RMS Titanic due to design changes requested by Ismay and a temporary pause in work occasioned by the need to repair "Olympic", which had been in a collision in September 1911. Had "Titanic" been finished earlier, she might well have missed her collision with an iceberg. "Titanic"s sea trials began at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, 2 April 1912, just two days after her fitting out was finished and eight days before she was due to leave Southampton on her maiden voyage. The trials were delayed for a day due to bad weather, but by Monday morning it was clear and fair. Aboard
RMS Titanic in popular culture Archibald Gracie's "The Truth about the Titanic". Beesley started writing his book shortly after being rescued by the RMS "Carpathia" and supplemented it with interviews with fellow-survivors. It was published by Houghton Mifflin within only three weeks of the disaster. Gracie carried out extensive research and interviews, as well as attending the US Senate inquiry into the sinking. He died in December 1912, just before his book was published. "Titanic"s former Second Officer, Charles Lightoller, published an account of the sinking in his 1935 book "Titanic and Other Ships", which Eugene L. Rasor characterises as an apologia. Stewardess Violet Jessop