At noon on Wednesday, 10th April 1912, the White Star liner R.M.S. Titanic cast her lines from the White Star Dock and began what was to become the most famous maiden voyage in history.

With Captain Edward J. Smith on the bridge and towed by the tug ‘Neptune’, assisted by tugs ‘Hercules’, ‘Albert Edward’, ‘Hector’, ‘Ajax’ and ‘Vulcan’, the huge liner was manoeuvred into the River Test.

Rodney Charman has lived all his life near Southampton and has vivid memories of seeing the great liners ‘Queen Mary’, ‘Queen Elizabeth’ and ‘Mauretania’ from the trains that passed very close to the dry docks there. He also remembers “going on a passenger ferry to view the ‘SS United States’ as she arrived on her maiden voyage. I toured the ‘Queen Mary’ when she was at the Ocean Dock, as the White Star Dock was renamed, and have made a few voyages from Southampton Docks”.

Rodney’s painting shows the ‘Titanic’ as she is edged away from the dockside, the ‘Neptune’ towing and tugs ‘Albert Edward’, ‘Hercules’ and ‘Vulcan’ at her bow. On the left of the painting are the White Star liner ‘Majestic’, and the American Line steamers ‘Philadelphia’ and ‘St. Louis’, each in its day the greatest liner in the world, now dwarfed by the enormous ‘Titanic’. The three liners had had their voyages cancelled due to a coal strike, and their coal and many of their crew were transferred to the ‘Titanic’. In the background can be seen the Southwestern Hotel where many of the passengers stayed on the eve of the voyage.

Image size: 23" wide x 16" high.

R. M. S. Titanic by Rodney Charman
850 Limited Edition prints w/ONE signature.	US $175

Signed by Millvina Dean, sole British survivor of the Titanic.