Edward Smith
For the recipient of the Victoria Cross see Edward Smith (VC)Captain Edward John Smith, RNR (27 January 1850 - 15 April 1912) was the captain of the Titanic.
He was born in Hanley in Stoke-on-Trent, the son of Edward and Catherine Smith, and attended Etruria British School. At the age of 13 he began his seafaring career as an apprentice with Gibson & Co., Liverpool, and joining the White Star Line in 1880. In 1887, he gained his first command, progressively moving on to commanding larger vessels, including the Republic, the Coptic, the Celtic, the Germanic, the Majestic, the Baltic, the Adriatic, and the Olympic. He also commanded troopships in the Boer War. He was made commodore of the White Star fleet in 1904.
He and his wife Eleanor had a daughter, Helen Melville Smith.
He went down with the ship when the Titanic collided with an iceberg. His body was never recovered.
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When anyone asks me how I can best describe my experience in nearly forty years at sea, I merely say, uneventful. Of course there have been winter gales, and storms and fog and the like. But in all my experience, I have never been in any accident ... or any sort worth speaking about. I have seen but one vessel in distress in all my years at sea. I never saw a wreck and never have been wrecked nor was I ever in any predicament that threatened to end in disaster of any sort. -1907