Countdown to Disaster

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

Tuesday, April 9, 1912

 Tuesday, April 9th, 1912 was to be the last full day that the huge new liner Titanic would remain warped in Berth 44 at the White Star dock in Southampton. Food and provisions continued to be brought aboard her that day, and early that morning the ship was visited by Board of Trade surveyor, Captain Maurice Harvey Clarke. Clarke and Thomas Andrews inspected the ship with the help of 5th Officer Harold G. Lowe and 6th Officer James P. Moody. Clarke tested the Morse Lamp on the ship's wheelhouse, and afterwards fired one of Titanic's white signal rockets. He approved of them.

 Near the end of his inspection, Captain Clarke jumped into Lifeboat no. 11, and he had the two officers lower it for him from the davits. After spending a few minutes in the boat, testing it's sea-worthiness in a variety of ways, Clarke left, approving of everything he had inspected. Soon afterwards Captain E.J. Smith inspected the ship himself, with the help of Chief Officer Henry T. Wilde and First Officer William M. Murdoch. While on Titanic's bridge, a London photographer took a photograph of Captain Smith. It is the only known photograph of Smith on Titanic's bridge.

 Today was also the final day open to seamen to sign on at the White Star hiring halls as the new ship's crewmen. The former purser of Titanic's sister, Olympic, Mr. Hugh Walter McElroy, a popular thirty-eight year old from Liverpool, was transferred to be Titanic's chief purser, replacing Reginald Barker, who was made Assistant Purser. McElroy was the final choice made by White Star personally for the ship's crew, and he was most certainly a good one. Like Capt. Smith, Dr. O'Loughlin, and Chief Steward Latimer, Purser McElroy was beloved by passengers and crew alike. McElroy would be paid 20 pounds a month for his service aboard Titanic.

 That night, all the ship's officers, excluding the Captain, slept in their quarters aboard the ship. During the night, the ship's officers supervised the dock and kept regular watches over Titanic. Thomas Andrews wrote to his wife Helen that evening: "The Titanic is now about complete and will, I think, do the old firm credit tomorrow when we sail."  

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

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