Key points to know
- Walter Perkis was a quartermaster, one of the experienced deck crew members who could steer the ship and handle lifeboats.
- He was off duty at the collision and did not feel the impact, but turned out after the ship's joiner warned the sleeping men.
- He slid down a line into Lifeboat 4 after a sailor called for another experienced hand and then took charge.
- Perkis estimated about 42 people were in the boat when it left and said it later picked up eight men from the water.
- Lifeboat 4 is therefore one of the boats that directly rescued swimmers, even though Boat 14 made the best-known organized return search.
Early life and maritime work
Walter John Perkis was born in Ryde on the Isle of Wight on August 11, 1874. He came from a coastal community with strong maritime connections and built a long working life at sea. By 1912 he was living in Southampton, the home port for many White Star Line crew members.
Perkis joined Titanic as one of the ship's quartermasters. The position required practical seamanship rather than ceremonial status. Quartermasters took turns at the wheel, handled signals and gangways, assisted with boats and carried out orders from the deck officers. Their experience became crucial once the ordinary watch system turned into an evacuation.
What a Titanic quartermaster did
Titanic carried several quartermasters so the bridge and wheel could be staffed around the clock. They were senior members of the deck crew, trusted with steering and other duties that demanded accuracy. Walter Perkis had served on other White Star ships and was familiar with the routines of a large liner.
At the time of the collision he was off duty. He later told the United States Senate inquiry that he did not feel the impact. The ship's joiner came to the sleeping quarters and said the vessel had struck something. Perkis remained below until it was nearly time for the midnight relief, then went on deck and joined the emergency work.
Why Lifeboat 4 was launched late
Lifeboat 4 was a standard wooden boat rated for sixty-five people. It was swung out on the forward port side, but the plan to load it from the promenade level caused delay. Titanic's forward first class promenade was partly enclosed by windows, making it difficult to bring the boat alongside and board in the way officers expected.
The boat eventually returned to the Boat Deck area and was loaded mostly with women and children from first and second class. Madeleine Astor, Marian Thayer, Eleanor Widener and Emily Richards were among the passengers associated with it. Estimates of the number at launch vary. Perkis later said there were about forty-two people in all when the boat got away.
Perkis slid down a line into the boat
Perkis helped lower Lifeboat 4 but was not initially inside it. After walking aft, he heard a sailor in the boat call that another hand was needed. The hull was already far below the Boat Deck as Titanic settled. Perkis slid down a line from the davit into the boat, a descent he estimated at more than seventy feet.
Once aboard, he took charge. Only three sailors, including Perkis, had left the ship in the boat according to his evidence. That small working crew had to keep the boat clear of the hull, organize the passengers and decide how close to remain as the liner's stern rose higher.
Lifeboat 4 picked up eight swimmers
Perkis said Lifeboat 4 was about a ship's length away when it began picking up men who had reached the water wearing life preservers. He counted eight. The group included crew members who had escaped during the final stage of the sinking. Their names are reconstructed from several accounts, and specialist lists differ slightly over exactly who reached the boat and when.
Two of the rescued men died in the boat from the effects of the freezing water. Perkis identified them in general terms as a fireman and a steward. The surviving swimmers included men such as Frank Prentice, Samuel Hemming, Andrew Cunningham and Frederick Scott. Their rescue makes Lifeboat 4 an important correction to the simplified claim that every boat rowed away and did nothing.
How close was Lifeboat 4 when Titanic sank?
Perkis estimated that the boat was about six ship lengths away when he saw Titanic disappear. He said he felt no suction. Distances given after a disaster at night are approximate, but his evidence places Lifeboat 4 closer than many boats and helps explain why it could hear and locate swimmers soon after the final plunge.
The boat remained in the area until the cries had faded. Perkis told the inquiry that after the final man was found he could hear no more calls. The passengers and crew then waited for daylight and the lights of Carpathia. Later, Lifeboat 4 also helped receive people transferred from other craft during the rescue operation.
Inquiry evidence and the limits of exact counts
Perkis testified in the United States and gave a direct, restrained account. He did not dramatize the collision, claimed the discipline was excellent and described the crew as carrying out duties calmly. His plain answers are valuable because they record what a working seaman believed he did without trying to turn the episode into a heroic performance.
His total of about forty-two at launch differs from some modern estimates closer to thirty. The difference may come from memory, transfers or uncertainty about whether the count included people later picked up. A careful history should preserve that disagreement rather than state one passenger list as beyond question.
Later life and death
Perkis returned to sea after Titanic and remained connected to Southampton's maritime community. His family also had ties to other crew members, including fellow quartermaster Alfred Olliver through marriage. Like many working crew survivors, he lived most of his later life outside the celebrity that surrounded a few famous passengers and officers.
He died in Southampton on September 21, 1940. His testimony remains his strongest memorial. It records a quartermaster who joined a late lifeboat, took command and helped save men from water cold enough to kill within minutes.
Why Walter Perkis deserves a full biography
Walter Perkis shows that the rescue did not begin only when Carpathia arrived. It began in small boats where sailors listened for voices, pulled exhausted men over the gunwale and tried to keep people alive until dawn. Lifeboat 4 could not rescue everyone nearby, but the people it did reach had almost no other chance.
His story also demonstrates why lifeboat history needs boat-by-boat evidence. Boat 1, Boat 4, Boat 14, Collapsible A and Collapsible B each faced different conditions. Treating every boat as if it made the same choices erases the actions of crew members such as Perkis.
Sources used for this biography
Perkis's United States inquiry testimony supplies the central evidence for his actions, count and rescue of swimmers.
- Walter Perkis testimony, United States Senate inquiry Primary account of his duties, descent into Lifeboat 4, estimated count, rescue of eight swimmers and view of the sinking.
- Walter John Perkis, Encyclopedia Titanica Specialist biographical record for his family, White Star career and later life.
- Titanic Lifeboat 4, Encyclopedia Titanica Boat history, passenger reconstruction and the crew members pulled from the water.
- Titanic lifeboat directory Comparison of Lifeboat 4 with the other nineteen boats.
- TitanicSurvivors.com research guide How the site presents conflicting counts and testimony.
Continue through the Lifeboat 4 rescue
Frequently asked questions
Who was Walter Perkis?
Walter John Perkis was a Titanic quartermaster who took charge of Lifeboat 4 after it was lowered.
How many people were in Lifeboat 4?
Perkis estimated about forty-two people when it left, while some modern reconstructions give a lower launch count. The exact figure remains uncertain.
How many people did Lifeboat 4 pull from the water?
Perkis testified that the boat picked up eight men. Two died in the boat from the effects of cold exposure.
Did Lifeboat 4 return after Titanic sank?
It remained close enough to pick up swimmers soon after the sinking. It was not the same kind of organized delayed return made by Harold Lowe in Boat 14.
What happened to Walter Perkis later?
He returned to maritime work, lived in Southampton and died in 1940.