Free Unsinkable: The Full Story of the RMS Titanic by Daniel Allen Butler Page B

Though the strike was actually settled on April 3, it would be nearly two weeks before coal reached the cities and seaports and the hardships would begin to ease.
    Ironically, the disruption caused by the strike had touched the lives of the upper classes hardly at all, while it had caused innumerable problems for most of the people it had been meant to benefit. Ultimately all the Coal Strike had done was to underscore the near-total lack of understanding the two sides had for each other. In hindsight it was quite clear that the strikers had no real idea how little sympathy the mine owners and their peers had for the laborers. For their part, the Astors, Guggenheims, and Hays of the world—or the Pirries, Morgans, or Ismays, for that matter—would have found it nearly impossible to comprehend the reasons behind the strike in the first place, just as surely as they never would have understood the stolid life of the suburbs or the pastoral life of the country, and would have been utterly incapable of imagining a Birmingham, a Manchester, or a Sheffield. 11

    The Boat Train sped across the great moors of northwest Surrey toward the long ridge of the Hog’s Back, reaching the high plateau beyond Basingstoke. Beginning the long downward incline toward Eastleigh and rushing through the chalk cuttings and short tunnels of the Hampshire Downs, the train was now approaching speeds close to seventy miles an hour. It passed by Winchester and at the end of its eighty-mile run from Waterloo station, it coasted into Southampton, through the Terminus Station, and across the Canute Road. A few hundred yards beyond, it came to halt at the platform built on the White Star Line’s Ocean Dock. There, just a short distance away, lay the Titanic.
    For more than a week now the ship had been the center of attention in Southampton Harbor, the scene of almost constant activity. First came the provisions and foodstuffs for the voyage, being delivered daily in almost staggering quantities. For the five-day voyage to New York, the Titanic required the following supplies for her galleys:

    Equally well stocked were the Titanic’s cellars, holding some 20,000 bottles of beer, ale, and stout; 1,500 bottles of wine; 15,000 bottles of mineral water; and 850 bottles of spirits.
    To serve the splendid meals that would be prepared from this vast array of foodstuffs, an equally impressive volume of glassware, tableware, cutlery, and crystal was taken aboard. Included were such items as 3,000 tea cups; 2,500 breakfast plates; 1,500 souffle dishes; 8,000 dinner forks; 2,500 water bottles; 2,000 wine glasses; 12,000 dinner plates; 300 claret jugs; 2,000 egg spoons; 400 toast racks; 1,000 oyster forks; 8,000 cut tumblers; and 100 grape scissors. 12
    While all these items and more were being brought aboard, the messy business of coaling was taking place. Ordinarily coaling was a routine if tiresome affair, but in April 1912 it was a far from routine procedure. The Great Coal Strike was now in its sixth week, and supplies were growing short. In order to avoid delaying the Titanic’s maiden voyage again, the White Star Line decided that she would sail with full bunkers (she burned 650 tons a day), even if it meant taking coal from other White Star ships and leaving them tied up at their piers. That is exactly what happened; the Oceanic and Adriatic had their crossings canceled and their passengers transferred to the Titanic. The coaling was completed at almost the last minute, the last few tons being loaded on the morning of April 10. In all the haste to get the coal aboard, the crew hadn’t had time to properly wet the coal down. Dry coal and coal dust were a perpetual fire hazard, and a smoldering fire broke out in the starboard bunker of Boiler Room No. 6. Despite the best efforts of the boiler room crew to put the fire out, the bunker would continue to smoke throughout the voyage. 13
    For most of the passengers transferred from other ships this was a happy