The Titanic’s Last Hero

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How do you do? This is Lowell Lytle. I have an unusual story to tell you.

I was home minding my own business way back in 1987. I heard about the Titanic. They've discovered it.

And when do you know? I got a phone call from the designer that was building an exhibit, Orlando, on the Titanic. He called me. He said, Lowell, we've gone through 350 actors here in Orlando.

Can't find a captain. He said, I told these men I know someone that can play that part. He's my next door neighbor. I used to be a lead singer in one of my rock and roll bands.

I had eight bands for 22 years touring the United States and Canada. And I went over there on a hook just to see what was all about. And he opened the door and there was six men sitting around the table. And he said, gentlemen, here's Captain Smith. They took one look at me and they said, yep, you're it. I didn't know what the captain looked like, but an hour later I went through that souvenir shop and I saw the front page of the New York Times, 1912, picture of Captain Smith looking right at me. And my first thought was my neighbor has taken my picture and pasted it on the front page of the New York Times.

He shouldn't do that. That's wrong. Well, I was there for about two years and then I heard they were going to dive to the Titanic. And I thought, oh, that would be nice if I could do that. So I called them and they said, no, I waited two weeks and I called them again and I said, I'd like to go down to the Titanic. And they said, no, no, that's for archeologists and important people, wealthy people, people have climbed Mount Everest, millionaires. I waited two more weeks and I, you know, I remember Winston Churchill made a famous speech during World War II. He said, we won't fight them in the air, we won't fight them on land, we will fight them at sea, but we will never surrender. I remember that he was invited to speak at Harvard University after the war. And the professor said to the students, get your pads and pens ready because when this man speaks, it's wisdom. They flew him over from England, the old man hobbled up the microphone and he said, never give up, never, never, never, never give up. And he turned around and sat down.

I never forgot that. That was the best speech I ever heard. I called him again and I said, I'm the captain of the Titanic. I'm in front of the camera. I'm in everyone's home. I'm the one just talking about your exhibit. I believe if the meeting could say, this man's been down to see this ship, more people would be interested in what I have to say about it and you'll get more people there and you'll make more money.

It got quiet on the other and the phone and the man said, I think you're right. Come along. So I actually packed up and I went to St. John's Newfoundland. That's where you leave from. And I got there and they looked at me and they said, you're too tall. You won't fit in there. I said, I'll fit in there. Now I'm six foot four. I'm the tallest and the oldest that's ever been down to the Titanic.

I was 68 at the time. I said, I'll fit in there. Well, we don't have a fire suit big enough for you. Fire suit? What's this about a fire? Well, you'll be breathing 100% oxygen. It could flash to a fire like Apollo 1 did.

Well, if that's the case, I'll be burnt to a crisp in 10 seconds. What good is a suit? They said, well, your name will be written on it. It's for identification.

Identification? I'm that tall guy down there. Well, anyway, I got in the suit. That suit was a little too small, but I did get in one.

Now, when I got on the Akedyame Kelch, that Russian dive vessel, I noticed on the back end of one of those subs, the protective shield that went around the propeller was held together with duct tape. Now that doesn't breed a lot of confidence. And I'm thinking to myself, do I really want to do this? All I can think of is, well, I've lived a long life. I'm 68. If I die, I know where I'm going.

That's the important thing. And if I come back, I'll have a story to tell. And I came back and I've been telling that story for 21 years all around the world. I told it in Shanghai, China for two weeks. I told it in Singapore for two weeks.

I've been in every state in the United States, every Providence in Canada, where they've had these Titanic exhibits, sometimes two or three times, different cities. One day, I was eating dinner. Now there's twice as many people out there that would like to go down that would get a chance.

So I knew I didn't have any chance. But while I was eating, that fellow that I talked to on the phone came over to me, bent over and said to me, Lowell, you're going down in the morning. And what a unique and original voice we're listening to.

And that is, of course, the voice of Lowell Lytle, who plays the part and has been playing the part of Captain Smith. When we come back, more of Lowell Lytle's story here on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here, host of Our American Stories, where you'll hear stories about everything from the arts to sports, from business to history.

And we're proud our show can now be heard on Virginia Beach's Talk Radio 96.5 and 850 WTAR weekdays, 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Our American Stories with me, Lee Habib, now on weekdays on Talk Radio 96.5 and 850 WTAR in Virginia Beach, Virginia. millions of colors and make your dorm feel more like you make your dorm the place to be with Roku TV, streaming players and smart lights. Head to Roku.com or your favorite retailer to deck out your dorm.

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I'm in a ball and six and a half feet in diameter, 19 inches thick, and there's three grown men in there. And it takes two and a half hours to get down two and a half miles to the wreck site. They turned off all the lights to conserve the batteries. Now they turned that hatch down tight, and I knew then I couldn't change my mind. I can't see anything. All I can do is think about what I'm about to see. I'm not going to see a movie.

I'm going to see the real thing. And when they turned on the lights, the Russian pilot says, we're almost there. And I didn't like what I saw. We were going too fast, and we bounced off the ocean floor. Oh my goodness.

Oh my goodness. Of course, it took five minutes for all that dust to settle down. And the first thing that I noticed was the sea life. It was so strange. There's no light that far down on the ocean floor, no sun.

So the crabs are white, the starfish that's 13 inches in diameter, five points, but none of them any larger than their little finger. Now when they turned on the lights, moments later, I was right over the bow, the same spot where Jack in the movie held up his arms and said, I'm the king of the world. I went right over that spot. I said, take me to the captain's cabin.

James Cameron said the side was already gone. They took me there. I was five feet from the captain's bathtub for 10 minutes while they were changing film. I found a wrench down there. The mouth on it was 13 inches across, sticking straight up in the ocean floor like some to throw in the javelin. And I noticed while I was picking items up off the ocean floor, there was a hat.

It looked like a Derby hat and it was in mint condition. There's no current that far down. And I told the Russian pilot to go get that. And he did.

There's two mechanical arms on the outside of that sub and he picked it up and they pushed a button and a basket went out from underneath and he let go of it to fall into the basket. And it disappeared like a cloud. The microorganisms are eating up that ship at such a tremendous rate. It's gonna be an orange spot on the ocean floor within a hundred years. Now I think that hat was probably made out of felt.

Had it been made out of leather, it probably couldn't make it because those microorganisms that do not like the tannic process of leather, it repels them. There's shoes and hats and bags. That's why you see those things. Found enough items that I thought to myself, I'm just going to stay focused on this and not get involved emotionally. But after an hour and a half, all I could think of was what really took place at night. 1,500 souls slipped into eternity. All of them had plans to get to New York and start a new life.

It never happened. Life can be short folks. Make sure you tell your loved one every day how much you love them.

And you better be how much you love them. And you better know where you're going because it's going to happen to every one of us. We're all going to die one time or another. When it happens, it'll be too soon.

Just remember this, eternity is a long time to be wrong. Get it right. In fact, there's a story about a second class passenger. His name is Reverend John Harper.

There's a book entitled The Titanic's Last Hero. It's about Reverend Harper. And he was on his way to Chicago to preach. He had a revival service before he left. And he told the people in that service, he said he was going to go to New York on that new ship called the Titanic the next week. After the service, one of his parishioners came up to him and said, Reverend, I have a bad feeling about that ship. I have an ominous feeling that something bad is going to take place.

I feel so strongly about it. I want you to go to New York, but I don't want you to get on the ship. Please take the Lusitania.

I'll even pay for your ticket. Reverend Harper thought about it. He says, no, the apostle Paul wouldn't run away from danger.

If anything happens, I'm ready. And it happened. And when the Titanic started to go down, that Baptist minister ran around the deck, shouting, women and children and unsaved people, get aboard the lifeboats. You just can't keep these Baptists quiet. He even gave his life vest to a man that was not a Christian. His daughter, Anna, was standing right next to him. And the sister-in-law was standing next to him.

They both survived. The sister-in-law overheard the Reverend when he gave that life vest to that man. He said, here, take this.

I don't need it. I'm not going down. I'm going up. He's in the water now.

28 degrees. It feels like a thousand knives stabbing him. And a man drifted by in a piece of wood, and Reverend Harper shouted to the man, are you saved? The man said, no. Reverend Harper shouted, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. The man drifted off into the dark, and later the current drew him back. And Reverend Harper again shouted to the man, are you saved yet?

The man said, I can't honestly say that I am. Reverend Harper's last words were, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And with that, the Reverend slipped under the water and went to that frozen watery grave. There were 12 people pulled from the water that night. Six of them lived.

That man was one of them. And that story was told a few weeks later in Hamilton, Ontario, by that same man who said, I listened to Reverend Harper's last message and became a believer in Jesus Christ. I listened to Reverend Harper's last message and became a believer in Jesus Christ with two miles of water beneath me. Titanic's last hero, Reverend John Harper.

God bless you folks. And what a piece of storytelling by Lowell Lytle. Not only his story, not only his passion for the Titanic, but telling the story of the Titanic's last hero as well as perhaps only he can do. We haven't had many better storytellers on this show and many better stories. A special thanks to Lowell Lytle for sharing his story. He has been entertaining guests at the Titanic Museum for more than 15 years. He is also the author of the inspiring read, Diving into the Deep. Lowell Lytle's story, the story of the Titanic, here on Our American Stories.

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