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

Saloon the ship’s orchestra played an air from the musical “The Chocolate Soldier,” while Pilot Bowyer gradually worked the ship up to a speed of six knots as she moved down the channel. The immense bulk of the liner displaced an incredible volume of water in the narrow channel, creating a powerful suction in her wake. As she approached the entrance to the channel, the Titanic drew abreast of the small American liner New York, which was moored side by side to the White Star’s Oceanic. Both ships had been immobilized by the coal strike, and neither had steam up. As the Titanic passed, the suction of her wake drew the two smaller vessels away from the dock where they were tied up. The strain on the six lines mooring the New York to the Oceanic grew too great, and with a series of loud cracks they parted in rapid succession as the New York was pulled helplessly toward the Titanic. For a moment a nasty collision seemed inevitable as the stern of the New York swung to within three or four feet of the bigger liner’s hull.
    Quick thinking on the part of Captain Gale of the tug Vulcan and prompt action on the Titanic’s bridge by Captain Smith averted an accident. The Vulcan quickly passed a line to the stern of the New York, and, throwing its engines full astern, managed to slow the wayward liner and drag her away from the Titanic. At the same time, Captain Smith ordered “Half Astern” on the engines, the sudden wash thrown up along the Titanic’s side by the huge propellers providing the extra thrust needed to push the New York away. As soon as she was clear Smith brought the Titanic’s engines to a halt. The danger wasn’t over yet, for the New York, still without power, was now drifting down the narrow space between the motionless Titanic and the Oceanic. Other tugs rushed to aid the struggling Vulcan, and in a little less than forty-five minutes the New York was being nudged safely back alongside the Oceanic. (Later, a barge that had sunk in that same channel was found to have been dragged neary a half mile underwater by the suction of the Titanic’s wake.)
    None of the three ships was damaged, but during the time it took to get the New York securely moored, and before the Titanic resumed her passage down the channel, Captain Smith ordered a quick inspection of the ship. Some of the passengers were disturbed by the incident. Renee Harris, wife of the American theatrical producer, suddenly found a stranger standing at her side, asking, “Do you love life?”
    “Yes, I love it.”
    “That was a bad omen. Get off this ship at Cherbourg, if we get that far. That’s what I’m going to do.”
    Mrs. Harris just laughed, believing, like so many others, in the unsinkability of the Titanic, but later she would recall that she never saw the man on board again. 23
    Finally the Titanic was clear of the docks and steaming down the Southampton Water at half speed. Soon she came up to Calshot Spit, where she slowed to make the difficult turn to starboard into the Thorn Channel. A few minutes later came the sharp right-angled turn to port around the West Bramble buoy, leading into the deep-water channel that flowed past the Cowes Roads, Spithead, and the Nab. As the Titanic passed the Royal Yacht Squadron at West Cowes, passengers and crew noticed crowds lining the promenade to catch a glimpse of the beautiful new White Star liner, while sitting out in the Solent roads in a small open boat, a local pharmacist and amateur maritime photographer named Frank Beken waited patiently for the great ship to pass. Camera at the ready, he was to take some of the most memorable photographs of the Titanic ever made. Captain Smith.recognized the young man from previous encounters in the Solent Roads, and he knew Beken’s work, so with a smile gave four blasts on the Titanic’s whistle in a salute. It was a moment that Beken would never forget. 24
    Sweeping past Spithead, the Titanic dipped her colors to the squadron of destroyers