How come these two movies are related to each other? There must be a reason.
Recently, in memory of a friend, we revisited the 1997 movie Titanic. When I watched this movie before, I was mostly moved by the love story of Jack and Rose. This review was influenced by friends and focused on the real historical figures mentioned in the film.
Let’s briefly review the sinking of the Titanic. The famous shipwreck occurred in the North Atlantic between the late night of April 14 and the early morning of April 15, 1912. The incident occurred on the fifth day of the Titanic’s maiden voyage from Southampton Port in the United Kingdom to New York Port in the United States. The ship was the largest ship in the world at the time. cruise ship. Before colliding with an iceberg at 23:40 on Sunday, April 14, 1912, six sea ice warnings had been received, but when the lookout saw the iceberg, the ship was traveling at close to its maximum speed. Unable to turn quickly, the ship suffered a hit on its starboard side and cracks appeared in part of the hull, flooding five of the 16 watertight compartments. The Titanic was designed to withstand flooding in only four watertight compartments and sank.
As the passengers were put into the lifeboats, they used distress flares and wireless telegraphs to call for help. According to the practice of the shipping industry at the time, the Titanic’s lifeboat system was only used to “transport” passengers to other nearby ships, rather than being designed for all personnel to “evacuate” to the lifeboats for refuge at the same time, so it was far insufficient in number; With the ship sinking quickly and other ships still hours away from arriving, the ship sank 2 hours and 40 minutes later. When the Titanic sank, more than fifteen hundred passengers and crew were still on board. Within minutes, almost everyone who jumped or fell into the sea died from cold shock. The passenger ship Carpathia arrived at the scene about an hour and a half after the sinking and rescued the last survivor nine and a half hours after the accident. The ship rescued a total of 710 people. The disaster killed 1,514 people, making it the worst peacetime shipwreck in history and shocking the world.
In the film, at the moment of the shipwreck, the second officer of the Titanic, holding a revolver, ordered the male passengers to retreat and let women and children get into the lifeboats first. He had a stern face and a meticulous work attitude, which was very impressive. It is said that he was the last survivor of the Titanic to be rescued, and was the highest-ranking person among the crew survivors.
After watching the movie this time, I immediately checked the prototype information of this second officer. I was really surprised when I checked and found out that the prototype of this character is Charles Lightoller, a legendary figure. Not only did director James Cameron film Charles Lightoller into the movie “Titanic” in 1997; 20 years later, he was also filmed into the movie “Titanic” by director Christopher Nolan in 2017. Dunkirk. It’s the old captain Dawson who rescued 127 British soldiers in his small yacht in the film! To be favored by two famous directors and become the prototype of two blockbusters shows that Lightoller’s life must be extraordinary.
↓↓Charles Herbert Lightoller, March 30, 1874 – December 8, 1952
↓↓Charles Lightoller and the actor who played him in “Titanic”
↓↓The yacht captain in “Dunkirk”
Charles Lightoller was born in a small town in England on March 30, 1874. His mother died early and his father was a cotton mill worker. His father took him alone until he was 13 years old, and then disappeared. This boy has grown up on his own since he was 13 years old. He did not become a worker because he found that the best job to take care of food and housing was to be a sailor. Thus, a lifelong journey of sailing began. Technology was not yet developed at that time, and treating the sea as home was doomed to double the dangers.
The next year, there was a storm and the ship anchored in Rio. He escaped from the shipwreck and got an acne breakout, and survived the infectious disease that changed everyone’s color and returned home. The most serious one was a fire, which burned the coal ship. He bravely put out the fire and was appreciated by the captain. He had too many adventures. He was stranded on an uninhabited island and was rescued by a passing ship. These can only be regarded as navigation instructions. . . Being so frightened, nothing can scare him.
Charles was an experienced sailor at a young age and had been to the Americas, South Africa, and Australia, serving in various ranks of seafarer.
He even found his wife on the ship to Australia. The little girl Sylvia was also very good. The two got married immediately. She didn’t even return to Australia, but directly accompanied him back to England. From then on, they spent a lifetime together and gave birth to 5 children.
When the Titanic went to sea in 1912, Charles was already the second mate. At the age of 38, he was a senior crew member on the world’s most luxurious ship. It can be said that he was outstanding.
↓↓He looks handsome and lives a refined life. There is a photo of the “British man smoking a pipe”. It is Charles, with the third officer standing next to him.
↓↓This is a group photo of nine senior crew members on the maiden voyage. They are truly a group of elegant men. We can see their true elegance in the subsequent worst maritime disaster in history.
At 11:40 that night, Charles was about to go to bed when he was suddenly thrown out and knocked down his colleague. Only ten minutes later, a subordinate came to report that the water had rushed into the mail room at the bottom of the ship. All the crew members knew that their fate was sealed, and there was only silence at this moment. Charles’ first reaction was to change from his pajamas into a uniform. Someone was also cleaning the deck, waiting for the last moment with the ship. They shook hands and said goodbye, “Goodbye old fellow,” in a normal tone as if they were going out. .
“Should women and children get on the lifeboats first?” On that terrifying night on the ice a hundred years ago, in the last moments of the Titanic, the 38-year-old second officer Charles Lightoller asked the captain again and again. The facts before us are grim. The world’s largest cruise ship has been severely damaged by the iceberg, and it cannot escape the fate of being buried in the North Atlantic. Lightoller was the first shipboard official to suggest the evacuation of women and children after the Titanic hit an iceberg. The old captain with white hair and beard finally nodded. Lightoller turned to the port side and directed the crew to lower the lifeboat. Initially, the crowd on deck remained calm. However, as time passed, people realized that the number of lifeboats was insufficient, and commotion began among the male passengers waiting in line for the lifeboats. Everyone was vying to get on the ship first. For a while, there was fistfight and chaos. At the critical moment, Lightoller quickly jumped into the lifeboat, drew his pistol, and shocked the chaotic situation. –Actually, there isn’t a single bullet in this gun!
After doing his best to get women and children into the lifeboats, Lightoller finally allowed the male passengers and crew to board the final collapsible lifeboat, but refused to get on board. Lightoller later recalled: “I didn’t have the consciousness to be a martyr at that time. I never thought about it. It was purely a momentary impulse and I stayed.” At 2 o’clock in the morning, all the lifeboats were let go, and Charles was about to die. Being sucked into the bottom of the ship. At this time, a small overturned canvas boat drifted up. Because the huge ship tilted and fell into the sea, no one could flip it. Charles held on to the boat and swam desperately. He recalled that every stroke afterward felt as painful as a thousand knives piercing him. Perhaps there was a mysterious force in the dark that wanted to save Lightoller, who had done his duty faithfully. He floated up and down in the cold water several times, and when he was about to freeze to death, he was discovered by a lifeboat and pulled out.
Only one-fifth of all the men on the Titanic survived, but because of Charles Lightoller’s almost paranoid insistence that “women and children go into the lifeboats first”, three-quarters of the women and more than half of the children on the ship survived. Get on the lifeboat. This can be seen as a rare gleam of humanity in the largest shipwreck in human history.
However, this is not the last time Lightoller faces the test of life and death. His life legend has just begun.
After being rescued from the Titanic, Lightoller returned to England and continued working at sea. During World War I, he became a lieutenant in the British Navy and served as a rear seat lookout on the seaplane carrier HMS Campania.
In 1915, the British Navy conducted an experimental military exercise in the waters near Iceland. Lightoller successfully locked the imaginary enemy fleet from the air and inadvertently set a world record: the first time a human navy determined the location of an opponent’s ship through aerial reconnaissance.
In the summer of 1916, the German army continuously dispatched airships to carry out air raids on London. Torpedo boat No. 117 was deployed to patrol near the Thames Estuary to provide early warning for the capital. One day, boat 117 spotted an airship passing overhead and heading towards London. The airship at that time was very flammable, and Lightoller did not hesitate to order the sailors to fire into the sky with machine guns, and happily reported to his superiors that he had shot down the target. In fact, the airship was not shot down, but after being intercepted by Lightoller, it had to abandon its bombs and return early, failing to bomb London. Lightoller’s decisive decision saved the lives of a large number of innocent civilians. He was promoted to destroyer captain with his decisive and correct command.
As World War I drew to a close, Lightoller became captain of the destroyer USS Gary. At this time, the main force of the German navy was besieged on the mainland, and the only active combat force was the famous submarine force (U-boat). The mission of the “Gary” is to escort the British merchant fleet and resist U-boat attacks… For blocking the airship bombing London and sinking the UB110, Lightoller was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and was promoted to Lieutenant Commander of the Royal Navy. school. After the war, he retired from active service with full glory.
A brief period of peace came. Lightoller, who retired, opened a small hotel with his wife and lived a simple and stable life. But he could not let go of his love for the sea. With the money he earned, Charles used the money to buy a second-hand yacht, replaced the engine, and decorated it with the best wood. Just like modern people modify their beloved sports cars, his boat was modified into the beautiful “Sunset”.
During World War II in 1940, when the British troops retreated from Dunkirk, Charles was already 66 years old. When the navy requisitioned a civilian ship, he jumped on it, but refused to let others drive it. “If anyone can drive it, that person is me.” He drove to the other side of the strait alone, and was bombed by German fighter planes. Amid many dangers, he took the boat to escape Air raids were carried out and all efforts were made to save British soldiers. He drove the yacht back home. The yacht could no longer fit in, and four people even stood in the bathtub. As the yacht staggered into Ramsgate, people in the harbor almost dropped their jaws as they looked at the small boat, which was stuffed like a sardine can. As the soldiers walked out of the cabin one by one, the officer counting the number of people couldn’t believe his eyes. This small yacht, carrying 20 people, rescued 127 soldiers during this voyage.
People later learned that Charles Lightoller sent all five of his children to join the army and lost two of his sons in the war. The younger son Herbert was a pilot. He died on September 4, 1939 while flying a plane during a bombing raid on Germany. The younger son taught his father how to avoid air raids during his lifetime. The eldest son joined the Navy and died in France in the last month before the end of World War II; the second son joined the Army, with the rank of lieutenant colonel, and was transferred to General Montgomery’s command; the third son joined the Pioneer Emergency Corps, and the fourth daughter was in the intelligence department Even his grandson later joined the Navy and served on a submarine.
↓↓Charles and his youngest son Herbert
Charles Lightoller, who experienced ups and downs in his life and contributed all he could to the world, died at the age of 78. The Sunset boat has always been there, and together with his house, it has become a tourist attraction admired by the British. His wife was invited to take the boat to attend the Dunkirk evacuation commemoration event. Charles Lightoller, a true hero!
(Compiled based on online information, reference: Xinde Maritime, etc.)
I just read the article introducing Lightoller during the day today, and in the evening I read Xashi Xi’s long article, which is more comprehensive and detailed. Thank you! After the Titanic crashed, he was rescued by people on an overturned boat, but the boat was unbalanced. He constantly directed the people on the boat to stand in two rows and move back and forth until they were rescued. During the evacuation of Dunkirk, his boat carried more than 100 soldiers back and performed a miracle.
Thank you Xia Xi for the introduction!
Charles Lightoller is very handsome in real life, much more handsome than the two actors. What’s rare is that he is so gentlemanly, brave, and puts justice first. It’s so perfect that it can be made into a movie.
I initially thought that the word “gram” at the end was a common denominator, but I didn’t expect it to be this heroic story.
I didn’t expect the two movies/history to have such a connection! It brought tears to my eyes, those true elegances are unforgettable. “Contributing everything he could to the world”, what a great life.
Thank you Xia Xi for your great article!
I have learned a lot. Let’s review and compare the two movies of Xixi together. I had heard the story of Titanic before, but now I know more. I also feel that when I watched the movie “Titanic”, I only focused on the love between two people, hahaha. 🙂
