Key facts about Robert Hichens
- Hichens was an experienced seaman serving as one of Titanic’s six quartermasters.
- He was at the wheel when the lookout warning reached the bridge and Murdoch ordered hard-a-starboard.
- Traditional helm language described the tiller direction, so the order can sound backwards to modern readers.
- Hichens followed the officer’s order and did not independently choose Titanic’s manoeuvre.
- He was relieved at about 12:23 a.m. and sent to assist with the lifeboats.
- Lightoller placed him in charge of Lifeboat 6, which left the port side badly underfilled.
- He opposed returning toward the wreck area, while accounts differed about exact words, reasons and whether passengers formally demanded a return.
- His later criminal conviction was real but should not be used to retroactively prove every disputed Titanic allegation.
Robert Hichens: wheel, Lifeboat 6 and later-life timeline
The sequence separates his two Titanic roles and prevents the lifeboat controversy from being projected backward onto the collision.
| Date or stage | What happened | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| September 16, 1882 | Robert Hichens was born in Newlyn, Cornwall. | He entered a maritime community and developed experience on several types of vessel. |
| Before 1912 | He worked at sea and qualified for quartermaster duties. | Quartermasters steered under officers’ commands and could be assigned to lifeboats. |
| April 1912 | Hichens joined Titanic as one of six quartermasters. | His job did not make him a navigating officer or decision-maker on speed and course. |
| April 14, 10 p.m. | He began a bridge wheel watch. | He was therefore at the helm when the iceberg warning came from the crow’s nest. |
| About 11:40 p.m. | Murdoch gave the order hard-a-starboard and Hichens put the helm over. | His British testimony said the ship had begun swinging before the iceberg struck. |
| After the collision | Hichens remained at the wheel while officers assessed the situation. | He did not immediately leave the bridge or take independent emergency action. |
| About 12:23 a.m. | Quartermaster Walter Perkis relieved him. | Hichens was then sent to help prepare and launch boats. |
| Lifeboat 6 loading | Lightoller placed Hichens in charge of the port-side boat. | No deck officer went with the boat, making the quartermaster the senior crew authority aboard. |
| After lowering | Boat 6 was told to pull toward a distant light. | Hichens later described following that order, although the light was never reached. |
| After the sinking | Occupants discussed whether to return. | Hichens opposed going back because of danger from suction, wreckage or being overwhelmed. |
| Night in Boat 6 | Women rowed, Arthur Peuchen assisted and tensions developed over direction and morale. | This is the source of his enduring conflict with the Molly Brown story. |
| April and May 1912 | Hichens testified at the United States and British inquiries. | His sworn evidence can be compared directly with passenger and crew testimony. |
| First World War and after | He returned to maritime service and later faced financial and personal difficulties. | His post-Titanic life was unstable and included work at sea. |
| 1933 to 1937 | He was convicted after a violent incident and served a prison sentence. | The conviction belongs to his biography but is separate evidence from the events of 1912. |
| September 23, 1940 | Hichens died aboard the cargo ship English Trader. | Popular culture continued to remember him mainly through Lifeboat 6. |
Times are based on Hichens’s testimony and broader bridge chronology. Exact minute-by-minute reconstructions can vary.
Robert Hichens: allegation, testimony and safest conclusion
The strongest history neither excuses every decision nor treats film dialogue as settled evidence.
| Popular claim | Verdict | What the evidence shows |
|---|---|---|
| Hichens turned Titanic toward the iceberg by mistake. | False | He followed the hard-a-starboard order under the helm language then in use. The bridge officers chose the manoeuvre. |
| He caused the collision. | False | Hichens did not set the speed, choose the course, decide when to turn or control the engine orders. |
| He was an officer commanding the bridge. | False | He was a quartermaster and helmsman working under the officer of the watch. |
| Molly Brown officially took command of Lifeboat 6. | False | Hichens remained the crew member formally placed in charge, although women rowed and challenged his attitude or decisions. |
| Every passenger agreed that he used the same cruel words. | False | Accounts share a pattern of conflict and pessimism but differ in wording, timing and emphasis. |
| He was proved drunk in Lifeboat 6. | Not supported | The inquiry evidence did not establish drunkenness. Later portrayals sometimes add this detail. |
| His later conviction proves the harshest Titanic stories. | False reasoning | A later crime is relevant biography but does not independently verify disputed statements from Lifeboat 6. |
The safest conclusion is that Hichens resisted returning and that serious tension existed, while exact dialogue remains disputed.
Lifeboat 6 evidence by witness
Different witnesses saw the same boat from different roles and positions.
| Witness | Position in the boat | What the evidence contributes |
|---|---|---|
| Robert Hichens | Quartermaster placed in charge | His orders, distant-light account, reasons for not returning and estimate of the boat’s occupants. |
| Frederick Fleet | Lookout and crew member | Confirmed that Hichens took charge and described the crew composition of the boat. |
| Arthur Peuchen | First-class passenger and experienced yachtsman | Described entering by a fall, rowing and criticism of Hichens’s behaviour. |
| Margaret Brown | First-class passenger | Later accounts emphasized rowing, morale and conflict over returning. |
| Elsie Bowerman and other women | Passengers who rowed or observed | Supported the broader picture of women taking active roles during the night. |
No single witness observed every exchange. Later retellings should identify whose version they are using.
A Cornish seaman and Titanic quartermaster
Robert Hichens came from Newlyn, Cornwall, and went to sea as a young man. Before Titanic he worked on mail ships, liners and other vessels. His experience qualified him for quartermaster duty, which included steering, lookout-related work and practical deck responsibilities.
Titanic carried six quartermasters. They were skilled seamen but not navigating officers. On the bridge a quartermaster moved the wheel in response to an officer’s order. He did not independently select the course or decide how the ship should avoid danger.
What Hichens did when the iceberg was sighted
Hichens began the 10 p.m. wheel watch on April 14. When Frederick Fleet’s warning reached the bridge, First Officer William Murdoch ordered hard-a-starboard. Hichens put the wheel over. In British testimony he said the ship had swung about two points before the collision.
The traditional order can confuse modern readers. It referred to the direction the tiller would move, producing a turn of the bow in the opposite direction. The order was not evidence that Hichens misunderstood the bridge or steered the bow deliberately toward the iceberg.
Responsibility for speed, course and manoeuvre
Hichens did not choose Titanic’s speed, the northern Atlantic route, the response to ice warnings or the moment at which the turn began. Those decisions belonged to the captain and navigating officers. He also did not control Murdoch’s engine order or any later attempt to swing the stern clear.
Calling him the man who caused the collision mistakes the physical act of turning a wheel for authority over navigation. His testimony remains important because he was present at the helm, but presence is not the same as command responsibility.
From the bridge to the lifeboats
Hichens remained at the wheel after the impact until Quartermaster Walter Perkis relieved him at about 12:23 a.m. He was then directed to help with lifeboats on the port side. His move from bridge witness to boat crew links two otherwise separate parts of the disaster.
Quartermasters were natural candidates to steer or manage open boats. Lightoller placed Hichens in Lifeboat 6, which had been swung out and loaded with women, two male passengers and crew members.
Why Hichens was placed in charge of Lifeboat 6
No deck officer accompanied Boat 6. As the quartermaster assigned by Lightoller, Hichens was the formal crew authority. Frederick Fleet went as another seaman, while Arthur Peuchen entered to help because the boat needed additional rowing strength.
The boat left with many empty seats. The exact number aboard is disputed, with modern reconstructions generally placing it in the low twenties. Hichens gave a much higher estimate at the American inquiry. The disagreement shows why a sworn answer is evidence, not automatic proof.
The distant light and the boat’s direction
Hichens testified that the boat was ordered to pull toward a light in the distance. Similar lights were mentioned by other survivors, although their identity remains debated. Boat 6 never reached it and later changed its relationship to the other lifeboats as dawn approached.
The distant-light episode matters because Hichens framed his actions as obedience to an order rather than simply rowing away without purpose. Passengers, however, were more concerned with the cries behind them and the possibility of returning.
The argument over returning to the wreck
After Titanic sank, people in the water could be heard. Hichens opposed taking Boat 6 back, citing dangers that included suction, wreckage and the risk of desperate swimmers overwhelming the boat. Passenger accounts remembered his pessimism and resistance more harshly.
The evidence supports real conflict. Women rowed and did not simply sit passively. Peuchen and later Brown accounts criticized Hichens. What remains less certain is the exact sequence of every demand, threat and quotation. Hichens denied parts of the accusations when questioned.
Molly Brown, film and the creation of a villain
Margaret Brown became one of Titanic’s most famous survivors, and later stage and film stories built a clear dramatic contrast between her energy and Hichens’s fear. This made an effective scene but compressed several witnesses and uncertain exchanges into a simple contest for command.
Brown’s broader role in rowing and maintaining morale is credible. Boat 6 did not return to the main wreckage field, and Hichens resisted the idea. The stronger history does not need invented physical threats, drunkenness or a formal takeover to show the disagreement.
What the inquiries establish
Hichens testified in both the United States and Britain. His evidence covered his wheel watch, the helm order, the time he was relieved, the loading of Boat 6, the distant light and his account of the return discussion. Fleet and Peuchen supplied important points of comparison.
Inquiry testimony was recorded close to the disaster and under questioning, making it a central source. It still contains memory errors, estimates and self-defence. The correct method is comparison, not choosing one witness and ignoring the rest.
Later life, imprisonment and death
Hichens returned to maritime work and served during the First World War. His later years included business failure, family separation and severe financial difficulty. In the 1930s he was convicted after a violent incident involving a man with whom he had a dispute and served time in prison.
He returned to sea and died aboard English Trader in 1940. The conviction is an important part of his biography, but using it as proof that every Lifeboat 6 allegation must be true is poor historical reasoning. Events separated by two decades require their own evidence.
The most balanced conclusion about Robert Hichens
At the wheel, Hichens was a helmsman obeying orders and should not be blamed as the navigator who caused the collision. In Lifeboat 6, he held formal authority and appears to have been pessimistic, resistant to returning and in conflict with passengers who rowed.
Those conclusions can stand together. A careful biography does not need to turn him into either an innocent hero or a one-dimensional villain. It can distinguish responsibility, acknowledge contested behaviour and keep uncertainty visible.
Sources used for this biography
Inquiry testimony is the foundation for the collision and Lifeboat 6. Specialist biography research is used for his maritime career and later life.
- Robert Hichens testimony, United States inquiry Wheel duty, relief, Lifeboat 6 assignment and early boat account.
- Robert Hichens testimony, United States inquiry continued Distant light, cries, return debate and boat occupancy.
- Robert Hichens testimony, British inquiry Primary evidence on the helm order and collision turn.
- Frederick Fleet testimony, United States inquiry Fleet’s evidence that Hichens took charge of Lifeboat 6.
- Arthur Peuchen testimony, United States inquiry Passenger account of Lifeboat 6, rowing and Hichens’s conduct.
- Robert Hichens, Encyclopedia Titanica Specialist biography, family, maritime work, imprisonment and death.
- TitanicSurvivors.com Lifeboat 6 guide Qualified roster and comparison of testimony about the return debate.
Continue through the collision and Lifeboat 6 evidence
Frequently asked questions
Was Robert Hichens steering Titanic when it hit the iceberg?
Yes. He was the quartermaster at the wheel and carried out Murdoch’s hard-a-starboard helm order.
Did Robert Hichens cause the Titanic collision?
No. He did not choose the ship’s speed, course, turn timing or engine orders. He executed the navigating officer’s command.
Why does hard-a-starboard sound like the wrong direction?
Traditional helm orders described tiller movement, which turned the ship’s bow in the opposite direction.
Which lifeboat carried Robert Hichens?
Second Officer Charles Lightoller placed him in charge of Lifeboat 6.
Did Robert Hichens refuse to return for survivors?
He opposed returning toward the wreck area. Witnesses differed about the exact discussion, reasons and words used.
Did Molly Brown take command of Lifeboat 6?
No formal transfer of command occurred. Brown and other women rowed and challenged Hichens’s attitude or decisions.
Was Robert Hichens drunk in the lifeboat?
The official inquiry evidence did not establish that he was drunk.
Was Robert Hichens later sent to prison?
Yes. He was convicted after a violent incident in the 1930s and served a prison sentence.
When did Robert Hichens die?
He died aboard the cargo ship English Trader on September 23, 1940.