<Dl> <Dd> Captain Smith was the biggest hero I ever saw . He stood on the bridge and shouted through a megaphone, trying to make himself heard . </Dd> </Dl> <Dd> Captain Smith was the biggest hero I ever saw . He stood on the bridge and shouted through a megaphone, trying to make himself heard . </Dd> <P> Just minutes before the ship started its final plunge, Smith was still busy releasing Titanic's crew from their duties; he went to the Marconi operators room and released Junior Marconi Officer Harold Bride and senior wireless operator John "Jack" Phillips from their duties . He then carried out a final tour of the deck, telling crew members: "Now it's every man for himself ." At 2: 10 a.m., Steward Edward Brown saw the captain approach with a megaphone in his hand . He heard him say "Well boys, do your best for the women and children, and look out for yourselves ." He saw the Captain walk onto the bridge alone . This was the last reliable sighting of Smith . A few minutes later Trimmer Samuel Hemming found the bridge apparently empty . Five minutes later, the ship disappeared beneath the ocean . Smith perished that night along with around 1,500 others, and his body was never recovered . </P> <P> There are conflicting accounts of Smith's death . Some survivors said they saw Smith enter the ship's wheelhouse on the bridge, and die there when it was engulfed . The New York Herald in its 19 April 1912 edition quoted Robert Williams Daniel, who jumped from the stern immediately before the ship sank, in its 19 April 1912 edition as have claimed to have witnessed Captain Smith drown in the ship's wheelhouse . "I saw Captain Smith on the bridge . My eyes seemingly clung to him . The deck from which I had leapt was immersed . The water had risen slowly, and was now to the floor of the bridge . Then it was to Captain Smith's waist . I saw him no more . He died a hero ." Captain Smith himself made statements hinting that he would go down with his ship if he was ever confronted with a disaster . A friend of Smith's, Dr. Williams, asked Captain Smith what would happen if the Adriatic struck a concealed reef of ice and was badly damaged . "Some of us would go to the bottom with the ship," was Smith's reply . A boyhood friend, William Jones said, "Ted Smith passed away just as he would have loved to do . To stand on the bridge of his vessel and go down with her was characteristic of all his actions when we were boys together ." Because of these factors as well as the accounts of Smith going inside the wheelhouse, this has remained the iconic image which has remained of Smith and has been perpetuated by film portrayals . </P>

Did captain of titanic go down with ship