Countdown to Disaster

The Last Days of the R.M.S. Titanic

Saturday, April 6, 1912

 Saturday, April 6th, 1912 was, of course, Holy Saturday. This day was, for Titanic, a much more active day than the previous day, and was to be much more active than anything expected on the next day. Much of the ship's cargo is brought aboard today – almost 500 tons of it in all – in about 11,524 individual pieces. While this was going on, in the area around Titanic's Berth 44, dockyard workers scrambled about the port loading more coal (from various shipping and coaling ports) into the ship's boiler rooms. The process of lugging all this coal to the ship lasted the full 24 hours of the day. After this, with areas of the ship covered in a layer of soot, the ship's "boots men" (whose jobs were to clean both shoes, and on occasion, the ship herself), led by 34-year-old S. Stebbing were called into action. They cleaned the areas of ship covered by the fine black dust, and apparently did a fine job of it as well.

 Today was also the recruitment day for the majority of Titanic's crew. The White Star's hiring halls were packed with the seamen, eager to put their names down for a spot on the new ship on her maiden voyage. 228 men came from the British Seafarer's Union and about 100 men were from the National Sailor's Union and the Firemen's Union alone. These men were all eager to get back to work, now that the national coal strike had finally been ended this day due to the hard work of Prime Minister H. H. Asquith.

 The trouble had begun on January 12th, 1912, when the coal miners of Britain had voted overwhelmingly to go on strike until they would be allowed to receive minimum wages instead of the pittance they had been receiving as of late. Despite Prime Minister Asquith's best attempts to make for a peaceful negotiation, the strike began in late February, and, urged on by such socialist political leaders as Ben Tillett (who would later cause grief to White Star about conditions of 3rd Class Passengers), would become increasingly problematic for the shipping industry and the government alike. Despite the settlement on the 6th, large amounts of coal in Southampton would be scarce until about a week after the settlement. The White Star had already announced that the two Olympic Class vessels that would be making voyages this week, Olympic and Titanic would have their usual speed of 23 knots reduced to 20 knots to conserve coal.

 Now that the coal strikes were over, the seamen (who had been, since February, struggling to make a living) scrambled to sign on for any available ship, but many wanted Titanic, both because of the ship herself and her captain, the beloved EJ. The majority of the crewmembers were from Southampton, but there were also men from London, Liverpool, Belfast, and Queenstown. Several important additions were made to Titanic's crew today. Dr. Edward J. Simpson would be the Assistant Surgeon aboard the ship, working under the careful eye of Chief Surgeon William Francis Norman O'Loughlin, a man every bit as much beloved to passengers and crew alike as Captain Smith himself. A Londoner, Reginald Leonard Barker, signed on as Titanic's purser, to be paid the sum of 15 pounds per month. He would be demoted to Assistant Purser when yet another popular officer of the White Star, Hugh McElroy, was taken aboard as Chief Purser. White Star also transferred the likable Andrew J. Latimer from Olympic, to be Titanic's Chief Steward. It seemed that the White Star Line was, in a sense, assembling an 'all-star cast' for the Titanic's high-ranking officers aboard. The cream of the White Star were to be present, this would truly be a voyage to remember.

Countdown to Disaster has been prepared for ACT I by Titanic Researcher Addison Hart of DeKalb, Illinois.

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