Edward J. Smith
Captain, RMS Titanic
A senior White Star master on his intended last crossing. He went down with the ship. Both inquiries examined his speed and ice decisions; neither treated the collision as a mystery.
The 1912 hearings named officers, owners and rescuers more clearly than most steerage families.
The six figures below are those the English-language record still uses to explain command, design, rescue and law.
People
J. Bruce Ismay
Chairman, White Star Line
Survived in a late starboard boat. American papers made him the face of corporate flight. The British court declined to find that he had ordered a reckless speed, but his reputation never recovered.
Thomas Andrews
Harland & Wolff shipbuilder
Led the guarantee group and, by several surviving officers’ accounts, inspected the damage and told the captain the ship would founder. He did not survive. Later writers recast him as the honest designer against the owner.
Arthur Rostron
Captain, RMS Carpathia
Turned his Cunard liner north at once, prepared boats and medical parties, and landed survivors in New York on 18 April. Congress and the British court praised the rescue as the night’s competent counter-example.
William Alden Smith
US senator, inquiry chair
A Michigan Republican who subpoenaed Ismay and officers before they could sail home. His hearings were partisan and sometimes technically shaky, but they created the first public transcript.
Lord Mersey
British Wreck Commissioner
John Bigham, a former judge, ran the London investigation and signed the 30 July 1912 report. Critics said the Board of Trade was investigating itself; the annex remains the standard official narrative.
Steerage names enter the record mainly as list entries. The inquiries were built around officers, owners and the state.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.