The Lifeboats
The Titanic was equipped with twenty lifeboats; fourteen regular boats and two smaller ones, the emergency boats, numbered 1 though 16 (even numbers on the port side and odd on the starboard side of the ship) as well as four Englehardt collapsible boats, 'numbered' A to D. Two of these boats (C and D) were stored beneath regular boats and were successfully loaded and lowered. The remaining two (A and B) were stored on top of the officers' quarters.
When all the other boats had been lowered, the crew attempted to get the two remaining boats off the roof of the officers' quarters. In the end, both boats were more or less thrown down onto the Boat Deck. A was floated off the Titanic. As the side's of the boat were not completely raised, the boat was soon half-full of water and the people in it in a precarious situation. They were later taken off by Fifth Officer Lowe.
Collapsible B
Collapsible B landed upside down on the Boat Deck and was washed overboard before it could be righted. Thanks to its construction, the capsized boat remained afloat even this way and provided rescue to considerable number of men including Second Officer Lightoller, Col. Archibald Gracie, John Thayer Jr., the junior wireless operator Harold Bride and Chief Baker Joughin. The boat was partly submerged and the survivors were afraid that if any swell would rise the boat would capsize or at least it would become impossible to remain on the slippery bottom. To counteract the motion of the boat, Lightoller had all the men stand up on the boat and by leaning this way or that, keep the boat as even as possible (Lightoller's Famous Balancing Act). After a few hours Lightoller managed to attract the attention of two life-boats and the survivors were transferred from B to boats 12 and 4.
This hair-raising tale of survival on the bottom of a capsized lifeboat in the middle of the North Atlantic is definitely one of these events that, if they had not actually happened, would be impossible to make up. Any author inventing something like this in a realistic context would be accused of having taken leave of their senses.
The Historical Survivors
According to Col. A. Gracie's account there were about thirty people on the upturned boat, several of whom died before they were rescued. Gracie lists three passengers: A. H. Barkworth, himself, John B. Thayer Jr, and of the crew Lightoller, Bride and Joughin as already mentioned above, and Firemen McGann and Senior, Cooks Collins and Maynard, Steward Whiteley, 'J. Hagan', Seaman McGough "(possibly)".
According to the Encyclopedia Titanica the following men were on Collapsible B:
Ernest Frederick Allen
Algernon Henry Barkworth
Harold Syndey Bride
Eugene Patrick Daly
Edward Arthur Dorking
Col. Archibald Gracie
Charles John Joughin
Charles Herbert Lightoller
Isaac Hiram Maynard
William John Mellors
Albert John Moss
Patrick O'Keefe
Victor Francis Sunderland
John Borland Thayer Jr.
Collapsible B in Fiction
Collapsible B is also the favoured means of escape for fictional heroes. Not only is it an thrilling story in itself, it also provides a means of survival without having to get into a lifeboat. Alternatives for the self-respecting hero to survive are 1) being pulled out of the water, like Herr Petersen in the 1943 film, 2) being knocked unconscious and bundled into a boat, as happens to Dr Watson in Sherlock Holmes and the Titanic Tragedy, or 3) being pushed into the boat as it is lowered, the fate of Jamie Purse in the 1996 miniseries. Villains, like Dr. Burton in The Case of Cabin 13 on the other hand survive often by getting into a boat dressed as women.
In addition to the historical characters the following fictional people have therefore made their way onto Collapsible B:
H. Hesse - H. Hesse, Der Untergang der Titanic. Bericht eines Überlebenden
Sherlock Holmes - William Seil, Sherlock Holmes and the Titanic Tragedy
John Darnell and his servant Sung - Sam McCarver, The Case of Cabin 13
Officer Bigalow - Clive Cussler, Raise the Titanic
Morgan Fairfield and Peter Wilksbury (who dies) - Jim Walker, Murder on the Titanic
Barry O'Neil and Pegeen Flynn - Eve Bunting, SOS Titanic
Miranda Thorne (née Mary Cooke) - Robert Peck, Amanda Miranda
Even J. Bruce Ismay can be found balancing on a fictional version of Collapsible B. According to Max Dittmar-Pittmann - and following his lead J. Pelz von Felinau - Ismay survives standing on a swamped 'raft' which takes the place of Collapsible B in these stories.
Return to Fictional Officers of the Titanic