Shies Boats Under Capt. Smith

F. Harrison Powers of New York and Paris, a guest at the Congress hotel has been a passenger several times on White Star boats commanded by Capt. E. J. Smith of the Titanic.

“But I only sailed with him once after the collision of the Olympic and Hawk,” said Col. Powers. “And on that date, on Dec. 20, the Olympic was tied up at Southampton by a bad wind and delayed a day. It was the roughest voyage I ever had on the Atlantic.

“Seafaring folk, whether professional or not, are very superstitious. You take a man who travels often on the sea and he will cancel passage on a boat if he sees a rat running down the gang plank.

“Anyway, I made up my mind never to book on Capt. Smith’s boats after Dec. 20, yet he is an efficient officer, no doubt. He was commodore of the White Star fleet.”

Chicago Tribune, Tuesday, April 16, 1912, p. 3, c. 7