Goodbye, old man
Revealed, the stoical farewell the crew of Titanic uttered to each other moments before they were swept to their deaths
IT IS an exchange that epitomises our understated British stoicism in the face of impending disaster.
As the Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg, second officer Charles Lightoller bumped into eight colleagues who were walking on deck to reassure panicked passengers.
Calmly accepting their fate, the men all shook hands with the officer with the words ‘Goodbye, old man’ before being washed overboard minutes later.
Lightoller was the only one of the group to survive the disaster in April 1912 in which more than 1,500 died. He dived into the water as a wave broke over the liner and, after almost drowning, found an upturned lifeboat. He was the last survivor taken on board the Carpathia.
His final encounter with his doomed crewmates has emerged in a letter of condolence he wrote as he sailed back to England on the Adriatic, another White Star Line ship, two weeks after the sinking.
The letter was sent to a friend of Dr John Simpson, the assistant surgeon on the Titanic, who had been in the group on the boat deck. The friend had written to him seeking news of the doctor.
Lightoller, the most senior surviving officer, wrote: ‘I am sorry to say that Asst. Surgeon John E. Simpson was on the Titanic. I deeply regret your loss, which is also mine. I may say I was practically the last man to speak to Dr Simpson, and he was walking along the boat deck in company with Mssrs. McElroy, Barker, Dr O’Loughlin and four assistant pursers.
‘They were all perfectly calm in the knowledge that they had done their duty and were still assisting by showing a calm and cool exterior to the passengers.
‘Each one individually came up to me and shook hands. We merely exchanged the words, “Goodbye, old man.” This occurred shortly before the end and I am not aware that he was seen by anyone after. With deepest sympathy for you in the loss of your friend.’
The letter, written on White Star Line headed paper, has now been put up for auction for £15,000.
Alongside it is a final letter by Dr Simpson, 37, that was written on Titanic-headed notepaper the day before the ship left Southampton for its ill-fated maiden voyage.
In it, he wrote to request official permission from the Royal Army Medical Corps Territorials to take up the offer of transferring to the Titanic from its sister ship, the Olympic. This letter is valued at £40,000 because it was written on board the Titanic.
The letters are being sold in separate lots by auctioneer Henry Aldridge and Son, at its base in Devizes, Wiltshire, on October 22.
Andrew Aldridge, from the auction house, said: ‘It is clear from Charles Lightoller’s account that these men were fully aware of what was about to happen to them yet showed great courage to carry on like normal to help reassure the passengers. Then they said their goodbyes in a matter-of-fact fashion. This encounter must have been minutes before it finally sank.’
Lightoller has been portrayed in several film accounts of the disaster, most notably by Kenneth More in A Night to Remember in 1958.
He continued with a career at sea and commanded one of the little ships that rescued British troops from the beach at Dunkirk in 1940. He died aged 78 in 1952.