Free Voices from the Titanic by Geoff Tibballs

Queenstown on Thursday. She had a good passage from Southampton and Cherbourg, and arrived at the Irish port shortly before noon. On her departure at 1.30 she had on board 350 saloon, 300 second, and 740 third class passengers, 903 crew and 3,814 sacks of mail.
    ( Southampton Times and Hampshire Express , 13 April 1912)
    When the Titanic left on her maiden voyage on Wednesday there was an unrehearsed incident which might have had serious consequences. On her way from the deep water dock the big ship passed the Oceanic and New York , which were moored side by side at the Test Quay. The wash from the great liner caused the New York to break from her moorings, and she drifted into the channel. The Titanic was going dead slow, and she was stopped without any difficulty. Handy tug-boats were immediately in attendance upon the New York , and there was a great deal of excitement until the state of affairs was realized.
    We are not going to express any opinion why the mooring ropes of the New York snapped like twine when the bigger vessel passed her, but we would point out that had the deep channel been wider at this spot no accident would have happened. It would have been impossible for the Titanic to have got further away from the New York without incurring a grave risk of running aground, and her navigators were in consequence placed in a helpless position. There is a general agreement that the channel should be widened and deepened in the vicinity of the docks, but because the dock proprietors of the Harbour Board agree only in repudiating responsibility the work remains undone.
    ( Southampton Times and Hampshire Express , 13 April 1912)
    Roberta Maioni was the young maid to one of the heroines of the Titanic story, the Countess of Rothes. Like her employer, Miss Maioni survived the disaster. She later described the launch of the great ship at Southampton.

    On the day the Titanic set out on her first and only voyage, I was just a girl in my teens looking forward with a schoolgirl’s anticipation to a voyage in the world’s latest and finest liner on a tour through North America.
    The weather was brilliant and the docks at Southampton were crowded with bustling people. For this was no ordinary boat departure; it was the departure of a wonder ship – a floating palace that far excelled all others in size and magnificence, and men said that she could not sink.
    We passengers were crushed and pushed about by excited crowds as we struggled to reach the gangway, but once across we were swallowed up in that great vessel.
    The noise made in getting the luggage aboard was deafening, but when the Titanic started on its journey an even greater pandemonium broke loose – the cheering of thousands of people and the shrieking of many sirens.
    Then, as if some unseen hand had silenced them, a hush suddenly fell upon the people. I went to the side to see what was the matter and found that the passing of the mighty Titanic had drawn another liner – the New York – from her moorings into the fairway.
    Tugs soon took the New York back to her place and the majority of us went on our way without giving further thought to this incident, but some passengers took it as a bad omen of ill-fortune and were further discomforted by the fact that large numbers of seagulls followed the ship to the sea. This, they said, was a sign of impending disaster. I had no time for such forebodings, for I had entered a fairy city and spent the first few days of the voyage in exploration and in making friends.
THE WHITE STAR LINER TITANIC
Mammoth liner at Queenstown
    Yesterday the 46,000 ton White Star liner Titanic , which is now the largest vessel in the world, arrived at Queenstown at 11.55 a.m.from Southampton via Cherbourg on her maiden voyage to New York. The Titanic left Southampton on Wednesday with 1,380 passengers, and was given an enthusiastic send off from there by hundreds of spectators on the quay side. As she steamed slowly up to