Even Master Mariners need their sleep. Right, Angus?
Unlike watch standers, the captain is expected to be available all 24 hours. Therefore, he must grab his ZZZs when he can. A captain will often take to his bunk, not to sleep, but to rest. If he is to be useful in an emergency, it makes no sense for him to be more fatigued than the watch.
Testimony of survivors, along with knowledge of the daily routine, shows that Smith was tending to company-mandated duties by schmoozing with the passengers until late in the evening.
Smith is known to have been a teetotaler, but even sober the evening duties were fatiguing. It would be understandable and proper for him to hit the sack when they were over.
In fact, it is not known where he was before he appeared on the maneuvering bridge after Murdoch closed the watertight doors subsequent to the collision. The timing suggests that he was either in his chartroom or in his bunk.
It does not matter. Smith had already condemned more than 1,523 people to death by ordering an excessive speed (22.5kt) through dangerous waters (the exact number is not known because infants and any stowaways were not recorded).
The lookout’s visibility was about 40 seconds of steaming. By no stretch of the imagination can this be considered safe operation in waters that might contain bergs.
One cannot lay this off on Ismay. He had absolutely no authority to order an excessive speed. Smith could have—should have—refused.
To assert that Smith was intimidated and caved in to Ismay against his own judgment is to lay upon Smith an additional charge of cowardice.
The conjecture by Fred 12 that Smith was in his bunk at the moment of collision, whether sleeping or resting, is at least plausible and is not contradicted by any known facts. It is at least as valid as the thoroughly discredited conjecture that began this topic.
Marty
