Stephen George
Member
6104. And you supported yourself by your lifebelt. I do not want to be harrowing about it, but was the water very cold?
- I felt colder in the lifeboat - after I got in the lifeboat.
6105. You were picked up, were you, by a lifeboat later on?
- We were hanging on to this collapsible, and eventually a lifeboat came in sight.
6106. And they took you aboard?
- They got within about 50 yards and they sung out that they could only take 10. So I said to this Maynard, "Let go my hand," and I swam to meet it, so that I would be one of the 10.
6107. Did you swim to it, and were you taken in?
- Yes, I was taken in.
6108. You have said you thought it was about two hours before you saw this collapsible, and then you spent some time with the collapsible. How long do you suppose it was after you got to the collapsible that you were taken into the lifeboat?
- I should say we were on the collapsible about half-an-hour.
One disappointing point about Joughin's recollections: he doesn't go into any detail concerning the ship breaking in two. I always believed he would have been one of the key eyewitnesses to this dramatic event. Standing on the stern, Joughin would have had a clear view of the ship breaking up under his feet. He does not say anything about it during the British Inquiry but he apparently confirmed this with his family many years later.
6040. Tell us what happened?
- I went to the deck pantry, and while I was in there I thought I would take a drink of water, and while I was getting the drink of water I heard a kind of a crash as if something had buckled, as if part of the ship had buckled, and then I heard a rush overhead.
....
6049. You say that you heard this sound of buckling or crackling. Was it loud; could anybody in the ship hear it?
- You could have heard it, but you did not really know what it was. It was not an explosion or anything like that. It was like as if the iron was parting.
6050. Like the breaking of metal?
- Yes.
6051. Was it immediately after that sound that you heard this rushing of people and saw them climbing up?
- Yes.
6052. What did you do?
- I kept out of the crush as much as I possibly could, and I followed down - followed down getting towards the well of the deck, and just as I got down towards the well she gave a great list over to port and threw everybody in a bunch except myself. I did not see anybody else besides myself out of the bunch.
I found the words "on the collapsible" to be interesting. My skeptical mind makes me wonder whether Joughin embellished part of his testimony and was on Collapsible B from nearly the beginning. He would have only gotten his feet wet (like many of the others) -- until he may have swam over to the approaching lifeboat.
I agree with this. Many crew survivors embellished their stories, clearly due to the guilt they felt as a result of surviving when so many perished. Other than those who were on Collapsible A and B or those who swum to Lifeboat 4, everyone else just stepped in a lifeboat.As a (recently retired) doctor with 41 years experience including a stint in Emergency Medicine, I can categorically confirm that Charles Joughin certainly embellished at least one part of his story - about swimming in those freezing waters for 3 hours. It is simply not possible for even the healthiest and hardiest human being to survive for more than 20 to 25 minutes under those conditions; in fact one would soon lapse into stupor that would make them stop moving and so accelerate effects of hypothermia.
If Joughin was indeed inebriated at the time as is alleged, it would make matters worse, not better. Contrary to popular belief, alcohol does NOT protect a person from cold; quite the opposite. The feeling of warmth associated with a sip of brandy occurs due to cutaneous vasodilation, whereby the blood vessels of the skin that would have been constricted by the cold now open-up, allowing increased blood flow. But in doing so, the blood is diverted away from vital organs like the heart and kidneys, making them more susceptible to effects of hypothermia. In effect, alcohol cancels out nature's way of protecting those vital organs in severe cold and so being inebriated can actually kill faster under those conditions.
It was not just Joughin - several other male survivors, both passengers and crew, made similar claims later. They were obviously suffering from classic "survivors' guilt" and given the social norms of the day, it would have been much worse for them than in the present times.
14118. (The Solicitor-General.): I have the evidence of the chief baker, a man named Joughin, who kept afloat in the water till dawn and he had told us at dawn he saw an upturned boat and made his way to it, and I think someone gave him a hand and kept him up in the water for some time. Is that the collapsible boat you are speaking of?
- I do not remember his being there.
14119. (The Commissioner.) How many were on this collapsible boat when you were transferred to the lifeboat?
- I did not count them, My Lord, but I have been given to understand since from the men who saw it and the men on the raft, that there were 28 or 30 on there.
The Solicitor-General: May I give your Lordship the reference. Joughin, on page 142 tells you what his view is of this boat.
The Commissioner: That is the baker.
....
14125. (The Solicitor-General): I daresay you will remember he (Chief Baker Joughin) said there was not room for him, and somebody recognized him. I think one of the cooks was on it, and held out his hand and helped to keep him afloat for a bit, and later on there was a lifeboat which approached and according to Joughin called out that there was room for 10 people. Do you remember that?
- No.
14126. (The Solicitor-General.) Your Lordship sees Question 6106 (quoting Chief Baker Joughin), "They got within about 50 yards and they sung out that they could only take 10. So I said this to Maynard, 'Let go my hand,' and I swam to meet it, so that I would be one of the 10?"
- The only reference to numbers was this; when I saw the boats I could faintly distinguish them. I had my whistle in my pocket. I whistled by way of showing it was an Officer that was calling, and I asked them if they could take some of us on board, and I said if they could manage to take half-a-dozen - because we were sinking then - it would lighten us up so that we could continue afloat. That was the only reference to numbers I heard.
The Solicitor-General:
Your Lordship knows a lot of Witnesses have said their impression was the afterpart settled on the water.
14094. (The Commissioner.) I have heard that over and over again. (To the witness.) That you say is not true?
-(Lightoller): That is not true, My Lord. I was watching her keenly the whole time.
The Commissioner:
I had a difficulty in realizing how it could possibly be that the afterpart of the ship righted itself for a moment.
The Solicitor-General:
Your Lordship may remember, perhaps, that the baker, who was on the ship at this moment we are now dealing with, and was climbing aft, said he heard the rending of metal - of metal breaking.
The Commissioner:
Yes, he was the man who got to the poop.
I expect Joughin spent as much time in the water as Frank Prentice. I have no doubt that it felt like hours in the water but was probably a short time. Even that short amount of time was at the limit of human endurance.
Yeah I agree. I don't think he was deliberately lying about it. Like you said, I'm sure he was probably convinced it was that long. Icy water, full of alcohol, panic situation, blacking out...probably in his mind it was that long. Many say that alcohol make a hypothermia situation worse. And I agree, it does. Some researchers believe that most were dead before hypothermia set in. They died from cardiac arrest due to thermal shock. Maybe all that booze in him helped to dampen that. But that would just be postulating. Everybody reacts differently. Anyway he made it so good for him.His earlier version is a little different from what he mentioned at the Britihs Inquiry. In a newspaper account of April 29 Joughin mentioned that he remained on board until Titanic began to sink and then jumped. He then swum and several times lost consciousness. There he also estimated the time in the water to have been an hour and a half.
Another survivor mentioned that the baker jumped into the water before the "big explosion".
I do not believe Joughin spend much time swimming in the water. He most likely was at the "aft" part somewhere behind Lightoller close to Bride on Collapsible B. Bride was not able to stand up and when wind came up the water was washing over the boat. Its is very likely Joghin was among those close by Bride and was also afected by the waves.
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