William McMaster Murdoch, RNR (28 February 1873[1] – 15 April 1912) was a British sailor who served as a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy Reserve and was the first officer on the RMS Titanic.

He served his apprenticeship aboard the Charles Cosworth of Liverpool, trading to the west coast of South America.

During 1903, Murdoch finally reached the stormy and glamorous North Atlantic run as Second Officer of the new liner Arabic.

His cool head, quick thinking and professional judgement averted a disaster when a ship was spotted bearing down on the Arabic at night.

On 20 September 1911, the Olympic collided with the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Hawke, badly damaging her hull.

Since Murdoch was at his docking-station at the stern - a highly responsible position – he appeared at the incident inquiry and gave evidence.

The collision was a major financial loss for the White Star Line as the voyage to New York was abandoned and the ship returned to Belfast for repairs, which took six weeks.

During that time, there were two further, though lesser, incidents, striking a sunken wreck and needing to have a broken propeller replaced, and nearly running aground while leaving Belfast.

Upon arriving in Southampton, Murdoch learned that his next assignment would be the Chief Officer of the Titanic, the Olympic's sister ship, serving under Captain Edward J. Smith.

Murdoch, with an "ordinary master's certificate" and a reputation as a "canny and dependable man", had climbed through the ranks of the White Star Line to become one of its foremost senior officers.

When the ship began her maiden voyage on 10 April, Murdoch was on the Poop Deck, in charge of the mooring lines, being assisted by Third Officer Pitman.

At about 7:15, Lamp Trimmer Samuel Hemming arrived on the bridge and reported to Murdoch that all the lights had been set for the evening.

Murdoch told him to get "the fore-scuttle hatch closed, there is a glow left from that, as we are in the vicinity of ice, and I want everything dark before the bridge."

Murdoch was keenly aware that ice was near, and he was being particularly careful to ensure that nothing interfered with the night vision of the lookouts and officers.

[4] At approximately 11:39 pm on 14 April 1912, First Officer Murdoch was in charge when a large iceberg was sighted directly in the Titanic's path.

Quartermaster Robert Hichens, who was at the helm, and Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall, who had heard the warning bell and had come from the officers' quarters behind the bridge, heard Murdoch's order to turn the helm[5] "Hard-a-starboard",[6][7][8] a tiller command which would turn the ship to port (left) by moving the tiller to starboard (right).

At the time, steering instructions on British ships generally followed the way tillers on sailing vessels are operated, with turns in the opposite direction from the commands.

As Walter Lord noted in The Night Lives On, this did not fully change to the "steering wheel" system of commands in the same directions as turns until 1924.

9, Murdoch, a number of stewards and other members of the victualling department were passing women and children over from the port side to fill up the boat.

[20] In 1903, Murdoch met a 29-year-old New Zealand school teacher named Ada Florence Banks en route to England on either the Runic or the Medic.

Captain Hannah came from a family of seafarers with roots in Kircudbrightshire like Murdoch, and was Assistant Marine Superintendent for the White Star Line at Southampton.

[25] The film's director, James Cameron, said that the depiction was not meant to be negative, and added, "I'm not sure you'd find that same sense of responsibility and total devotion to duty today.

In April 1998, representatives from the film studio Twentieth Century Fox presented a £5,000 cheque for the memorial fund, but did not offer a formal apology.

[32][33] In April 2012, Premier Exhibitions announced that it had identified Murdoch's belongings from a prior expedition to the wreck of the Titanic in 2000.

There was a toiletry kit with Murdoch's initials embossed on it, a spare White Star Line officer's button, a straight razor, a shoe brush, a smoking pipe, and a pair of long johns.

[34] The items were recovered by David Concannon, Ralph White and Anatoly Sagalevitch diving in the Russian submersible Mir 1 in July 2000.