# Joseph Boxhall

Commander Joseph Groves Boxhall RD, RNR (23 March 1884 – 25 April 1967) was a British sailor who was the fourth officer on the RMS Titanic, and later served as a naval officer in World War I. Boxhall was the last surviving former officer of the RMS Titanic.

## Early life

Boxhall was born in Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, the second child of Miriam and Captain Joseph Boxhall. He was born into an established seafaring tradition: His grandfather had been a mariner, his uncle was a Trinity House buoymaster and Board of Trade official, and his father was a respected master with the Wilson Line of Hull.
Boxhall followed in the footsteps of his ancestors on 2 June 1899, when he joined his first ship, a barque of the William Thomas Line of Liverpool. Boxhall's apprenticeship lasted four years, during which time he travelled extensively. He then went to work with his father at Wilson Line, and obtained his Master's and Extra-Master's certifications in September 1907, giving him the highest marine certificate of any officer aboard Titanic. Afterwards, he joined the White Star Line. On 1 October 1911, he was confirmed as a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve. He served on White Star's liners RMS Oceanic and Arabic before moving to Titanic as Fourth Officer in 1912; he was then 28 years old.

## RMS Titanic

Like the ship's other junior officers, Boxhall reported to White Star's Liverpool offices at nine o'clock in the morning on 26 March 1912, and travelled to board the ship at Belfast the following day. Before the RMS Titanic departed Southampton on 10 April, Boxhall assisted with the ship's brief lifeboat test. Following that, he settled into his regular duties; these included scheduled watches, aiding in navigation, and assisting passengers and crew when necessary. On the evening of 14 April, Boxhall began his last watch at 8:00 PM, set to last until midnight, and spent "a great deal of time in the chartroom, evaluating previous navigational data and stellar fixes from Third Officer [Herbert] Pitman." He updated Titanic's position and reported the information to Captain Smith. He updated the ship's position once again at 10:00, incorrectly determining that any ice was to the north of the ship.
When Titanic collided with an iceberg at 11:40 pm on 14 April, Officer Boxhall was on duty but was not on the bridge. At the two inquiries held into the sinking in 1912 he stated he was standing on the boat deck just outside the officers' quarters. However, in his 1962 BBC interview he stated that he was in his cabin, having gone there to make tea. Hearing the lookout bell, he headed immediately to the bridge, arriving just after the impact. Captain Smith, who had also just arrived on the bridge, assessed the situation as best he could while the senior officers gathered in the bridge. Boxhall went off to inspect the damage and on his way down he came across passengers on the forward well-deck playing with ice. He went as far as F-Deck and found no damage, but was later intercepted by the ship's carpenter, John Hutchinson, who informed him that the ship was taking water, which was later confirmed by a mail clerk to Boxhall and Captain Smith. On the return trips up, he also noticed light ice scattered across the forward well deck.
Officer Boxhall sighted lights in the distance, possibly the masthead light of the cargo steamer SS Californian, and attempted in vain to signal by using the morse lamp located atop Titanic's starboard bridge wing cab. Boxhall once again charted Titanic's position so that a distress signal could be sent out, incorrectly finding it as 41° 46' N, 50° 14' W. He assisted in firing eight distress rockets from the starboard bridge wing in an attempt to signal to the distant ship, though that task also proved fruitless. After asking Captain Smith about Titanic’s condition, he was told that she would sink in about an hour.
Officer Boxhall was placed in charge of lifeboat No. 2, which was lowered from the port side at 1:45 am with 18 persons aboard out of a possible 40. Despite being ordered to pull towards the starboard aft gangway doors, the lifeboat rowed away from the ship for fear of being pulled down by suction. Boxhall did not actually see Titanic founder, as her lights had gone out and his lifeboat was about 3⁄4 nautical mile (1.5 kilometres) distant. Boxhall spotted the RMS Carpathia on the horizon around 4:00 am and guided her towards Titanic's lifeboats with a green flare. As Carpathia pulled alongside the lifeboat, a passenger in the boat named Mrs. Brown, called out "Titanic has gone down with everyone aboard!" Boxhall quickly replied with "Shut up, lady!" Boxhall later apologised for his outburst, but both Boxhall and Brown agreed that it was acceptable, given the circumstances they had just endured and their current conditions.
After arriving in New York on April 28, he was examined by a doctor and was excused from testifying in the American inquiry into the sinking, but nonetheless he testified about a week later. He and his fellow surviving officers were allowed to leave New York on the Adriatic on 2 May. After returning to England, Boxhall bore witness again, this time at the British inquiry. Much of his testimony concerned details of the lifeboat lowerings and Titanic's navigation, including the many ice warnings. He was also the first person to testify that he saw another vessel in proximity while Titanic sank.

## Later years and death

Following the Titanic disaster, Boxhall briefly served as Fourth Officer on White Star's Adriatic. He was promoted to lieutenant in the RNR on 27 May 1915. During the First World War, he was commissioned to serve for one year aboard the battleship HMS Commonwealth before being dispatched to Gibraltar, where he commanded a torpedo boat.
Boxhall returned to White Star following the war in May 1919, having married Marjory Beddells two months prior. On 27 May 1923, he was promoted to lieutenant-commander in the RNR. He signed on as second officer on board RMS Olympic – the lead ship of the three Olympic-class vessels which Titanic was the second ship constructed – on 30 June 1926. After the White Star-Cunard merger in 1933, he served in senior capacity as First and later Chief Officer of the RMS Aquitania, although he was never made a captain in the merchant marine. He also served as First Officer on SS Berengeria and as Chief Officer on RMS Scythia.
After 41 years at sea, Boxhall retired in 1940. Boxhall was a generally taciturn and quiet man, usually reluctant to speak about his experiences on Titanic. However, in 1957, he acted as a technical advisor for the film adaptation of Walter Lord's historical account, A Night to Remember—later to attend the film's worldwide premiere in Odeon Leicester Square alongside Third Officer Pitman—and also gave a BBC interview in 1962.
His health deteriorated rapidly in the 1960s, and he was eventually hospitalised. The last surviving deck officer of Titanic, Boxhall died of cerebral thrombosis on 25 April 1967 at the age of 83. His body was cremated and according to his last wishes, his ashes were scattered to sea at 41°46N 50°14W—the position he had calculated as Titanic's final resting place over 50 years earlier.
He is commemorated with a green plaque located at his former home at The Avenues, Kingston upon Hull.

## Portrayals

* Jack Watling (1958) (A Night to Remember) Boxhall himself acted as a technical consultant to the film's writers and set designers.
* Warren Clarke (1979) (S.O.S. Titanic) (TV movie)
* Gerard Plunkett (1996) (Titanic) (TV miniseries) Boxhall is inaccurately portrayed as going down with the ship (due to his character being merged with that of Sixth Officer James Moody.)
* Simon Crane (1997) (Titanic) Boxhall appears in scenes such as on the bridge and being ordered by Captain Smith to put the ship's engines to a stop following the collision. He's also in charge of firing the flares and lifeboat No. 2. Boxhall only has two lines which occurs in the scenes: "Aye-aye, sir!" on the bridge and "Bloody pull faster and pull!" when he orders lifeboat No. 2 to row away from Titanic's stern, which rises dangerously behind him.
* Glen McDougal (1998) (Titanic: Secrets Revealed) (TV documentary)
* Emmett James (1999) (The Titanic Chronicles) (TV documentary; voice only)
* Cian Barry (2012) (Titanic) (TV miniseries)