You mean the Bridge. Smith closed the doors that led from the wheelhouse and stood at the wheel in Cameron's version. The wheel he was standing at was the one from which Titanic was normally piloted from. It was connected to the bronze telemotor. The telemotor seen on the wreck represents all that is left of that wheel.

The wheel in the front portion of the bridge was known as the "auxiliary wheel". It was linked mechanically to the telemotor. This wheel was mainly used near shore, especially while docking, as was the wheel located on the aft docking bridge.

All that we can say for positive was that the Titanic sank under the command of EJ Smith on that maiden voyage of Titanic to the USA. The Titanic was not properly set sail with lack of binoculars for look out, not carrying the correct color distress rockets, untrained crew members in lifeboat deployment, excessive speed of the Titanic on that moonless night. The evacuation was passengers to the life rafts was poorly conducted and carried out. The simple fact that almost twice as many more could have survived had the lifeboats been properly filled will be the legacy that Captain was rewarded. The only statue ever erected of Capt. Smith was not even in his home town of Hanley Stroke-On-Trent, but only in Beacon Park, Lichfield and then it never mentions in any inscription in the box that he was the captain of the Titanic. This was only later added above the bronze plaque. Smith may have sealed his own doom in 1907 when he was quoted in saying,
""When anyone asks me how I can best describe my experience in nearly forty years at sea, I merely say, uneventful. Of course there have been winter gales, and storms and fog and the like. But in all my experience, I have never been in any accident… or any sort worth speaking about. I have seen but one vessel in distress in all of my years at sea. I never saw a wreck and never have been wrecked nor was I ever in any sort of predicament that threatened to end in disaster of any sort."

Edward J. Smith, 1907
Captain, RMS Titanic
That along with sailing in a ship that was boosted in name as to be unsinkable by God himself was flying in the face of God Almighty.

It seems that wherever Smith's legacy stands, he will always be remembered as a man whose achievements were overshadowed by the very vessel he ended her maiden cruise with great loss of life.

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Thats true. The entire disaster could have been avoided, and there are so many what-if's. It was a period of time that consisted of alot of arrogance, and it got the best of them so speak. Man thought he was on top of the world, and the Titanic diaster brought him back down crashing. As survivor Jack B. Thayer once said:

"There was peace and the world had an even tenor to it's way. Nothing was revealed in the morning the trend of which was not known the night before. It seems to me that the disaster about to occur was the event that not only made the world rub it's eyes and awake but woke it with a start keeping it moving at a rapidly accelerating pace ever since with less and less peace, satisfaction and happiness. To my mind the world of today awoke April 15th, 1912." Jack B. Thayer, Titanic Survivor.

Well t state the obvious he died. Know how exactly we will never really know as no corpse was ever recovered from the site. I would have to summise he drowned after performing some heroic act. And like all good victorian sea captains he went down with the ship.

He died most likley drowned, along with the other 1500 + souls
that fateful night. Just what happend no one will ever know for sure. That is the stuff of legend and the minds of the movie makers who can make you believe anything.

Actually, not many people drowned in the Titanic disaster. Most suffered hypothermia in the 28-30 degree waters. And the fact that it's salty water, makes the temperature feel colder. An average person would only last a few minutes in such cold waters. Even a strong swimmer wouldn't last long.

I'm not saying Captain Smith didn't drown. He may have, but I wanted to point out that most of the Titanic victims didn't drown.

I've gotta stop now. This is a subject that really bothers me to talk (or type) about.

May they all rest in peace!

Yes, almost everyone who perished died because they froze to death. Totally the reverse scenerio when only 30 died on Titanic's younger sister ship Britannic when she sank near the island of Kea in the Aegean Sea. The water was warm that day, and the only reason 30 passengers died was because a lifeboat was launched without permission. They were unfortunately chopped up by the still turning propellers now starting to stick out of the water as Captain Bartlett tried to beach Britannic.

The passengers on the Lusitania suffered a similar fate in the cold waters of the Irish sea. She sank in 18 minutes with hundreds on her deck and hundreds still inside with no way to get out. A total 1,195 passengers died out of 2,198. Most on the deck died of freezing in the water. Others were actually sucked down with it and were either crushed from the pressure or drowned. Again, most froze.

I just remembered it was the same case with the Empress Of Ireland and the St. Lawrence River when it sank. This time everyone who had been inside died and everyone on deck either froze or found something to float on. Some used the lifeboats that had floated off and hadn't gone down with the ship.