Choose your favorite Officer

[Tom McLeod]

Yes, that is what I meant in deed Michael, thanks, but I've been confused many a time as well so no harm no foul. I don't think I've heard Purser McElroy called Chief Purser before, his staff was generally labeled assistant purser etc. The same goes for Dr. O'Loughlin (didn't look up the spelling of his last name, I know I could find it just around the corner on the ET Bios. The Doctor was referred to as such and he had assistants. Anyway, I suppose I just can't pick a favorite when it comes down to it.

 

[Bob Godfrey]

If clarification is needed, the Titanic had a Purser (McElroy), 2nd Purser (Barker) and three Pursers' Clerks. As there were two pursers and McElroy was senior in authority, he could be called the Chief Purser.

O'Laughlin signed on as Surgeon and Simpson as Assistant Surgeon, so again the senior man could be referred to as Chief Surgeon, but not as the ship's doctor because he was one of two.

 

[Tom McLeod]

Hello Bob I trust the holidays where kind to you. Yeah it's pretty much as you said, I looked into it a bit. McElroy was listed as Purser on this Website, in books and such. Doctors Simpson and O'Loughlin were both Doctor's and it seems that they were listed as you mentioned above, although they were indeed both Doctors. There was of course a Chief Officer. And a Chief Steward. But the Captain remained such, not Chief Captain. Then came the world of Captain and Staff Captain, but that's something else and wasn't in place for the Titanic's voyage. It does get a bit interesting though in research about the ship and that night. As one pours over the American and British testimonies, you find references such as "The Officer In Charge" or "The Chief Officer" which may have referred to a lot of different officers mis-indentified or just spoken of by mistake. Surgeon O'Loughlin was often referred to in such as "Doc", "The ship's Doctor" or "The old Doctor". So in hindsight for historians all the officers should have had name tags and then we wouldn't be confused who did what according to who; even if the number of bands worn around an officer's cuffs didn't click with everyone. This is starting to remind me of "who's on first" so I'll stop here.

Best-Tom

 

[Bob Godfrey]

Ship's 'surgeons' were physicians rather than surgeons in the general sense of the word, but generally with a greater variety of experience than the average family doctor. They certainly needed to perform surgery if the need arose. Nevertheless the correct form of address for a ships' surgeon was eg Dr O'Loughlin. In the UK we have the odd convention of addressing a surgeon as Mr (or Miss or Mrs) rather than Dr. This is a tradition going back to the bad old days, when surgery was most often performed by people who were not qualified as doctors of medicine. But rest assured that today they are!

 

[Tom McLeod]

Two Surgeons/Doctors ready for the needs of everyone on board a ship such as Titanic. When did they sleep? I would suspect in later years the staff has grown. I would also assume a Maid could serve as a nurse/aide type of title if needed. I noticed Dr. O'Loughlin was in charge of overseeing the first class passengers and Dr. Simpson the second and third. Or at least maybe that was their assigned positions. I would think if there was a serious illness or injury in any class or among the crew, both fellows would be quite busy. A lot of it was likely sea-sick visits, which I assume was often done by going from and to stateroom or berth. We know of Mrs. Harris and her broken arm, I suppose that was a routine type of thing as much as such gets. Then there are the "passings" of people at sea that must have been a bit of a procedure, to keep everything on the "up and up." That's just a bit of the world of the Doctors. Being among the Pursing staff seems to have been very busy as well. I guess instead of picking a favorite Officer, my appreciation for what some of the other departments did/do has only increased, making my ability to chose a favorite more remote.

 

[Bob Godfrey]

I imagine the life of a ship's surgeon wasn't too demanding. The times when he was hard pressed would be not too frequent, but when the need did arise he would be expected to respond to calls for attention at any time of the night or day. Certainly they had assistants. There was a hospital attendant (not medically qualified) who took care of everyday needs in that area - if any, as the hospital was often unoccupied throughout a voyage. And it's very likely that at least one of the stewardesses could be called upon to assist the surgeons when required. Evelyn Marsden, who was a trained nurse, was referred to in at least one contemporary report as a 'nurse/stewardess'. And in 3rd Class the 'Matron', though not a qualified nurse, was expected to offer basic advice and to keep a lookout for signs of serious illness. Also the stewards could be relied on to offer the usual advice (for what it was worth) about coping with seasickness, without needing to call in a doctor on every occasion.

 

[Tom McLeod]

Sounds much more practical. Another example of some of the overlooked staff on the ship, or at least the less talked of. No shortage of medical help or organization of such on the Britanic!(Grin) Thanks Bob.

 

[Laura Jay]

I like most of them for different reasons...though I'm not very keen on Smith.
Wilde I like because of all he'd been through and he was still very smart, professional, etc. I don't subscribe to any suicide story, FYI. I think it was his kids that kept him going after his wife's death and that says something about his character.
Murdoch-mainly because he was a Scot and so am I. He seemed very likeable, laid back, a great guy to have around in a time of crisis.
Lightoller-he reminds me of my grandfather some, always willing to tell a story. The pranks Lights played were funny, he was a family man, able to keep a cool head, proactive.
Pitman-I admit that I know nothing about him.
Boxhall-cutie! I heard girls chased him and I would have been one of them! I like his determination and his skills as a navigator as well.
Lowe-apparently he had retained his colorful seaman vocabulary long after he retired. He sounded a bit like my dad, somewhat quiet, a disciplinarian, but loved to laugh. I drew a picture of Titanic recently and Lowe's skills far outshine my own! Lowe was good in art and loved animals, as I do (I have a Weim-lab dog).
Moody-adventure man, I think. He'd had adventures in South America, he wrote short stories like I often do, and to me, he is very crush-worthy like Boxhall.
And that's my 2 cents. (Boxhall and Moody fighting over me just came to my head. )

 

[Michaela Famfulikova]

My favourite officers are Harry Lowe and Will Murdoch