Page 47 - Titanic: Forbidden Stories Hollywood Forgot

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 attired 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

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