Families pay tribute to feat

THE specifications of more than 600 ships constructed under the eye of Charles Payne are noted in his small leather-bound log book.

Under the entry for Titanic, a thin red line has been drawn through the liner’s name with the word “LOST” inked beneath.

The grandson of the Harland & Wolff shipyard’s former managing director, who shares his name, journeyed from Spain yesterday to mark the 100th the anniversary of her launch.

His grandfather pulled the lever that released the 46,000-tonne vessel down the slipway at Queen’s Island a century ago.

“If anybody launched the Titanic he did,” he said.

“He actually pulled the lever two minutes early, I think partly through excitement.

“There was a great hush and silence building up to it and I think he just couldn’t wait.”

Mr Payne, 76, stood with other descendants of the Titanic story on the derelict yard as a single flare rose into the sky at 12.13pm to mark the historic event.

“The sadness is there and there is nothing you can do about it but I have felt that we in Belfast did not push the fact enough that it was an amazing feat, an amazing engineer feat,” he said.

“It is sad that all those people were lost, but we have to remember that was not the fault of Belfast.”

Susie Millar’s great-grandfather, Tommy Millar, was a deck engineer aboard the Titanic and lost his life on the fateful maiden voyage.

“Today should be a happy occasion and I was all geared up to be celebratory but when it came to the moment I was actually quite sad. You think of what was going through his (her great-grandfather’s) head 100 years ago.”

Next year Ms Millar will be in Atlantic over the spot where the Titanic went down, as part of an organised voyage to mark the centenary of the sinking.

“For me the big clincher there is I get to finish the journey for my great-grandfather. A hundred years later I get to step off at New York harbour and do what he couldn’t do.”