Charles Lightoller
The story of a man who left an indelible mark on three unforgettable pieces of history
Across the world and over the ages a great number of people have been immortalized for leaving a mark upon major historical events. But it takes a rare confluence of destiny and competency to be involved in three unforgettable pieces of history only to emerge unscathed and heroic each time. Here is the story of one such man.
Early years
Charles Herbert Lightoller was born in the small market town of Chorley in Lancashire, England. While his town was famous for its thriving cotton industry, it is to the sea that young Charles was drawn. He began his Maritime career at the age of just 13 aboard the Primrose Hill. Over the next few years he traveled far and wide across the seas facing more than a life-time’s share of adventure. It was after 10 years that he took a brief hiatus from sailing to participate in the Klondike Gold Rush. By this time he had survived a cyclone, a shipwreck, a cargo room fire and malaria.
In 1900 he returned to sailing joining the ‘White Star Line’ as the fourth officer of Medic. On a voyage to Australia, he met a young woman named Sylvia Hawley-Wilson who was returning home to Sydney after a brief stay in London. Charles and Sylvia fell in love with each other and on the return journey to England, she traveled back with him as his bride.
Titanic
The Titanic set sail on her maiden voyage in 1912 and Lightoller was the Second Officer. On the night that the ship struck an iceberg, he sprung into action taking charge of the even number boats on the portside. The Chief Officer Henry Wilde was reluctant to let him lower the first lifeboat before assessing the damage. But having survived a shipwreck before, Charles knew better and convinced the Captain to let him lower the boats. He was the strictest enforcer of the rule “women and children first” while loading people onto the lifeboats. In fact when he was informed that a group of men had taken over a boat he jumped in, threatened them with an unloaded gun and drove them all out. The only male passenger Lightoller willingly allowed into a lifeboat that night was Major Arthur Peuchen who had claimed to be a yachtsman and could help the crew steer the boat. Lightoller made him slide down the ropes onto the lowered boat to prove his claim.
As the ship’s Second Officer, he stayed right till the end helping passengers onto lifeboats. He had just cut a collapsible boat free when the Titanic plunged forward and began to sink rapidly. Lightoller quickly jumped into the sea and was swimming clear when he was sucked back against a ventilator shaft. He went down with the sinking ship. It seemed like his adventures were finally at an end; but fate had other plans. The cold sea water rushed into the ship’s boilers and the resulting blast threw him onto the surface where miraculously he found himself beside an upturned collapsible boat — the one he had cut free just moments earlier. He clung onto it alongside 30 other survivors. They were rescued the following morning by Carpathia. Lightoller helped the other survivors before climbing aboard himself. He was the last Titanic survivor to be taken aboard Carpathia and is the highest ranking official to survive the tragedy.
“ As I watched, I could see her bow getting deeper and deeper in the water with the foremast sticking up above the surface whilst her stern lifted higher and higher, till it was right out of the water.”
- Charles Lightoller
World War 1
When the World War started the ship he was working on was commissioned for the war and he became Lieutenant Charles Lightoller of the Royal Navy. He worked on two ships before getting his first command — the torpedo boat HMTB 117. As captain he engaged and attacked a German Zeppelin with the ship’s Hotchkiss Guns. For these actions he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross(DSC) and promoted to Lieutenant Commander. Later during the war he was in command of the destroyer HMS Garry. Lightoller rammed his ship into the German submarine UB-110 and sank it. HMS Garry was so damaged after that they were forced to steam 100 miles in reverse to port for repairs. He was decorated with a bar for his DSC and ended the war as a full Commander.
World War 2
400,000 Allied soldiers were trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk with the German army rapidly closing in. Operation Dynamo, a daring rescue mission was launched to evacuate the Allied troops. The British Admiralty requisitioned a number of private vessels to help in the mission. One of these was Sundowner, a motor yacht belonging to Charles Lightoller.
He refused to hand the yacht over to them and insisted on piloting it himself to Dunkirk. He set out from Ramsgate with his oldest son and an 18-year-old Sea Scout. Sundowner had a capacity of just 21 people but Lightoller squeezed in 130 people at Dunkirk. On the journey back they were attacked by an enemy Luftwaffe air craft. But Lightoller expertly steered them to safety employing evasive techniques taught by his youngest son — an RAF pilot who had lost his life earlier in the war. They arrived safely at Ramsgate 12 hours after they had departed.
Trivia
The character of Charles Dawson played by Mark Rylance in the Christopher Nolan movie, Dunkirk was inspired by Lightoller’s actions.
