DEPARTURES

Wednesday, 10 April dawned fair and breezy. Throughout Southampton,

Hundreds of crew headed for Berth 44 at the dockyard, where at 6am they were directed to their quarters aboard Titanic prior to general muster. Three and a half hours later, another massive influx occurred as most of the second - and third-class passengers arrived on the boat train from Waterloo Station, and were then guided to their separate entrances to the ship. At 11:30am, scarcely half an hour before departure, another train arrived, this time holding first-class passengers, who were efficiently escorted to their staterooms. Promptly at noon, with hundreds of family members, well-wishers and spectators waving and cheering from the quayside, three loud blasts announced departure. The sound had hardly stopped reverberating through the air before disaster nearly struck.

Having been pulled out of the enclosed dock area by five tugs, Titanic began to move slowly — and then more rapidly — along the River Test. The turbulence caused by the forward motion of a ship with such incredible size and draft was dissipated harmlessly into the river on her starboard side. But on her port side, the displaced water was trapped between the monstrous ship and the dock’s bulkheads. Tied in tandem at Berth 38 were two liners, Oceanic and New York, that were out of service until they could be coaled.

As Titanic swept near them, the displaced water caused New York to bounce up and down with such violence that all six of her mooring lines snapped. And as Titanic continued, the waves in her wake drew the stern of the now-free New York in an arc towards her. George Bowyer, the pilot, immediately ordered “stop engines” and then “full astern”, but a collision seemed inevitable. Fortunately, the alert Captain Gale of the tug Vulcan swung behind New York’s stern and got a wire rope on her port quarter to slow her drift. Danger was averted by no more than a metre or so, and those who had felt ill at ease about coming on the ship must have seen it as another harbinger of bad tidings.

Titanic was now forced to wait an hour while New York was taken out of harm’s way and additional lines were placed on Oceanic.

She therefore did not arrive at her first port of call, Cherbourg, until 6:35pm. Cherbourg’s piers were not large enough to accommodate Titanic, and the two purpose-built White Star tenders, Nomadic and Traffic, ferried arriving

LEFT: Passengers excitedly boarding Titanic in Southampton, while crew below oversee the embarkation. Many considered it a chance of a lifetime to sail on such a ship.