Millions of movie-goers have watched Captain Edward John Smith die a hero. But is that the truth?
In James Cameron‘s 1997 blockbuster film, the commander of the Titanic is at the helm as the ship plunges into the Atlantic, grappling in vain with instruments when a wall of water smashes through the wheelhouse windows.
That’s a very different tale than was told eight decades earlier, on April 18, 1912 – three days after the sinking – when the Los Angeles Express declared on its front page: ‘Captain E.J. Smith shot himself.’
The following day, Britain’s Daily Mirror trumpeted on its cover: ‘Captain Smith Shoots Himself on the Bridge’.
As official inquiries into the sea disaster were held in New York and London, survivors claimed they too had heard rumors of his ungallant behavior. And among those, dubiously-sourced reports of Captain Smith’s drinking habits, the Titanic’s reckless speed and even ignored warnings of icebergs ahead.
For Smith’s widow Eleanor and their seven-year-old daughter Mel, the shame and scandal heaped insult on injury.
Seafarers of the time were honor-bound to go down with the ship. Could it be that 62-year-old Smith, the venerable commodore of the White Star Line, highest-paid captain in the world, had really ended his life in disgrace?
Now a new book claims to have settled the score. Author Dan E. Parkes is adamant that Smith did not take his own life, but rather drowned or froze to death in the icy waters, alongside 1,495 others.
Smith’s death was contested by eyewitness reports – some claimed he died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound, while others recalled seeing the captain disappear beneath the waves. (Pictured: Captain E.J. Smith).
Newspapers declared at the time that Smith had committed suicide aboard the sinking vessel.
At the time of the tragedy, rumors circulated that Smith, portrayed here by Bernard Hill in the film ‘Titanic,’ did not drown, but rather shot himself.
And in his meticulously researched account, ‘Titanic Legacy: The Captain, The Daughter and The Spy,’ Parkes insists that the stains on Smith’s reputation are unfair.
As proof of the proliferation of absurd stories, Parkes describes how three months after the sinking, a Baltimore man claimed Smith had survived and was living in disguise in Maryland.
Several years later, Life magazine reported that a ‘down and out’ in Ohio was also claiming to be the dead mariner.
Parkes also finds no evidence to prove that Smith was pushing the Titanic, on her maiden voyage, too fast, and was disregarding warnings. He rubbishes reports of Smith drinking, and of him being in a useless daze as the ship sank.
Parkes’ new book details eyewitness accounts from Titanic wreck survivors, unveiling what he believes to be the final moments of the ill-fated captain.
But it is on the suicide rumors that Parkes spends much of his time – ending what he sees as a character assassination which devastated Smith’s widow Eleanor, who died in 1931, and their only child Mel, who died in 1973, aged 75.
While there were many ‘eyewitness accounts… that did report an officer shooting and suicide,’ Parkes argues that the person was unnamed and, therefore, unlikely to be ill-fated mariner. Instead, Parkes suggests that traumatized passengers heard gunshots – likely fired to control the panicked crowds – and assumed, without evidence, that it was Smith killing himself.
The survivors, angry and astonished at the turn of events, looked for someone to blame – and seized on the captain, alleges Parkes.
In contrast to the suicide-story, Robert Williams Daniel, a 27-year-old banker and first-class passenger, said he ‘saw Captain Smith on the bridge’ as the Titanic went into the ocean. He told the New York Herald at the time that, after leaping from the deck, he watched the water slowly rise from the captain’s feet to his waist and, eventually, swallow him.
‘He died a hero,’ Daniel declared.
Smith was hailed a hero by some survivors, who claimed he went down with his ship and even attempted to save an infant before succumbing to the freezing ocean waters.
Could it be that 62-year-old Smith, the venerable commodore of the White Star Line, highest-paid captain in the world, had really ended his life in disgrace?
According to Parkes, Titanic passengers likely heard a gunshot meant to control the crowds of people, assuming that it was Smith turning the weapon on himself.
Frederick Dent Ray, a 33-year-old first class saloon steward, testified before a US inquiry that Smith’s personal steward, Arthur Paintin, was ‘last seen on the bridge, standing by the captain.’
A Connecticut millionaire, Frederick Hoyt, described how he went to his room, removed his outer clothes – believing he stood a better chance of survival without the cumbersome garments – and then bumped into Smith while returning to the deck. He said he and Smith shared a stiff drink, to fortify themselves for the cold, before Hoyt jumped.
And Isaac Maynard, a 31-year-old cook, testified in New York that he ‘saw the captain standing on the bridge’ as he himself was washed overboard.
Maynard clung to a boat, and recalled: ‘I saw Captain Smith washed from the bridge, and afterwards saw him swimming in the water. He was still fully dressed, with his peak cap on his head.
‘One of the men clinging to the raft tried to save him by reaching out a hand, but he would not let him, and called out ‘Look after yourselves, boys.’ I do not know what became of the captain, for I could not see him at the time, but I suppose he sank.’
The handful of survivors who claimed to see Smith shoot himself were unreliable, Parkes argues, as they were on life rafts which set sail long before the final sinking.
Parkes cites other survivors who claimed that Smith went even further in his heroism, swimming towards a lifeboat with a baby held above the water and handing the child over, but refusing to get in the boat himself.
Frederick Harris, a fireman, told British newspaper The Western Daily Mercury that ‘he saw the captain jump into the water and grasp a child, which he placed on one of the rafts, of which there were all too few. He did not see the captain afterwards.’
The scandals surrounding Smith’s death only added insult to injury for his widow and young daughter (pictured).
Eyewitness accounts claim that Smith (right) ‘died a hero.’
George Brereton, a gambler and con man who boarded the ship under an alias, intent on fleecing the wealthy passengers, told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle that he saw Smith surface, then swim towards the doomed Titanic, determined to go down with her.
‘Fifteen yards away was the body of an infant which attracted the struggling sailor,’ said Brereton. ‘He caught hold of the child and then with his right arm made for a lifeboat. The little one was safely put aboard and the captain resumed his struggle for the sinking Titanic.’
Parkes argues that the heroic actions were entirely predictable for a man so in-demand among discerning travelers that he earned the nickname ‘Millionaire’s Captain’.
And, Parkes finds, Smith eerily forecasted his fate.
Worried about the seaworthiness of the Titanic, Ada Murdoch, whose husband, William Murdoch, was the first officer, warned Captain Smith of a ‘prophecy’ in a novella of such a ship sinking.
‘Well,’ Smith reportedly replied, according to the Chicago Tribune, ‘if the largest liner in the world sinks, I shall go with it.’
