Capt. Edward Smith

Edward John Smith (January 27, 1850 - April 15, 1912) was an English naval officer who served as commanding officer of numerous White Star Line vessels.

In Haunted, he is the captain of the RMS Titanic and perished when the ship sank on her maiden voyage.

Early Life
Edward John Smith was born on 27 January 1850 on Well Street in Hanley, Staffordshire, England, to Edward Smith, a potter, and Catherine Hancock. His parents later owned a shop. Raised in a working environment, Smith attended the Eturia British School until he was thirteen, where he then went to Liverpool to begin a seafaring career in Merchant Navy as well as the Royal Navy 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 was the SS Celtic. He served as commanding officer of numerous White Star Line vessels, including the Majestic and attracted a strong and loyal following amongst passengers.

On July 12, 1887 Smith married Sarah Eleanor Pennington. Their daughter, Helen Melville Smith, was born in Waterloo, Liverpool, England, on April 2, 1898.

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 April 15, 1912; over 1,500 perished in the sinking, including Smith, who went down with the ship. For his stoicism and fortitude in the face of adversity, Smith became an icon of British "stiff upper lip" spirit and discipline.

Haunted
Captain Smith was appointed to command the newest ship in the Olympic class when the RMS Titanic left Southampton for her maiden voyage. Although some sources state that he had decided to retire after completing Titanic 's maiden voyage,[11] an article in the Halifax Morning Chronicle on 9 April 1912 stated that Smith would remain in charge of Titanic "until the Company (White Star Line) completed a larger and finer steamer."

On April 10, 1912, Smith came aboard Titanic at seven o'clock in the morning to prepare for the Board of Trade muster at 8:00 am. He immediately went to his cabin to get the sailing report from Chief Officer Henry Wilde. After departure at noon, the huge amount of water displaced by Titanic as she passed caused the laid-up New York to break from her moorings and swing towards Titanic. Quick action from Smith helped to avert a premature end to the maiden voyage.

The first four days of the voyage passed without incident, but on April 14, 1912, Titanic 's radio operators received six messages from other ships warning of drifting ice, which passengers on Titanic had begun to notice during the afternoon.

Although the crew was thus aware of ice in the vicinity, they did not reduce the ship's speed, and continued to steam at 22 knots (25 mph), only 2 knots (2.3 mph) short of her maximum speed of 24 knots (about 28 mph). Titanic 's high speed in waters where ice had been reported was later criticized as reckless, but it reflected standard maritime practice at the time. According to Fifth Officer Harold Lowe, the custom was "to go ahead and depend upon the lookouts in the crow's nest and the watch on the bridge to pick up the ice in time to avoid hitting it".

The North Atlantic liners prioritized time-keeping above all other considerations, sticking rigidly to a schedule that would guarantee arrival at an advertised time. They were frequently driven at close to their full speed, treating hazard warnings as advisories rather than calls to action. It was widely believed that ice posed little risk; close calls were not uncommon, and even head-on collisions had not been disastrous. In 1907, SS Kronprinz Wilhelm, a German liner, had rammed an iceberg and suffered a crushed bow, but was still able to complete her voyage. That same year, Titanic 's future captain, Edward Smith, declared in an interview that he could not "imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that."[15]

Shortly after 11:40 pm on April 14th, Smith was informed by First Officer William Murdoch that the ship had just collided with an iceberg. It was soon apparent that the ship was seriously damaged; designer Thomas Andrews reported that all of the first five of the ship's watertight compartments had been breached and that Titanic would sink in under two hours.

Some sources claim Smith was inactive in preventing loss of life. Captain Smith was an experienced seaman who had served for 40 years at sea, including 27 years in command. This was the first crisis of his career, and he would have known that even if all the boats were fully occupied, more than a thousand people would remain on the ship as she went down, with little or no chance of survival.[18] As Smith began to grasp the enormity of what was about to happen, he appears to have become paralysed by indecision. He had ordered passengers and crew to muster, but from that point onward, he failed to order his officers to put the passengers into the lifeboats; he did not adequately organise the crew; he failed to convey crucial information to his officers and crew; he sometimes gave ambiguous or impractical orders and he never gave the command to abandon ship. Even some of his bridge officers were unaware for some time after the collision that the ship was sinking; Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall did not find out until 01:15, barely an hour before the ship went down,[19] while Quartermaster George Rowe was so unaware of the emergency that after the evacuation had started, he phoned the bridge from his watch station to ask why he had just seen a lifeboat go past.[20] Smith did not inform his officers that the ship did not have enough lifeboats to save everyone. He did not supervise the loading of the lifeboats and seemingly made no effort to find out if his orders were being followed.[19][21]

Just minutes before the ship started its final plunge, Smith was still busy releasing Titanic 's crew from their duties; he went to the Marconi operators room and released Junior Marconi Officer Harold Bride and senior wireless operator John "Jack" Phillips from their duties. He then carried out a final tour of the deck, telling crew members: "Now it's every man for himself."[22] At 2:10 a.m., Steward Edward Brown saw the captain approach with a megaphone in his hand. He heard him say "Well boys, do your best for the women and children, and look out for yourselves." He saw the Captain walk onto the bridge alone.[23] This was the last reliable sighting of Smith. A few minutes later Trimmer Samuel Hemming found the bridge apparently empty.[24] Five minutes later, the ship disappeared beneath the ocean. Smith perished that night along with around 1,500 others, and his body was never recovered.

Physical Appearance
Captain Smith is described as being an older man in his early sixties with pale skin, snow-white hair, and greenish blue eyes. He has a goatee, which is the same shade as his hair. Like many of Titanic's officers, Smith wears the same uniform with the exception that he wears a captain's hat and has medals on the right hand side of his jacket, which were awarded for his naval experience.

Personality and Traits
Not much is known about what kind of person Captain Smith was in the days prior to the Titanic sinking. As for whether or not he yielded to Joseph Bruce Ismay's pressure to bring the Titanic to New York ahead of schedule, this is still a historical controversy that has yet to be resolved.

However, this is overshadowed by the amount of bravery and compassion Smith shows during the ship's sinking. When it came to how the crew handled lifeboats, Smith was active in overseeing the loading and launching of the boats. He also actively seeked assistance and rescue throughout the sinking and later released crewmen from their duties when the ship was near its end. and later released crewmen from their duties when the ship was near its end.

Relationships
On January 13, 1887, Smith married Sarah Eleanor Pennington at St Oswald's Church, Winwick, Lancashire. Their daughter, Helen Melville Smith, was born in Waterloo, Liverpool on 2 April 1898. The family lived in a red brick, twin-gabled house, named "Woodhead", on Winn Road, Highfield, Southampton, Hampshire.