Titanic ~ Departure

"There was no cheering or hooting of steamer whistles from the fleet of ships that lined the dock... the whole scene was quiet and rather ordinary."
~ Lawrence Beesley, passenger.

Titanic has always fascinated me. The story of her maiden voyage and the controversy that surrounds elements still to this day are almost too unbelievable to be true. Yet they are. Over the years I've watched and read any number of documentaries, films, books and articles on the subject, and of course as with most things there is more than one side to the story.

I'm sure most of you know in broad strokes, the events that lead to the loss of 1,523 lives in the frigid North Atlantic waters on the morning of 15th April 1912 but as we commemorate the centenary this week of this tragic event, I'd like to share some of the events that may not be so widely known to the casual observer of this history. Prepare to be bored to tears (oh, and I have and will continue for this week to cheat with the map)!

On the morning Titanic departed Southampton, her stokers had been fighting a fire onboard since she had departed Belfast following her sea trials. It had been smouldering in number 10 bunker since 2nd April. Such events were quite common onboard ships and had probably been caused by the loading of coal not wetted down. The builders' guarantee group wanted to inspect the bulkheads for heat damage, but Captain Smith, on the assurance of his Chief Engineer, Joseph Bell, who advised that the situation was under control and little if any damage would have resulted and even then confined to a small section of bulkhead, had decided to wait until the full crew were aboard at Southampton and have extra men assigned to working out the burning fuel to allow the bulkhead to be examined.

Titanic's departure just before noon, almost ended before it really began. As she got underway, the water displaced by her hull caused the steamer SS New York to break her moorings alongside RMS Oceanic as she passed by. As the stern of the ship swung dangerously close to departing Titanic only the quick reactions of Captain Smith and pilot George Bowyer who called for the ship to be put full astern and the efforts of Captain Gale and the crew of the tug Vulcan which attached the initial wire rope to New York and dragged her back and away from Titanic, averted a certain collision.

Titanic's first stop was at Cherbourg in France. Titanic arrived at 6.30pm, debarking 24 cross channel passengers and embarking 274 on the tenders that ferried passengers from the docks to the waiting ship offshore. Departing at 8.10pm, the liner's final stop was a Queenstown, Ireland. Titanic anchored 2 miles from the shore at 11.30am on the morning of 11th April. Tenders ferried the final 7 passengers to debark Titanic and embarked the final 113 third class and 7 second class passengers and some 1,385 sacks of mail (she was after all a Royal Mail Steamer). At around 1.30pm in the afternoon, RMS Titanic raised anchor and set sail into the setting sun and into history.

Apologies for not logging back on last night. First thing I'll do when I come back after tea is to catch up with all your lovely comments from yesterday and before.