Or since the centre prop provided much of the water going over the rudder, which depended on waste steam from the outer props, why not run the port engine astern and the starboard ahead (leaving the starboard engine going would provide steam to keep the centre prop turning).
As for Murdoch, I seem to recall that he was hailed as a hero, giving his life for his passengers and crew. Despite the scene in that awful cameron film, there is no evidence that Murdoch murdered anyone.
And as for his professional action before the impact- perhaps he expected the lookouts do be doing their jobs properly rather than giving him less than a minutes notice to turn 45000+ tonnes of iron out the way. And as Orinoco says, once it was that close all they could do was to try and minimise the impact to try and keep the ship afloat.
Stu
