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attired, waiting for the end; The elderly Mrs. Isador Straus refusing to leave her husband and go in one of the lifeboats, saying "I’ve always stayed with my husband, I’ll not leave him now" - Mr. Straus declining an offer, made because of his age, to go in the lifeboats, "1 will not go before the other men", he said - then they sat down together on a couple of deck chairs holding hands; A man, later identified as Third Class passenger Daniel Buckley, dressing as a woman and securing a seat in a lifeboat; The conduct of J. Bruce Ismay, managing director of the White Star Line, and one of the few men to secure a place in one of the lifeboats, was subsequently questioned by a Senate Investigating Committee, and in his response he placed the responsibility for the collision and for everything else that happened subsequently, on Captain Smith. His explanation for his securing a seat in a lifeboat was that the boat, although not filled with women and children, was about to be launched - no women or children were on the deck, so he took a place, could not be disproved. On the Carpathia, however, Ismay never left his room, received no visitors and seldom ate - at the end he was heavily under the influence of opiates. Within a year, he retired from the White Star Line and became a virtual recluse on his estate in Ireland, where he died in 1937; The young and beautiful Countess of Rothes handling the tiller of lifeboat No. 8. A seaman subsequently stated "She was more of a man than any we had on board"; Mrs. James J. Brown, a Denver heiress, ordering Quartermaster Hitchens to turn the lifeboat around and return to pick survivors, and when he refused, saying that he was in charge and it was too dangerous, she took the tiller and threatened to throw him overboard if he approached her. The sight of "Molly" Brown running lifeboat No. 6 with one hand on the tiller and a loaded revolver in the other must have been one to behold! In 1964, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced a movie entitled "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" starring Debbie Reynolds in the title role. The production was described as "Western orphan Molly Brown grows up determined to become a member of Denver society. Semi- Western comedy-musical about the real lady who wound up surviving the Titanic". Reviews of the movie say "Bouncy and likeable but not |6 at all memorable" - obviously not Oscar material; Second Officer Charles H. Lightoller "floating" the last raft off the deck as the ship went down under it - another movie, "A Night to Remember", about the sinking of the Titanic, starred Kenneth Moore as Lightoller. Commander Lightoller later distinguished himself at Dunkirk in 1940 by taking his own boat over to France to assist in the evacuation. Fifth Officer Harold G. Lobe, a twenty-eight year old energetic Welshman, on his first trans-Atlantic voyage, diving from his lifeboat on five occasions to rescue swimmers from the sea. and what is probably the most amazing story of all - Baker Charles Joughin, the very last man to leave the Titanic and live to tell about it. Well insulated with many nips of his favorite brand of whiskey, he simply stepped off the stern of the Titanic as it disappeared under his feet. Well protected from the icy sea, he contentedly paddled for an hour before being pulled into one of the lifeboats. He was rescued safely and was still recounting his miraculous escape forty-five years later. Gradually, the Carpathia took on the Titanic survivors from lifeboats and rafts. At 8:50 am on April 15th, with 705 survivors snatched from the icy Atlantic, the Carpathia headed for New York, docking some three days later. Then came the awards, and a series of astounding anomalies. To the Titanic’s passengers and crew was "dedicated" (not awarded) the Carnegie Hero Fund medal in gold - this was a general award now reposing in an elaborate frame in the Smithsonian Institution, dedicated to those who remained on board the Titanic so that women and children could be given priority in lifeboats (fig. 1 )...and no other awards were given! Not to those who surrendered their lifebelts, accepting certain death, so that another might live. Not to Fifth Officer Lobe, who dove into the sea from his lifeboat - not once, but five times - to rescue exhausted swimmers. Not to the heroic radio officers. Not to the engineers, who remained working in the engine room, and who died to a man. Not to Second Officer Lightoller, who balanced on an overturned boat plucking men from the sea. None! And what of the Carpathia and her captain and crew? Captain Arthur Rostron received many honors in tangible form, but, KEVERSF~ Figure 1, Carnegie Hero Fund medal in gold "dedicated" to the passengers and crew of the Titanic. 18 .

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