lifeboat and started to lower her, and the captain looked over and told me,
38:36go round to the starboard side, which was practically on the opposite side to where I was lowered.
38:46So Boxall's lifeboat was only about 45% full,
38:51was meant to go round to the starboard side of the ship to take on more passengers.
38:58I had great difficulty in getting that boat around there.
39:03There was suction.
39:09I was using the stroke horse standing up, and there was this lady helping.
39:15She was steering around the ship's stern.
39:18When I passed around the boat to get to the gangway door on the starboard side,
39:23her propellers were out of water.
39:29But when I did eventually reach there,
39:34I found that there was such a mob standing at the gangway doors.
39:44If they jumped, they'd swamped the boat.
39:57I don't go alongside.
40:03She was only a small boat.
40:04Boxall should have made sure that he filled the lifeboat up and take necessary action to make
40:15sure he wasn't swamped. He was in a position to do that, and he didn't.
40:19And it's a really tricky one because, yes, crews should follow orders.
40:27And the structure of discipline is how you can try and create some form of order in moments of chaos.
40:33There is a good reason why, you know, in circumstances, we are not to question orders.
40:39Having said that, it's all well and good, one of your superiors giving you an order,
40:45but they're not seeing the circumstances that you are witnessing.
40:51Pull!
40:51I pulled off and laid off until I pulled away about a quarter of a mile, I suppose.
41:21So the instinct to row away is very normal, very human.
41:30Everybody wants to get away from the scene of an accident or a disaster.
41:35And this ship is huge. People have never seen anything this big.
41:44Captain Smith is out there with his megaphone, barking orders.
41:48Bring those boats back!
41:50For the lifeboats to come back and pick up other passengers.
42:04It's almost instinctive and it's driven into you from the day you join
42:08the Royal Navy or the Merchant Navy that you obey your captain and do as he says.
42:12He is God in a sense and therefore not to do as you're told is a heinous crime.
42:20It's our lives now, not theirs.
42:26I find that quite extraordinary.
42:28The bottom line should be, I want to save as many as I can.
42:32The bottom line should be, I want to save as many as I can.
42:35It's our lives now, not theirs.
42:38I want to save as many as I can.
42:40This is the moment of mutiny.
42:42This is when all order has broken down.
42:46We are not going to stand by anymore and drown because you tell us to.
42:51Fair enough.
42:52We had gone perhaps half a mile when the officer ordered the men to cease rowing.
43:05No other boat was in sight, we didn't even have a lantern to signal with.
43:18We lay there in the silence and darkness of that calm sea.
43:25No sound reached us, except the music from the band, which I was aware of for the first time.
43:44Those brave musicians.
43:48They were playing lively tunes, ragtime.
44:00I will never forget the terrible beauty of the Titanic at that moment.
44:04I started to count the rows of lights.
44:22One, two, three, four, five.
44:34I stopped.
44:39Surely I had miscounted.
44:45I went over them again, more carefully, and I'd made no mistake.
44:54There are only five decks now.
44:57As if all could read my mind, the women in the boat started to weep.
45:02Some silently, some unrestrainedly.
45:14Just before launching the last lifeboat, I'd made my final hurried visit to the emergency stairway
45:22to gauge how quickly she was going down.
45:24It was then conclusively evident that not only was she going, but she was going very soon.
45:38Even in pants and sweater over pyjamas alone, I was in a bath of perspiration.
45:48If we were to avoid the disgrace of going down with lifeboats still hanging to the davits,
45:54there wasn't one moment to lose.
46:06The forward well deck was underwater.
46:11I saw Phillips still sending away.
46:13I suspect many people on the ship by now are in an altered state, which we know is what happens when
46:21people are facing death. Jack Phillips won't leave his post. It is a clear single focus on what you
46:30believe to be right. And he believes the right thing to do is to stay there until it's all over.
46:36Again, Phillips called CQD and SOS for nearly five minutes and got no reply.
46:51We now realized the awful state of affairs, the ship listing heavily to port and forward.
46:56I thought it was about time to look about and see if there was anything that would float.
47:02I remembered that every member of the crew had a life belt. And then I thought how cold the water was.
47:09I remembered I had some boots and I put those on and an extra jacket. We picked up the Olympic
47:15and told that we were sinking by the head and we're about all down.
47:19Phillips is leading from the front. He's a hero. It's easier to understand
47:26fear and self-interest than it is to understand sacrifice and heroism.
47:36Especially now in our world, we think that everything is about greed and me first.
47:42That generation did not. As Phillips was sending the message, I strapped the life belt to his back.
47:48I'd already put on his overcoat. I wondered if I could get him into his boots.
47:53Just at that moment, the captain came into the cabin and said,
47:58Men, you have done your full duty. You can do no more.
48:01Abandon your cabin. Now it's every man for himself.
48:07I release you.
48:10Every man for himself now. In the conflicts I trained for, it's unimaginable that we would
48:15never find ourselves in a circumstance where it was every man for themselves. All of the order has
48:19been lost and actually trying to maintain that order, whether it's, you know, pointing a gun at a
48:26crowd or, you know, screaming at the top of your voice. All you're doing in that circumstance is wasting energy.
48:40The last of the hard hulled lifeboats have been dispatched, but there is still two collapsible
48:53lifeboats left on the boat deck. They're a little bit more flimsy, but they still are a lifeline.
48:58There was some disturbance loading the last two forward boats.
49:07A large crowd of men were pressing to get into them.
49:10Though there were many crew and men lined up with apparently not a thought at attempting to board
49:17the boats without orders. I saw Bruce Ismay, who had been assisting in loading the last boat,
49:30push his way into it.
49:39Really was every man for himself.
49:40Bruce Ismay decides to save himself. He is about the only man on board who can't be ordered out of
49:52that spot by any of the remaining crew.
50:01You were one of those, as the managing director, responsible for determining the number of lifeboats.
50:06Bruce Yes, in conjunction with these shipbuilders.
50:11When you got into the boat, you thought that the Titanic was sinking.
50:14Bruce I did.
50:15Did you know that there were some hundreds of people on that ship?
50:19Bruce Yes.
50:20Bruce Who must go down with her?
50:22Bruce Yes, I did.
50:29Has it occurred to you that you, as the responsible managing director,
50:34deciding the number of boats owed your life to every other person on that ship?
50:39Bruce It has not.
50:42I have searched my mind with the deepest care.
50:46I'm sure I did nothing that I shouldn't have done.
50:50My conscience is clear.
50:53I took a chance of escape when it came to me. I did not seek it.
50:56Bruce It is true I am president of the company, but I didn't consider myself any different from the rest of the passengers.
51:06I took no other man's place.
51:08I took no man's place.
51:19This is palpably untrue.
51:22But I think he must believe it.
51:24Bruce Ismay comes from a class of society who believes that they have everything they have because of grit and character.
51:36I mean, it's like being a billionaire today in a world of hungry people.
51:40The only way you can live with yourself is to imagine that you deserve it in some way.
51:46And so I think that Bruce Ismay believes, contrary to all rational fact, that he hasn't taken someone else's place,
51:58even though he really must know internally that he has.
52:01There was a terrible crowd standing about.
52:23The officer in charge pointed a revolver, waved his hand and said that if any man
52:29tried to get in, he'd shoot him on the spot.
52:33If anyone tries to enter, I will shoot him.
52:36Two men tried to break through and he shot them both.
52:48I saw him shoot them.
52:52I saw them lying.
52:55One seemed to be dead.
52:56The other was trying to pull himself up at the side of the deck, but he couldn't.
53:05I tried to get to the boat myself, but was afraid I would be shot.
53:11And stayed back.
53:26When we rode away from the Titanic, my face was towards the sinking steamer.
53:36The things I saw, I'll never forget.
53:55I saw an officer shoot himself through the temple with a revolver.
54:03The story of the officer shooting himself is contested.
54:16Even the name of the officer is in dispute.
54:20You're meant to help others, not shoot them.
54:22And you're certainly not meant to shoot yourself when you make a mistake.
54:28I saw the officer himself lying on the deck.
54:34They told me he shot himself.
54:35It's not a line of inquiry that is pursued.
54:40And I think that is because in Edwardian society, there is such a taboo around death by suicide.
54:48It looks like the easy way out, though it can hardly have been so.
54:56It suggests that the people who did it have failed that test of being an Edwardian man,
55:02which is to demonstrate heroism and courage and stoicism in the face of disaster.
55:11Death stares everyone in the face.
55:39Some will escape, some won't.
55:44Jack Phillips, he's young, but he's responsible.
55:48He's self-reliant.
55:50He thinks he's going to die.
55:53And so he decides to die doing his best for everyone else.
56:02Phillips clung on for about 10 minutes after the captain had released him.
56:08I learned to love him that night.
56:18I suddenly felt for him
56:20a great reverence to see him
56:23standing there sticking to his work.
56:26While everybody else was raging about.
56:28I will never forget the work of Phillips for those last awful minutes.
56:47He was a brave man.
56:48People find themselves facing this life or death moment together.
56:58Titanic broke in two before my eyes.
57:02Striking water was like a thousand knives being driven into one's body.
57:06To die slowly within a shot of people who might save your life.
57:13There's a particular cruelty to that.
57:17Like you say, don't worry about it.
57:18We're not going to die.
57:21Why would you just say nothing?
57:23Did you tell us something?
57:32You didn't care for others.
57:39What happened?
57:39I don't know.
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