April 14, 1912!
Dawn comes early when you are out to sea! This was no exception on board Titanic except that many slept late after the rounds of activity the night before that kept them from seeing the beautiful sunrise that bespoke of the nice day that would end so horribly for this beautiful ship and the beautiful people who were getting to know one another quite well as they began their fifth day at sea together. There was much to do aboard Titanic, from eating to strolling her wind swept decks to the men who played poker with the professional gamblers who had boarded Titanic under assumed names and were making a handsome living off of the first class wealthy who had little idea that all of this was going on. Many men smoked and drank brandy in Titanic’s parlors late into the night while their wives retreated to their cabins to rest up for another day at sea, their last, on the fifteenth before Titanic was to make port on the sixteenth of April.
Breakfast was served for several hours to accommodate those who were sleeping late before the noon meal was made ready. Some hardy souls had gotten up early to make use of the more empty decks aboard ship to make their rounds of exercise while others used the exercise gym aboard ship to keep fit. The operators in the wireless shack found a problem with their equipment that prevented them from sending any messages out from the ship although they could still receive correspondence. Titanic had three wireless operators on board and they took turns receiving and sending messages mainly from the wealthy first class passengers on board. The fact that Titanic had the largest antenna on earth which stretched from stern to the bow of the ship made it possible to communicate with America from the middle of the Atlantic ocean. The relatively new Marconi company had made a special effort to see that Titanic had this equipment so that they could promote their new enterprise and its groundbreaking way to communicate wirelessly across long distances. Many ships had this equipment the day that Titanic got in trouble but Titanic’s was the very best equipment and most modern that could be had. As the day wore on, messages began to come into Titanic about the ice problem that might be ahead of them with at least six messages relaying this concern being passed to captain Smith. Smith, however, was fighting another problem.
J. Bruce Ismay, the president of the White Star Line was aboard for the journey and he had been pestering captain Smith all week long about raising Titanic’s speed to its maximum in order to make port the night before they should have, thus setting a standard that would help in the advertising that this great and powerful ship could not only provide great luxury but also a timely arrival for their guests in New York. Smith was in charge of his ship and this was his last trip before retirement but he still wanted to pacify his boss so he came up with a compromise. Instead of ordering the turn toward New York at 2:30 in the afternoon as he normally would have done, he ordered Titanic to continue on her southward course for another four hours, making the turn at 6:30 in the evening. By doing this Smith probably thought that he had taken the ship away from the ice threat and he, after almost five days at sea and seeing that Titanic had encountered no apparent problems that might have been discovered if she had had the adequate sea trials that she did not get, lit the final boilers and increased her speed to its maximum of about 22 knots. This would insure that she would arrive the night before she should have the next morning and would be a great surprise to New Yorkers and their greatly competitive tabloid press.
The ice warnings continued to come in!
They say that it was a beautiful sunset the night of the fourteenth and, as the word had spread that this might be their last night at sea, the gaiety aboard ship spread and people stayed up even later than normal to partake, for one last time, of the pleasures that this wonderful ship offered them. As day turned into night it began to become increasingly colder and people left the open decks for the safety and warmth of the interior of the ship. As the night wore on, on the bridge of Titanic, some of the junior officers began to point out to their captain that there was no moon at all and the only light they had came from the beautiful star field that, miles from shore, shone brightly over head. One officer pointed out that it was the calmest sea that he had seen in ages and that they would not even have waves breaking against any berg in their path to help those in the crows nest above to warn them of any impending dangers ahead. Smith agreed that it was a beautiful, calm night and then ordered that the speed be maintained and left the bridge for the night.
People in different parts of Titanic felt different affects when the ship had its encounter with the berg. For many it was nothing more than a slight shudder, for others it was much more than that. Down below in the forward part of the ship, water was pouring in. The first affected by it directly were the six mail clerks that were on board Titanic to take care of the large amount of mail that she was transporting from Great Britain to the United States. RMS stood for royal mail steamer and that was one of Titanic’s primary functions. As the water invaded the ship these people worked gallantly to try to save the mail from the flood and they were probably the first to die aboard the ship. Up on the bridge they ordered the ship brought to a full stop and the ships builder told the captain that the ship should be sounded by the ships carpenter to see what the actual damage was. Someone remembered to close all of the watertight doors, an innovation that was new to Titanic and her sister ship Olympic. The carpenter was soon back and by midnight they knew what their situation was.
Down on one of the forward decks several people played with the ice that had dropped from the iceberg and some of them remarked at how cold it was to the touch. The captain orders that the temperature of the water be taken and the report back was 33 degrees.
IOVHO,
Regards,
Joe
To say that "God exists" is the greatest understatement ever made across space and time.
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