Read Online Voyagers of the Titanic by Richard Davenport-Hines - Free Book Online

cheering mass of people. Not a window, however small, but had a little flag or handkerchief waving from it, as we slowly passed to the accompaniment of shrill tootings from everything afloat that had a whistle to blow.” Thousands of inquisitive sightseers crowded on board during the next forty-eight hours with strident and sometimes inane questions. On the second night, White Star invited its six hundred agents, drawn from across the United States, to inspect the liner and enjoy a boozy dinner. “As the hours wore on, both they and their steward escorts—by now more or less on a brotherly footing—began to show signs of wear,” Jessop recalled. “At 3 A.M ., there was a lull in the convivial din, after which men were found sprawling asleep in the most out-of-the-way places: inside baths and half under beds, where they had seemingly dropped in their tracks . . . Others wandered aimlessly about, apparently lost and muttering for some guiding soul to rescue them. It took many hours to reunite coats, hats and shoes with their rightful owners but everyone voted the Olympic and its crew ‘swell.’ The surprise was that she was not burnt to the water’s edge, seeing the masses of cigarette and cigar ends swept up next day, and the burnt patches that could not be swept up.” 5
    The Olympic replicated the amenities that the rich expected of their luxury hotels in New York or the European capitals and watering places. Lord Winterton, who crossed from New York on her in 1912, recorded his pleasure in his diary. “She really is a fine ship. Exceeds one’s imagination. Racquet Court, Gymnasium, Swimming Bath, Restaurant, & Public Rooms are splendid. Decorations all over in real and not (as generally at sea) in tawdry taste. Food in Restaurant quite excellent. No ‘shippy’ smell.” His cabin was larger than the bedroom of his bachelor chambers in Mayfair, and his first day on board delighted him: “one really feels as if one was in a Sea-Side Hotel.” The other first-class passengers included the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland, their daughter Lady Rosemary Leveson-Gower, Lord Alistair Kerr, and several American youths going up to Oxford or Cambridge. Life on land seemed drab to Winterton after the Olympic . “A glorious blue sky & warm sun in the Solent, and we were able to sit out on deck and listen to the band. Got to Southampton at 2 P.M . & found a dirty old train, with no Sunday papers on sale, labelled as the ‘White Star’ Express. This was our welcome to England!! Before reaching London, we ran into dense grey sooty fog.” 6
    Ismay and Andrews traveled on the Olympic ’s maiden voyage and made close observations that resulted in changes to the plans for the Titanic . The second ship, which was three inches longer, thus came nearer to White Star’s ideal of perfection. Ismay decided that some of the deck space on the Olympic was superfluous and should be allotted for passenger cabins on the Titanic, which was able to accommodate 163 more passengers than its sister ship—mostly in first class. On both the top deck, known as the boat deck, and the upper promenade deck, known as A deck, more cabins were added. Moreover, on the promenade deck, known as B, two specially spacious first-class suites were installed comprising a sitting room, two bedrooms, a bathroom, and servants’ quarters—for which £870 a trip would be charged at the height of the season. Each of these suites had a private promenade deck, protected from the sea winds by steel screens pierced by large windows and ornamented by mock-Elizabethan half-timbered walls and bogus oak beams on the ceiling. One of these princely suites was allocated for Pierpont Morgan’s use whenever he crossed the Atlantic. Ismay also fussed about the potato peeler in the crew’s galley, wanted cigar holders to be fitted in first-class lavatories, found the beds too springy, and stipulated that sliding glass windows should be installed on the A deck promenade to