Charles Lightoller served as a commanding officer in the Royal Navy during World War I and was twice decorated for gallantry.
44 Facts About Charles Lightoller
2.
Charles Herbert Lightoller was born in Chorley, Lancashire, on 30 March 1874, into a family that had operated cotton-spinning mills in Lancashire since the late 18th century.
3.
At age 13, not wanting to end up with a factory job, Charles Lightoller began a four-year apprenticeship on board the barque Primrose Hill.
4.
Charles Lightoller joined the crew of the clipper ship Duke of Abercorn for his return to England.
5.
Charles Lightoller returned to the Primrose Hill for his third voyage.
6.
The cargo of coal caught fire while he was serving as third mate on board the windjammer Knight of St Michael, and for his successful efforts in fighting the fire and saving the ship, Charles Lightoller was promoted to second mate.
7.
Charles Lightoller went to the Yukon in 1898 to prospect for gold in the Klondike Gold Rush.
8.
Charles Lightoller earned his passage back to England by working as a cattle wrangler on a cattle boat and arrived home penniless in 1899.
9.
Charles Lightoller returned to the Majestic as first mate and then transferred back to the Oceanic in the same position.
10.
An hour before the collision, Charles Lightoller ordered the ship's lookouts to continually watch for 'small ice' and 'particularly growlers' until daylight.
11.
Charles Lightoller then ordered the Quartermaster, Robert Hichens, to check ship's fresh water supply for signs of freezing below the waterline, signs if present would indicate the ship was entering dangerous ice.
12.
Charles Lightoller had retired to his cabin and was preparing for bed when he felt the collision.
13.
Charles Lightoller pulled on trousers, and a navy-blue sweater over his pyjamas, and donned his officer's overcoat and cap.
14.
Charles Lightoller helped to fill several lifeboats with passengers and launched them.
15.
Charles Lightoller interpreted Smith's order for "the evacuation of women and children" as essentially "women and children only".
16.
Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Godfrey Peuchen has the distinction of being the only adult male passenger Charles Lightoller allowed into the boats on the port side evacuation, due to his previous nautical experience and offer of assistance when there were no seamen available from the Titanic's own complement to help command one of the lowering lifeboats.
17.
Under this misapprehension, Charles Lightoller's plan was to fill the lifeboats from the waterline and sent 10 men to open the gangway doors in the ship's port so that passengers would have access.
18.
When Charles Lightoller attempted to launch Lifeboat 2, he found it was occupied already by 25 male passengers and crewmen.
19.
Charles Lightoller then crossed over to the starboard side of the roof, to see if there was anything further to be done there.
20.
Charles Lightoller described the shock of the water as being like "a thousand knives being driven into one's body".
21.
Surfacing, Charles Lightoller spotted the ship's crow's nest, now level with the water, and started to swim towards it as a place of safety before remembering that it was safer to stay away from the foundering vessel.
22.
Charles Lightoller was pinned against the grating for some time by the pressure of the incoming water, until a blast of hot air from the depths of the ship erupted out of the ventilator and blew him to the surface.
23.
Charles Lightoller then realized he could not swim properly because of the weight of the Webley revolver he was carrying in his coat pocket, so he swiftly discarded it.
24.
Charles Lightoller climbed onto the boat and took charge, calming and organising the survivors on the overturned lifeboat.
25.
Charles Lightoller blamed the accident on the seas being the calmest that night that he had ever seen in his life and on the floating icebergs giving no tell-tale early-warning signs of breaking white water at their bases.
26.
Charles Lightoller deftly defended his employer, the White Star Line, despite hints of excessive speed, a lack of binoculars in the crow's nest, and the plain recklessness of travelling through an ice field on a calm night when all other ships in the vicinity thought it wiser to heave to until morning.
27.
Charles Lightoller was able to help channel public outcry over the incident into positive change, as many of his recommendations for avoiding such accidents in the future were adopted by maritime nations.
28.
Charles Lightoller returned to duty with White Star Line, serving as a mate on RMS Oceanic.
29.
Charles Lightoller received a promotion from sub-lieutenant to lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve in May 1913.
30.
Charles Lightoller served on this ship as the ship's First Officer until it ran aground and was wrecked on the notorious Shaalds of Foula on 8 September 1914.
31.
Charles Lightoller was the last man off the grounded ship, taking the navigation room's clock as a souvenir.
32.
Charles Lightoller opened fire on the "Zepp" with tracer rounds eventually hitting its tail and forcing the airship's withdrawal.
33.
Charles Lightoller wrote that whilst in command of the Falcon, he kept the ship in a constant state of readiness; the ship's guns were loaded and cleared for action at all times.
34.
Charles Lightoller expected his men to think and act for themselves in times of an emergency.
35.
Charles Lightoller was quickly exonerated in a court martial for the loss of the ship, and he was commended for remaining on board the ship along with his first officer until the majority of the crew had been evacuated to the boats.
36.
On 10 June 1918, Charles Lightoller was awarded the Reserve Decoration.
37.
Charles Lightoller was promoted to acting lieutenant-commander in July and was placed on the retired list on 31 March 1919, with the rank of commander.
38.
The retired Charles Lightoller did not turn his back on sailing altogether, as he eventually purchased a private motor yacht, Sundowner in 1929.
39.
Commander Charles Lightoller stood up in the bow and I stood alongside the wheelhouse.
40.
At the time of the evacuation, Charles Lightoller's second son, Trevor, was a serving second lieutenant with the 3rd Division, which had retreated towards Dunkirk.
41.
Charles Lightoller then ferried arms and ammunition for the Royal Army Service Corps until the end of the war.
42.
Charles Lightoller's parents were Frederick James Charles Lightoller and Sarah Jane Widdows.
43.
Charles Lightoller died of chronic heart disease on 8 December 1952, aged 78.
44.
Charles Lightoller's body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at the Commonwealth "Garden of Remembrance" at Mortlake Crematorium in Richmond, Surrey.