my reading over the years gives the distinct impression that Ismay was the one that wanted a record. tough having the boss right there.
also, fleet initially said in the lifeboat that he called and called and they didn’t answer, and hitchens asked who the OOW was (implying he never saw him) - this is interesting in light of the claim made in his grandaughter(or ggrandaughters) book that murdoch was passed out and therefore didn’t answer the call from fleet.
the book about hitchens is interesting.
obviously barring something very unexpected surfacing, all we have is speculation at this point. I don’t think anything will surface beyond what already has.
but just assume murdoch was negligent and passed out and thus the call from fleet wasn’t answered promptly - (officers had been reportedly partying earlier in the evening) - and he realizes he caused the ship to sink by his actions. what might he do once released from duty? it puts the persistent reports that he shot himself in a different light, as far as motive.
When you listen to “Titanic Text Messages - A Streaming Log of Distress Messages” you will see that it took a long time for other ships to acknowledge that Titanic was sinking despite her frantic calls of “require immediate assistance struck by iceberg at 41.40N 50.14W”.
Thanks for fixing that point for me. It was a key that I was not correct on.