April 11th, 1912 found the Titanic in Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland. Many tenders ferried passengers out to Titanic as even though the water was deep enough, there was no dock large enough to accomodate the ship. Having picked up more passengers, mostly Irish immigrants, the ship raised anchor and headed out to sea. As the afternoon wore on, and day turned to dusk, the outline of southern Ireland became fainter and fainter until finally, they could see it no more. It was a sad moment for over half the passengers traveling, as they were the imigrants, and they knew that most of them would never see Europe again.
At 7:00am the next morning, steward Henry Etches knocked on the door of cabin A-36, just aft of the aft grand stircase and entered with a tray of tea and fruit, carefully picking his way through the charts and papers spread throughout the room. The occupant of A-36 was Thomas Andrews, the ship's designer. He had come along on the maiden crossing of Titanic, as he had done with the Olympic, to check that all ran safely and to make any improvements to the vessel before the return voyage.
The ship's crowning public space was without a doubt, it's forward grand staircase. Throughout what little of the voyage there had been so far, first class passengers had been meeting and marveling at it's wrought iron work and gilt bronze work on the banisters and the massive glass dome. Titanic was without a doubt the last word in luxury - at least for the first class passengers. At the first class staircase at the forward end was a large clock symbolising Honor and glory crowning Time. This clock was changed many times throughout the voyage as the ship steamed into different time zones regularly. At the base of each flight of stairs was a monument or something of the kind. On the top deck of both staircases was a bronze cherub statue and lamp, but there was an ornimental lighted candle tree at the base of the staircase, at the D deck reception room.
As Titanic cruised along the calm ocean at over 21knots, the trip was made even nicer by superb weather. All day Friday, the ship remained stable in the calm sea as she headed onward towards New York.
On Saturday, first class passenger Elizabeth Lines stopped for a coffee in the reception room on D deck. A short time after she sat down, two men entered and sat down near her. The men were Bruce Ismay and Captain Smith. Mrs Lines payed little attention to the two men until Ismay began discussing the ship's run. She could hear Ismay sounding extreemy pleased with his new ship, his greatest acheivement that would finally bring him out of the shadow of his father. Ismay began quoting Titanic's run, and comparing it to Olympic's on her maiden voyage. From midday April 11th, until the same time on the twelth, Titanic had steamed 484 miles compared to Olympic's 458. Noon Friday until noon Saturday (which was only a few hours ago) saw Titanic run 519 miles, just a few miles short of Olympic's 524. The Titanic still had three days in which to catch up with her sister, and Ismay was sure it could be done.
"Well, we made a better run today than we did yesterday. We will make a better run tomorrow". It was clear that Ismay was delighted. He often repeated himself while Smith only nodded.
"Things are working smoothly, the machinery is bearing ther test, the boilers are working well". Ismay spoke directly to Smith, raising and lowering his voice as he spoke.
"You see they are standing the test," he described of the boilers. "Everything is going well. The boilers are working well. We will make a better run tomorrow".
Finally, bringing his arm down dramatically on the settee, he emphatically announced "We will beat the Olympic and get into New York on Tuesday!"
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