Hichens was ordered by First Officer Murdoch to turn the wheel to starboard to avoid the iceberg and everybody knows that attempt failed.
Placed in charge of the, 65-seat, Lifeboat Number 6, he departed the sinking ship with only twenty eight people in the boat. 

He was later accused of drinking whisky and refusing to return to the Titanic to rescue others, all of which was disproved.

In World War I, he served in the Royal Naval Reserve and, post-war, moved, with his family to Torquay to run a guesthouse and a boat charter company. 

He never, however, came to terms with the disaster and he became a heavy drinker whilst the boat charter company failed. 
His wife and family left him in 1931 and, two years later, he tried to murder the man he blamed for his failed boat charter business.