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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.
Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters |  |
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
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?
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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.
Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters | |