Construction and Size
Operated by the White Star Line company, the Titanic was built by Belfast’s Harland and Wolff. It was ‘laid down’ on March 31st and work proceeded with little regard to costs as White Star had promised to pay whatever the final total. Building went swiftly, and the ship cost one and a half million pounds. It could carry 46,329 tons, and when full weighed 66,000 tons. It was 269 metres long, 28.2 metres at its widest point, and had sections inside which could transport the highest paying passengers in the greatest of luxury. The attention to fine detail was immense, and the ship was designed for both comfort and speed.The hull was double bottomed and divided into sixteen supposedly watertight compartments, four of which could flood before the boat was supposed to be in danger. Consequently, the ship was called unsinkable. White Star did a superb job with the publicity, and Titanic was famous before she even sailed. The launch alone drew 100,000 spectators on May 31st 1911; during this, a worker was accidentally killed.
Maiden Voyage and Disaster
The Titanic was built to travel across the Atlantic from the United Kingdom to the United States, and sailed on Wednesday April 10th 1912 from Southampton, after first avoiding a ship jarred loose when the Titanic moved out. A launch date of March 20th had been cancelled by the owners because of an accident to Titanic’s sister ship Olympic. Reports of icebergs on the route came in from other ships, but on the evening of April 14th at just before midnight, when the ship was roughly four hundred miles south of Newfoundland, the ship struck an iceberg. It took approximately thirty seconds from the iceberg being sighted to the collision, and action prevented a head on smash. However, one side of the ship was raked, and a gash opened in the hull.The blow damaged five of the compartments, and as they filled with water the ship sank down, allowing the water to rise to the top of each compartment and flood into the next one. This fatal design flaw, that the compartments did not reach high enough, meant the ship was slowly dragged down, going fully under at c. 2:20 AM on April 15th. The staff on the ship realised this quickly, but were powerless to stop it. When researchers found the wreck of the Titanic in 1985, they didn’t see the large slice across the hull they expected, and there are now competing arguments about whether poor quality materials which broke in multiple places contributed to the sinking.
Escape and Death
There were 2,224 people on board the Titanic, but even in the event of an orderly escape, there were only lifeboat spaces for 1,178 people: sixteen wooden boats and four collapsibles. This was actually in excess of what was required by outdated British law, but insufficient on the night, especially as lifeboats were launched by desperate escapees when they weren’t full. Woman and children were mostly evacuated first, and as the number of boats reduced some did go out overcrowded. It was hoped that the emptier vessels would be able to pick up survivors loose in the sea, and some struggling people from the crowded boats were moved into emptier ones.People reacted in different ways: one crewman had to fire shots to stop an unruly mob, while other passengers changed into evening dress and prepared to die with style. It is generally accepted that the Titanic’s band, which had played throughout the disaster to keep spirits high, ended with ‘Nearer, My God, To Thee.’
Those who did survive had to struggle in icy seas. Lives were saved when the Carpathia, a Cunard liner, arrived after an hour and twenty minutes to pick up survivors, but a later enquiry discovered that, had the Leyland liner Californian had a radio operator on duty, it could have heard the Titanic’s distress signals as it was only twenty miles away. Eyewitnesses on the California reported seeing the Titanic’s emergency flares, but they didn’t realise what they were, and attempts to use a Morse lamp to investigate failed. The California may have been even closer, as arguments remain as to the distance. In the end 1523 people died (there is a dispute over this, with a figure five lower also being given), including leading members of US and European families.
Reports sent from ships’ wireless gave false hope that the Titanic was being towed home, or that more of the passengers had been saved. They were soon corrected. White Star hired several ships to retrieve as many of the floating bodies as possible. Badly damaged corpses were buried at sea, and the rest were returned to land. Relief funds for the poor were soon created.
Legend and Legacy
The Titanic story has intrigued people ever since. This is probably due to the glamour of the ship and the scale of the disaster. In 1913 the International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea was organised. This produced a set of rules for ships, including having lifeboats for the entire manifest and maintaining twenty four hour radio use. Many people tried to find the Titanic, which was finally located in 1985 by a Franco-American expedition.Useful Resources
- The Encyclopedia Titanica has a full, annotated, passenger and crew listing.
- Molly Brown was one of the survivors; a fellow Guide has a biography of her.
- The website of the Titanic Historical Society.
- Lost Liners is dedicated to information on more lost ships.
