Titanic had many Liverpool links, reports Peter Elson
Apr 24 2009 Liverpool Daily Post
ALTHOUGH she never visited Liverpool, Titanic had strong links with her home port.
Planning for her maiden voyage, including the selection of her officers, was made by Charles Bartlett, White Star’s marine superintendent at Liverpool.
Some 90 crew on that voyage (10%) were from Merseyside. Most of her key officers and crew had originally sailed from Liverpool for White Star, and many still lived here.
Her master, Capt Edward Smith, was based on Merseyside for 40 years, with a home in Marine Terrace, Waterloo.
He often visited his brother, who ran a pub in Runcorn.
Of the eight heroic musicians in Titanic’s band, five were recruited by music agents CW and FN Black, of 14, Castle Street, Liverpool.
Fred Clarke, of 22 Tunstall Street, off Smithdown Road, was bass violist with the ship's band, who played on while the Titanic sank.
Titanic’s huge kitchen ranges were made by Henry Wilson, Cornhill Works, Liverpool.
Carpathia, which rescued all surviving passengers, was a Liverpool liner, as was Californian, which was nearest, but didn’t answer Titanic’s distress calls.
Liverpudlian Fred Fleet, Titanic’s look-out, who spotted the iceberg, always claimed that, if he had been supplied with binoculars, the ship might have been saved.
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