Titanic: History in an Hour. Sinead Fitzgibbon

Staircase on the RMS Olympic

      The first-class dining saloon was yet another sight to behold. Measuring over 100 feet in length, with tall alcoves housing arched and leaded windows, it was by far the largest room on the ship. It would become the hub of evening social activities during the fateful maiden voyage. If passengers grew tired of the oversized dining room, however, the Verandah Café with its ivy-covered trellises, and the Café Parisien (pictured below) complete with genuine French waiters, offered a more intimate dining experience.

      Titanic’s Café Parisien Photography by Robert John Welch, official photographer for Harland & Wolff

      Other amenities offered to first-class passengers on RMS Titanic included a reading and writing room, which was stocked with an impressive library (pictured below). Enclosed promenade decks allowed for exercise even in inclement weather, along with a large swimming pool, and a well-equipped gymnasium. There were also some decadent Turkish Baths and a barber shop.

       Reading Room for First-Class Passengers

      One first-class passenger, Mrs Ida Strauss – wife of Isidor Strauss, the founder of Macy’s department store – described her first impressions of the Titanic in a letter to a friend: ‘But, what a ship! So huge and so magnificently appointed. Our rooms are furnished in the best of taste and most luxuriously and they are really rooms, not cabins.’

      It was not just the first-class accommodation that was impressive, somewhat unusually for the time, second- and third-class passengers also travelled in style. While nowhere near the ostentatious magnificence of first class, Titanic’s second- and third-class areas were still a considerable improvement on the norm. As a rule, the second-class accommodation on Titanic was equivalent to first class on other ships, while third class equated to second class on other liners.

      Lawrence Beesley, a teacher and one of the few second-class male passengers lucky enough to survive the disaster, described the ship in detail in a letter to his son:

      The ship is like a palace! There is an uninterrupted deck run of 165 yards for exercise and a ripping swimming bath, gymnasium and squash racket court & huge lounge & surrounding verandahs. My cabin is ripping, hot and cold water and a very comfy looking bed and plenty of room.

      Similarly, another second-class passenger, 31-year-old Harvey Collyer, wrote to his parents:

      So far we are having a delightful trip the weather is beautiful the ship magnificent . . . It’s like a floating town. I can tell you we do swank we shall miss it on the trains as we go third on them. You would not imagine you were on a ship. There is hardly any motion she is so large we have not felt sick yet.

      All in all, it seems that to travel on RMS Titanic was to travel in unprecedented comfort, regardless of the class of ticket.

       The Maiden Voyage

      At the end of March 1912, RMS Titanic’s fit-out was complete and she was finally ready for service. Harland & Wolff formally handed the ship over on 2 April to the White Star Line. She set sail from Belfast bound for the port of Southampton on England’s south coast, arriving just after midnight on 3 April 1912.

      With her maiden voyage scheduled to leave at noon on 10 April, the intervening week saw a frenzy of activity as this titan of the sea was stocked with a mountain of supplies for her week-long expedition. The provisioning of such a vast ship was no small task – an endless stream of linens, crockery, cutlery, food, drink, coal, even ice and fresh-cut flowers was ferried into the cavernous vessel from morning to night. Absolutely no expense was spared.

      Similarly, the White Star Line was not about to settle for anything less than the best when it came to selecting the crew for Titanic’s maiden voyage. With the eyes of the world fixed on their wondrous new ship, it comes as no surprise that the White Star Line entrusted Titanic to their most able and senior seaman, Captain Edward J. Smith (pictured below).

       Captain Edward J. Smith

      Captain Smith had enjoyed a long and distinguished career with Ismay’s company. Since being promoted to the rank of Commodore of the White Star Line in 1904, he routinely took to the helm of their newest and grandest ships. The 62-year-old Smith’s seafaring career was, however, drawing to a close. This was to be his last voyage before retirement – and what better way to round off a glittering career than to take command of the world’s largest passenger liner?

      The course plotted for Titanic’s maiden voyage was one that had been followed many times by other transatlantic liners. After leaving Southampton, she was to sail to Cherbourg in Northern France, and then on to Queenstown (now Cobh) in Co. Cork on the southern coast of Ireland. After Queenstown, Titanic would put out into the great Atlantic Ocean, next stop New York.

      The Route Plotted for Titanic’s Maiden Voyage

      An Illustrious Gathering

      In the days leading up to Titanic’s scheduled departure date, hundreds of passengers who had succeeded in booking passages on her maiden crossing began to converge on Southampton, Cherbourg and Queenstown.

      Unsurprisingly for such a luxurious liner, the first-class passenger list was impressive, reading as a veritable who’s who of British and American high society. Among the American passengers were: New York tycoon, John Jacob Astor and his pregnant young wife, Madeleine (pictured below); the millionaire businessman Benjamin Guggenheim who was accompanying his mistress, the French singer, Ninette Aubart; the brash and generally unpopular Denver society hostess, Molly Brown; Isidor Strauss, the founder of Macy’s department store, and his wife, Ida; George D. Widener, said to be the richest man in Philadelphia, along with his wife and son; and Major Archibald Butt, military attaché to the President of the United States.

       J. J. Astor and his wife, Madeleine

      The British contingent was equally well-heeled. Distinguished passengers included Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, a Scottish landowner, and his fashion-designer wife, Lady Lucy Duff-Gordon; William T. Stead, the social activist, philosopher and editor of London’s Review of Reviews; and the Countess of Rothes, who was travelling to California to join her husband, the Earl of Rothes, who was on a land-buying expedition on America’s West Coast.

      Other notable passengers included J. Bruce Ismay, whose tenacity and vision were responsible for bringing RMS Titanic to life; the American tennis player and Wimbledon champion, Karl Behr; silent movie star, Dorothy Gibson, and the famous Broadway producer, Jacques Futrelle.

      Interestingly, the owner of the White Star Line and Titanic’s chief investor, J. P. Morgan, was forced to abandon his plans to sail on his new ship due to business commitments – a last-minute change of mind which may very well have saved his life.

      But this was not the only eleventh-hour change of plan for RMS Titanic’s maiden voyage . . . there was a second, which would prove to be far less propitious for those involved.

       Crew Changes

      Just as Titanic was preparing to set sail, her sister ship, the Olympic, was forced to return to the Harland & Wolff shipyards for emergency repairs to a propeller. This unexpected turn of events led to a surprise re-shuffle of Titanic’s crew not long before the ship’s scheduled departure.

      Originally, the list of seven officers, from Chief Officer down