James Robert McGough

Titanica

• Name: Mr James Robert McGough
• Born: Tuesday 4th July 1876
• Age: 35 years
• Last Residence: in Philadelphia Pennsylvania United States
• Occupation: Buyer
• 1st Class passenger
• First Embarked: Southampton on Wednesday 10th April 1912
• Ticket No. 17473 , £26 5s 9d
• Cabin No.: E25
• Rescued (boat 7)
• Disembarked Carpathia: New York City on Thursday 18th April 1912
• Died: Saturday 24th July 1937
• Reference: https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-deckplans/ deck plans of R.M.S. Titanic
• Reference: https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-lifeboat-7/ Life Boat No. 7

Mr James Robert McGough, 36, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was a buyer with the firm of Strawbridge & Clothier. He boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a first class passenger (ticket number PC 17473, £26 5s 9d). He shared cabin E-25 with John Flynn.

According to his later testimony, after the collision, they went out and met second steward Dodd, who informed them they were not in any danger and should go back to bed. However, following his instinct and after alerting the lady passenger across the hall from his room, McGough, along with Flynn, went up to the promenade deck. Once there, the two were ordered to put on their lifebelts. After getting the belts from their cabin they returned to the deck where they saw women and children being put in the lifeboats. As there was great hesitation on the part of the passengers to get in the boats, a large officer gave McGough a push into a starboard boat, saying, "You are a big fellow, get into the boat."

Lifeboat 7 contained about 28 people but once in the water they met with another and 5 more were transferred into it. Even after all this the people in the lifeboat still felt it would only be a short time before they would row back to the Titanic. Finally, realizing the great ship was sinking, they rowed away, afraid of the suction.

McGough also recounted that there was water and crackers in the boat, although this was unknown to them at the time. Also, there was some talk about going back for survivors but "...some of the women passengers objected to our making an effort."

McGough returned to Philadelphia and where he lived until his death on 24 July 1937.

References and Sources

• Contract Ticket List, White Star Line 1912 (National Archives, New York; NRAN-21-SDNYCIVCAS-55[279])
• United States Senate (62nd Congress), Subcommittee Hearings of the Committee on Commerce, Titanic Disaster, Washington 1912
• Reference: Full text- https://archive.org/details/truthabouttitani00grac/page/n6 "The Truth About the Titanic" by Colonel Archibald Gracie, IV 1913 pp. 228-233

BOAT NO. 7 *

No disorder in loading or lowering this boat.

Passengers: Mesdames Bishop, Earnshaw, Gibson, Greenfield, Potter, Snyder, and Misses Gibson and Hays, Messrs. Bishop, Chevre, Daniel, Greenfield, McGough, Marechal, Seward, Sloper, Snyder, Tucker.

Transferred from Boat No. 5; Mrs. Dodge and her boy; Messrs. Calderhead and Flynn.

Crew: Seamen: Hogg (in charge), Jewell, Weller.

Total: 28.

INCIDENTS

Archie Jewell, L. O. (Br. Inq.) :

Was awakened by the crash and ran at once on deck where he saw a lot of ice. All went below again to get clothes on. The boatswain called all hands on deck. Went to No. 7 boat. The ship had stopped. All hands cleared the boats, cleared away the falls and got them all right. Mr. Murdoch gave the order to lower boat No. 7 to the rail with women and children in the boat. Three or four Frenchmen, passengers, got into the boat. No. 7 was lowered from the Boat Deck. The orders were to stand by the gangway. This boat was the first on the starboard side lowered into the water. All the boats were down by the time it was pulled away from the ship because it was thought she was settling down.

Witness saw the ship go down by the head very slowly. The other lifeboats were further off, his being the nearest. No. 7 was then pulled further off and about half an hour later, or about an hour and a half after this boat was lowered, and when it was about 200 yards away, the ship took the final dip. He saw the stern straight up in the air with the lights still burning. After a few moments she then sank very quickly and he heard two or three explosions just as the stern went up in the air. No. 7 picked up no dead bodies. At daylight they saw a lot of icebergs all around, and reached the Carpathia about 9 o'clock. This boat had no compass and no light. (The above, given in detail, represents the general testimony of the next witness.)

G. A. Hogg, A. is. (Am. Inq., p. 577) :

He had forty-two when the boat was shoved from the ship's side. He asked a lady if she could steer who said she could. He pulled around in search of other people. One man said: "We have done our best; there are no more people around. He said: Very good, we will get away now." There was not a ripple on the water; it was as smooth as glass.

Mrs. H. W. Bishop, first-class passenger (Am. Inq., p. 998) :

The captain told Colonel Astor something In an undertone. He came back and told six of us who were standing with his wife that we had better put on our life belts. I had gotten down two flights of stairs to tell my husband, 'who had returned to the stateroom for the moment, before I heard the captain announce that the life belts should be put on. We came back upstairs and found very few people on deck. There was very little confusion — only the older women were a" little frightened. On the starboard side of the Boat Deck there were only two people — a young French bride and groom. By that time an old man had come upstairs and found Mr. and Mrs. Harder, of New York. He brought us all together and told us to be sure and stay together — that he would be back in a moment. We never saw him again.

About five minutes later the boats were lowered and we were pushed in. This was No. 7 lifeboat. My husband was pushed in with me and we were lowered with twenty-eight people in the boat. We counted off after we reached the water. There were only about twelve women and the rest were men — three crew and thirteen male passengers; several unmarried men — three or four of them foreigners. Somewhat later five people were put into our boat from another one, making thirty- three in ours. Then we rowed still further away as the women were nervous about suction. We had no compass and no light. We arrived at the Carpathia five or ten minutes after five. The conduct of the crew, as far as I could see, was absolutely beyond criticism. One of the crew in the boat was Jack Edmonds, (?) and there was another man, a Lookout (Hogg), of whom we all thought a great deal. He lost his brother.

D. H. Bishop, first-class passenger (Am. Inq., p. 1000) :

There was an oflicer stationed at the side of the lifeboat. As witness's wife got in, he fell into the boat. The French aviator Marechal was in the boat; also Mr. Greenfield and his mother. There was little confusion on the deck while the boat was being loaded; no rush to boats at all. Witness agrees with his wife in the matter of the counting of twenty-eight, but he knows that there were some who were missed. There was a woman with her baby transferred from another lifeboat. Witness knows of his own knowledge that No. 7 was the first boat lowered from the starboard side. They heard no order from any one for the men to stand back or "women first/' or "women and children first." Witness also says that at the time his lifeboat was lowered that that order had not been given on the starboard side.

J. R. McGough's affidavit (Am. Inq., p. 1 143) : After procuring life preservers we went back to the top deck and discovered that orders had been given to launch the lifeboats, which were already being launched. Women and children were called for to board the boats first. Both women and men hesitated and did not feel inclined to get into the small boats. He had his back turned, looking in an opposite direction, and was caught by the shoulder by one of the officers who gave him a push saying: "Here, you are a big fellow; get into that boat."

Our boat was launched with twenty-eight peo- ple in all. Five were transferred from one of the others. There were several of us who wanted drinking water. It was unknown to us that there was a tank of water and crackers also in our boat until we reached the Carpathia, There was no light in our boat.

Mrs. Thomas Potter, Jr. Letter:

There was no panic. Everyone seemed more stunned than anything else. . . . We watched for upwards of two hours the gradual sinking of the ship — first one row of light and then another disappearing at shorter and shorter intervals, with the bow well bent in the water as though ready for a dive. After the lights went out, some ten minutes before the end, she was like some great living thing who made a last superhuman effort to right herself and then, failing, dove bow forward to the unfathomable depths below.

We did not row except to get away from the suction of the sinking ship, but remained lashed to another boat until the Carpathia came in sight just before dawn.

Credits

• Pat Cook, USA
• Michael A. Findlay, USA
• Linda Greaves, USA
• Hermann Söldner, Germany
• Craig Stringer, UK
• Geoff Whitfield, UK