the captain to join them, but he
turned away resolutely toward the bridge.

That act was significant. Courteous, kindly, of quiet demeanor and soft
words, he was known and loved by thousands of travelers.

When the English firm, A. Gibson & Co.9 of Liverpool, purchased the
American clipper, Senator Weber, in 1869, Captain Smith, then a boy,
sailed on her. For seven years he was an apprentice on the Senator
Weber, leaving that vessel to go to the Lizzie Fennell, a square rigger,
as fourth officer. From there he went to the old Celtic of the White
Star Line as fourth officer and in 1887 he became captain of that
vessel. For a time he was in command of the freighters Cufic and Runic;
then he became skipper of the old Adriatic. Subsequently he assumed
command of the Celtic, Britannic, Coptic (which was in the Australian
trade), Germanic, Baltic, Majestic, Olympic and Titanic, an illustrious
list of vessels for one man to have commanded during his career.

It was not easy to get Captain Smith to talk of his experiences. He had
grown up in the service, was his comment, and it meant little to him
that he had been transferred from a small vessel to a big ship and then
to a bigger ship and finally to the biggest of them all.

"One might think that a captain taken from a small ship and put on a big
one might feel the transition," he once said. "Not at all. The skippers
of the big vessels have grown up to them, year after year, through all
these years. First there was the sailing vessel and then what we would
now call small ships--they were big in the days gone by--and finally the
giants to-day."

{illust. caption = VESSEL WITH BOTTOM OF HULL RIPPED OPEN

A view of the torpedo destroyer Tiger, taken in drydock after her
collision with the Portland Breakwater last September; the damage to
the Tiger, which is plainly shown in the photograph, is of the same
character, though on a smaller scale, as that which was done to the
Titanic.}

{illust. caption = A VIEW OF THE OLYMPIC

The sister-ship of the Titanic, showing the damage done to her hull in
the collision with British war vessel, Hawke, in the British Channel.}

DISASTER TO OLYMPIC

Only once during all his long years of service was he in trouble, when
the Olympic, of which he was in command, was rammed by the British
cruiser Hawke in the Solent on September 20, 1911. The Hawke came
steaming out of Portsmouth and drew alongside the giantess. According to
some