12 Titanic Survivors Whose Stories Reveal The Tragedy’s True Scope

Published June 25, 2022
Updated April 23, 2025

Charles Lightoller, The Officer Who Went Down With The Ship — Before Fate Intervened

Charles Lightoller

Wikimedia CommonsCharles Lightoller (right).

As the lifeboats were launched, second officer Charles Lightoller observed the “women and children first” rule so aggressively that he sometimes let lifeboats go into the water with empty seats rather than let any men occupy them.

But whatever people said about Lightoller in the tragedy’s aftermath, they couldn’t call him a hypocrite. The second officer intended to go down with the ship — and very nearly did.

He was on the Titanic as it slipped underwater, at the bitter end, when there were no lifeboats left. Feet below the surface, he was trapped against a grate when the ship’s boiler exploded, sending up a blast of air that carried him to the surface.

Afterward, he swam to an overturned collapsible boat where 30 or so people clung to life. He joined them and showed them how to shift their weight to keep the big swells from the sinking ship from swamping their small craft.

Together, they survived the night, and Lightoller was the last survivor to set foot on the rescue ship that reached them at dawn.

In the inquiries that followed the tragedy, it emerged that Lightoller’s lifeboat policy wasn’t as hard-nosed as it seemed. Doubting the strength of the lifeboats’ davits, he intended to fill the remaining slots on the ships once they had safely reached the waterline.

But the men assigned to the task drowned before they could open the lower doors — meaning some lifeboats sailed away with empty seats.

In the aftermath of the sinking, Lightoller made a number of recommendations for better safety measures and tighter regulations that could prevent similar disasters in the future. Many of his suggestions are now maritime law.

author
John Kuroski
author
Based in Brooklyn, New York, John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of expertise include modern American history and the ancient Near East. In an editing career spanning 17 years, he previously served as managing editor of Elmore Magazine in New York City for seven years.
editor
Jaclyn Anglis
editor
Based in Brooklyn, New York, Jaclyn Anglis is the senior managing editor at All That's Interesting, where she has worked since 2019. She holds a Master's degree in journalism from the City University of New York and a dual Bachelor's degree in English writing and history from DePauw University. In a career that spans 11 years, she has also worked with the New York Daily News, Bustle, and Bauer Xcel Media. Her interests include American history, true crime, modern history, and science.
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Kuroski, John. "12 Titanic Survivors Whose Stories Reveal The Tragedy’s True Scope." AllThatsInteresting.com, June 25, 2022, https://allthatsinteresting.com/titanic-survivors. Accessed July 26, 2025.