A Night to Remember

by Walter Lord

There was a different kind of trouble in Boat 6. Friction erupted from the moment Major Peuchen slid down the line to fill out the crew. Peuchen, used to giving orders, couldn’t resist trying to take command. Quartermaster Hitchens had other ideas. As they rowed away from the Titanic, Peuchen was pulling an oar and Hitchens was at the tiller, but within ten minutes Peuchen asked Hitchens to let a lady steer and join him in rowing. The Quartermaster answered that he was in charge and Peuchen’s job was to row and keep quiet. Painfully the boat struggled away, with just Peuchen and Lookout Fleet rowing. Under Mrs. Brown’s leadership, most of the women gradually joined in, but Hitchens remained glued to the tiller, shouting at them to row harder or all would be sucked under when the Titanic sank. The women began shouting back, and as the boat splashed along in the dark, the night echoed with bitter repartee. Most of the time No. 6 was heading toward the elusive light on the horizon, and when it became clear they could never reach it, Hitchens announced that all was lost; they had neither water nor food nor compass nor charts; they were hundreds of miles from land and didn’t even know which way they were heading. Major Peuchen had given up by now, but the women tore into him. Mrs. Candee grimly showed him the North Star. Mrs. Brown told him to shut up and row. Mrs. Meyer jeered at his courage. Then they tied up with Boat 16, and Hitchens ordered them to drift. But the women cou...