She then unrolled a couple of smaller newspaper clippings, one of which was dated 20th April 1912 from the Connaught Telegraph. ‘Immediately the news reached Castlebar, one of the local agents for the White Star Line, Mr. Thomas Durcan, wired to the head office in Liverpool and received the following reply:- Liverpool. 4.30 p.m. Tuesday. "Referring to your telegram re. Titanic, deeply regret to say that latest word received is steamer foundered; about 675 souls, mostly women and children saved." The presumption is that all the passengers booked by Mr. Durcan have been lost, still there is a hope that some of the females may have been rescued. In the list of Survivors published on Thursday the name of Miss Maggie Murphy appeared.’
CHAPTER 14
Grace continued reading the newspaper clippings and the scrawled pages of Maggie’s journal, late into the night. She was so completely immersed in Maggie’s Titanic world she barely noticed day turn to dusk and eventually to the darkness of evening, absorbing every last detail as Maggie described life on board the ship; every thread on the linen tablecloths in the room where they ate their meals, the friendly manner of the crew, the steward she referred to as Lucky Harry who seemed to have befriended Maggie and some of the other younger girls in their group, the sounds of the Uilleann pipes and fiddles played in the general room after dinner, the sparkle of the diamonds Maggie saw on the fingers of some of the First Class ladies during mass. She read each page of the journal, lost in the thoughts of a seventeen-year-old girl, through whose eyes she saw this most famous of ships in an entirely new light.
April 11th 1912
Day 1 at sea
…the third-class quarters are very nice. We have real mattresses on the beds and there is a reasonable amount of space – at least there is for the four of us sharing our cabin, number 115. The steward told us that there is a family of nine sleeping in the cabin next to ours and that it is exactly the same size. I asked him how they could fit everyone in. He told me there are two in each bed and the baby sleeps in a suitcase on the floor. I can hardly believe how cramped that must be and feel a bit guilty that we have this space just for the four of us. Peggy says she reckons you’d be able to fit one of our cabins into the First Class rooms four times over and still have space for a set-dance. It is an unbelievably big boat - we’ve been wandering around the ship for hours now and I don’t think we’ve even seen one whole side of it.
…. Peggy is dying to see the First Class quarters and Katie heard someone saying there are eight giant crystal chandeliers in the First Class dining room. I think my eyes would pop right out of their sockets if I saw such a sight!
… I think about Séamus a lot and hope his Da is getting better. I took the packet of letters from my coat pocket today and read the first one. It was so nicely written and the words were so kind it made me cry. He says he has written one letter for each of the fourteen months of our courtship together in Ballysheen – the first letter is called ‘January’ and he has written about his memories of the first night we danced at the Brennans’ wedding. He says he thought me lovelier than all of the stars that shone in the sky that night. I wish he was here with me now. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to explain to him what this ship is like – maybe he will sail on it himself one day if he can ever come to America to join me.
April 12th 1912
Day 2 at sea
……Peggy is complaining that the vibrations from the engines kept her awake last night. I think it’s quite a nice noise - a sort of humming sound like a big swarm of bees have set up a hive in the boiler room. Katie says Peggy should stop thinking about that English steward we met yesterday – she thinks it’s more likely him which is keeping Peggy awake at night and not the engines at all!
….I was lost earlier today! I’d been for some fresh air on the promenade deck and couldn’t find my way back to our cabin. I think I went down the wrong stairwell and ended up on D deck instead of E deck. Luckily there are always plenty of crew members around and I asked someone where I was. He walked me personally back to E deck and all the way down the crew passageway which he told me is called ‘Scotland Road’ to the place where our cabin is. I was glad to be back there. I gave myself quite a fright being separated from everyone like that. I think I’ll ask someone to come with me for fresh air next time.
…..the meals on board are very nice. We are already used to the call from the bugler who signals that we can make our way to the dining saloon where we sit at tables covered with white linen tablecloths! Today we had smoked herrings for breakfast, brawn for lunch and corned beef and cabbage for dinner. I think I’ll be needing some new clothes in America if I keep eating at this rate. To think that there’s a whole army of crewmen peeling our forty ton of spuds and carrots and boiling our forty thousand eggs while we sit on our backsides! Tea and biscuits are served in the afternoon. Katie says they have the biscuits laid out in such neat rows on the plates it would nearly stop you taking one so as not to break up the pattern.