Perhaps no more individual contributed more to the fact that the death toll was as high as it was than Charles Lightoller.
* He changed the "women and children first" policy to a "women and children only" policy, sending away lifeboats with empty seats rather than allowing men to board them. He also assumed that the lifeboats would break at their davits if fully loaded while not in the water. He sent lifeboats away half-empty, with the idea that they could later return for a full load (presumably when another ship came).
* More crucially, and not many people know this, a direct action of his probably doubled the time it took the Titanic to sink. Lightoller thought it would be easier to load lifeboats through the E-deck gangway door, with passengers entering them once the boats were already floating in the sea. He ordered that they be opened. Those doors were located near the front of a corridor that spanned the entire ship. This created a hole about the same size, if not larger, than what the iceberg caused. Predictably, this greatly increased the time that it took the ship to sink. Lightoller himself noted that the bow began sinking quicker and the ship took a list to port at around the same time it would have taken the doors to reach the waterline. None of the men he sent to open the doors were ever seen or heard from again.
Does anyone else agree? Discuss.