Titanic Survivors of Lifeboats Sixteen, A, B, C, & D

Work in Progress

There were Twenty Lifeboats aboard the Titanic on that fateful journey that ended so disastrously. The ship was built with all the most up to date safety measures however there were only enough lifeboats to carry a fraction of the passengers and crew should the unthinkable happen which did happen.

Had the twenty been used as intended they could have carried 1,178 of the 2,224 on board. The total number of survivors on the night of 14-15 April 1912 was only 706.

The aim of this group of projects is to list those survivors linked to the lifeboat they were rescued in so that we can get a clearer picture of who experienced that nightmare together and what their reactions were under such severe stress and fear.

This project will list those survivors who were in Lifeboats One, Two, and Three and attempt to describe the unthinkable nightmare they would have experienced, though mere words will be inadequate.

Order of Lifeboat Launches

1. Boat 7 (starboard)
2. Boat 5 (starboard)
3. Boat 3 (starboard)
4. Boat 8 (port)
5. Boat 1 (starboard)
6. Boat 6 (port)
7. Boat 16 (port)
8. Boat 14 (port)
9. Boat 12 (port)
10. Boat 9 (starboard)
11. Boat 11 (starboard)
12. Boat 13 (starboard)
13. Boat 15 (starboard)
14. Boat 2 (port)
15. Boat 10 (port)
16. Boat 4 (port)
17. Collapsible Boat C (starboard)
18. Collapsible Boat D (port)
19. Collapsible Boat B (port)
20. Collapsible Boat A (starboard)

Lifeboat Sixteen

Boat 16 was loaded with mostly women and children it is thought mainly from second and third class, supervised by Sixth Officer James Moody. When it reached the Carpathia there were said to be some forty people aboard. stewardess Violet Jessop who was aboard boat 16 was unique in that she survived all the Olympic class accidents - the collision of Olympic with HMS Hawke in 1911, the sinking of Titanic in 1912 and the loss of Britannic in 1916.

Occupants

• Able Seaman Ernest Edward Archer
• stewardess Violet Jessop
• Henry Joseph Bailey Master at Arms
• mate, James Forward
• Charles Edward Andrews Assistant Saloon Steward

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Collapsible Lifeboat A

Collapsible Lifeboat A reached the deck in the correct upright position however it got washed overboard. In the ensuing confusion the canvas sides did not get pulled up properly as the over loaded boat drifted from the Titanic. Passengers climbed back in from the water but many either died of hypothermia or fell back into the water. The First Class passenger Thomson Beattie, the third class passengers Arthur Keefe, Edvard Lindell and Gerda Lindell and a couple of firemen were amongst the seven or eight who did not make it alive to be rescued by the Carpathia.

Occupants

• Rhoda Abbot - only female left alive in Boat A

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Collapsible Lifeboat B

Collapsible Boat B was, like boat A, difficult to retrieve from its storage place on the roof of the officers' quarters but unlike boat A it broke through the makeshift ramps and landed on deck upside down also arriving on the boat deck upside down. Before they were able to even attempt to right it the Titanic was in the final stages and was breaking up and beginning her plunge to the sea bed and Boat B was washed along with many people off the ship. As the forward funnel snapped and toppled into the water many were crushed and lifeboat B was pushed away from the sinking ship. Several dozen of the hundreds of people in the water climbed onto the hull of Boat B and Wireless operator Harold Bride who had been trapped underneath the collapsible boat in an air bubble managed to escape the air bubble and also climb aboard. As the air bubble leaked the boat gradually sank. In an attempt to counter the increasing rock and swell of the sea as dawn approached, Lightoller organised two rows of men to stand in two parallel rows on either side of the centreline, facing the bow, and got them to sway in unison. This meant they were very exposed and with their feet in water rising to their ankles, calves and knees and for some this proved just too much and they collapsed and fell into the water and died.

Occupants

• Second Officer Charles Lightoller
• John George Phillips, the first radio officer
• David Livshin, the third class passenger

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Collapsible Lifeboat C

Collapsible Boat C came out in its correct position but as the Titanic was going down people were more and more desperate and Purser McElroy, fired two warning shots into the air to drive back the crowd of stewards and third class passengers were trying to rush to board. Two first class passengers, Hugh Woolner and Swedish Army Lieutenant Björn Steffanson, came to the assistance of McElroy and WIlde and Murdoch, pulling out two stewards who had made it into the boat. These men managed then to load the boat calmly and quickly as the Titanic was listing badly by this time. J. Bruce Ismay helped by rounding up as many women and children as he could muster to load and then remaining spaces were taken up by men including Ismay which would prove controversial later.

Boat C was the last starboard boat to be launched and as it went down was colliding with the side of the now badly listing Titanic. Oars were used to push the collapsble clear of the side of the TItanic by passengers. Twenty minutes later the Titanic sank to her grave. Ismay turned his back on this distressing sight. Boat C was the first to be rescued by the Carpathia with about 44 people aboard.

Occupants

• George Thomas Rowe

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Collapsible Lifeboat D

Boat D was the last boat to be launched with a capacity of 47 whilst there were still 1500 passengers aboard the Titanic. With such desperate demand on places the crew circled the boat to ensure only women and children boarded. A man came to the cordon with two boys but did not attempt to board himself. He gave his name as "Louis Hoffman". The identity of the boys was a mystery and they became known as the 'Titanic Orphans' with pictures circulated worldwide. Their mother identified them as Michel Marcel Navratil, who was the eldest and became the last male survivor of the Titanic and his brother Edmond Navrati. Their father, a Slovac tailor had taken them from his estranged wife and planned to take them to live in the USA. He perished on the Titanic.

Caroline Brown, the last passenger to board from the davits, owed her life to Edith Evans, a first class passenger who gave up her place on the lifeboat and so became one of only four first class passengers who perished on the Titanic. As the decks of the Titanic were bcoming awash Hugh Woolner and Mauritz Håkan Björnström-Steffansson leaped from A Deck to Boad D as it was lowering, Mauritz landing upside down in the bow and Hugh Woolner landing half in and no doubt thankful to the other passengers who pulled him in out of the icy water. Another first class passenger, Frederick Maxfield Hoyt who had placed his wife in the boat and then jumped into the water was hauled into the boat by Woolner and Mauritz Håkan Björnström-Steffansson.

With 25 passengers as Boat D left the deck under command of Quartermaster Arthur Bright the three aforementioned First class passengers and 10-12 who were apparently transferred from another boat meaning by the time boat D was rescued by the Carpathia at about 7:15, there were probably 40 passengers.

Occupants

• Quartermaster Arthur Bright
• Michel Marcel Navratil
• Edmond Navratil
• Caroline Brown
• Hugh Woolner
• Mauritz Håkan Björnström-Steffansson
• Frederick Maxfield Hoyt
• William A Lucas

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