ARRIVAL OF THE R.M.S. COPTIC [at Wellington with E.J. Smith in command]
The Evening Post, Wellington, New Zealand
The S.S. & A. Company’s R.M.S. Coptic anchored in the harbour at 8.40 this
morning. She left London on 12th December, Plymouth 14th, and reached
Teneriffe on 19th; left again on the following morning, crossed the Equator
on the 26th, and reached the Cape on the 6th January, leaving same day, and
arrived at Hobart at midnight on 25th; left again at 7.38 pm on 27th, passed
Cape Farewell last evening, and arrived as above. She was berthed alongside
the Queen’s Wharf at 10.15 am. The voyage throughout was a pleasant one,
fine weather prevailing during the voyage, and the usual amusements were
indulged in. Shortly after leaving Teneriffe Charles Lenham, a steerage
steward, died of apoplexy. Her officers have been entirely changed on this
trip, which is the first since she went aground on the Brazilian coast on
her homeward voyage. She is now commanded by Captain Edward J. Smith, from
the R.M.S. Celtic, Atlantic trade, with H. St. G. Lindsay and A. E. Acheson
first and second officer respectively, and Mr A. Cameron purser, from the
same vessel; F. R. Clark and H. Burbidge, both from the Ionic, are third and
fourth officer respectively.
Masters of the Sea
Town and Country
by A. I. M.
The Personal Side of Some of the Popular Captains of Atlantic Liners
Captain E. J. Smith, of the White Star line steamship Majestic, has followed the calling of seamanship since 1869 when he was nineteen years of age. For eleven years he was in sailing vessels, rising to a command in 1876. He joined the White Star fleet in 1880 as fourth officer on the old Celtic. His first command in this service was the Republic, in 1887. He has been on the Majestic for nearly seven years taking her on two trips as a transport to South Africa at the beginning of the hostilities there. On one of these trips he visited the estate of the late Cecil Rhodes, outside of Capetown.
THE BIGGEST LINER IS NOW IN PORT
New York Times
Adriatic Arrives After a Very Successful Maiden Voyage
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NO JARS ON THE TRIP
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Passengers Give Praise for Smoothness of Voyage on New White Star Liner
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The Adriatic, the biggest of transatlantic liners afloat, arrived here
at the end of her maiden voyage across the Atlantic yesterday afternoon.
She is a stately and dignified craft, and among all the saloon
passengers who crossed in her there was not one who did not agree with
the officers that there is not a better vessel afloat when it comes to
steadiness in rough seas, easy going in smooth ones, and general
all-around comfort in all kinds of weather. The liner is one of the most
luxuriously appointed afloat, and is in a class by herself in that she
is equipped with a modern Turkish bath apartment, in addition to all the
other innovations.
Outwardly the Adriatic resembles the Baltic, Cedric, and Celtic, the
other giant ships of the White Star Line, but she is far superior when
her interior arrangements are taken into consideration. The beauty of
her decorations, the elaborateness of her furnishings, and the roominess
and airiness of her apartments have been told in the newspapers time and
again, the result being that her coming has long been an event looked
forward to with the keenest interest by that part of the public
sometimes called “transatlantic voyagers.”
The voyage of the Adriatic was a most creditable for a maiden effort,
and all hands were profuse in their congratulations of Capt. Smith and
his staff for the splendid way in which they handled the liner on her
way across. Not a slip was made, and not ajar was felt, said one of the
passengers, while another enthusiast declared that it had not been for
the sight of the ocean through port hole and cabin window, they would
hardly have realized that they were at sea, so steady and regular was
the big liner in all kinds of weather.
Congressman Bourke Cockran described the liner as “the embodiment of
human skill over natural obstacles,” while J. Bruce Ismay, President of
the International Mercantile Marine Company, who was also a passenger,
admitted the company’s pride in its latest acquisition. Of course, the
fact that the engines of the liner are new and are still “untuned,” as
the sailors put it, made it necessary for the engineering staff to be
constantly on the watch to see that every piece of machinery worked as
it was intended. Later, when the engines get into their natural stride
and the engineers become thoroughly familiarized with their new jobs,
the Adriatic, according to officers and crew, can be expected to perform
a great deal better than she did on this unusually creditable maiden
effort.
Only one accident marred the passage of the Adriatic, and that happened
while the liner was being warped into her pier yesterday afternoon.
Among the passengers was R. C. Kerens, Republican National Committeeman
from Missouri, Mrs. Kerens, and their two children, Miss Gladys and R.
C. Kerens, Jr. Young Mr. Kerens was waving his hand to his brother, who
was on the pier, when he slipped and fell. In falling he struck his jaw
against one of the iron stanchions and dislocated it. Fortunately Dr.
Ingram of Roosevelt Hospital was on the pier, and assisted by Dr. W. F.
N. O’Loughlin, the surgeon of the Adriatic, set the jaw after fifteen
minutes’ work. Mr. Kerens was in intense agony, but the doctors said
that his recovery would probably be rapid.
ADRIATIC GOT ON A MUD BANK
New York Times
White Star Liner Stuck Fast Five Hours Till a Tug Hauled Her Off
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The big White Star Line steamship Adriatic, incoming with many cabin
passengers, spent five hours early yesterday morning on a mud bank on the
southern edge of the Ambrose Channel. She ran her nose in the mud at 3 A.
M., and got into deep water again at 8 o’clock with the assistance of a
Merritt-Chapman wrecking tug.
At the time the Adriatic stuck fast most of her passengers were asleep. The
weather was hazy at the time and the vessel was proceeding under reduced
speed. There was no shock when she went on the soft bottom at the edge of
the channel, and what few passengers knew she was fast were only warned by
the sudden stoppage of her engines and the confusion of sailors running
about the decks to obey quick orders.
As soon as the vessel grounded Capt. Smith notified the officers here by
wireless, and within a few minutes a wrecking tug was sent to her
assistance. There was no alarm among the passengers on board, and before
they were up the vessel was free from the mud and on her way to Quarantine.
CHANGE IN COMMODORES
New York Times
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Capt. E. J. Smith, R. N. R., the Commodore of the White Star Line, who is to command the new mammoth liner Olympic, will retire at the end of the present year, it is understood, as he will have reached the age limit. He will be relieved by Capt. H. J. Haddock of the Oceanic, a naval reserve commander, the only skipper in the Atlantic trade who wears the mid-Victorian mutton chop whiskers without a beard or mustache.The second big liner, the Titanic, which is to enter the New York-Southampton service toward the end of the year, will be commanded, it is said, either by Capt. B. H. Hayes of the Adriatic or Capt. Henry Smith. To mark the advent of the Olympic into the service the pay of the Commodore of the White Star Line has been increased from $5,000 to $6,000 a year, which will be the highest pay in the Atlantic trade. The salary of the Captain of the Titanic will be $5,000 unless he should happen to be the Commodore of the fleet.Owing to the fact that the first voyage of the Olympic will be made while the coronation is taking place, Lord Pirrie, head of Harland & Wolff’s shipyard at Belfast, where she was built, and a number of invited guests, will cross from Southampton to New York on the second voyage, arriving here on July 19. The party will stay at the Ritz-Carlton while the Olympic is here.
The Olympic has been open to the public in Liverpool and Southampton at a charge of 60 cents each person, the proceeds being handed over to local charities. The officials of the White Star Line in Liverpool, when asked for passes for their families had to pay for tickets, it was said, the same as the ordinary public. On her arrival here the new leviathan will be open for inspection at 50 cents admission, which will be given to the charitable organizations in New York City. When the Oceanic came out in 1899 the same charge was made, and a sum of $10,000 was thus obtained for local charities.
DISASTER AT LAST BEFALLS CAPT. SMITH
New York Times
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WHITE STAR’S BEST OFFICER
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Declared Only Recently That He Did Not Believe Modern Ships Could Be Sunk
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Capt. E. J. Smith, into whose hands the passengers on the Titanic entrusted themselves on the voyage which will never be forgotten in the list of great sea disasters, has followed the sea from his boyhood. For forty years it was his proud boast that he had had an uneventful life. That is why he was promoted to the highest post in the gift of the White Star line. Events came crowding upon him only in the Winter of his life, and with events came misfortune.He rose from the ranks. As a boy, in 1869, he went on the Senator Weber, an American clipper, serving as an apprentice. In 1876 he shipped with the square rigger Lizzie Fennel as fourth officer, and in 1880 he had risen to the rank of fourth officer of the old White Star line steamship Celtic—the nominal ancestor of the present vessel of that name. In 1887 he went to the Republic as Captain and later to the Baltic.
Thus he saw service and held command on the old vessels for which the present giants of the White Star Line are named. Later Capt. Smith took command of the freighter Cufic and then the Runic. Then he went to the old Adriatic, the Celtic, Britannic, Coptic in the Australian trade; the Germanic, Majestic, Baltic, and then to the Adriatic. In all this time he served the line quietly and his name was seldom heard. His rise in rank and importance was commensurate with the safe uneventfulness of his command.
When, in 1907, he came to this port in command of the Adriatic on her maiden trip he said:
“When any one asks me how I can best describe my experiences of nearly forty years at sea I merely say uneventful. Of course, there have been Winter gales and storms and fog and the like, but in all my experience I have never been in an accident of any sort worth speaking about. I have seen but one vessel in distress in all my years at sea, a brig, the crew of which was taken off in a small boat in charge of my third officer. I never saw a wreck and have never been wrecked, nor was I ever in any predicament that threatened to end in disaster of any sort.
“The love of the ocean that took me to sea as a boy,” he added, “has never left me. In a way, a certain amount of wonder never leaves me, especially as I observe from the bridge a vessel plunging up and down in the trough of the seas, fighting her way through and over great waves. A man never outgrows that.”
Capt. Smith maintained that shipbuilding was such a perfect art nowadays that absolute disaster, involving the passengers on a great modern liner, was quite unthinkable. Whatever happened, he contended, there would be time before the vessel sank to save the lives of every person on board.
“I will go a bit further,” he said. “I will say that I cannot imagine any condition which could cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that.”
The first misfortune came into Capt. Smith’s life but recently. That was when the great Olympic, sister ship of the Titanic, was rammed by the British cruiser Hawke, off the Isle of Wight, on Sept. 20, 1911. A great hole was stove into her steel ribs, and she was forced to put back to Southampton. The Hawke, even more badly damaged, put over to Portsmouth for repairs. The Hawke was at first blamed for the accident, but the British Court of Admiralty, after a long investigation, decided that her commander was blameless in the matter, inasmuch as his ship had been drawn out of its course and toward the Olympic by the tremendous suction of the Olympic’s engines and the swish of water alongside her as she passed.
In February last, on her way over here, the Olympic under Capt. Smith suffered another accident when she lost a propeller blade at sea. She was able to complete her journey here, nevertheless, under her own steam.
The fact that despite these recent misadventures the old Captain was not only retained in the employ of the White Star Line, but even was entrusted with the biggest and most responsible command in their power as soon as their largest vessel, the Titanic, was launched, showed the esteem and trust in which he was held by the line.
Captain Smith Believed Titanic To Be Unsinkable
Washington Times
That Captain Smith believed the Titanic and the Olympic to be absolutely unsinkable is recalled by a man who had a conversation with the veteran commander on a recent voyage of the Olympic.
The talk was concerning the accident in which the British warship Hawke rammed the Olympic.
“The commander of the Hawke was entirely to blame,” commented a young officer who was in the group. “He was ‘showing off’ his warship before a throng of passengers and made a miscalculation.”
Captain Smith smiled enigmatically at the theory advanced by his subordinate, but made no comment as to this view of the mishap.
“Anyhow,” declared Captain Smith, “the Olympic is unsinkable, and the Titanic will be the same when she is put in commission.”Why,” he continued, “either of these vessels could be cut in halves and each half would remain afloat indefinitely. The non-sinkable vessel has been reached in these two wonderful craft.”
“I venture to add,” concluded Captain Smith, “that even if the engines and boilers of these vessels were to fall through their bottoms the vessels would remain afloat.”
E.J. Smith (Sea Captain) 