William McMaster Murdoch was born on the February 28th 1873 in Dumfries, Scotland. Murdoch first joined the White Star Line and served on liners such as the SS Medic, SS Runic, SS Adratic and the SS Oceanic. Murdoch did serve on Titanic’s sister ship RMS Olympic as Chief Officer in command. Murdoch was a highly favoured employee of the White Star Line. Murdoch was often described as a ‘canny and dependable man’ (source: ‘Titanic and Her Sisters Olympic and Britannic’).
Change in position
As Murdoch had been the Chief Officer on the RMS Olympic it only seemed natural for him to take the same position on Olympic’s younger sister Titanic. Murdoch had originally been selected to take charge of the crew. This was a decision made by Titanic’s original skipper; Captain Herbert Haddock. However, by the end of March 1912 Haddock stepped down from the position of Captain and Titanic came under the control of Captain Edward John Smith. With this change in Captain also brought a change in staff. Murdoch had been demoted to serve as Titanic’s First Officer and Henry Wilde was made Chief Officer by Captain Smith. Smith’s reshuffle of the officers also left out David Blair who had originally been posted to serve on Titanic.
Sea Trials
Murdoch had been present on April 2nd 1912, the day of Titanic’s sea trials. Later on in the inquiry for the British Board of Trade Murdoch had instructed Harold Lowe ( Titanic’s fifth Officer) to inspect the lifeboats.
April 14th 1912
Throughout the day of April 14th Murdoch had been aware of the ice warnings that were being sent to the Titanic from other nearby vessels. Charles Lightoller, Titanic’s Second Officer, had reported during his testimony that he frequently saw Murdoch with the marconigram in his hands.
Murdoch began his night shift at 10:00 pm and relived second officer Charles Lightoller of his duties. Lightoller’s next shift wouldn’t have been until 6:00 am the next morning. Murdoch was on the bridge at 11:00 pm, just five minutes before Titanic hit the iceberg. At 11:40 pm three tolls of the bell were heard, this was a warning signal for a near collision. As Murdoch was on the bridge at the time Titanic hit the iceberg it’s often wondered whether Murdoch saw the iceberg approaching before or after Sixth officer James Moody had received the phone call from Titanic’s lookouts; Fredrick Fleet and Lee. As soon as Murdoch had a clear view of the berg and saw Titanic was heading straight for it, he rushed onto the navigating bridge and ordered Quarter master Robert Hitchens to put Titanic to hard a starboard (which essentially means pull to the right). This was done in an attempt to try and steer Titanic round the iceberg to avoid minimal damage. Titanic had been designed with ‘water tight compartments’ this means that if the hull of Titanic was damaged in anyway the impact of the collision would trigger the doors located in the boiler rooms to seal up and isolate any on coming water. However, the 300 foot gash that was left on the port side of Titanic proved too much for the new design system. Perhaps the inadequacies of the water tight compartments was not down to simply a design flaw but , during the inquiry many of the crew did report that because the sky was so clear it made it more difficult for any approaching bergs to be spotted. This suggests that when Fleet and Lee first spotted the berg it was potentially too late for Qaurtermaster Hitchens to steer Titanic far enough away to avoid serious damage.
Murdoch was the one who reported the collision to Captain Smith and from there Titanic’s chief designer Thomas Andrews, Titanic’s carpenter John Hall Hutchinson and Titanic’s owner Joseph Bruce Ismay were called up to the bridge.
Murdoch had been listed to help load the lifeboats on the starboard side and had been reported to have let women and children off first and then if there were any men left they could to have a seat on the lifeboat. This is an issue later covered by historians and comes down to a factor of misinterpretation. When, Captain Smith had given the orders to load the women and children. Some officers had been confused as to whether that meant, load only women and children or to load women and children and then the men. Officer Murdoch perhaps had also been confused as to the orders given by the Captain as second officer Charles Lightoller had only loaded women and children.
Titanic Myths
Unfortunately, Murdoch did not survive the sinking of the Titanic nor was his body ever recovered. The legacy of Murdoch has been somewhat tainted by the 1997 film ‘Titanic’ in which Murdoch, played by actor Evan Stewart , in a state of guilt shoots himself. This is a titanic myth. Other than loading the lifeboats and arming the other officers with pistols there wasn’t many more sightings of Murdoch.
As always, I’ll leave some external links on William Murdoch.
Have a titanic rest of your day, Millie.
William Murdoch.net on the life of William Murdoch: http://www.williammurdoch.net/man-04_titanic.html
William Murdoch: Titanic's scapegoat
Encyclopedia Titanica: https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/william-mcmaster-murdoch.html
I have a keychain that belonged to the navigators quarters - William Murdock on Titanic.. Anybody interested?