Captain Smith Inexperienced?

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Annette Dusa

Member
Hello, I am new to this board so please forgive me if I am not doing something right.

I recently visited the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax Nova Scotia. In the Titanic display there was a picture of Captain Smith with the following text next to it:

“Smith was about to retire from a long career on North Atlantic liners. Unfortunately, his experience had been on ships half the size of Titanic, so he was ill equipped to handle, or evacuate, a ship of her size.”

I have read a lot about the Titanic but have never read anything about Captain Smith like that. I am by no means an expert on the Titanic, just an enthusiast so I was wondering if any of you, who are more knowledgeable have heard this mentioned before? I always thought very highly of Captain Smith and would hate people who are unfamiliar with him or the Titanic, to be misinformed. Any further information would be appreciated.

Annette
 

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Mark Baber said:
Smith alone had experience with ships of Titanic's size, as Olympic's commander.
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Exactly. And since the Olympic class of ships were significantly larger and had different types of power plants compard with their nearest competitors at the time - the Curnarders Mauretania & Lusitania -, it can be said that Edward Smith was the only Captain who had the experience to take command of the Titanic on its maiden voyage.
 
Captain Smith may of had the experience of Titanic size through sailing the sister ship Olympic. But do not under estimate others senior officers who have sailed under Smith on Olympic who have gain experience of a ship that size to.
No doubt for Smith it is great honour to be pick as captain for new ship maiden crossing. But the ones will have the final say in this mater are the Board of Directors of the White Star Line. They hold the alternate power of the company. Smith may be a great captain indeed but does own the ships or company. No way I am trying to down grad Smith, but at the end of the day he is paid as an employee of the company to be a captain.
 
Mike, this isn't the first time you've said that the Board decided who would command Titanic on her maiden voyage. What's your basis for thinking that the selection of commanders was made that high up in the hierarchy?
 
You are right want I have said. But as so many other topics or threads are repeating what been said in the past as new members join.
The Board of Directors of any company have the ultimate power where the Chairman has the final casting vote. All employees come under them.
As I said for captain Smith it is great honour to be pick for Titanic. But that has to have to meet the approval of the Board and no doubt Mr B Ismay was a strong supporter for him. But have to say he was the only had the experience of such a large ship is not true. Those senior officers who have sail on the Olympic have also gain the experience. Just for one minute if Smith had an unfortunate accident and couldn't sail the ship. As seen captain Herbert Haddock took over the Olympic and quite sure if had to replace Smith for Titanic he would of been up for the job to.
 
"Unfortunately, his experience had been on ships half the size of Titanic, so he was ill equipped to handle, or evacuate, a ship of her size.”

It's true that Titanic was twice the GRT of her immediate predecessors, but it doesn't go to follow that made Smith "ill equipped" to handle Titanic. Titanic wasn't all that exceptional apart from her great size compared to her immediate predecessors. Her notoreity sometimes makes it easy to forget that she was basically a very conventional ship and her design didn't spring out of nowhere. Smith had close to a decade experience of handling White Star's immediate predecessors to Titanic- which were known as the 'Big Four' (Baltic, Cedric, Adriatic, Celtic). Built from 1903 onwards they were (at launch) the largest ships in the world at 729 feet length, 24,000 GRT. Yes, half the gross registered tonnage, but still very large ships indeed.

In many important respects though Titanic was very similar to the big four. She had a similar mechanical configuration (although triple screw). The shipboard systems and equipment were essentially the same as her predecessors. At 18 knots the 'big four' were driven-on at speed as 'express liners' on WSL's principal route. hydrodynamics would have been similar. Smith would have been responsible for managing a similarly sized complement of officers and crew that he later directed on Titanic. In terms of managing an evacuation, (i.e. crew resource management), there would be no difference between the challenges Smith faced on Titanic than had he been stood on the deck of Baltic that night. The older WSL vessels may have been smaller, but they were no different in their purpose- to carry a small number of 1st class passengers in 'hotel' luxury coupled with as many immigrants in 3rd class as it was possible to cram in. Baltic therefore could accomodate upwards of 2500 passengers and crew, a similar complement to Titanic.

Will
 
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Mark Baber said:
Mike, this isn't the first time you've said that the Board decided who would command Titanic on her maiden voyage. What's your basis for thinking that the selection of commanders was made that high up in the hierarchy?
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Roles in large corporations in early 20th century UK were determined almost entirely by seniority. In all professions, many men stayed with their companies for their whole careers and rose the ranks. It would have been considered a significant snub to pass someone over- to the extent that person would probably feel compelled to resign. It was even considered quite a 'bold' practice to even try to tempt someone to leave for another company in the manner of modern "head hunting".

I doubt any 'decision' was made to put Smith in Titanic. It would have been entirely self-evident.
 
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Mike Spooner said:
But have to say he was the only had the experience of such a large ship is not true. Those senior officers who have sail on the Olympic have also gain the experience.
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Smith was the only person with experience commanding a ship of the size of the Olympics; Olympic's other officers did not. And it would have been without precedent for one of Olympic's junior officers to leapfrog the other commanders on the North Atlantic---Haddock, Harry Smith, etc.---and be given command.
Wilf said:
I doubt any 'decision' was made to put Smith in Titanic. It would have been entirely self-evident.
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Quite right. He was the senior commander on the top service---Southampton-New York---and was given command of the newest ship on that service as a matter of course.
 
Mark Baber said:
Smith was not White Star's Commodore, Steven. Look here: WSL Commodores
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Thanks for the correction. I think as I age more and more my reading is showing signs of dyslexia. But I have read on various pages in the past where it states he had the tile of commodore.

I Heard Titanic’s Call | Wireless at Sea – Olympic – Titanic

ALEC BAGOT was a Marconi operator on Olympic when the Titanic struck an iceberg. He was an old man when he finished the last draft of his book, Roaming Around so his memories are faulty and tainted by pop culture about the Titanic.
titanichistoricalsociety.org titanichistoricalsociety.org
clipped from the link above. It's a long article. No need to read the whole thing.
‘They are only for show or to help someone else,’ we had been told that week, in New York, when Olympic’s new commander, Captain Herbert Haddock, had insisted on holding boat stations drill. This was something his predecessor, Commodore-Captain E. J. Smith, now commanding ‘Titanic’, had never done.
But after reading your link above I accept he wasn't. Cheers.
 
Steven Christian said:
He also held the title of "Commodore of the Line/Fleet". Awarded to the most senior captain of great experience. You don't get that being a newbie.
www.titanicofficers.com

Titanic's Officers - RMS Titanic - Captain E.J. Smith

A website devoted to collating information on Titanic's officers, as well as the officers involved in the disaster such as the Carpathia and Californian.
www.titanicofficers.com
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Arun thanks for the like but I put words before the others reading it. I was wrong about him being a commodore. Sometimes it sucks getting seasoned...:p Cheers.
 
So I got curious as to the confusion over this. I think I know what might be going on. I have found newspaper articles and other writings from 1912 that refer to Captain Smith as commodore. Officially WSL didn't have the rank in 1912. But unofficially people had given him that title as sort of respect for his experience. So far in the examples i found I haven't found any corrections to the articles. I read an article written by a history professor emeritus yada yada the has written books and teaches courses on the history of the shipping lines. He says Smith was a commodore. Technically I believe he incorrect but if he with his background gets it's wrong then I'm going to cut my worn out technician brain some slack. Cheers.
One example from an article from 1912.
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, April 16, 1912, Image 1

New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, April 16, 1912, Image 1, brought to you by Library of Congress, Washington, DC, and the National Digital Newspaper Program.
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
I'm not so sure about any of this. I'm going to look into more as I keep finding stuff that contradicts he wasn't a Commodore of the WSL. even on this site.

Change in Commodores

Capt. Haddock to Head White Star Line at Increased Pay
www.encyclopedia-titanica.org www.encyclopedia-titanica.org
 
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