The Sinking of the Titanic, and Great Sea Disasters | Page 9

was left of her, was
floated out to sea, and kept on top of the water by her water- tight

compartments only.
CHAPTER III
THE MAIDEN VOYAGE OF THE TITANIC
PREPARATIONS FOR THE VOYAGE--SCENES OF
GAYETY--THE BOAT SAILS--INCIDENTS OF THE VOYAGE---A
COLLISION NARROWLY AVERTED--THE BOAT ON
FIRE--WARNED OF ICEBERGS.
EVER was ill-starred voyage more auspiciously begun than when the
Titanic, newly crowned empress of the seas, steamed majestically out
of the port of Southampton at noon on Wednesday, April 10th, bound
for New York.
Elaborate preparations had been made for the maiden voyage. Crowds
of eager watchers gathered to witness the departure, all the more
interested because of the notable people who were to travel aboard her.
Friends and relatives of many of the passengers were at the dock to bid
Godspeed to their departing loved ones. The passengers themselves
were unusually gay and happy.
Majestic and beautiful the ship rested on the water, marvel of
shipbuilding, worthy of any sea. As this new queen of the ocean moved
slowly from her dock, no one questioned her construction: she was
fitted with an elaborate system of
{illust. caption = STEAMER "TITANIC" COMPARED WITH THE
LARGEST STRUCTURES IN THE WORLD 1. Bunker Hill
Monument. Boston, 221 feet high. 2. Public
{illust. caption = J. BRUCE ISMAY
Managing director of the International Mercantile Marine, and
managing director of the White....}
{illust. caption = CHARLES M. HAYS

President of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railways, numbered among the
heroic men....}
water-tight compartments, calculated to make her unsinkable; she had
been pronounced the safest as well as the most sumptuous Atlantic
liner afloat.
There was silence just before the boat pulled out--the silence that
usually precedes the leave-taking. The heavy whistles sounded and the
splendid Titanic, her flags flying and her band playing, churned the
water and plowed heavily away.
Then the Titanic, with the people on board waving handkerchiefs and
shouting good-byes that could be heard only as a buzzing murmur on
shore, rode away on the ocean, proudly, majestically, her head up and,
so it seemed, her shoulders thrown back. If ever a vessel seemed to
throb with proud life, if ever a monster of the sea seemed to "feel its
oats" and strain at the leash, if ever a ship seemed to have breeding and
blue blood that would keep it going until its heart broke, that ship was
the Titanic.
And so it was only her due that as the Titanic steamed out of the harbor
bound on her maiden voyage a thousand "God-speeds" were wafted
after her, while every other vessel that she passed, the greatest of them
dwarfed by her colossal proportions, paid homage to the new queen
regnant with the blasts of their whistles and the shrieking of steam
sirens.
THE SHIP'S CAPTAIN
In command of the Titanic was Captain E. J. Smith, a veteran of the
seas, and admiral of the White Star Line fleet. The next six officers, in
the order of their rank, were Murdock, Lightollder,{sic} Pitman,
Boxhall, Lowe and Moody. Dan Phillips was chief wireless operator,
with Harold Bride as assistant.
From the forward bridge, fully ninety feet above the sea, peered out the
benign face of the ship's master, cool of aspect, deliberate of action,

impressive in that quality of confidence that is bred only of long
experience in command.
From far below the bridge sounded the strains of the ship's orchestra,
playing blithely a favorite air from "The Chocolate Soldier." All went
as merry as a wedding bell. Indeed, among that gay ship's company
were two score or more at least for whom the wedding bells had
sounded in truth not many days before. Some were on their honeymoon
tours, others were returning to their motherland after having passed the
weeks of the honeymoon, like Colonel John Jacob Astor and his young
bride, amid the diversions of Egypt or other Old World countries.
What daring flight of imagination would have ventured the prediction
that within the span of six days that stately ship, humbled, shattered and
torn asunder, would lie two thousand fathoms deep at the bottom of the
Atlantic, that the benign face that peered from the bridge would be set
in the rigor of death and that the happy bevy of voyaging brides would
be sorrowing widows?
ALMOST IN A COLLISION
The big vessel had, however, a touch of evil fortune before she cleared
the harbor of Southampton. As she passed down stream her immense
bulk--she displaced 66,000 tons--drew the waters after her with an
irresistible suction that tore the American liner New York from her
moorings; seven steel hawsers were snapped like twine. The New York
floated toward the White Star ship, and would have rammed the new
ship had not the tugs Vulcan and Neptune stopped her and towed her
back