lifeboats

looks dangerous; leaning/listing to one side!

Conga line on the port side!

Yikes - Board Trade Regulations had not come in then..Lol!!

Taken from the North Pier. This is as close as streetview gets. The actual vantage point is a little further out the pier.

The Imperial Hotel noted above is called the Victoria Hotel on the 1904 OS Map and the Portrush Bar on the 1896 OS Map

Why "neutral" ?

I'd guess the caption was done after the sinking of the Lusitania in May 1915, and the writer was trying to be ironic. If the caption was done years later, possibly the writer knew the fate of the ship: www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?153501

Interesting, thanks!

The Netherlands were not involved in WWI. But it gave shelter for many refugees.

It does seem that a war of words was happening in February, 1915 (where the photo is in the Bain flow), so I think it's more likely that the caption was written then. From the Wikipedia article on HMS Lusitania: "1915 The official warning issued by the Imperial German Embassy about travelling on Lusitania. By early 1915 a new threat began to materialize: submarines. At first they were used by the Germans only to attack naval vessels, and they achieved only occasional – but sometimes spectacular – successes. Then the U-boats began to attack merchant vessels at times, although almost always in accordance with the old cruiser rules. Desperate to gain an advantage on the Atlantic, the German government decided to step up their submarine campaign. On 4 February 1915 Germany declared the seas around the British Isles a war zone: from 18 February allied ships in the area would be sunk without warning." This was not wholly unrestricted submarine warfare since efforts would be taken to avoid sinking neutral ships." It is definitely ironic that this very ship (under a French flag and named La Dives) was sunk by the Germans in January, 1918. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Lusitania#International_reaction

What a stark reminder of the miracle of those who survived, and the tragedy of those who did not...

The 2012 BBC TV documentary "Inside The Titanic" said that, contrary to Officer statements after the event, the Titanic started her engines again some 7 minutes after the iceberg collision and travelled at half-ahead for some 16 minutes before realising the true extent of the flooding.

GrenadierGuardsDmr I read that this could have been the actual cause of her sinking sooner. There is speculation that her bottom was breached as well as the side and the forward motion had the tendency to 'scoop' additional water into the ship's hull. Second Officer Charles Lightoller later brought a ship to port in WWI in reverse. It too had damage below the waterline. Could Titanic have reached Cape Race in reverse and did Lightoller learn this lesson from the experience of Titanic?

Could there be something funny about this photo? I always understood that the lifeboats on the Titanic did not say "R. M. S. Titanic" but "White Star Line". Is it possible that the original photographer scratched the name onto the original plate? I note it only says R. M. S. Titanic on one of the boats and even then the writing is not very straight..

I could easily be wrong but I'm sure I've seen photos of lifeboats with plates that simply said 'SS Titanic'. An anniversary special about Belfast, aired here on PBS, had an American host who kept referring to Titanic as 'HMS Titanic'.