#FRIDAY, April 12th, 1912: . With the rising of the sun, the majestic TITANIC, along with her compliment of 2,208 passengers & crew experience their 1st full day on the open #NorthAtlantic. The weather is clear & seas are calm. The atmosphere is one of joyful relaxation. . 8:00AM - Maintaining her SW course, the #Titanic is now traveling at a speed of 21.2 knots with her engines running at 72 revolutions per minute. Ahead of putting on more speed, her crew lit an additional double-ended boiler in #Boiler Room 2. Meanwhile most passengers & crew are still acquainting themselves with the ship... 2nd Officer Lightoller reflected years later... “I was thoroughly familiar with pretty well every type of #ship afloat but it took me 14 days before I could, with confidence, find my way from one part of that ship to another.” . 11:00am - #RMS #EmpressofBritain sends a congratulatory #message to the Titanic & wishes her well on her maiden voyage. Also passing along a warning of unusual #ice conditions that are being relayed across the #Atlantic from steamers out west. . 12:00PM - By noon the Titanic has covered 484 miles since leaving Queenstown. She is keeping a brisk pace, however, contrary to popular myth, she will not be going for any speed records on this trip. . 8:00pm - Another ice warning is relayed to the Titanic, this time from the French liner La Tourraine. The messages are sent to the bridge, however, the position is far to the west & ahead of the Titanic. By the time she even remotely nears the area, these particular bergs will have long since drifted south. . 11.00 PM - A sudden short in Titanic's Marconi system causes the ship’s wireless radio to go down for hours. Company policy dictates that in the event of failure, operators should refrain from making repairs themselves, and instead switch to the less powerful emergency set until an official #Marconi technician can perform the job onshore. Luckily for Titanic’s future #survivors , #JackPhillips ignores this policy, eventually finding the source of the short alongside #Haroldbride and patches it up around 5am. By then, the #Wireless room will be backlogged with messages. . . . #thisdayinhistory #ocean https://www.instagram.com/p/CcQmCdppFel/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
