At 9:30am on April 10th, 1912, a Daimler landaulet touring car came to a stop at berth 44 at the White Star Dock in Southampton. From it stepped a very proud man who looked up instantly to marvel at the massive black hull of the Titanic. He didn't even turn around to see the car carrying his children and wife away. The man marveling the new ship was none other than Joseph Bruce Ismay. It sometimes appeared that he loved his ships more than his children. They were not accompinying him on the journy to New York, and instead had planned a car tour through Wales.
At just after 10:00am, the first paying passengers came aboard, many of them who were not traveling by Boat Train directly to the pier, or those who had their departure delayed because of a coal strike and were transferred to the Titanic. As these people were boarding, a real rush of passengers arived on a boat train from London's Warterloo Station that had left from platform 12 earlier that morning. Many people simple stood in awe for a few minutes to stare up at the massive ship and her four proud funnels.
In charge of this new ship was Captain Edward John Smith, White Star's captain of all captains. He had served White Star for 33 years, and served 25 of them as a Captain, and now at 62 years of age, he thought it was time for him to retire, but upon the advise of Ismay, had decided to have Titanic's first voyage as his final. Smith had comanded all of White Star's newest and finest ships, including the Olympic, and so he was a natural choice as captain of Titanic for her first trip across the Atlantic. He earnt 6,250 American dollars a year (a huge sum in 1912), which was over twice the amount of the Cunard Captains. He was known to passengers and crew alike as 'The Millionaire's Captain' because of his ongoing cheerfulness and easy smile. Some passengers would travel with no other captain.
As the noon sailing time aproached, the decks became more crowded with passengers and crew wanting to watch the ship's departure. Four stokers ran along the dock just as the gang planks were being brought in, but were waved away by a crew member, their places already filled by people waiting to see if they can get a last minute job on the finest ship ever built.
As the ropes holding the ship to the docks were dropped, the ship, aided by eight tugs, she slowly moved away from her berth and down to the River Test, where the tugs dropped their lines. Now moving at 8 knots on her own, she began to glide down the river. As she went, the crown on the dock followed. One newspaper writer quoted "The vision of the great liner as she moves away from Southampton quay is an imperishable memory. She looked so colossal and so queenly. Passengers waved farewells from her decks and windows, and a mob of jolly stokers yelled from the fo'castle side. One of these - he must have been a Cockney - played a mouth organ and waved his old cap. He seemed a merry soul".
As the Titanic moved down the river test, she encountered two liners moored side by side on the quay side, kept out of action because of the coal strike. The two liners, White Star's Oceanic and the New York moored to the side of her and jutting out into the river, were crowded with people wanting to catch a glimpse of the ship underway. Suddenly while passing the New York, the ship's ropes holding it to the dock suddenly taught, then snapped to a sound like gunshots and reeled high into the air and fell into the retreating crowd. Then, the stern of the New York began to move out into the side of Titanic. The crowd on the New York screamed as passengers and crew on Titanic calmly watched the incident from above. The two ships were less than 4 feet apart when the port wing propellor ot Titanic gave a sudden surge to stop the smaller ship from striking the super liner. The small tug Vulcan moved into position as quickly as it could, and the crew managed to get hold of the New York and pull her away. On the bridge, Captain Smith heaved a sigh of releif. Just a few months earlier, the Olympic, also under his control and once again with a harbour master in comand passed the British war ship HMS Hawke and as if drawn together by an invisible magnet, the Hawke rammed the side of the Olympic and punctured her above and below the waterline. Though they were both seriously damaged, the two ships managed to limp back to dock for repairs under their own power.
Soon, the whole ship was buzzing with talk of the New York incident and what it might imply about the maneuverability of these new liners. Many considered it a bad omen for the start of a maiden voyage. Because of the delay, the ship didn't reach Cherbourg, France until dusk, and it was here that many famous passengers boarded, including the Unsinkable Molly Brown and John Jacon Astor and his very young wife Madeline. |
