Like Cherboug, Queenstown was too small to accommodate a liner the size of the Titanic and so, when she arrived at 11:30pm on the 11th, anchor was dropped , two miles off shore. Two White Star tenders, America and Ireland, then ferried the 113 third-class and 7 -second class passengers, plus 1,385 sacks of mail, out to the waiting Titanic. As usual, even these tenders, the passengers were segregated by class.
Seven passengers, who had paid 4 pounds to travel first-class from Southampton, disembarked. Among them was 32-year old teacher and student priest Francis Browne. A keen photographer, Browne took the last surviving pictures from aboard the Titanic, including a poignant shot of Captain Smith gazing from down from the bridge.
In the frenzied activity that accompanies any stopover, one crewman managed to desert ship. John Coffey, a 24-year old fireman born in Queenstown, hid in a pile of mailbags and smuggled himself ashore. It would appear that he had used the Titanic as a means of getting a free trip home.
During the wait at Queenstown, passengers on the Titanic were able to buy goods from a flotilla of small boats that had sailed out with the White Star tenders. From one of the enterprising salesmen, Colonel John Jacob Astor bought a 165 pound lace shawl for his young wife.
At 1:30pm, the Titanic, ow with the American flag flying , left Queenstown to begin the long haul across the Atlantic to New York, where he was due to arrive on the morning of 17 April. As the ship's engines thundered into action, passenger Eugene Daly, newly boarded at Queenstown, played a mournful tune on the bagpipes called 'Erin's Lament" It was a form of farewell to his country. Soon green hills of Ireland receded into the distance and the Titanic vanished over the horizon. Three-quarters on board would never see land again.
The Making of History
| Owners | A
Grand Design | Construction | Sister
Ships - Olympic and Britannic
|
| Strict Segregation | Outdated
Lifeboat regulations | The Aura of Invincibility
|
| Launch | Specifications
|
Leaving for the New World
| Southampton | Southampton
- The New York and a Near Miss | Cherbourg
| Queenstown |
Provisions |
Passenger Lists
| First Class | Second
Class | Third Class |
Alphabtical list | Crew
| The Band |
Lifeboat Lists
| Lifeboats 1- 3 | Lifeboats
4 - 6 | Lifeboats 7-9 | Lifeboats
10-12 | Lifeboats 13 -16 |
Collapsibles |
Aftermath
| American Inquiry |
| Causes - An extract from February 1995 Edition
of Popular Mechanic |
Facts and Figures
| Harland and Wolff's 101 Answers to
the most asked questions about the RMS Titanic |