This has been a revisionist history. Contrary to the “popular story,” the Third Class men on Titanic did not challenge the legitimacy of the ship's authorities during the loading and launching of lifeboats. We have not found one clear-cut case of violence by Third Class men, or for that matter by anyone else, against those in charge. Rather, the Third Class men accepted the rules set out for them. The putative incident testified to by Daniel Buckley involving a steward, which occupies such a large space in Cameron's Titanic, comes the closest to an exception, but there is no independent evidence that it occurred, and even if it did, it only would have been a minor, isolated event between two individuals. Along the same lines, the captain and senior officers were in control of the ship until the bow was literally under. We found no convincing evidence - and there was much evidence pointing to the contrary - of an anarchic rush in the third or fourth phase by Third Class passengers and others coming up from the stern, racing to the forward end and disrupting the launching of the remaining boats on the ship. Nor did we find convincing evidence of anyone being shot in the final moments before the ship broke apart.

Second Officer Charles Lightoller, the erstwhile hero of the “popular story,” turns out to have been the least competent of the three senior officers, unlike the capable figure generally drawn, notably in the film A Night to Remember. Lightoller barely managed to load and launch four boats - Lifeboats 6, 12, 4 and Collapsible D - in an hour and a half, at less on average than fifty percent capacity at that, even though virtually his sole responsibility was to load and launch the port-side boats. In the most egregious case, Lifeboat 4, which Lightoller took charge of at about 12:15, the boat did not finally depart the ship until 1:55. This evaluation of Lightoller's performance was shared by at least one member of the Mersey Commission, Thomas Scanlan, the representative of the National Sailors’ and Firemen's Union of Great Britain and Ireland.