Which tugs were used to launch The Titanic on her maiden voyage?

[chrisd]

Thank you all for your replies.

I was expecting and understand the authenticity doubters and faked items response and fully appreciate that some 99.9% of Titanic related items are either memorabilia, copies or fakes.

I do have years of experience in collecting and studying and comparing ancient, antique and faked items (including the stratigraphy and faking of patinas) and as I said have no doubt as to the age and authenticity of this item.

If someone was going to fake a wheel from a steam tug that served Titanic, the only sustainable reason being to profit, they would use the name of a tug recorded to have carried out that task and known to have since been dismantled, rather than using an unknown name which has no recorded connection to the ship, which would make no sense.

Regarding the comprehensiveness of the H & W lists I read somwhere that those published are not necessarily comprehensive, and in any case have suggested that the tug may have been built by another company.

I have managed to contact Daniel in America, who has confirmed that, whilst he wrote the post 15 years ago, he does specifically remember reading about the tug Samson aiding Titanic.

So for me this remains a mystery.

Kind regards

Chris

 

[Seumas]

You'll need much, much better proof than that. It's not at all convincing.

Let's see this bloke's sources and not just what he thinks he remembers.

And it doesn't get around the fact that the names of the six tugs have been established for a long time.

The "Samson" was not one of them.

 

[chrisd]

This was not supposed to be an argument. It was supposed to be an enquiry to see if anyone had heard of the Samson, as simple as that.

I was not inviting opinionated know-all views constrained by known records - unless of course one was there on 10th April 1912 to witness the names of all the tugs that day in the Solent.

I had hoped this forum would be one of positive inquisitive attitudes, amongst other things interested in unrecorded and unknown information, with open minds about things that may or may not have been recorded or happened in 1912 long before our time.

It seems pointless and I shall not continue with this thread but will continue research on the matter through learned circles. As a closing point I am intrigued by Stewart Halls comment "Are the tugboat nameplates blotted out intentionally in the original film footage". Having reviewed numerous pictures of the tugboats in action that day very few of them show the names of the tugs and on those that do most are not legible....

 

[Ioannis Georgiou]

Thank you Ioannis Georgiou for your interest in my posting on March 4th and apologies for the delay in getting back to this forum.

You are welcome!

You ask what is the evidence. This falls into two categories as follows:

1. A blog for 'Titanic Station' (Titanic Station posted )on Monday 27th October 2008 titled 'Titanic's Departure' which referred to the near collison of Titanic with the SS New York and stated that:

"Two tugs (Samson and Hercules) were able to hold the New York back".

The person who wrote the blog (Daniel, location Clute, Texas, USA) claims to have got a lot of information from books about Titanic, but I do not know where the original reference to a Samson tug may have came from.

Yes sadly no source is given here. However after a quick look over that part "Titanic’s Departure" there seems to be a lot of wrong information posted there.
For example "Collision mats were hung over the side of the Titanic to soften any collision that might happen."
That is not right. There were no "mats" aboard Titanic. Actually according to 2nd class passenger Lawerence Beesley mats were put over the side of the New York. Sadly we see the same mistake here with the tugs. According to that link it continues: "Two tugs (Samson and Hercules) were able to hold the New York back."
Aside that there was no tug called Samson it was the tug Vulcan which got a rope at the stern of the New York and try to get it away from Titanic.

In all there were 6 tugs hired and paid for the departure of Titanic. A Samson is not among them.