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Titanic: April 14th 1912 - Memorial Candle

by Cindy Seabright

Stamping Deck Crewmember

“There was peace and the world had not yet even tendered to its way. It seems to me that the disaster that was about to incur was not only the event, but made the world rub its eyes and awake, but woke it with a start! To my mind, the world of today awoke April 15th 1912”. Jack Thayer, Titanic Survivor.

As we travel to the Oceana countries that include Polynesia, Samoa and Fiji, let us remember that we are on the S.S. Reflections and it is indeed a grand ship. It shows a reflection from artist and places all over the world. Being a part of this crew reminds me how we are all a melting pot of races, customs and ideas! The Titanic was the same. We all know about the class system and I thank God everyday that we no longer live in a world that is raciest this way. It did indeed have a wide variety of nationalities. I personally, do believe that April 14, 1912 did wake the world. Man did not ‘best God’ and will never be able too. World War I was just around the corner and the earth has had little peace since.

I also feel that when the Twin Towers fell, there was a similarity. Although it was almost a hundred years apart, the disaster did wake us up once again with a start. The world has not had a moment’s peace since. There were employees, employers, corporations and companies and a variety of nationalities that went to the Towers everyday. Corporation Presidents as well as cleaning and food services filled the elevators and talked about their families or business, as usual.

Titanic: The world’s newest and most beautiful passenger liner, whose maiden voyage from the Old World to the New was cut short by a collision with an iceberg, resulting in the loss of 1,523 lives. The very name conjures up thoughts of disaster and doom, of inevitable fate, of man’s fallibility.

1st Picture - The Royal Mail Steamship Titanic; 2nd Picture - Captain Smith whose career at sea had been “remarkably uneventful”.

Thomas Andrews was employed by Harland and Wolff. He was managing director and supervised Titanic’s design. He went over every detail of her construction. He stayed late the last night Titanic was docked making notes that would make potential refinements to the ship. He was quoted as saying that the ship was “as nearly perfect as human brains could make her.” Mr. Andrews was last seen in the smoking room, he never attempted to save himself. He went down with the ship.

I would like to add some interesting facts about Titanic. Actually, more money was made by the third class then by the first class. There were more third class passengers then first class! The word commonly used to associate the third class was ‘steerage’. That word always seems to make more sense now that the world knows that during the Edwardian time that is exactly what they thought of the oppressed and working class people. Some had saved for years to come to America, the land of dreams. Commonly Titanic was called the ‘ship of dreams’. In a post card a passenger wrote to a friend referred to it as a ‘floating palace’. One first class passenger brought on board seventy wardrobes and fifteen trunks. Some third class never left the ship because they refused to leave their possessions. They had very little but it was all they owned. A single Chicago passenger refused to leave the ship because she would not leave her St. Bernard. Her body was found with her arms wrapped around her beloved pet. White Star owner, Bruce Ismay got on a lifeboat when no one was watching. One man wore women’s clothing and avoided questions and boarded one of the lifeboats. Time was running out and desperation took over. Meanwhile, the third class was unable to even get to the boats until the very last. Through Robert Ballard (Ocean Explorer, he was the first to find Titanic), we became aware of the fact most were kept back by force and some of the gated entrances were locked and guarded. Most did not get up to the lifeboats until they were gone. Some lifeboats left with only twelve people when they could hold sixty! So many more lives could have been saved. There were heroes too. Several men stepped aside to let the women and children take a seat. At the end they knew that they would not make it. John Jacob Astor kissed his bride of seven months goodbye. Madeleine was five months pregnant. Titanic was said to have been the ‘Millionaires Special’. J. J. Astor alone was worth £30,000,000. If you were to aggregate the wealth of only six men that were on the ship, they would be worth £60,000,000.

1st Picture - Here are the First Class passengers boarding; 2nd Picture - The Second class boarding in Ireland.

Here is Third class getting settled in. The accommodations on Titanic were the first time that most Third Class had ever seen bathroom facilities!

Now let’s look at some statistics about the grand ship. Titanic conveyed graceful lines as well as grandeur. White Star Lines newest ‘sea giants’, Olympic and Titanic. It was planned to make a third, the Gigantic. The plans were scratched after Titanic’s terrible fate.

Length - 882 ft. 9 in.
Height (waterline to boat deck)- 60 ft. 6 in.
Extreme Breadth - 92 ft. 6 in.
Distance from keel to funnel - 175 ft.
Gross Tonnage - 46,329
Net Tonnage - 21,831
Horsepower (reciprocating engines) - 30,000
Horsepower (turbine engines) - 16,000 shaft
Cruising speed - 23 to 24 knots
Launch date - May 31st 1911
Maiden Voyage - April 11th 1912
Fuel Consumption - 825 tons per day
Cost of building Titanic in 1912 - $7,500,000.00
Cost of building Titanic today - $400,000,000.00

Titanic was the first ship to ever have a heated swimming pool. They also had a gymnasium with an electric horse, (was that like riding the bull at Gilleys in Urban Cowboy?) a stationary bicycle and rowing machines. Should a passenger pull a muscle or become ill, there were 2 staffed physicians on call. They had the use of an infirmary that included a state of the art operating room. There was also a Squash court on F deck. A Turkish bath was also part of Titanic’s amenities. The ladies had their own Reading and Writing Room. Of course Titanic had a Library for the First and Second Class. SS Reflections also has our own Library on our ship! Be sure and check out Judy’s Stamping Library! The gentlemen had smoking rooms. It was customary then to spend time with other men playing cards, chess etc. The men also talked about politics and other world issues. Remember, the ladies had not won the suffrage issues and did not partake in such conversations. It is a shame that we do not have more pictures of Titanic. The ship even had a fully equipped darkroom for amateur photographers to try their skills. There were 4 elevators, three in First Class, one in Third Class. Titanic was equipped with two Barber Shops that featured automated shampooing and drying appliances for all classes. The most unexpected item was the piano for the Third Class commons room. The ‘new’ 5 kilowatt wireless radio station was used to send and receive telegrams. To further communications, a 50 phone switchboard with the operator was available for intra-ship calls. Each stateroom was equipped with its electric lights and heat.

There were 2,228 people on board. The breakdown was as follows;

337 First Class
285 Second Class
721 Third Class

Now try to guess the cost of traveling on this floating castle. Here is the cost to travel on the greatest ship in the world!

First Class (parlor suite) £870/$4,350. ($50,000.00 today)
First Class (berth) - £30/$150. ($1,724.00 today)
Second Class - £12/$60. ($690.00 today)
Third Class - £3 - £8/$40. ($172 - $460.00 today)

First Class Suites had their very own 50 ft. private promenade deck. There were a total of 67 other First Class Suites.

The eating facilities alone were simply gorgeous! The First Class Dining Saloon was 10,488 square foot dining room. The seating capacity was 554. For a more informal meal or snack you could always go to the Parisien Cafè with French waiters or the Veranda Café with real palm trees.

It is interesting to see how much food the Titanic had on the ship to feed all three classes and the crew. Here are some amounts just to give you an idea.

Fresh Meat 75,000 lbs; Fresh Fish 11,000 lbs; Salt and dried fish 4,000 lbs; Bacon & Ham 7,500 lbs; Poultry & Game 25,000 lbs; Sausages 2,500 lbs; Potatoes 40 Tons; Egg 40,000; Lettuce 7,000 heads; Coffee 2,200 lbs;

That just touches the enormous amounts of food items.

Can you imagine ladies and Gents coming down that beautiful staircase?

Dressed in beautiful gowns and the men wore starched collars. It must have been breath taking!

The accommodations were something that in that day and time could not be equaled on any other ship! There were even sinks in the rooms. That was unheard of in that time.

For some of you who saw James Cameron’s ‘Titanic’, it was indeed true when the comment went out about the smell of fresh paint. The linens were new and done with just a touch of starch, they had never been slept on. Also, there is a grave in Nova Scotia that has the name Jack Dawson on it...fact or fiction?

The news of the sinking occurred in the early hours. It was said that the Titanic hit an iceberg in the mid-Atlantic shortly after 10:00 PM (that would be the Eastern Time in America) on the evening of Sunday, April 14th 1912. The great ship would sink at 2:20 AM (Eastern America) on April 15th 1912. With the ship, a great loss of life would also sink.

Those gathered around to see or hear news of their loved ones.

The ship Carpathia arrived at Pier 54 in New York on April 18th. They attempted to keep the survivors separate from the public.

There was a Senate investigation here in America and after, Britain had court with Lord Mersey. On April 18th the Titanic Disaster Hearings began. They were lead by Senator William Alden Smith of Michigan. Just before the hearings began, it was resolved by the Unites States Senate that... ‘Resolved, that the Committee on Commerce, or a subcommittee thereof, is hereby authorized and directed to investigate the causes leading to the wreck of the White Star liner Titanic, with its attendant loss of life so shocking to the civilized world...’

There are so many stories to tell. I have just touched upon the Titanic Disaster. I try to do something every April as my way of sending a prayer above. It hurts deeply that so many women and children as well as men died on that liner. The pain of freezing to death and the pain of those alive that must have missed their loved ones so much! One survivor did her part that fateful night. They call her the ‘Unsinkable Molly Brown’. There is a movie by the same name that is a great musical and it tells the story of why Mrs. Brown became a heroine. She started so many charities and gave so much of herself. She was one who was luck enough to get on a lifeboat.

Sailing Day

Out from the docks of Southampton
Steamed on her maiden trip
The magnificent Titanic
The mighty modern ship...
And the people standing on the quay
Cheered as the ship went by.’
(Poem: ‘Be British’ 1912)

I would like to make a Memorial Candle that will be embossed as a tribute to the Titanic and the many souls.

Thank you so much for letting me share my love of Titanic this month. It is hard pressed to not think about that great ship while we are sailing on the S. S. Reflections. There are so many untold stories. Again, there was such diversity on board. Was a third class life less important then a First Class life? How long would it have taken the world to see that we are all just people. The world did change so much after the tragic ship went down at 2:21 AM. It left us a legacy, one that is full of hope that one day we will all look at each other as equals and learn from one another. Here on the S.S. Reflections, we have a great deal of diversity as well. Not everyone writes the same, thinks the same and we all have different methods and styles with our art. One thing we have in common is our reader’s. We all want to do the very best we can for you!

God Bless!

Cindy Seabright from the Marconi Room!
cindyseabright@ssreflections.com
Stamping Deck Crewmember
Reflections Publishing Group

Special Disclaimer - All facts and images in this feature are the sole responsibility of the author, Cindy Seabright. S.S. Reflections and Reflections Publishing Group accepts no responsibility for information provided.

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