Titanic Tales - piloting Liners into Queenstown (Part 2)

When we look at the pilot boats working Cork Harbour today we cannot be but impressed by their speed and ability to work in the most demanding of weather. The boats are the fastest in the harbour and can make it from Port Ops in Cobh to Roches Point within minutes.

That wasn't the case for pilots back in 1912. Twelve hours before the arrival of any liner the pilots would need to set out from Cobh and make their way to Roches Point. Once the liner was sighted the pilot would set out in a whaler and the oarsmen would row

between one and half and two miles from the point itself to meet the liner....and so it was in the case of the Titanic. The pilot then was John Cotter, a native of Queenstown. Once he had

boarded the Titanic he would have made directly for the bridge. Here he would have met with Captain Smith who he would have instructed to continue to the mouth of the harbour at a slow but steady pace. Compared to today, navigational intruments and technology were very limited. John Cotter would have guided Titanic to its anchorage using purely landmarks. This is recounted in Father Browne's Titanic Album, E.E. O'Donnell, 2011 '....using his local knowledge, the pilot would have instructed the Captain to follow a straight line-of-sight between the centre of the harbour's mouth and Bennett's Court, a prominent landmark on Great Island in the harbour. A terrace of coastguard houses stood on the mainland to the rear of Roche's Point (north of Roche's Point). As soon as the first of these came into view, Mr. Cotter would have told Edward Smith to drop anchor because this was the spot where the Titanic would have 1,000 yards of leeway in any direction.'

Explore these and other Titanic related stories when you visit Cobh. The Commodore Hotel is offering a unique Titanic package to mark the centenary year of its visit to Cobh. This package allows you to retrace the steps of Titanic passengers as they boarded Titanic from Queenstown and included participation on the Titanic Trail, a visit to the new Titanic Experience, and a visit to Cobh the Queenstown Story.