The touching story behind the sinking of the Titanic,

revealed by the surviving vice-captain

After many years of silence, the then-surviving vice-captain finally revealed the story of the accident behind the sinking of the Titanic.

April 14, 1912 was a day of terror.  The accident killed 1,514 people and rescued 710 people.

Charles Rachtler, second mate of the Titanic, who was 38 at the time of the accident, was the only crew member rescued to take charge of the rescued passengers.  Below is a 17-page memoir that details the details of the tragedy of the Titanic by Charles Rachtler.

After the captain gave orders to rescue women and children ahead of the sinking, many female passengers chose to remain instead of being separated from their families.  Although I called out loudly, ‘Women and children, come here!’ few women and children were about to abandon their families and get into the lifeboats alone.

‘As long as I live,’ says Rachtler, ‘I will never forget that night!’ 

The first lifeboat went down to sea, and I said to a woman on deck.  ‘Madam, get on the lifeboat!’  

She shook her head unexpectedly.  ‘No, I will stay on the boat.’

The woman's husband heard this and said, ‘Don't do that, get on!  Honey!’ she replied in a calm tone of voice.

‘I will not go alone.  I will stay on this ship with you.’  That was the last time I saw the couple.

Astor IV (then richest man in the world) sat on deck with his five-month-old wife in a lifeboat, holding a puppy in one hand and a cigar in the other, shouting at the boat going far away. ‘I love you, honey!’

When one of the crew members evacuating the passengers asked Mr. Aster to get into the boat,

Mr. Aster refused.  ‘Shouldn’t a person have at least a conscience.’ 

Then he yielded one last remaining seat to an Irish woman standing by.  And a few days later,

Aster's body, torn by the wreckage of the ship, was found by the crew while searching for survivors.

Although he was wealthy enough to build a teenage Titanic, he refused every chance he had to survive.

It was the only choice of the great man who defended his conscience with his own life.

Guggenheim, a successful banker, said this while changing into a fancy evening dress even when life was threatened. He said, ‘Even if I die, I will keep my body and die like a gentleman.’ 

The note left by Mr. Guggenheim to his wife contained these words.  

‘There will be no woman on this ship who died without being rescued because of my selfishness.  

I will die like a gentleman if I have to live a life that is not even worth it.’

Strauss, the founder of Macy's in the US, was the second richest man in the world.

No words could persuade him to get his wife, Mr. Rosalie, into the lifeboat.  ‘I always went with you wherever you went,’ said his wife, Rosalie.  I will go anywhere in the world with you.’  She stubbornly refused to leave her husband and board the ship.  The crew in charge of lifeboat number 8 advised Strauss, 67, to board the lifeboat, saying, ‘No one will object to an old man riding a boat.’  Hearing this, Mr. Strauss showed a detached appearance even at the moment of life and death, saying, ‘I will decline the offer to get on the boat before other men.’ 

Then he took the arms of his 63-year-old wife, Mr. Rosalie, and slowly sat down on the deck chair,

waiting for the last moment.  These words are written on a monument to the Strauss in the Bronx, New York:

‘A love that could not be sunk by seawater.’

The French merchant Watyeol left the two children on the boat and left them on the boat to say goodbye to them.

The two sons were rescued in this way and were able to be reunited with their mother by posting successive photos so that newspapers from all over the world could find them.  But they were never seen again with their father, who was left on the ship.

Reedapas, who went on a honeymoon to the United States with her husband, embraced her husband and refused to be left alone.  Her husband had no choice but to stun her with her fists.

When she regained consciousness, she was already in a lifeboat floating on the sea.

She never married her whole life and she missed her husband.

At a survivors' meeting in Lausanne, Greece, Mrs. Smith recalled the woman who gave up her seat to her.

At that time, when my two children got on the lifeboat, it was full and there was no seat for me.

At that moment, a woman got up and pulled me into a lifeboat and said: ‘Come up.  Children need moms!’  

The great woman did not leave her name behind.  Her people erected her 'her nameless mother' monument for her.

Among the victims were billionaire Asted, prominent newspaperman Hempstead, Army Major Bart, and distinguished engineer Luovour, amongst others notable figures in society.  But all of them gave up their seats to the poor rural women who stood by them.  Of the 50 main crew members of the Titanic, all except the second mate Rachtler, who was responsible for the rescue, gave up their seats and died with the ship.

At 2 am, they were each ordered to run away, but operator No. 1 John Phillips still sat in the computer room and entered ‘SOS’ until the last minute and did not leave his position.  When the back of the ship began to sink into the water, in the last moments of life and death, people shouted to each other.  ‘I love you! I love you!’  That day, we all showed what great love is.  I want you to know how much I love you.

But there were exceptions.  Japanese Railways deputy chief, Hoso Nortext, dressed as a woman and boarded lifeboat No. 10 full of women and children.  He was retired immediately after returning home.  All Japanese newspapers and public opinion publicly condemned him, and he ended his life a decade later with regret and shame.

White Star Line, the shipping company that built the Titanic in honor of the 1912 Titanic, said of the victims:

‘There are no maritime rules that require the sacrifice of men.  It was just their actions that showed concern for the weak and their personal choice.’