Lifeboat 7

Lifeboat 7
Starboard lifeboats of the Titanic
Type	Standard
Location on deck	Starboard forward
Time when launched from Titanic	12:25 A.M.
Launched by officers	Murdoch, Lowe
Capacity	65
Estimated occupancy at launch	28
Estimated occupancy at rescue	30
Next lifeboat launched	5

Lifeboat 7 was a wooden starboard lifeboat and the first one to be lowered from the sinking Titanic. Although there was a capacity of 65 people, it left with only 28 people on board, thus with 37 empty seats. The reason why was that many women and children were reluctant to enter a small wooden lifeboat and preferred to stay on the massive 'unsinkable', but sinking, Titanic.

Quartermaster Rowe saw the boat in the water from the aft bridge. He was still on duty like nothing happened and was forgotten by his colleagues. But when he spotted the lifeboat, he rang the bridge to ask them if they knew that a lifeboat was launched at starboard side. Next thing he knew he was on the bridge with a box full of pyrotechnic distress fireworks, and the first one of his rockets was shot at 12:40 A.M, while Fourth Officer Boxhall was already firing rockets on the other side. He was the one ordering Rowe to fetch more rockets.

Notable occupants

There were 28 people in lifeboat 7. Most of them were passengers, from First Class. A mixture of men and women, several of them as couples.

• George Alfred Hogg -----------------------------Lookout (in charge)
• Archie Jewell -----------------------------------Lookout
• William Clifford Weller ----------------------------Able Seaman
• Dickinson H. Bishop ----------------------------First Class Passenger
• Helen Bishop-----------------------------------First Class Passenger
• Henry Blank -----------------------------------First Class Passenger
• Paul Chevré ----------------------------------- First Class Passenger
• Robert Williams Daniel*------------------------- First Class Passenger
• Alfred "Baron von Drachstedt" Nourney --------- First Class Passenger
• Olive Earnshaw --------------------------------First Class Passenger
• Antoinette Flegenheim -------------------------First Class Passenger
• Dorothy Winifred Gibson------------------------First Class Passenger
• Pauline Caroline Gibson ------------------------First Class Passenger
• William Bertram Greenfield--------------------- First Class Passenger
• Blanche Greenfield -----------------------------First Class Passenger
• Margaret Bechstein Hays (+her dog Bebe) -------First Class Passenger
• Pierre Maréchal-------------------------------- First Class Passenger
• James R. McGough---------------------------- First Class Passenger
• Alfred F. Ormont -------------------------------First Class Passenger
• Lily Potter -------------------------------------First Class Passenger
• Frederic Kimber Seward -------------------------First Class Passenger
• William Thomson Sloper -------------------------First Class Passenger
• John Pillsbury Snyder --------------------------First Class Passenger
• Nelle Pillsbury Snyder---------------------------First Class Passenger
• Gilbert Milligan Tucker --------------------------First Class Passenger

Transferred:

• Catherine Elizabeth Crosby (from lifeboat 5)
• Harriette Rebecca Crosby (from lifeboat 5)

_{*= not certain}

In Popular Culture

Lifeboat 7 is seen being launched in quite a few of the films, all the way back to the first films.

In the 1912 German movie In Nacht Und Eis, a few sailors are seen preparing a lifeboat marked with number 7.

In the 1953 movie, an officer calls with a megaphone for able bodied men to help free a lifeboat. As it turns out, lifeboat 7 has rope issues, but Giff Rogers climbs down the rope and frees the lifeboat. But as he is climbing back on board Titanic, he slips and falls into the water. Despite this, he is pulled aboard and helps the seamen row.

In A Night to Remember, lifeboat 7 is shown when a hysterical woman is being loaded on board. We see it again as it is rowing away, with boats 5 and 3 being lowered. What is noticeable in these boats is that they are only leaving half full.

In the 1996 mini-series, lifeboat 7 is correctly shown as the first boat launched where the Foley's enter the boat with Hazel's dog Charlie. What is inaccurate is Alice Cleaver and Trevor Allison boarding the lifeboat. They actually escaped in lifeboat 11.

In the 1997 movie, while lifeboat 7 is correctly depicted as the first lifeboat launched, it is incorrectly depicted as nearly spilling its passengers into the Atlantic, a process that actually occurred to lifeboat 5. Later on, Thomas Andrews comes at Second Officer Lightoller and angrily scolds him for launching lifeboat 7 with only 28 and lifeboat 1 with only 12 passengers. Lightoller says he has concerns about buckling, but Andrews is being adament that the boats were tested in Belfast and could carry 70 men.

In Ghosts of the Abyss, lifeboat 7 appears briefly when Murdoch begins to charge it and when it is lowered.

In the 2012 miniseries, lifeboat 7 is depicted as the second forward starboard lifeboat to leave the Titanic with lifeboat 1 being the first. In reality, lifeboat 7 was the first to leave.

Fictional Occupants

1. Gifford Rogers
2. Hazel Foley
3. Charlie
4. Lulu Foley
5. Alden Foley

Source

1. _{'Titanic' ©1996 (second print, 1998) Edward P. De Groot}
2. _{https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/a-time-to-go.html}

Gallery

Lifeboat 7 is prepared in Ein Nacht Und Eis (1912)

Lifeboat 7 is being lowered in 1953 Titanic

Lifeboat 7 rows away, while lifeboat 5 (left) and lifeboat 3 (right) are lowered in A Night To Remember (1958).

"I'd rather die I tell you!"

Lifeboat 7 is being loaded in Titanic 1996

Lifeboat 7 is being lowered in Titanic 1997