Who was the captain of the Titanic?

Edward John Smith, RD (27 January 1850 – 15 April 1912) was a British Merchant Navy officer. He served as a master of numerous White Star Line vessels. He is best known as the captain of the RMS Titanic, perishing when the ship sank on its maiden voyage.

Raised in a working environment, he left school early to join the Merchant Navy and the Royal Naval Reserve. After earning his master's ticket, he entered the service of the White Star Line, a prestigious British company. He quickly rose through the ranks, and graduated in 1887 his first command aboard the SS Celtic. He served as commanding officer of numerous White Star Line vessels, including the Majestic (which he commanded for nine years) and attracted a strong and loyal following amongst passengers.

In 1904, Smith became the commodore of the White Star Line, and was responsible for controlling its flagships. He successfully commanded the Baltic, Adriatic and the Olympic. In 1912, he was the captain of the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank on 15 April 1912; Smith and over 1,500 others perished in the sinking. For his stoicism and fortitude in the face of adversity, Smith became an icon of British "stiff upper lip" spirit and discipline.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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25 Comments

Ian Swindale

Captains traditionally go down with their ship unless you were the captain of the Costa Concordia who deliberately went ashore a few years ago when his ship hit an Island (Lampedusa?). I think he's been charged since for neglecting his duty and leaving passengers to fend for themselves - if that is so he most certainly deserved to be tried but what the outcome was I don't know

Chris Viney

All the Titanic’s engineers also stayed at their posts and kept the lights etc. on to assist the evacuation of the passengers. This included my great grandfather, the Engineers writer.

Irene Townsend

John Dommerman, It wasn't Captain Smith that said that it was the gentleman who designed the boat, who was also on board the ship sorry I forget his name, who also was believed to have got into one of the first life boats with the women and saved himself, my mother's aunty was on that ship, going over to America to start a new life.

Take A. Guess

The real Captain sure was a clese resemblance to the Captain (actor) for the Titanic movie !

Take A. Guess

John Dommerman, Was it Smith ? Or someone else such as a rich passenger or newspaper reporter. Not sure ?

John Pearce

My grandfather survived and a year later my dad was born

Caroline Weis

The Titanic did not have enough life boats and some when the ship listed so were unable to be launched plus some life boats did leave with less then the amount of passengers that could have been aboard. I've heard that one reason it sank was that a fire was in one of the forward coal bunkers that started before the ship left port and it was hot enough that it weakened to plates on the outside and when the ship hit the iceberg those weakened plates ripped apart letting in sea water. The bulkheads didn't go all the way up and more bunkers were flooded when water overflowed the bulkheads. My parents had a book on the sinking but I never read it and now I have no idea where it is.