Controversy
During the congressional investigations, some passengers testified that during the voyage they heard Ismay pressuring Captain Edward J. Smith to go faster, in order to arrive in New York ahead of schedule and generate some free press about the new liner. The 2000 book The White Star Line: An Illustrated History by Paul Louden-Brown states that this was unlikely, and that Ismay's record does not support the notion that he had any motive to do so. In addition, many captains have attested that the procedure is to run the ship at full speed.
Louise Patten, granddaughter of Charles Lightoller, who was the second officer on board the Titanic, claims in her book that Ismay pressured Captain Smith to maintain speed after hitting the iceberg and that this decision caused the ship to sink faster, and that rescuers could not arrive in time to save hundreds that might otherwise have survived.
Read more about this topic: J. Bruce Ismay
Famous quotes containing the word controversy:
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)
“Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)