literature

Titanic - Birth Of A Legend - Final Chapter

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With the fading light in Belfast, Titanic prepared to leave her birth place for good to join her sister, Olympic for transatlantic service. Thomas Andrews gathered his prized "Guarantee Group", the troubleshooting team for the maiden voyage, eight trusted men, among them Roderick Chisholm, Artie Frost and Alfie Cunningham. But Thomas Millar was also there must had seen a happy accident. He gave his sons a penny each.

"These are yours," he said. "Don't spend until I come back. We'll be even richer then."

Artie Frost, we know was sure of promotion for his return and Alfie's hard work had also paid off. The shipyard had named him "Apprentice Of The Year". His future was secured.

Kane was among the crew, excited to see that White Star's flagship was ready to for her transatlantic service debut. The company had award him "Student of The Year" for his hard training. As an extra reward he was to being half of the command of Titanic while Captain Smith still had full power to be in charge of her. Every man boarded Titanic in hope and expectation.

"We'll see you in a couple of weeks." Thomas Andrews said to everyone.

An hour later, Titanic left Belfast for the last time to head to Southampton, a voyage of about 570 nautical miles, 660 mi or 1,060 km. After a journey lasting about twenty eight hours she arrived about midnight on April 4th and was towed to the port's Berth 44, ready for the arrival of her passengers and the remainder of her crew.

Ten days later on the night of April 14th, 1912, Titanic, the biggest ship in the world, meet her fate with an iceberg, shaped by nature, six times her size. She carried 2,224 passengers and crew but had lifeboats for only half that number. As rivets popped and steel plates parted by the iceberg's blow, half a dozen gashes left Titanic mortally wounded. She had been designed to stay afloat with up to four of her compartments flooded. Under the iceberg's impact, five compartments had been sprung open. It would be too much for the ship to handle, let alone stay afloat. The exact nature of the damage will never be known but eye witnesses at the American and British inquires were very clear, water coming in along the starboard side and were clearly able to work out what had gone wrong in that section of the ship.

Six years in the making of planning and building, RMS Titanic, the pride of the White Star Line, sank in two hours and forty minutes, taking fifteen hundred lives with her to her watery grave.

Thomas Andrews was said to have helped many lives to escape. He was last seen alone in the First Class Smoking Room. Artie Frost was witnessed heading down into the engine room. The body of Roderick Chisholm was never recovered. Alfie Cunningham, 21 years old, was reported among the survivors... it was a case of mistaken identity and Thomas Millar died alongside his former workmates. All of the "Guarantee Group", the men who built the Titanic, died on board their ship.

Captain Smith was among the many lives lost. His death would never be known but was mostly certain that he went down with his ship. Titanic's owner, Bruce Ismay, did find a place in the lifeboats, a disgrace that finished his career. The inquires into the sinking cleared the shipbuilders of blame but Lord Pirrie's heath was broken. He died with his business, almost bankrupt.

For Titanic's elder sister ship, Olympic, she would live on for 35 years with an impressive and outstanding career. She would retire in 1934 and be scrapped the following year in 1935. Their youngest sister, Gigantic, later renamed Britannic, would be launched in February,1914 to take Titanic's place... but she would never get to see the life that she was to have when World War I broke out. She would be converted to a hospital ship, and, like Titanic herself, would meet and early demise and sink in fifty five minutes after hitting a mine off the Island of Kea with the loss of thirty lives.

Kane was among the survivors but was not even mentioned and became a forgotten crew member. In the aftermath of the Titanic disaster, he would resign from the White Star Line and go into retirement. The loss of Titanic deeply effected him that he suffered a major and emotional breakdown. But later in 1924, he recovered and returned to the White Star Line to serve on Olympic for 10 years until retiring in 1934.

Titanic's loss effected everyone around the world... as the decades past, her legend grew. Documentaries, books and films would be made that would add fuel to her legend and later a new generation of Titanic Buffs would be inspired by her.
The final chapter of Titanic - Birth Of A Legend... it shows what happened to Titanic the lives lost on her and the aftermath that followed including what happened to my alter ego, Kane. However, there's just one more piece of this story to go.

Olympic :iconrms-olympic:
© 2014 - 2024 KaneTakerfan701
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RMS-OLYMPIC's avatar
This has been a wonderful story...but a sad one. Kane loved Titanic as if she were his sweetheart, and her loss cut through him as it does us all. :cries: