White Star Line Tenders Nomadic & Traffic

At 3:40 pm on 10th April 1912 the Train Transatlantique from Paris arrived at the Gare Maritime in Cherbourg and the passengers were informed that the Titanic was running late. This was due to a near collision with the SS New York on departing Southampton. Titanic's two tenders can be seen in the photograph (right) Nomadic on the left and Traffic on the right.


Titanic Memorial Cherbourg France


A memorial (left) marks the spot from which the tenders Nomadic and Traffic departed to take passengers to the Titanic. The tenders had been specially constructed at Harland and Wolff for use in Cherbourg because the Olympic class liners were too large to fit in the small port. At 5:00 pm passengers started to embark Traffic and Nomadic. 



Fort de l'Ouest Cherbourg
At 6:30 pm Titanic dropped anchor at Cherbourg and 22 passengers disembarked. Titanic anchored in the harbour off Grande Rade, near Fort de l'Ouest (right). A further 274 passengers boarded the Titanic via the tenders. The Nomadic transferred the 172 passengers travelling first and second class and Traffic ferried the remainder who had booked third class.

By 8:00 pm all the passengers were aboard and the tenders returned to shore. Titanic then set sail for Queenstown in Ireland, her next port of call.