Clifford Ismay
Appearances
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
2. Bad Luck Comes in Threes
There was a lot of pressure on him at that time to perform. His father's shoes were very big shoes to fill. I sometimes wondered if Bruce perhaps felt that he wasn't quite the man to follow in his father's footsteps.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
2. Bad Luck Comes in Threes
The White Star line was his father's baby, and Bruce fought off the takeover bid as best that he could, but unfortunately the shareholders couldn't resist the high prices that were being offered for the shares.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
2. Bad Luck Comes in Threes
He didn't want to do that. He didn't want to be president of this huge American organization responsible for so many other shipping companies. However, he didn't want to lose the White Star Line. So I think it was thrust into a position that he didn't really want, but he felt that he had to take it.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
2. Bad Luck Comes in Threes
I think a lot of people feared him because he had this abruptness. If one of the staff had an appointment with him in the office, if it was at, say, 12 noon, they couldn't knock on the door one minute before 12. They couldn't knock one minute past 12. It had to be exactly 12 o'clock. I often wondered if he might have had a little bit of autism going on there. He was a very complicated man.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
2. Bad Luck Comes in Threes
When Thomas came home and realized what had happened, it was absolutely livid. It wasn't just the fact that the horse had to be destroyed afterwards. It was the fact that Bruce shouldn't have done it without his father's permission.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
2. Bad Luck Comes in Threes
It was a very rough crossing. The child was sick when they left New York. However, the doctors didn't seem to think it was much of a problem and advised that the baby was well enough to travel. During the voyage, the baby's health declined day by day. Once they arrived back in Liverpool, Thomas looked at the baby and he just said, that baby is not well. Sent for a doctor straight away.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
2. Bad Luck Comes in Threes
And it was only a few days after that, sadly, they lost the first child.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
3. Into the Atlantic…
It was the third class passengers that made the bulk of the profit for the White Star Line. Though they were paying the least amount of money for the tickets, they were in much larger numbers. And again, White Star Line was very popular because even with the third class, the facilities that were available on the Titanic were far superior for the third class than was available on any other ship.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Bruce didn't really know that much about the workings of lowing lifeboats. He'd never been trained for it. So he was trying to help. Well, it was kind of getting in the way. So one of the crew members started shouting at him, what do you think you're doing? Get away from this lifeboat at once. We'll manage much better without your help. He used some colourful language, I believe.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Well, of course, that poor seaman didn't know who Bruce was.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
She wasn't getting on the lifeboat. And Bruce looked at her and said, why aren't you getting on this lifeboat? You should be on it now. And she replied to him, but I'm a stewardess. I'm only a stewardess. And Bruce replied to her, you are all women now. Get on board this lifeboat.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
It was collapsible lifeboat C, which was the last lifeboat to be successfully lowered from the starboard side, just before the ships later slipped under the water.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
He looked around and there was no one else about. Of course, he couldn't see who was on the port side at that time, but he believed that everyone had gone from the port side as well.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Should I stay on board the ship and go down with the ship? Or should I get on board the lifeboat?
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
8. Every Man for Himself
Who else would have been saved if he hadn't got onto the lifeboat? No one else, because there was no one else there, and there were spare seats. So it wasn't as if he was going to take anyone's place. Plus, of course, he had wife and children at home. He didn't want to die if he didn't have to.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
5. The Moment of Impact
Would Captain Smith have issued different orders? I think that's something we would never know. No captain can be on the bridge all of the time. He needs his personal time, his sleep time. Had Captain Smith actually been on the bridge at that particular point, who knows what difference it would have made.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
4. Iceberg Dead Ahead
So technically he was a passenger. Technically he had no control over what happened on board the ship in terms of navigation, et cetera, et cetera. However, Bruce Ismay, like his father before him, always tried to travel on the maiden voyage of any of the White Star Line's ships.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
4. Iceberg Dead Ahead
What he would do was walk around speaking to the first class passengers, second and third class passengers and see how they felt about the ship.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
4. Iceberg Dead Ahead
These days we'll call them a secret shopper. It wouldn't be listed as part of the White Star Line, it'd be listed as a passenger. He did find a few problems.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
4. Iceberg Dead Ahead
So as soon as Thomas learned of these problems, he immediately had them rectified and issued letters to all of the captains of the White Star Line, advising them of the problems that they'd found, also upgrading certain parts of the ships as well.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
4. Iceberg Dead Ahead
There was talks that Captain Smith may have been drunk at the time that Titanic hit the iceberg. Well, he was in his cabin. He was retired. I don't believe for one moment that he was drunk. He will have had a drink with the passengers, there's no doubt about it. Maybe had a couple of drinks. But one might say the commander of the ship is always in command even when he's off duty.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
4. Iceberg Dead Ahead
That was one of the stipulations in the White Star Line handbook, that sobriety must be maintained at all times by all members of the crew, especially the captain. They had to be congenial with the passengers, and it would be very rude of the captain to refuse to drink with them, I guess.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
4. Iceberg Dead Ahead
But exactly how much, whether it would influence the captain's decision making at sea, I think any captain worth his salt would have avoided putting himself in that situation.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
4. Iceberg Dead Ahead
In hindsight, you'd say they should have stopped it on the night. They didn't. If they had, then obviously it would have been a totally different story. But I think he just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.
Titanic: Ship of Dreams
4. Iceberg Dead Ahead
Every action they undertook was within the guidelines of the White Star Line. The rule was that if a ship was in the vicinity of ice, it should proceed at its normal speed or maybe even increased speed to get out of that area as quickly as possible.