Howard Lowe
Welshman Howard Lowe had been a sailor for 14 years by the time he was appointed an officer on Titanic. Lowe was off duty on the night of the sinking and had gone to bed early to catch up on much-needed rest. He was deeply asleep when in his words he was:“ awakened by hearing voices…and I realized there must be something the matter.” Lowe quickly dressed and went on deck to find the evacuation in full swing.
By now, the ship was ‘tipping by the bow” so Lowe began to help load and launch the lifeboats. So intent on his task was he that he ordered White Star chairman Joseph Ismay out of the way. “Do you want me to lower away quickly?” he asked Ismay, impatiently. “ You will have me drown the whole lot of them?!” Lowe was said to have fired his pistol during the panic, but witnesses at the inquiry said he never fired directly at anyone and his shots were only warning shots to restore order.
Once Lowe’s loading duties ended, he was placed in charge of Lifeboat 14. Charles Williams was the only male passenger allowed to join the women and children, as he was needed to row the boat. Once in the water, Lowe ordered a distance of 150 yards between the lifeboat and the doomed ship. He then ‘herded together’ five other boats and distributed his passengers amongst them. Then, he asked for volunteers and steered boat 14 back towards Titanic.
Lowe’s lifeboat was the only craft to return to the wreck site and search for survivors. On this first trip, Lowe picked up four men, one an Asian sailor. Lowe initially thought the man dead and couldn’t be bothered to check for life signs because of his ethnicity. But for some reason, he changed his mind. He had the man transferred to the lifeboat and once he had revived, took over the oars from one of the exhausted sailors and ‘worked like a hero.’
“By Jove!” Lowe was heard to mutter to himself, “I’m ashamed of what I said about the little blighter. I’d save the likes o’ him six times over if I got the chance.”Lowe and his volunteers continued to return to the wreck site, even rigging up a sail to allow the lifeboat to travel at a greater speed- and to tow a distressed collapsible boat back to the Carpathia.