The Loss of the S.S. Titanic | Page 5

the dock, the
crowd of friends keeping pace with us along the quay, we came
together level with the steamer New York lying moored to the side of
the dock along with the Oceanic, the crowd waving "good-byes" to
those on board as well as they could for the intervening bulk of the two
ships. But as the bows of our ship came about level with those of the
New York, there came a series of reports like those of a revolver, and
on the quay side of the New York snaky coils of thick rope flung
themselves high in the air and fell backwards among the crowd, which
retreated in alarm to escape the flying ropes. We hoped that no one was
struck by the ropes, but a sailor next to me was certain he saw a woman
carried away to receive attention. And then, to our amazement the New
York crept towards us, slowly and stealthily, as if drawn by some
invisible force which she was powerless to withstand. It reminded me
instantly of an experiment I had shown many times to a form of boys
learning the elements of physics in a laboratory, in which a small
magnet is made to float on a cork in a bowl of water and small steel
objects placed on neighbouring pieces of cork are drawn up to the
floating magnet by magnetic force. It reminded me, too, of seeing in
my little boy's bath how a large celluloid floating duck would draw
towards itself, by what is called capillary attraction, smaller ducks,
frogs, beetles, and other animal folk, until the menagerie floated about
as a unit, oblivious of their natural antipathies and reminding us of the
"happy families" one sees in cages on the seashore. On the New York
there was shouting of orders, sailors running to and fro, paying out
ropes and putting mats over the side where it seemed likely we should
collide; the tug which had a few moments before cast off from the bows
of the Titanic came up around our stern and passed to the quay side of
the New York's stern, made fast to her and started to haul her back with
all the force her engines were capable of; but it did not seem that the
tug made much impression on the New York. Apart from the serious

nature of the accident, it made an irresistibly comic picture to see the
huge vessel drifting down the dock with a snorting tug at its heels, for
all the world like a small boy dragging a diminutive puppy down the
road with its teeth locked on a piece of rope, its feet splayed out, its
head and body shaking from side to side in the effort to get every ounce
of its weight used to the best advantage. At first all appearance showed
that the sterns of the two vessels would collide; but from the stern
bridge of the Titanic an officer directing operations stopped us dead,
the suction ceased, and the New York with her tug trailing behind
moved obliquely down the dock, her stern gliding along the side of the
Titanic some few yards away. It gave an extraordinary impression of
the absolute helplessness of a big liner in the absence of any motive
power to guide her. But all excitement was not yet over: the New York
turned her bows inward towards the quay, her stern swinging just clear
of and passing in front of our bows, and moved slowly head on for the
Teutonic lying moored to the side; mats were quickly got out and so
deadened the force of the collision, which from where we were seemed
to be too slight to cause any damage. Another tug came up and took
hold of the New York by the bows; and between the two of them they
dragged her round the corner of the quay which just here came to an
end on the side of the river.
We now moved slowly ahead and passed the Teutonic at a creeping
pace, but notwithstanding this, the latter strained at her ropes so much
that she heeled over several degrees in her efforts to follow the Titanic:
the crowd were shouted back, a group of gold-braided officials,
probably the harbour-master and his staff, standing on the sea side of
the moored ropes, jumped back over them as they drew up taut to a
rigid line, and urged the crowd back still farther. But we were just clear,
and as we slowly turned the corner into the river I saw the Teutonic
swing slowly back into her normal station, relieving the tension alike of
the ropes and of the minds of all who witnessed the incident.
[Illustration: FOUR DECKS OF OLYMPIC, SISTER SHIP OF
TITANIC]