Collapsible A

Collapsible A
Collapsible Lifeboat A/1
Type	Engelhardt collapsible
Location on deck	Above officers quarters
Time when launched from Titanic	Not launched (thrown off roof at 2:03 A.M., floated off at 2:07 A.M.)
Launched by officers	Murdoch, Moody. Wilde
Capacity	47
Estimated occupancy at launch	between 25-45
Estimated occupancy at rescue	15
Rescue time	4:00-4:30AM (Lifeboat 14 and Collapsible D)
Previous lifeboat launched	Collapsible B

Screenshot of Collapsible A from A Night to Remember (1958)

Collapsible A or Collapsible 1, was an “Engelhardt Type Collapsible” raft that was stationed above the Officers Quarters on the starboard side of the RMS Titanic. Beside the most-forward funnel. It was the tenth lifeboat to be launched from the starboard side; and the third collapsible to be launched. Officers Moody, Murdoch and Wilde had slid the lifeboat from the roof at around 2:03 A.M, however, they were not able to properly lower it due to the rapid flooding of the ship.

Preparation and departure

Around 2:00 AM, after Collapsible C had been lowered from the starboard side more than 20 minutes earlier, around 50 people were gathered around the Officer’s Quarters awaiting the launch of the boat. As oars were set up and stationed to be used as make-shift ramps for it, Collapsible A slid off the roof, breaking the oars and landing; sliding down the deck by a couple inches.

The crew tied the raft to the davits of boats 1 and C, Moody then suggested letting the raft drift off, Murdoch however refused, seeing that he had time to prepare and lower the boat on the davits. The Titanic then took a sudden dip as it returned to an even keel, causing water to begin rushing the deck. The crew and few passengers carrying pocket knifes then began cutting the ropes to the raft. When half the raft was already underwater, it suddenly sprang up causing everybody in the boat to be thrown off into the sea. With Murdoch being dragged away by a wave, as witnessed by Lightoller. Wilde being drowned by a wave, witnessed by Archibald Gracie IV, Moody and several others being washed off, Witnessed by Samuel Ernest Hemming.

The raft washed off the ship at around 2:07 AM, with around 20 - 30 passengers on board fighting for their lives, to get as far from the ship as possible. In the chaos, many passengers had fallen off and had not been able to get back on. With the sides not raised it was soon awash with icy seawater, being half-submerged. Around 17 to 25 people had climbed into the boat by the time it had completely washed off the Titanic, men aboard continued to ward-off nearby swimmers with oars in the water, as many in the boat had perished due to the raft being partially filled with the icy water.

Collapsible A survivor August Edvard Andersson “Wennerström” recalled about the night on raft.

“All the feeling had left us. If we wanted to know if we still had legs (or any other part) left, we had to feel down in the water with our hand. The only exercise we got was when someone gave up hope and died, whom we immediately threw overboard to give the live ones a little more space and at the same time lighten the weight of the boat.”

He also recalled witnessing Elin Lindell, who was hanging on to the boat only supported by the exhausted arm grasp of her husband, let go of the boat, having died, as he reached out to grab and hold on to the corpse, weakened by frost-bites and coldness, Wennerström let go of the body. As it floated off, he fearfully turned his head towards Edvard but Edvard had already succumbed to hypothermia a few minutes earlier.

Between 3:30-4:30AM, several passengers and crew had perished onboard, and have either been thrown off or left onboard. By the time Collapsible A was rescued by Lifeboat 14 and Collapsible D. Around 14 out of the original 30 occupants were still alive by that time. With Rhoda Abbott being the only female survivor, as reported by Arthur John Bright who was on Collapsible D which was being towed by Lifeboat 14, the remaining people of the raft were singing during the night, possibly preparing for their potential death.

There were three dead bodies left on the raft when Collapsible A survivors were rescued. One of them later being identified as First Class passenger Thomson Beattie and the others being unidentified crewman. Lowe decided not to bring them aboard, Collapsible A was left adrift in the ocean.

Oceanic

On May 13th 1912, nearly a month after the disaster, White Star Line streamer RMS Oceanic, during a westbound crossing had found Collapsible A adrift in the ocean near the Bermudas, which still contained the three bodies, in a rotting state. Oceanic crew members had reportedly tried to sink the raft with little to no success, they then towed it back to the ship, where they buried the bodies at sea, taking the raft itself to New York where it would be placed at Pier 59, along with the other lifeboats.

Shane Leslie, who was onboard the Oceanic recalled:

"The sea was calm at noon when the lookout shouted that you could see something floating ahead. The ship slowed down and it was evident that the object was a ship's lifeboat floating in the open sea in the middle of the Atlantic. What was horrifying is that it contained three decomposing corpses. A lifeboat was sent with an officer and a doctor. What followed was appalling. Two sailors could be seen seated, their hair bleached from exposure to the sun and salt, and a third body, dressed in a tuxedo, lying on the floor. All three were dead and had been on the surf and under the open sky since they had seen the largest ocean liner sink. The three bodies were stuffed into duffel bags with a steel bar at the bottom each. Then, one after another, they were wrapped in the Union Jack, a sermon was read, and thrown into the sea."

Escapees

• Edward Brown --------------------- First Class Saloon Steward
• William Watson Lucas* -------------- First Class Saloon Steward
• William McIntyre* ------------------- Trimmer
• John William Thompson ------------ Fireman
• Augustus Henry Weikman -----------First Class Barber
• Peter Dennis Daly------------------ First Class Passenger
• George Alexander Lucien Rheims ---- First Class Passenger
• Richard Norris Williams II ------------ First Class Passenger
• William John Mellors* (B?) ----------- Second Class Passenger
• Rhoda Mary Abbott ------------------Third Class Passenger
• Olaus Jørgensen Abelseth* ----------Third Class Passenger
• Carl Olof Jansson ------------------- Third Class Passenger
• Oscar Wilhelim Johansson ----------- Third Class Passenger
• Gunnar Isidor Tenglin ----------------Third Class Passenger
• William Henry Tornquist* -------------Third Class Passenger
• August Edvard Wennerström* --------Third Class Passenger

Taken from the water

• Davit Vartanian* --------------------- Third Class Passenger

Passed away or perished

• Two unidentified seamen
• Thomson Beattie ------------------- First Class Passenger
• Edith Corse Evans* (B?) ------------- First Class Passenger
• Arthur Keefe* (B?) ----------------- Third Class Passenger
• Edvard Bengtsson Lindell ---------- Third Class Passenger

_{* = not certain}

Popular Culture

Fictional Occupants

• Marcia ------------------------------ Titanic (1943), Third Class Passenger (Died)
• Tadrow ----------------------------- Titanic (1943), Third Class Passenger (Died)
• Cal's Crying Girl --------------------- Titanic (1997), Third Class Passenger
• Caledon Hockley -------------------- Titanic (1997), First Class Passenger
• Hold Steward 1 ---------------------- Titanic (1997), Third Class Steward (Died)
• Collapsible A Bleeding Steward ------- Titanic (1997), Third Class Steward* (Died)

Gallery

A lifeboat from the Oceanic heading to Collapsible A (In the distance)

A lifeboat from the Oceanic towing Collapsible A

Collapsible A when it was found

Collapsible A on the deck of the Oceanic

A more likely appearance of Collapsible A, with less people, smaller, and partially flooded from Titanic! (1943)

A possible appearance of Collapsible A with people swamping it from Titanic! (1943)

Collapsible A is prepared by several crew members as water washes on deck in A Night To Remember.

A screenshot from The Making Of A Night To Remember, showing a behind the scenes shot of Collapsable A's launch. Murdoch, Lightoller, and Moody have each been identified in this shot.

Collapsible A after the sinking in A Night To Remember (1958)

Murdoch, Wilde, Moody and his men start to push down Collapsible A to the boat deck in Titanic 1997

Murdoch, Wilde, Moody and his men successfully pushed down Collapsible A to the boat deck in Titanic 1997

Shooting at Collapsible A in Titanic (1997)

Collapsible A is washed of deck in the 1997 film.

Collapsible A throwing the occupants to the sea in Titanic (1997)

Water starts to fill Collapsible A

Collapsible A after throwing its occupants to the sea in Titanic (1997)

Only 6 people left onboard the Collapsible A after being washed off from the deck

The occupants of Collapsible A try to rowed away from the ship when the 1st funnel collapsed

Collapsible A on the deck in Ghosts of the Abyss (2003)

Lego Titanic 4

Collapsible A (foreground, right side) in a Lego Titanic movie

Collapsible A in Roblox Titanic: Reimagined

Sources

• _{Lifeboats of the RMS Titanic at wikipedia.}
• _{Titanic Collapsible Lifeboat A at Encyclopedia Titanica.}
• _{Collapsible A at RMS Titanic Remembered.}
• _{'Titanic' ©1996 (second print, 1998) Edward P. De Groot}