15th April 1912
The American Navy officer was dining at the captain’s table with his wife and children. They were enjoying their main course; Lucy and the two children were having lamb with mint sauce while Joe was enjoying Roast Sirloin of Beef Forestière.
‘Captain Doherty, would you care to join me on the bridge? The equipment we have installed is state-of-the-art. I think you will enjoy the experience.
‘Certainly Captain Smith. I would be honoured, Sir.’
‘Will you and the children be okay darling? I will meet you back in our cabin.’
‘You go ahead Joe, we’ll be fine. Enjoy yourself - you will be in your element.’
Captain Joe Doherty followed Captain Smith up to the ship’s bridge. It certainly was impressive.
Captain Doherty counted six officers on the bridge; performing various duties, they all seemed pretty busy.
The observer in the crow’s nest, Able Seaman Fleet, spotted a gigantic iceberg dead ahead. The time was 11.40 pm. Fleet instantly rang the six-inch brass bell in the crow’s nest three times and lifted the telephone to the bridge.
Sixth Officer James Moody answered.
Fleet’s message was chillingly brief: ‘Iceberg dead ahead.’
‘Thank you,’ replied Moody.
Captain Smith and his American guest were enjoying a cognac in the Captain’s sitting room. They were unaware of the drama-taking place on the bridge.
Fleet could see the iceberg looming nearer by the second. On the bridge, William Murdoch, the ship’s First Officer, responded to the message from the crow’s nest by giving the order, ‘Hard a-starboard.’
This meant that the ship’s bow would swing to port. At the same time, he gave an order to the engine room, ‘Stop. Full speed astern.’ Acting swiftly, he also pushed a bell-button for ten seconds to warn those below that he intended to close all the watertight doors. He then pulled the switch that automatically closed them. It was too late- evidence suggested that Fleet had spotted the iceberg at a distance of less than five hundred yards, and unfortunately, the Titanic took over eight hundred yards to stop at that speed.
Murdoch’s actions caused the Titanic to avoid a head-on collision, and nearly the entire iceberg; however, there was only enough time to turn the ship two points, which resulted in a devastating blow. As it transpired, this was the worst possible scenario. As it moved along the side of the ship, the iceberg scraped along the first three hundred feet of the hull. As it passed amidships, Murdoch ordered the helm hard to port in order to clear the stern. The berg passed beyond the stern and drifted silently away into the distance.
Captain Smith had been warned of icebergs only hours before and he and Captain Doherty raced out to the bridge, but it was all too late, the Titanic had started to sink quickly.
Joe excused himself and quickly proceeded to his family’s cabin but it was extremely difficult because most of the passengers were running in the opposite direction. Finally he reached his cabin and found it was vacant.
‘That’s good,’ he thought, ‘they must have headed up to the lifeboats.’
Just then the ship’s stern lifted up forty feet and Joe started to slide down the passageway as if it was a slippery slide. He tried to grab the handrail but the highly polished brass made it impossible to grip. Cabin doors were swinging wildly. Joe was struck in the temple, rendering him unconscious. He slid into the black oily water engulfing the ship.
Lucy and the children had made their way to the top deck where the lifeboats were located. They were in one of the first boats lowered into the cold North Atlantic. They were certainly not dressed for the evacuation; Lucy was wearing an evening gown and the children were in their night attire.
The lifeboat was floating on an icy sea on a cold moonless light. The other lifeboats were scattered around the area with everyone trying to keep warm and keeping a lookout for other passengers. At 2:15 am, with fifteen hundred people still aboard, the Titanic began to go under. As the bow plunged beneath the waves, Jack Phillips and Harold Bride sent out the last wireless call for help. A minute later, the ship’s lights flickered and went out. The only lights available to guide survivors were from the stars. As the remaining passengers and crew clung desperately to the deck rails, the stern of the Titanic rose higher into the air and stood vertically for about 30 seconds.
At 2:20 am, the Titanic snapped between the third and fourth funnels and the stern dipped down and hit the water as the bow plunged to the bottom of the sea.
As the stern filled with water it rose slightly into the air and began to spin. It then quickly disappeared beneath the surface of the water and began its long descent two a half miles to the ocean floor.
The remaining fifteen hundred passengers went down with the ship. Captain Joe Doherty was one of them.
Screams and cries filled the air, as the remaining passengers floated in the freezing water. The cries continued haunting the survivors in the lifeboats. Only a few lifeboats wanted to go back for more people. Most of them thought they would get ‘swamped’ if they went back. After a while, the cries died down and there came a deadly silence.
At 3:30 am, rockets were sighted. These were from the rescue ship, the Carpathia. The first lifeboat was picked up at 4:10 am and the last was picked up at 8:30 am. At 8:50 am, the Carpathia headed for New York, arriving there on April 18 at 9:00 pm. She carried seven hundred and five survivors. Lucy, Jack and Julie Doherty were among them.
What were this ambitious young US Navy Captain and his family doing on the ill-fated Titanic?