A Night to Remember

With the Titanic’s maiden voyage approaching, many cabins were still vacant. To encourage passengers to reserve their passage on the Titanic, the White Star Line appointed Edward James Smith as her captain. Smith had become popular among ocean liner passengers, especially first-class passengers, whom he courted and wined and dined, but he didn’t have a stellar reputation. The year before the Titanic set sail, Smith had crewed the maiden voyage of the Olympic, one of the Titanic’s sister ships, which collided with a tugboat while docking in New York. Three months later, leaving Southampton, the British Naval Cruiser Hawk collided with the Olympic, and the Olympic experienced serious damage and flooding. The Titanic, as the most impressive, state-of-the-art ship built to date, was highly technologically advanced, and many historians noted that Smith, while an experienced Captain, hadn’t demonstrated professional development commensurate with taking advantage of all of her features.

Reports vary as to the whereabouts of Captain Smith at the eventual time of his death; accounts claiming that he was seen in the water are largely disregarded, and the most likely scenario is that he was in the wheelhouse of the ship when he met his fate. At a certain juncture, Captain Smith dismissed the crew, thanking them for their service to the White Star Line and informing them that they were no longer bound by their obligations to their professions but should do whatever they could to save themselves. While his contemporaries were reluctant to blame him, many historians associate Captain Smith with some of the factors which led to the Titanic’s sinking. As Captain, he bore ultimate responsibility.

Thomas Andrews began his nautical career in 1889 at the age of 16, when he became an intern at his uncle’s shipbuilding company, Harland & Wolff of Belfast, Ireland. His expertise grew with experience, and he rose through the ranks, occupying several positions in various departments. By 1907, as both managing director and head of the drafting department at Harland & Wolff, Andrews oversaw the design of the Olympic, the Titanic, and the Britannic. Andrews was considered not only an exceptionally talented architect but a man of unimpeachable character—kind, considerate, and intuitive. Lord writes of Andrews, “He understood ships the way some men are supposed to understand horses” (28).

Andrews and a cadre of representatives from the company were on board the Titanic for her maiden voyage, part of a guarantee offered by Harland & Wolff as a means of assessing how she performed at sea—and of planning adjustments and improvements that could be made in advance of future crossings. Most of Andrews’s time during the voyage was devoted to scrutinizing all facets of the Titanic’s operation, from opportunities for mechanical and engineering streamlining, to optimizing the way service was delivered to passengers, to reconsidering certain aesthetic choices in her design. Andrews’s diligence was evidence of Harland & Wolff’s dedication to their craftsmanship, and his conduct in interacting with crew and passengers following the impact with the iceberg reflected the sense of responsibility he felt for the people who were sailing on a ship built by his company. He was 39 years old when he died aboard the Titanic, last seen in quiet contemplation in the first-class smoking room around two o’ clock in the morning.