Herbert Pitman - Titanic

Titanic

Like the other junior officers, Pitman received a telegram early in 1912 directing him to report to White Star's Liverpool office at nine in the morning on 26 March of that year. There he collected his ticket for Belfast; he arrived there at noon the following day and reported to (then) Chief Officer William Murdoch. As the Titanic departed Southampton on 10 April, Pitman was assisting (now First) Officer Murdoch at the stern of the ship in supervising the casting-off of mooring ropes and taking on of tug lines. While the Titanic was at sea, Pitman's duties included working out celestial observation and compass deviation, general supervision of the decks, looking to the quartermasters, and relieving the bridge officers when necessary.

At the time of the Titanic's collision with the iceberg, Pitman was off-duty, half-sleeping in his bunk in the Officers' Quarters. He heard and felt the collision, later testifying that it felt like the ship "coming to an anchor." He was dressing for his watch when Fourth Officer Boxhall rushed in and informed him they had struck an iceberg and were taking on water. Pitman was then ordered to report to the starboard side of the ship to assist in uncovering lifeboats. After receiving the command to lower the boats, Murdoch ordered Pitman to take charge of lifeboat No. 5. Before Pitman entered the lifeboat, Officer Murdoch shook his hand saying, "Goodbye; good luck." With Murdoch's utter seriousness, Pitman thought for the first time that night that the Titanic was really going to sink. Pitman stepped into the lifeboat and it was lowered to the water. Murdoch had ordered Pitman to take the lightly loaded lifeboat to the gangway doors to take on more passengers, but finding the doors shut, Pitman moved the lifeboat away from the ship.

Up to this point, Pitman had expected the ship to remain afloat. After an hour in the lifeboat, however, he realised that Titanic was doomed. He watched her sink from about 400 yards away, and was one of the few to claim that she sank in one piece. As the stern slipped under water, he looked at his watch and announced, "It's 2.20," to his fellow lifeboat passengers. Hearing the screams of those in the water, Pitman immediately decided to row back and rescue whomever he could. However, the others in his lifeboat were fearful of being mobbed and capsized, and Pitman eventually remanded his order. He was rescued by the RMS Carpathia along with the other survivors, arriving at Pier 54 in New York on 18 April. While in New York, he served as a witness in the American inquiry into the sinking. He and his fellow surviving officers were allowed to leave New York on the Adriatic on 2 May. After returning to England, he served as a witness for a second time, this time for the British inquiry.