Butt's actions while the ship sank are largely unverified, but many accounts of a sensationalist nature were published by newspapers immediately after the disaster. One account had the ship's captain, Edward J. Smith, telling Butt that the ship was doomed, after which Butt began to act like a ship's officer and supervised the loading and lowering of lifeboats. The "New York Times" also claimed that Butt herded women and children into lifeboats. Another account said that Butt, a gun in his hand, prevented panicked male passengers from storming the lifeboats. Yet another version of events said Butt yanked a man out of one of the lifeboats so that a woman could board. In this story, Butt declared, "Sorry, women will be attended to first or I'll break every damned bone in your body!" One account tells of Butt preventing desperate steerage passengers from breaking into the first class areas in an attempt to escape the sinking ship. Walter Lord's book "A Night to Remember" disagrees with claims that Butt acted like an officer. Lord says Butt most likely observed the ship's evacuation quietly. Many newspapers repeated a story allegedly told by Marie Young. This tale says that Butt helped her into Lifeboat No. 8, tucked a blanket about her, and said, "Goodbye, Miss Young. Luck is with you. Will you kindly remember me to all the folks back home?" Young later wrote to President Taft denying she ever told such a story.