Or was he a brave man who went down with his ship, saving the lives of others?.
Well… There were some accounts in the press of an officer shooting two men and then shooting himself.
What about the 86 witnesses at the US Senate Inquiry and the 95 witnesses at the UK Board of Trade Inquiry, who gave evidence on oath?
The world now remembers Murdoch as the cowardly man who shot two passengers and then turned his gun on himself.
Murdoch was 39 years old when the Titanic was commissioned in 1912, with 16 years of service behind him.
‘I was practically the last man, and certainly the last officer, to see Mr Murdoch,’ Lightoller told his widow.
Nic Compton is the author of Titanic on Trial: The Night the Titanic Sank, published by Bloomsbury. »