@edgarblythe,
Sir Cosmo Edmund Duff-Gordon, 5th Baronet - prominent Scottish landowner and sportsman, best known for the controversy surrounding his escape from the sinking of the RMS Titanic.
I am sure this is well known, but I never knew it. It was probably in the movie?
Quote:Wikipedia
Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon is best known for the circumstances in which he survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, along with his wife and her secretary, Laura Mabel Francatelli. Sir Cosmo and his wife had cabin A16 in the First Class quarters on the Titanic.
The three were among only 12 people who escaped in Lifeboat #1, which had a capacity of 40. The ladies had earlier turned down places in two other lifeboats for women and children because Lady Duff-Gordon refused to be separated from her husband.
Duff-Gordon was a witness at the inquiry into the sinking. He was not "on trial" but received much press criticism which highlighted that he had boarded the lifeboat in violation of the "women and children first" policy and that, once the craft was afloat, he bribed the sailor in charge with a £5 note not to return to rescue people struggling in the water. Other witnesses confirmed that the lifeboat had ample space and that he had indeed given the sailor £5. Duff-Gordon stated that the money was to allow the sailor to buy new clothes. Cosmo denied the allegation that he disobeyed orders, maintaining there had been no women or children in the immediate vicinity when his boat was launched. (There is additional confirmation from other witnesses that First Officer William Murdoch allowed Sir Cosmo a place in the boat so he could join his wife.) Moreover, Sir Cosmo denied his offer of money to the lifeboat's crew was a bribe (although he could not deny passing the money), and the British Board of Trade's inquiry into the disaster accepted his explanation that it was a charitable contribution for crew members who had lost not only their possessions but their jobs.
The inquiry nonetheless concluded that, if the lifeboat had returned to the wreck site, it might have been able to rescue others (the lifeboat had official space for 28 additional persons). Regarding the bribery allegation the report stated: “The very gross charge against Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon that, having got into No. 1 boat he bribed the men in it to row away from the drowning people, is unfounded”.
However, Sir Cosmo's reputation was ruined by the press and his life never recovered.
