as a captain of a small passenger vessel. I like many people have an intrest in the events of this famous night, yes there are many errors made that contibute to this fatel event. Many thing we know now about handling large powered vessels were not know then . But i feel as captian mrs smiths obviously has to shoulder the blame but the real crime was ordering full astern on all engines by the first officer was the fatel mistake up to that point all previous mistakes would not have mattered. but taking this action he deprived himself and the ship from all control Rudders on ships of this size arnt big enough to steer a vessel purley on their forward motion through the water they need consitrated water flow generated from the propellors to become effective.
Captain Pearce