29. Captain Smith didn’t plan on retiring right after the Titanic’s maiden voyage, but he was at the end of his career at sea.
John Edward Smith was almost certainly the right man to captain the Titanic on its maiden voyage. He was a skilled and highly-experience seaman. Born in 1850, he rose through the ranks of first the Royal Navy and then the British Merchant Navy before joining the prestigious White Star Line. Smith was one of the company’s finest, captaining the Majestic for nine years before being given the covetous role of captaining the Titanic. According to one much-cited legend, Smith had vowed to retire after the Titanic’s first voyage. Sadly, this is not quite true – though he had said he planned to retire once White Star launched a bigger, faster boat.