Between the time the ship sank fully into the ocean, and the time Officer Lowe's lifeboat returned to collect survivors, how long was it? 20 minutes, 40 minutes, an hour?
Also why didn't Officer Lowe return to the site sooner when most of the victims were still alive? He had to wait till it was "quiet"?
I would guess he waited half an hour or so.
I think he also believed, and quite correctly, that returning too soon, survivors would swamp the lifeboat. They had to wait a little while, plus they had to get organized. But as he lamented, they "waited too long."
I intend to live forever.
So far, so good.
5th officer Lowe was asked that very question:
Q - You said you lay off a bit to wait until it quieted down?
A - Yes.
Q - Until what quieted down?
A - Until the drowning people had thinned out.
Q - You lay off a bit until the drowning people had quieted down?
A - Yes.
Q - Then you went to the scene of the wreck?
A - Yes.
Q - Had their cries quieted down before you started?
A - Yes; they had subsided a good deal. It would not have been wise or safe for me to have gone there before, because the whole lot of us would have been swamped and then nobody would have been saved.
Q - But your boat had, according to your own admission, a water capacity of 65 people?
A - Yes; but then what are you going to do with a boat of 65 where 1,600 people are drowning?
Q - You could have saved 15.
A - You could not do it, sir.
Q - At least, you made no attempt to do it?
A - I made the attempt, sir, as soon as any man could do so, and I am not scared of saying it. I did not hang back or anything else.
Q - I am not saying you hung back. I am just saying that you said you lay by until it had quieted down!
A - You had to do so. It was absolutely not safe! You could not do otherwise, because you would have hundreds of people around your boat, and the boat would go down just like that [indicating].
Q - About how long did you lay by?
A - I should say an hour and a half; somewhere under two hours.
Q - Then you laid an hour after she sank?
A - An hour after she sank.
Q - Before going to the scene of the wreck?
A - Before going to the scene of the wreck.
Q - You were about 150 yards off?
A - I was just on the margin. If anybody had struggled out of the mass, I was there to pick them up; but it was useless for me to go into the mass.
Q - You mean for anybody?
A - It would have been suicide.
Q - Do you mean that if anybody had applied to you for permission to get aboard, you would have accorded them the right?
A - I would have taken anybody and everybody; that is, because we could have handled them there. We could never have handled them in the mass.
I understand Lowe's fear of being swamped, but I don't share it. People in heavy lifebelts and clothing who had just been plunged into icy water would have been in far too much shock and agony to swamp anything. The problem would not have been people swamping the boat IMO, it would have been getting sodden, panicking, freezing people out of the water whilst standing in a lifeboat on a frigid night. *That* would have been difficult amongst hundreds of screaming, weakly splashing and dying people.
shareWhen 5th officer Lowe entered the wreck site he rescued the occupants from one collapsible and when he approached the second one he was worried the people in it would panic and immediately try to swim towards his lifeboat and swamp it. What is interesting is that two witnesses gave a different version of the event:
Frank Evans
Q - Did he use his revolver any, going over there?
A - The 5th officer used one, sir.
Q - Where?
A - He fired four shots when we went to this boat that was in distress. She was half full of water, and they were up to their ankles in water. There was one collapsible boat that we had in tow, and we went over to this one that was swamped, sir. Three dead persons were left there, besides our taking two other people into our boat, and one woman.
Q - In what direction did he point the revolver?
A - In the air, sir.
Q - Did he tell you why he fired?
A - He told people in this boat it was to warn them not to rush our boat when we got alongside.
Joseph Scarrott
"After we came back from the wreckage where we had taken one of those rafts in tow, Mr. Lowe emptied his pistol into the water; as regards the number of rounds left in it I cannot say, but I think he emptied five rounds out of it."
Q - But all shots were fired into the water?
A - Yes.
Did Lowe fire his gun into the air (makes sense) or into the sea to stop the people from swimming towards his boat? Pretty dangerous thing to do, especially if there were people in the water and already attempting to swim towards his boat.
What is interesting is that Lowe himself denied he used his revolver after he left the ship. He said he fired 3 shots into the air when the lifeboat was being lowered and did not use it again. Did he forget or was he afraid to admit the incident in the wreckage?
Lowe was asked:
Q - You put it in your pocket after you fired those three shots?
A - Yes; I put in my pocket and put the safety catch on, because it is a Browning automatic. There were, I suppose, four more remaining.
Q - What we call a seven-shooter?
A - I do not know what you call it.
Q - Well, what do you call it?
A - It is an automatic. I think it carries eight.
Q - Did you have any occasion to use it afterwards?
A - None whatever, sir.
Q - And you did not use it afterwards?
A - I did not use it.
Arriving too quickly would indeed swamp the boat.
Which is why the only solution would've been to fill the boats to the full capacity
Long enough that he only was able to pull less than ten people out of the water.
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