Charles Lightoller in 1912
Charles Herbert Lightoller, (30 March 1874 – 8 December 1952) was a British mariner and naval officer. He was the second officer on board the RMS Titanic and the most senior member of the crew to survive the Titanic disaster.
Biography[]
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.
At age 13, not wanting to end up with a factory job, Charles began a four-year apprenticeship on board the barque Primrose Hill. On his second voyage, he set sail with the crew of the Holt Hill, and during a storm in the South Atlantic, the ship was forced to put in at Rio de Janeiro. Repairs were made in the midst of a smallpox epidemic and a revolution.
Lightoller went to the Yukon in 1898 to prospect for gold in the Klondike Gold Rush. Failing at this, he then became a cowboy in Alberta, Canada. In order to return home, he became a hobo, riding the rails back across Canada. He earned his passage back to England by working as a cattle wrangler on a cattle boat and arrived home penniless in 1899.
Lightoller boarded the RMS Titanic in Belfast, acting as first officer for the sea trials. On the night of 14 April 1912, Lightoller commanded the last bridge watch prior to the ship's collision with the iceberg, after which Murdoch relieved him. An hour before the collision, Lightoller ordered the ship's lookouts to continually watch for 'small ice' and 'particularly growlers' until daylight. He 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. Lightoller had retired to his cabin and was preparing for bed when he felt the collision.
As the officer in charge of loading passengers into lifeboats on the port side, Lightoller strictly enforced the women and children only protocol, not allowing any male passengers to board the lifeboats unless they were needed as auxiliary seamen.
Charles Lightoller in 1940.
Lightoller served as a commanding officer in the Royal Navy during World War I and was twice decorated for gallantry. During World War II, in retirement, he voluntarily provided his personal yacht and sailed her as one of the "little ships" that played a part in the Dunkirk evacuation.
Lightoller died of chronic heart disease on 8 December 1952, aged 78. A long-time pipe smoker, he died during London's Great Smog of 1952. His body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at the Commonwealth "Garden of Remembrance" at Mortlake Crematorium in Richmond, Surrey.