While I write some 22 years after the above conversation regarding the connection about the late Lawrence Beesley returning to the United States the year after his near-miraculous good fortune to find himself permitted to gain access to a lifeboat on the Titanic, located on the more 'generous' starboard side evacuation, under the command of First officer Murdock, I take note that in the Biographical sketch on Beesley found on this site, it is stated that Beesely's destination, at the time of the Titanic sinking was to visit one of his brothers, who resided in the city in which I was born: Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I will now attempt to look through census records for 1912 and 1913 to determine whether one of his several brothers did indeed make his home in Toronto in 1912. I might also add, I have been an avid historian of the Titanic since the young age of 1960, when I watched an airing in 1960 on television in Toronto, of the 1950 Clifton Webb (1889-1966) and Barbara Stanwyke (1907-1990) release of "Titanic". Even this romanticized version of the Titanic story was enough to addict me for life. Now some 60 years later, It is not an exaggeration to say that my library of books (some rare first editions) occupy 3, 20 foot long shelves of my home library. Save for one Op/Ed article on the subject of the Titanic's discovery and subsequent plunder on its 80th anniversary in 1994, I have only gained knowledge for myself. (Globe and Mail - April 14, 1990 ed. - one of two Canadian national newspapers. I attempted in 1983, to interest the CBC in investing in a documentary to correct the hundreds of myths that ran rabid both before and after the discovery. One last point - Second Officer Lightoller is often seen, even to this day, as a great hero of the Titanic story. ( I beg to disagree). First, he wholly misunderstood Captain E.J.'s command that the lifeboats be first boarded by women and children. Lightoller took this as meaning "Women and children ONLY" and as a consequence, while in command of the evacuation of the port-side lifeboats, he was responsible for the unnecessary loss of many lives, when there were no more women to be seen around his lifeboats. He also grossly underloaded most of the port-side lifeboats, not having taken the time to educate himself on the fact that Titanic's brand-new 'standard lifeboats set on the new Welan Davit design, could easily take up to 70 passengers from their Boat and A deck positions on the ship without fear of the lifeboat collapsing from stress when being lowered to the ocean below. His hard-headed attitude and ignorance, unlike First Officer Murdock on the starboard side evacuation, therefore, caused boats to be lowered with far, far fewer passengers and absolutely NO men. Indeed he even tried to prevent a young 15-year-old boy in First Class from entering a lifeboat. His father was outraged and stood up to Lightoller and managed to countermand Lightoller's order. The boy was consequently saved while an infuriated Lightoller was heard to say under his breath: "No MORE men". The outcome was that Lightoller's portside boats were underloaded until near the end, and therefore caused many unnecessary deaths. A nearly 900-foot ship is enormous, and it was entirely plausible that the women could be so far from sight in other areas of the ship that much-needed husbands were refused entry, thereby only adding to the death toll. Ironically, again and again in documentaries and feature films. Murdock is accused of having committed suicide by turning his firearm onto himself. There is absolutely no evidence to justify this claim, and the Murdock family has sought damages from both Warner Bros. and Cameron for depicting their ancestor as a coward in his Blockbuster 1997 film "Titanic". On the contrary, he was a pragmatic man and when women were not about, he would attempt to fill his lifeboats with older boys and men. He had understood E.J. Smith's command: "Women and children first!" not "Women and children only." If one checks the occupancy rate of portside lifeboats against the number saved on the starboard lifeboats, clearly Murdock deserved his position (at first as Chief Officer and then, after the famous replacement in Southampton, his demotion to First Officer. I see no glorious honour in unnecessarily condemning males from entering when clearly there were no women or children about his poorly loaded lifeboats.
