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drive these engines she had 29 enormous

boilers and 159 furnaces. Three elliptical funnels, 24 feet 6 inches

in the widest diameter, took away smoke and water gases; the fourth

one was a dummy for ventilation.

 

She was fitted with 16 lifeboats 30 feet long, swung on davits of the

Welin double-acting type. These davits are specially designed for

dealing with two, and, where necessary, three, sets of lifeboats,—i.e.,

48 altogether; more than enough to have saved every soul on board

on the night of the collision. She was divided into 16 compartments by

15 transverse watertight bulkheads reaching from the double bottom

to the upper deck in the forward end and to the saloon deck in the

after end (Fig. 2), in both cases well above the water line.

Communication between the engine rooms and boiler rooms was

through watertight doors, which could all be closed instantly from the

captain’s bridge: a single switch, controlling powerful electro-magnets,

operated them. They could also be closed by hand with a lever,

and in case the floor below them was flooded by accident, a

float underneath the flooring shut them automatically. These

compartments were so designed that if the two largest were flooded

with water—a most unlikely contingency in the ordinary way—the ship

would still be quite safe. Of course, more than two were flooded the

night of the collision, but exactly how many is not yet thoroughly

established.

 

Her crew had a complement of 860, made up of 475 stewards, cooks,

etc., 320 engineers, and 65 engaged in her navigation. The machinery

and equipment of the Titanic was the finest obtainable and represented

the last word in marine construction. All her structure was of steel,

of a weight, size, and thickness greater than that of any ship yet

known: the girders, beams, bulkheads, and floors all of exceptional

strength. It would hardly seem necessary to mention this, were it not

that there is an impression among a portion of the general public that

the provision of Turkish baths, gymnasiums, and other so-called

luxuries involved a sacrifice of some more essential things, the

absence of which was responsible for the loss of so many lives. But

this is quite an erroneous impression. All these things were an

additional provision for the comfort and convenience of passengers,

and there is no more reason why they should not be provided on these

ships than in a large hotel. There were places on the Titanic’s deck

where more boats and rafts could have been stored without sacrificing

these things. The fault lay in not providing them, not in designing

the ship without places to put them. On whom the responsibility must

rest for their not being provided is another matter and must be left

until later.

 

When arranging a tour round the United States, I had decided to cross

in the Titanic for several reasons—one, that it was rather a novelty

to be on board the largest ship yet launched, and another that friends

who had crossed in the Olympic described her as a most comfortable

boat in a seaway, and it was reported that the Titanic had been still

further improved in this respect by having a thousand tons more built

in to steady her. I went on board at Southampton at 10 A.M. Wednesday,

April 10, after staying the night in the town. It is pathetic to

recall that as I sat that morning in the breakfast room of an hotel,

from the windows of which could be seen the four huge funnels of the

Titanic towering over the roofs of the various shipping offices

opposite, and the procession of stokers and stewards wending their way

to the ship, there sat behind me three of the Titanic’s passengers

discussing the coming voyage and estimating, among other things, the

probabilities of an accident at sea to the ship. As I rose from

breakfast, I glanced at the group and recognized them later on board,

but they were not among the number who answered to the roll-call on

the Carpathia on the following Monday morning.

 

Between the time of going on board and sailing, I inspected, in the

company of two friends who had come from Exeter to see me off, the

various decks, dining-saloons and libraries; and so extensive were

they that it is no exaggeration to say that it was quite easy to lose

one’s way on such a ship. We wandered casually into the gymnasium on

the boatdeck, and were engaged in bicycle exercise when the instructor

came in with two photographers and insisted on our remaining there

while his friends—as we thought at the time—made a record for him of

his apparatus in use. It was only later that we discovered that they

were the photographers of one of the illustrated London papers. More

passengers came in, and the instructor ran here and there, looking the

very picture of robust, rosy-cheeked health and “fitness” in his white

flannels, placing one passenger on the electric “horse,” another on

the “camel,” while the laughing group of onlookers watched the

inexperienced riders vigorously shaken up and down as he controlled

the little motor which made the machines imitate so realistically

horse and camel exercise.

 

It is related that on the night of the disaster, right up to the time

of the Titanic’s sinking, while the band grouped outside the gymnasium

doors played with such supreme courage in face of the water which rose

foot by foot before their eyes, the instructor was on duty inside,

with passengers on the bicycles and the rowing-machines, still

assisting and encouraging to the last. Along with the bandsmen it is

fitting that his name, which I do not think has yet been put on

record—it is McCawley—should have a place in the honourable list of

those who did their duty faithfully to the ship and the line they

served.

CHAPTER II

FROM SOUTHAMPTON TO THE NIGHT OF THE COLLISION

 

Soon after noon the whistles blew for friends to go ashore, the

gangways were withdrawn, and the Titanic moved slowly down the dock,

to the accompaniment of last messages and shouted farewells of those

on the quay. There was no cheering or hooting of steamers’ whistles

from the fleet of ships that lined the dock, as might seem probable on

the occasion of the largest vessel in the world putting to sea on her

maiden voyage; the whole scene was quiet and rather ordinary, with

little of the picturesque and interesting ceremonial which imagination

paints as usual in such circumstances. But if this was lacking, two

unexpected dramatic incidents supplied a thrill of excitement and

interest to the departure from dock. The first of these occurred just

before the last gangway was withdrawn:—a knot of stokers ran along

the quay, with their kit slung over their shoulders in bundles, and

made for the gangway with the evident intention of joining the ship.

But a petty officer guarding the shore end of the gangway firmly

refused to allow them on board; they argued, gesticulated, apparently

attempting to explain the reasons why they were late, but he remained

obdurate and waved them back with a determined hand, the gangway was

dragged back amid their protests, putting a summary ending to their

determined efforts to join the Titanic. Those stokers must be thankful

men to-day that some circumstance, whether their own lack of

punctuality or some unforeseen delay over which they had no control,

prevented their being in time to run up that last gangway! They will

have told—and will no doubt tell for years—the story of how their

lives were probably saved by being too late to join the Titanic.

 

The second incident occurred soon afterwards, and while it has no

doubt been thoroughly described at the time by those on shore, perhaps

a view of the occurrence from the deck of the Titanic will not be

without interest. As the Titanic moved majestically down 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

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