Two Men Survived The Titanic Only To Be In A Face-Off Years Later
It was a little before midnight when the weight of impact shuddered through the Titanic. The ship had just collided with the soon-to-be infamous iceberg, and Dick Williams stirred from sleep. Not too worried, he pulled on a lifejacket and joined his father, Charles. The two men headed up to the top deck, trying to keep moving; it was too cold to stay still. Then, suddenly, the smokestack above them began to tumble. Williams jumped away from it and into the icy sea. But his dad wasn’t so lucky.
Tragedy on the Titanic
Apparently, Williams shouted, “Quick! Jump!” when he saw the smokestack going down. But his father wasn’t fast enough. The gigantic structure fell directly onto him, killing him instantly. Williams didn’t have time to mourn, though, because he had to swim desperately to the nearest lifeboat before the freezing waters swallowed him.
Waking up
Elsewhere on the ship, another man was having a different but equally frightening experience. Karl Behr wasn’t in bed when the iceberg struck and instead faced the responsibility of waking the people with him. There was his fiancée, her mother and her stepfather, and they all needed to reach the lifeboats before the Titanic disappeared underwater.
Scrambling for lifeboats
In the early stages, the manning of lifeboats on board was apparently more of a precaution. No one really thought that the greatest ship in the world could be brought down by a large lump of ice. Williams and his dad had helped other people board and launch the boats while they stayed on deck. It was meant to be women and children first, which would have excluded them and Behr.
Still some space left
Among the owners of the Titanic was managing director J. Bruce Ismay, who was overseeing lifeboat number five. He was the one who said yes when one of the women on board asked if the men could join them. And it was he who launched the boat despite still having room for more passengers. Behr was an athletic man and he helped row them away, even as they saw the ship disappearing behind them.
