Edward J. Smith

Smith on the Olympic, half a year before the Titanic set sail

Edward John "E. J." Smith (27 January 1850 – 15 April 1912) was an English sea captain. He was the captain of the R.M.S Titanic, which sank when it struck an iceberg. Smith died in the sinking, aged 62.

Smith was born on 27 January 1850 in Hanley, Staffordshire, England. He was married to Sarah Eleanor Pennington from 1887 until his death in 1912. Smith had one daughter.

When the Titanic struck the iceberg, Smith knew within minutes that the ship was doomed and that people would die. During the evacuation, Captain Smith failed to manage and coordinate the evacuation effort, and gave ambiguous and impractical orders (an hour after the collision, Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall was still unaware that the ship would sink). Smith perished that night along with around 1,500 others, and his body was never recovered.

There are conflicting accounts of his death; at around 2:10 a.m. as the water reached the deck Second officer Charles Lightoller saw the captain walk onto the bridge, but just seconds later later Trimmer Samuel Hemming found the bridge empty. Some claimed to have seen Smith in the water swimming towards a lifeboat, or near the capsized collapsible lifeboat "B", others saw shooting himself with a pistol. Other accounts describe him entering the wheelhouse on the bridge and dying there as the Titanic went underwater. this is most likely scenario because if true, this would explain why Hemming did not see Smith: Earlier at nightfall, the shutters on the wheelhouse windows would have been raised making Hemming unable to see Smith. His body was never recovered.

Smith has been played by many actors during documentaries, movies, television series, or plays. The most well known actors to play Smith are George C. Scott and Bernard Hill.

Other websites

• One of Stoke-on-Trent Museums' Local Heroes
• Captain Smith on Titanic-Titanic.com
• Edward Smith at Find a Grave