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Captain William Thomas Turner OBE RNR (23 October 1856 – 23 June 1933) was a British merchant captain. He is best known as the captain of RMS Lusitania when she was sunk by a German torpedo in May 1915 .
- Running from The Devil-Dodgers
- From Officer to Captain
- Commodore For Cunard
- Last Captain of The Lusitania
- The Annoyance of Passengers
- Into The War Zone
- Torpedoed
- Bluebell
- The Admiralty’s Scapegoat
- Last Commands
William Turner was born on 23 October 1856 to Charles and Charlotte May Johnson Turner in Everton, Liverpool, Lancashire, England. William’s father Charles was a Liverpool sea captain, and his mother Charlotte came from a respectable cotton mill-owning family, the Johnsons. Will’s parents wanted him to be “respectable” and become a minister, but re...
As a second mate on the Thunderbolt, Turner had been swept overboard on the way to Calcutta, India, fishing for dolphins. The first mate threw him a lifebuoy which kept Turner afloat for the next hour and twenty minutes it took for the Thunderbolt to reset her sails and come to his rescue in the shark-infested waters. Climbing back on the ship, the...
In 1907 William Turner succeeded Captain Jim Watt as commander of the Lusitania. With Watts’ retirement and endorsement of Turner, Turner was promoted to Commodore of the Cunard Line, and on 16 November 1907 he commanded the Mauretania, the Lusitania‘s sister ship, on her maiden voyage. With the Cunard sisters, Turner set new speed records. The Mau...
“Fairweather” Daniel Dow, then captain of the Lusitania, felt the strain of war get to his nerves, and so Cunard chairman Sir Alfred Booth re-assigned Turner to the Lusitaniafor the ship’s 101st voyage. On 16 April 1915, the Admiralty issued a memo to Captain Turner about zigzagging. This was the text as read at the Mersey Inquiry: Turner would lat...
As captain, Turner was not inclined to socialize with the passengers. He saw socialization as a chore and often let Staff Captain James Anderson handle the passengers. Turner, however, did make an appearance at the first dinner in saloon class and played the part of the host. Anderson informed Turner of the German stowaways, but Turner did not cons...
Turner was called away early from Frohman’s party as a bellboy handed him a radio message from the British Admiralty at 7:52 p.m. It read: “SUBMARINES ACTIVE OFF SOUTH COAST OF IRELAND.” Puzzled by the vagueness of the warning, Turner asked for a repetition and went back to the bridge. The request was tapped out at 7:56 p.m. and minutes later came ...
Captain Turner was on the port side of the bridge when Second Officer Heffordrelayed a message from the crow’s nest: “There is a torpedo coming, sir!” Turner looked up. The torpedo was so close now that he could see the torpedo’s wake on the starboard side from all the way across the ship. Turner took one step towards the bridge when a banging soun...
Hours later, John Roper, a seaman from the Lusitania, picked up by the small steamer Bluebell, spotted in the water the gold officer’s braid Turner was wearing. Roper called to the Bluebell‘s Captain Thompson, “There’s a ship’s officer!” The Bluebell maneuvered to pick Turner up and Thompson offered his sympathy to Turner. Later, a woman (who some ...
Yet, the worst was not over for Captain Turner. When word reached London about the sinking of the Lusitania, First Sea Lord Jacky Fisher said of Turner, “The certainty is absolute that Captain Turner is not a fool, but a knave! It is my profound hope that Captain Turner will be arrested after the inquiry, whatever the outcome.” Lord of the Admiralt...
In November of that year, Turner was assigned to the small freighter Ultonia and sailed her from France to Quebec. While in North America, he took the time to go to New York City to visit his friend Dr. Edwin Sternberger. There, to Sternberger’s surprise, Turner agreed to an interview with the New York Times. He was adamant that nothing could have ...
- 58
- Intestinal cancer
May 7, 2015 · The ship’s captain, William Thomas Turner, believing himself to be the last living person on board, climbed the halyards to keep from being washed away and to remain with his ship to the end....
Mar 10, 2015 · In Dead Wake, the liner's final voyage becomes a tale of two captains. The seasoned 58-year-old Englishman William Thomas Turner faces off with Walther Schwieger, the 32-year-old commander of...
Will Turner was not the only Captain to be so shamefully treated by guilty authorities.In 1945, the American heavy cruiser USS INDIANAPOLIS was lost to a Japanese submarine, with horrendous loss of life. Her commander, Captain Charles B. McVay III, like Turner, survived the sinking.
William Thomas Turner, Captain of the Lusitania, survived the sinking, as did several other prominent figures of the day. Captain Turner remained at his post on the Lusitania throughout its sinking and stayed with the ship until it disappeared beneath the waves
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Captain William Thomas Turner, who commands the Aquitania, is the commodore of the Cunard fleet and a native of Liverpool. He began his career as a deck boy on the Liverpool sailing ship The White Star.
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