So these chapters onboard the Titanic will coincide with my other story A love to remember but will obviously focus around Murdoch and Lights, so it will be the same but different, yeah that makes perfect sense.
Disclaimer: the same as usual
RMS Titanic, 2 April 1912
Murdoch was reaching for his cup of tea in the office room onboard the Titanic, when the captain turned to him and asked, "Anything to report chief, anything we should know about before we begin the trials?"
After taking a sip of his tea, Murdoch thought for a moment before coming to a conclusion. "Nothing yet, sir".
The captain smiled happily "Aye, good. How about you Mr Lightoller?"
Lights turned from his duties to report to the captain. "We are taking men here in Belfast and then on in Southampton, no problems so far, sir".
The captain turned to David Blair "Mr Blair?"
The young second officer smiled at the captain. "Well if a second officer is allowed to complain, sir, the storage space is limited; I'm packing equipment all over the place".
Lights and the captain chuckled. "Well make sure someone knows where it is, we don't want to be caught short if you fall over board". The captain joked. Murdoch, who had been listening, wanted to ask the captain something but didn't know quite how to put his question forward, so he decided to keep it plain and simple.
"Are we taking any measures against the anarchists, sir?"
The captain blinked looking confused by his chief officer's question "What?"
"These are dangerous times" Murdoch said trying to explain further but to no avail as the captain still seemed to be confused over his question.
"I think what officer Murdoch means to say is, that a ship as famous as Titanic is an obvious target, sir" Lights said quickly to back up his friend, Murdoch turned around to face Lights, giving him a thankful look.
The captain placed his tea on the table beside him and sighed "Gentlemen, all white star liners carry guns and i don't think a bomb would do enough damage to take us down but I'm afraid that's all I can say to reassure you" the officers nod in acceptance to his answer. The captain picked up his tea and turns to look at a big map, which is placed on the wall. "Truth is man may sink us even if nature can't" and with that the officers turn and start walking towards the bridge.
"Thanks with helping me back there" Murdoch said appreciatively as he walked next to Lights.
"Hey, what are first officers for? Besides we all know how you like to make trouble" Lights laughed elbowing Murdoch playfully.
"Come on, we better make sure she gets to the sea" Murdoch said as they travelled up to the bridge.
Shortly before 6:00am the tugs that would guide the Titanic from her berth to the open water arrived. Harland and Wolff's own tug Hercules was position at the bow, Huskisson at the port side of the stern and the Herculaneum at the starboard side. The small tugboats began to lead the Titanic down the Belfast Lough until they were two miles from Carrickfergus. The tugs stopped, casting off their lines and stood clear of the huge liner. The bell of the telegraph sounded to signal 'half ahead' and was repeated down below in the engine room. The valves were opened to allow steam to travel from the boilers and into the two huge engines and slowly, but surely Titanic's propellers started to turn and for the first time she moved under her own power.
As Titanic headed out to the Irish Sea to begin her sea trials, Murdoch stood there inhaling the salty sea air and closed his eyes as he felt the cool breeze hit his face, when he opened them he found Captain Smith standing next to him. "Begin the trials, chief" the captain ordered with a smile on his face.
"Yes, sir" Murdoch said without hesitation, keen to follow the order from the captain.
Murdoch started the trials by doing a 'crash stop' in which the engines are reversed from full ahead to full astern, bringing the ship to a stop, which Murdoch calculated took 3 minutes and 15 seconds. Other tests included her turning ability, whilst she was travelling straight ahead, the wheel was ordered hard over, and the circle Titanic travelled had a diameter of 3,850yards. The final test was the lowering of her port and starboard anchors. All in all the trials took over 12 hours to complete.
Titanic returned to Belfast at 7pm, Mr Carruthers who was the Board of Trade surveyor was pleased with how the trials went and signed the certificate with Thomas Andrews enabling the Titanic's ply of trade. But unfortunately for the crew there was no time to rest as they were scheduled to leave for Southampton within the hour. There was just enough time for Murdoch and the other officers to do their rounds, making sure that Titanic had everything she needed for her trip.
At last Titanic was ready to leave Belfast for the first – and last – time as she headed out for Southampton at 8:00pm. After a journey which lasted for 28 hours Titanic finally arrived at her destination at midnight, 4 April. As the Titanic entered the waters of Southampton she was met by five tugs from the Red Water Line, they all combined to guide her into Berth 44, the place where she would depart from in little under seven days.
So here we are at last, on the ship of dreams. Does anyone else think its weird how the trials for Olympic took two days whereas trials for Titanic took 1 day? So this chapter is really more about facts than the actually story I guess but I have given you some fun facts for today.
Also I've started writing a new story for RMS Olympic which will be the deleted scenes from this story besides she served for 24 years and survived the first world war, she deserves to have her own story rather than sharing one with her younger sister.