Captain Smith, the helmsman, misunderstood the order and caused the shipwreck of the century. Lettler was the second mate and the highest surviving crew on the Titanic. Louise Barton said that her grandfather Lettler had twice been investigated by the British and American official investigation teams on the cause of the sinking, but he deliberately concealed the truth that Hitchcock, the helmsman of Titanic, had misheard the order to turn the wrong rudder, because he was worried that the exposure of the truth would bankrupt his boss, White Star Shipping Company, thus making all his colleagues in the company unemployed! The misunderstood instruction Louise Parton revealed in her new book that the helmsman Hitchcock made a low-level mistake of "turning the wrong rudder" because the navigation industry was undergoing great changes in 19 12, when the navigation industry was changing from the navigation era to the steamboat era. This great change has produced two completely different steering systems and steering instructions. In the past, sailing ships used ancient "rudder orders", while advanced steam ships used more modern "rudder orders". Some crew members on the Titanic are familiar with "rudder command", while others are more familiar with advanced "rudder command". But most importantly, the instruction meanings of these two steering systems are sometimes completely opposite! For example, a "full right rudder" command means turning the bow to the right in the "tiller command" of a sailboat, but in the "rudder command" of a steamboat at that time, this command means controlling the boat to turn left. When William Murdoch, the first mate of Titanic, found an iceberg two miles away, he immediately gave the helmsman Robert Hitchcock the order of "starboard full rudder". If Hitchcock follows the instructions correctly, Titanic will have enough time to avoid the oncoming iceberg! However, in his panic, Hitchcock misunderstood Murdoch's instructions and turned the wrong rudder! He didn't turn the bow to the left as ordered, but to the right! Although the first mate Murdoch found Hitchcock's mistake and ordered him to correct it immediately, it was too late. A worse mistake When the Titanic began to sink, four senior crew members, including Lettler, held the last emergency meeting in the cabin of the first mate. It was at that time that Lettler learned that the helmsman Hitchens had made a fatal mistake in turning the wrong rudder, and Lettler had to learn another "worse" low-level mistake! It is reported that when the Titanic hit an iceberg, Bruce Ismay, the owner of the Titanic and the chairman of White Star Shipping Company, persuaded Captain Smith to continue sailing, so the Titanic continued to sail slowly in the Atlantic Ocean 10 minute! This kind of wrong behavior led to the seawater rushing into the cabin through the damaged hull, which greatly accelerated the sinking speed of the cruise ship! Ismail later escaped the shipwreck by lifeboat, and he was also called one of the "biggest cowards" in history by London society. Barton said: "Ismail insisted on letting Titanic sail, no doubt because he was worried that he would lose his investment and damage the company's reputation.