Page 47 - Titanic: The Untold Tale of Gay Passengers and Crew

Titanic 33

Aboard Titanic. At sea. Westbound.
Sunday, 14 April, 1912

In the salons and smoking rooms, men toasted rumors of a
record crossing. Twenty-four of Titanic’s 30 boilers were in
ser vice with preparations underway to light the remaining
boilers for the next day’s speed test. Edward was too exhausted
from his night with the Stoker to accompany me to Sunday
services convened in the first-class dining saloon. “Out of
2,000 passengers,” Edward had gloated, “that coal-heaving
Stoker chose me.” Captain Smith read the service not from the
Book of Com mon Prayer, but from the White Star Line’s own
prayer book. Shortly after 11 AM, with the ship’s orchestra
halfway through “O God, Our Help in Ages Past,” I excused
myself with a wink to the indomitable Molly Brown seated
by my side. Even at service, Molly, dragged out in all her
flamboyant finery, stood out like a bright yellow satin flower
among the proper Astors and Vanderbilts and Ryersons at-
tired in their subdued churchgoing blues, browns, and blacks.
“Go get ’em, sailor,” she said.
I excused myself past the Thayers, the Carters, and Presi-
dent Taft’s traveling aide Major Archibald Butt, who himself,
I sensed, could hardly wait to ad journ to the fashionable à la
carte restaurant where the George D. Wideners were to host an
ele gant party break fast. Outside, near the Marconi Wireless
Telegraph room, where operators Bride and Phillips were
hard at work transmitting ship’s messages as well as passen-
ger messages to intermediary ves sels for relay to London and