Titanic lifeboat 7. The first lifeboat lowered on the starboard side. There was no order, according to some passengers, for ''women and children first.'' Three sailors were ordered in to man the boat. Murdoch, Pitman and possibly Ismay were near it when lowered. There was no disturbance near this boat. After having been lowered, they encountered boat 5 and four people changed lifeboats; Mrs. Dodge and her son for example, due to the fact that Mrs. Dodge wanted to row back to pick up survivors but those in her own boat, No. 5, did not turn back. Alfred Nournay is said to have fired shots from his gun during the night, at least according to Antoinette Flegenheim(er). Lookout Hogg, according to Dorothy Gibson, wrapped a sail around one or two people in the boat since they were so cold. Margaret Hays brought her Pomeranian dog into the boat, which was not very crowded. Robert Daniel said he had jumped into the sea and had been swimming around for a long time when a boat picked him up. In one interview he said that Mrs. Dodge wrapped a blanked around him after his rescue. It is probably safe to surmise that Daniel was in boat 7 when it was lowered away, as Col. Gracie suggested in his book.
Estimates vary regarding how many there were in the boat; the Bishops thought 28 (but some may have been missed when they counted), James McGough also thought 28, Gilbert Tucker thought there were 29, Mrs. Flegenheimer estimated 30 and Alfred Omont thought they were 29. No. 7 was one of the first boats to be picked up. There were 28 or 29 people in the boat when lowered.
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