11.30am, APRIL 10th, 1912THE LAST TITANIC BOAT TRAIN. Larger and more luxurious than her sister ship the Olympic, the TITANIC had been tied up at Southampton for a week taking on supplies and a new crew. An early boat train had brought the 2nd class and steerage passengers, but half-an-hour before sailing the 'last' one arrives with the 1st class passengers. As this train is slowly reversed out of the dock, several crew members having a last minute drink ashore, are delayed in crossing the track and miss the ship. Their annoyance only lasted a few days, however.
12 noon, APRIL 10th, 1912.
THE LOST HOUR. Promptly, the TITANIC leaves on her maiden voyage from Southampton, but then as if someone was trying to warn the mighty ship not to leave, another vessel, the NEW YORK, breaks her mooring ropes and nearly collides with the TITANIC as she passes. Perhaps it is fate that decrees a tug to come and tow it away? Certainly, many of the crew regard the incident as a bad omen.
It was strange how cautiously the TITANIC approached the open sea, with its starboard anchor lowered, yet a few days later headed at near top speed into a hazardous ice field despite many warnings from other ships. Was it trying to make up the hour lost at Southampton?
11.40pm, APRIL 14th, 1912.
THE MOMENT OF IMPACT. Following several uneventful days after calling at Cherbourg and Queenstown, the TITANIC's luck is about to run out. Despite severe ice warnings, it is not until the crow's nest lookout reports "ICEBERG RIGHT AHEAD" that the 'unsinkable' ship takes heed. The evasive action is not enough. Indeed, it may have been better to have hit the iceberg head-on than scrape along its base for 250 feet. Too many plates are buckled or split open and the cruel sea pours in. Whilst passengers kick around the ice that had fallen into the Well Deck, the stokers below are grappling with thousands of tons of water and realising it is a lost cause.
12 midnight to 2am, APRIL 15th, 1912.
REALISATION OF DANGER. Told that the TITANIC has only a couple of hours to stay afloat, Captain Smith orders the lifeboats to be prepared. With room for just over half on board, only the women and children are permitted in them initially. However, many prefer the comfort of the ship thinking it unsinkable. There are over 400 empty seats in those boats hastily lowered. The situation changes dramatically when the TITANIC continues to fire distress rockets. Passengers realise it is serious. Incidentally, when the wreck was found 2 1/2 miles at the bottom of the Atlantic in 1986, a doll's head was seen on the ocean bed. Perhaps a child dropped it? Certainly, Boat No. 6 was lowered very jerkily.
2.17 to 2.20am, APRIL 15th, 1912.
THE LAST THREE MINUTES. After gradually listing for over two hours, the TITANIC suddenly takes a turn for the worse. The whole vessel tilts; the stern pointing like a giant finger to the heavens. The sound is unbearable as everything moveable crashes through the ship. The forward funnel (which could have held two double-decker buses) crashes down killing dozens of swimmers. Other dies as they fall from the stern into the gantries. The world's largest ship then starts to break in two between the third and fourth funnels, an apparent weak spot in her design. The stern part having settled back on an even keel soon becomes vertical again, and then at 2.20am quietly slides under. Hundreds in the water cry for help, but few lifeboats are willing to go back for fear of being swamped. At 3pm [sic] there is a deathly hush.
4am to 8.30am, APRIL 15th, 1912.
AN ICY EPITAPH. Thanks to the gallant effort of the CARPATHIA, herself dodging icebergs, just over 700 in the lifeboats are picked-up. Other ships arrive later in the morning hoping to find some of the 1,500 missing but discover only the odd abandoned lifeboat or debris, including some red paint left along the waterline of a sinister-looking iceberg. So ended a night to remember but for most of the survivors it was probably a night they would rather have forgotten. The ghastly sound of all those hapless souls in the freezing water stayed with them for the rest of their days.
I received this set of postcards from England earlier this week.
