14. Lightoller was given command of HMS Falcon on the Dover Patrol
HMS Falcon was a Royal Navy destroyer based in Dover during the First World War, which served as part of the Dover Patrol. So-named because of its being based in Dover, the patrol’s primary reason for being was to prevent German shipping, primarily U-Boats, from using the British Channel to access the Atlantic Ocean and the shipping lanes to England’s west coastal ports. As part of the Dover Patrol, Lightoller held Falcon in readiness for deployment at all times, guns loaded, and the ship ready for action. He remained in command of the ship until it was lost on April 1, 1918.
On that date Falcon was convoying vessels in the North Sea when the armed merchant ship John Fitzgerald rammed the destroyer, severely damaging the hull and rendering the ship a complete loss. Lightoller and two of his officers were trapped in the stern of the ship. Nearly all of the crew escaped the forward section via the ship’s boats. Lightoller and the two officers with him remained in the stern section until it sank in the early morning hours of April 2. They were forced to take to the water in life belts, from which they were rescued by a British fishing boat about an hour later.