First Officer William McMaster Murdoch
Here is the life of the hero William McMaster Murdoch. Born: 28 February 1873 in Dalbeattie, Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland at the address of Number 3 "Sunnyside", Barr Hill, Dalbeattie. Died: 15 April 1912 in the North Atlantic Ocean, Family: William or "Will" was the fourth child of six surviving children from a long sea-faring family. His mother was Jane Muirhead and his father, Captain Samuel Murdoch was a Master Mariner, his grandfather was a sea captain, as was four of his grandfather's brothers and they had sailed the world's oceans in the early 19th century. Marriage: Whilst working on either Runic or Adriatic, Will met his future wife, 29 year old Ada Florence Banks, a lady from New Zealand who worked as a school teacher and who was on her way to England. They began to write to each other and married at St Deny's Church in Southampton on 2 September 1907. They had no children. Education: Will attended the Dalbeattie Primary School on the High Street and later went on to the High School at Alpine street, he is noted as being an intelligent and hard-working scholar and he received his diploma in 1887, aged 14 years old. Early Career: Following his family's tradition, Will went to William Joyce & Co. in Liverpool as an apprentice which was supposed to last five years. During his apprenticeship he served aboard Charles Cosworth of Liverpool, which traded to the west coast of South America. After only four years and four voyages he was so able a seaman he passed his Second Mate's Certificate on his first try. From May 1895, Will was the First Mate on Saint Cuthbert, which belonged to the Scottish shipping company J. & J. Rae & Co. In 1896, Will gained his Extra Master's Certificate at Liverpool. On 3 April 1897 to 2 May 1899 he was First Mate aboard the J. Joyce & Co steel four-masted barque Lydgate which weighed 2,534 tons, Lydgate traded from New York to Shanghai. In 1899, the Boer War began in South Africa; British, Canadian, and Australian troops were called forth and many horses were required, large ships were commandeered as transports for them and one such ship was the Iquique on which Will may have been First Officer, coming into the attention of Ismay whose ships were also being used for the same purpose at this time. The White Star Line: Will then went on to serve on a number of White Star Line vessels; On 30 September 1899 there was a photograph (left) in the Australian Town & Country Journal, where Will was posed with crew-mates aboard Medic as Third Officer. It is said elsewhere that he worked alongside Charles Lightoller. Runic from 1901 - 1903. Arabic in 1903, this is the point in which Will became a Second Officer on the North Atlantic run. During the voyage, he averted disaster when a ship was seen coming towards Arabic in the dark, he overrode a command from his superior, Officer Fox, to veer hard-a-port, by running into the wheelhouse, shoving the Quartermaster off the wheel and holding the ship on course. The two ships passed just inches from each other, but veering the ship would have caused a full-on collision, Will averted this with his clever quick-thinking and determination. Celtic in 1904. Germanic in 1904. Oceanic in 1905. Cedric in 1906. Adriatic from 1907 - 1911. Working alongside Joseph Groves Boxhall. Olympic from 14 June 1911 - 1912. During the maiden voyage of what was then the largest man-made moving object in the world, Captain Edward John Smith put together the best crew he could find which included Henry Wilde as Chief Officer, Will as First Officer and Henry W. McElroy as Chief Purser. On the 20 September 1911, the Olympic went crashing into a Royal Navy cruiser, HMS Hawke. Will was at his docking-station at the stern of Olympic during the collision, this was a responsible position to be in - and he had to give evidence in the inquiry. The evidence presented by HMS Hawke caused a loss of money for the White Star Line as it has been documented that the cruiser was at fault, yet they shirked the blame and the insurance companies would not pay out to the White Star Line with the "evidence" from HMS Hawke that it was Olympic and her crew who was at fault. The loss of insurance was coupled with the fact that voyages on Olympic had to be cancelled for six weeks as she had to be returned to Belfast for serious repairs. 11 December 1911 Will rejoined Olympic again as First Officer, he stayed with her until March 1912. During this short time there were two more slight incidents; Olympic collided with a sunken wreck at some point and had to have one of her propeller blades replaced, and then nearly running aground when leaving Belfast, none of these are noted to be of any responsibility to Will. In March when returning to Southampton, Will discovered he was being appointed Chief Officer of the sister ship of Olympic, Titanic....(more below) RMS Titanic: Signing on as Chief Officer on 24 March 1912, Will was at Belfast to meet up with Titanic, First Officer Charles Lightoller, Second Officer David Blair and Captain Haddock, however the captain left after just a few days after signing on with her.
The new captain appointed on 1 April was Captain Edward John Smith and during the absence of a captain, Will was the highest ranking officer aboard and so was in charge of Titanic for a while, and on 2 April, took part in Titanic's sea trials, he was also Chief Officer when Titanic made her way from Belfast to Southampton the next day, the 3 April. Henry Wilde was due to become chief officer of the Oceanic, however due to the coal strike which was in full flow in Southampton at this time, Oceanic was stuck in dock (all coals available to White Star Line were being given to Titanic), therefore he was at a lose end, he was appointed to join Titanic's crew on 4 April, which he wasn't happy about. Henry Wilde helped out during the last few days at Southampton, loading the ship with coal and provisions etc. And then a sudden domino effect occurred; on the 9 April, for whatever reason, Henry Wilde was appointed Chief Officer meaning Will was required to sign down to First Officer and Lightoller down to Second Officer, David Blair was left out altogether and never sailed with Titanic, which was unfortunate as he had stashed away Titanic's binoculars and no one else knew where they were. The rest of the ship's officers remained unchanged. At 9.45pm on the night of 14 April, Will was awoken by Second Quartermaster Olliver in readiness for his shift on the bridge to begin at 10pm, where he was relieving Lightoller. As Will arrived on the bridge Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee were taking over as the lookouts in the crow's nest above. At 10.30pm the temperature dropped below freezing and they were travelling at a rate of about 22 knots. There are no binoculars available for the lookouts. At 11.40pm, Frederick Fleet rings the bell three times (which is the collision warning) in the crow's nest and telephones down to the bridge with the cry "Iceberg right ahead!" - the telephone is answered by Sixth Officer Moody who says "Thank you." Will would have had heard the bell and went running into the inner navigation bridge, he goes to the engine telegraphs setting them to 'Stop engines', then to 'Full astern together' and orders Quartermaster Hitchens to turn the helm "Hard a-starboard", at the same time he presses the alarm for shutting the watertight doors in the bulkheads and then pulls the lever of the hydraulic system that automatically lowers the watertight doors closed. While Fleet is still on the telephone, Titanic starts veering to port and slows down, Will then ordered Hitchens to port the helm, with the intention of swinging the propellers and rudder away from the iceberg. Captain Smith appears on the bridge, Boxhall later reports that Smith says, "What have we struck ?" and Will replied "We have struck an iceberg. I put her hard a-starboard and ran the engines full astern, but it was too close; she hit it. I intended to port around it, but she hit before I could do any more. The watertight doors are closed, sir." Smith then asked if Will had rung the warning bell, and he replied "Yes, sir." The worst fears are confirmed by Thomas Andrews at midnight after inspecting the damage, he says that Titanic will sink in an hour to an hour and a half (she actually stays afloat just over two hours longer), Captain Smith tells the radio operators to call out distress calls. Many people and crew (Will may have been one of them) were convinced they could see a light not too far off, and that a ship would be coming to rescue in due corse, that ship never came. Boxhall sent eight rockets into the air desperate for help, he also used Morse lamp in an attempt to get their attention. The only ship nearby was California (read California's page for more information). At 12.05 the lifeboats are ordered to be uncovered, Will is in charge on the starboard side, he has Third Officer Herbert Pitman to help him. Will takes the job very seriously, his cool-headedness won out and he is responsible for 75% of the survivors getting into lifeboats. The first lifeboat off Titanic and lowered into the freezing Atlantic Ocean was Starboard Number 7, at 12.45am, but for some unknown reason it was only filled with 28 people when it had space for 40. Will was heard calling "Are there any more ladies for this boat?" to which he saw none and there was no reply, so I suppose the lifeboat fillers felt they had to launch her unfilled, this adds to the theory of them beleiving that a ship was not far off. Starboard Number 5 was next to leave, Will told Third Officer Pitman to board her, he takes Pitman's hand and shakes it saying "Goodbye and good luck." When filling Starboard NUmber 1, Will was asked by Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon "May we get into the boat ?" to which Will is said to have replied:- "Yes, I wish you would." Will also ordered passenger Henry Stengel, to"Jump in!" when Stengel complained that passengers were being 'endangered and inconvenienced' by being put into lifeboats. When Stengel stumbled and rolled into the boat (he was kind of portly), Will laughed, and said "That is the funniest sight I have seen tonight!" This boat caused anger when the details were released later on, as it only contained a dozen people with a capacity for forty, which again, makes no sense, and reaffirms my belief that Will thought a ship was on it's way to help. At 1.35am Henry Wilde asked Lightoller for revolvers in fear of panic sweeping throughout Titanic. Firearms are Collected by Lightoller, Will and Captain Smith from Will's cabin. Lightoller was given a revolver and some ammunition by Wilde, but put the gun into his pocket still unloaded. Lightoller later thought that Will had done the same, as neither seemed to have felt that they needed the guns. At 1.40 am Starboard Collapsible C is launched with Quartermaster Rowe in charge of 39 people. James Bruce Ismay got aboard this boat, in the presence of Will, who stood by and said nothing. He then gestured to the seamen that they continue to lower the boat. Whether Will would have thought to have dared tell Ismay to get back onto Titanic is something we cannot know; Ismay was more than 'just another passenger'. Between 2.17am - 2.20am Titanic literally is on her last legs, Will is hard at work trying to get Collapsible A free off the Officer's Quarters, Lightoller seen this event take place. He also seen Will trying to cut the ropes of Lifeboat Number 1's davits so he could use them to launch Collapsible A. The forward section suddenly began to sink and a huge swell of water came and swept a lot of people off the deck (this is the wave that helped Archibald Gracie obtian a "safe" point on top of the Officer's Quarters). Will was then seen straightening the forward falls and he waved to those around him to get further back from the water by going towards the stern of the tilting deck. The water came up again and took those, including Will, to the sea. Will was seen by witnesses in the water dead, probably drowned by the huge wave. There was no murder or suicide done by Will, only heroic deeds. It seems that the story of the remarkable William McMaster Murdoch ends here.... but it does not, becasue the remarkable man had a very remarkable dog with him during Titanic's voyage and of course on that night, his pet and friend, Rigel... Please turn to Rigel's page to learn more! |