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The Brief of Titanic History
The
Royal Mail Ship TITANIC was the last grand dream
of
the
Gilded Age. It was designed to be the
greatest achievement
of an
era of prosperity, confidence
and propriety. Although no one
knew
it, the
world was about to change drastically. Radio
had been
invented
in 1901. The Wright Brothers'
first successful flight was
in 1903.
The old
presumptions about class, morals, and gender-roles
were
about to be shattered. If the concept
of Titanic was the climax
of the
age, then perhaps
its sinking was the curtain that marked the
end
of the old drama, and the start of a new one.
The Plan
The
intensely competitive transatlantic steamship business had seen
recent
major advances in ship design, size and speed.
White Star Line,
one
of the leaders, determined to focus on size
and elegance rather
than
pure speed. In 1907, White Star Line's managing
director J. Bruce
Ismay
and Lord James Pirrie, a partner in Harland
& Wolff (White Star
Line's
ship-builder since its founding in 1869) conceived
of three
magnificent
steam ships which would set a new standard for comfort,
elegance,
and safety. The first two were to be named Olympic and
Titanic,
the latter name chosen by Ismay to convey a sense of
overwhelming
size and strength.
It
took a year to design the two ships. Construction of Olympic started in
December,
1908, followed by Titanic in March 1909. The Belfast shipyards
of
Harland & Wolff had to be re-designed to accommodate
the immense
projects
while White Star's pier in New York had to be lengthened
to enable
the
ships to dock. During the two years it took
to complete Titanic's hull,
the
press was primed with publicity about the
ship's magnificence, making
Titanic
virtually a legend fore her launch. The "launch"
of the completed
steel
in May, 1911, was a heavily publicized spectacle.
Tickets were sold to
benefit
a local children's hospital.
She was
then taken for "fitting out" which involved the construction of the
ship's
many facilities and systems, her elaborate woodwork
and fine decor.
As the
date of her maiden voyage approached, the
completed Olympic
suffered
a collision and required extensive repairs,
increasing the workload
at Harland
& Wolff, which was already struggling
to complete Titanic on
schedule.
Titanic's maiden voyage was delayed from March
20 to April 10.
RMS
Titanic
The Ship
Titanic
was 883 feet long (1/6 of a mile), 92 feet wide and weighed
46,328
tons. She was 104 feet tall from keel to bridge,
almost 35 feet
of which
were below the waterline... even so, she stood
taller above the
water
than most urban buildings of the time. There
were three real
smoke-stacks;
a fourth, dummy stack was added largely to
increase the
impression
of her gargantuan size and power and to vent smoke
from her
numerous
kitchens and galleys. She was the largest movable object ever
made
by man. The ship's immense size and complexity is illustrated by an
incident
recalled by Second Officer Lightoller. There was a gangway
door
on the starboard side aft "large enough to
drive a horse and cart
through."
Yet three officers who joined the ship during
her preparations
spent
a whole day simply trying to find their way
to it.
Moreover,
she was designed to be a marvel of modern safety technology.
She
had a double-hull of 1-inch thick steel plates
and a (heavily publicized)
system
of 16 water-tight compartments, sealed by
massive doors which
could
be instantly riggered by a single electric
switch on the bridge, or
even
automatically by electric water-sensors. The
press began to call her
"unsinkable."
Her accommodations
were the most modern and luxurious on any ocean,
and
included electric light and heat in every room, electric
elevators, a
swimming
pool, a squash court (considered terribly
modern), a Turkish Bath,
a gymnasium
with a mechanical horse and mechanical camel
to keep riders
fit,
and staterooms and first class facilities
to rival the best hotels on the
Continent.
First class passengers would glide down a
six-story, glass-domed
grand
staircase to enjoy haute cuisine in the sumptuous
first class dining
saloon
that filled the width of the ship on D Deck. For those
who desired a
more
intimate atmosphere, Titanic also offered a stately à la
carte
restaurant,
the chic Palm Court and Verandah restaurant, and the festive Cafe
Parisien.
She offered two musical ensembles (rather than the standard one)
of the
best musicians on the Atlantic, many of them lured
from rival liners.
There
were two libraries, first- and second-class.
Even the third class
(steerage)
cabins were more luxurious than the first
class cabins on some
lesser
steamships, and boasted amenities (like indoor
toilet facilities) that
some
of Titanic's emigrant passengers had not enjoyed
in their own homes.
The original
design called for 32 lifeboats. However, White Star management
felt
that the boat-deck would look cluttered, and reduced
the number to 20,
for
a total life-boat
capacity of 1178. This actually exceeded the regulations
of the
time, even though Titanic was capable of carrying over 3500 people
(passengers
and crew).
The building of Titanic
Titanic Full Deck Plan : Plan #1 / Plan #2
The Maiden Voyage
The maiden
voyage lured the "very best people:" British nobility,
American
industrialists,
the very cream of New York and Philadelphia
society.
It also attracted many
poor emigrants, hoping to start a new life
in America
or Canada.
The journey
began at Southampton on Wednesday April 10, 1912 at Noon.
By
sundown,
Titanic had stopped in Cherbourg, France to pick up additional
passengers.
That evening she sailed for Queenstown, Ireland, and at 1:30
PM on
Thursday,
April 11, she headed out into the Atlantic.
The seasoned
transatlantic passengers were deeply impressed by the new
ship.
She was
so massive that they barely felt the movement of the sea at all.
Her
huge, powerful
engines produced almost none of the annoying vibration
common
on other steamers,
and their noise was barely perceptible. And she
achieved
this extraordinary
level of comfort while traveling at 22 knots,not
the
fastest boat on the route,
but certainly one of the top five.
Weather
was pleasant and clear, and the water temperature was about 55
degrees.
the winter
of 1912 had been unusually mild, and unprecedented
amounts
of ice had broken
loose from the arctic regions. Titanic was
equipped
with Marconi's new wireless
telegraph system and her two
Marconi
operators kept the wireless room running
24 hours a day. On
Sunday,
April 14, the fifth day at sea, Titanic received five
different ice
-warnings,
but the captain was not overly concerned. The ship
steamed
ahead
at 22 knots, and the line's Managing Director J. Bruce Ismay
relished
the
idea of arriving in New York a day ahead of schedule.
The Night Has Come
On the
night of April 14, wireless operator Phillips was very busy sending
chatty
passenger's
messages to Cape Race, Newfoundland, whence they could
be relayed
inland to
friends and relatives. He received a sixth ice-warning
that
night, but didn't realize
how close Titanic was to the position of the
warning,
and put that message under
a paperweight at his elbow. It never
reached
Captain Smith or the officer on the
bridge.
By all
accounts, the night was uncommonly clear and dark, moonless but
faintly
glowing
with an incredible sky full of stars. The stars were so
bright
that one officer mistook
the planet Jupiter (then rising just above
the
horizon) for a steamship light. The
sea was, likewise, unusually calm
and
flat, "like glass" said many survivors. The lack
of waves made it even
more
difficult to spot icebergs, since there was no telltale
white water
breaking
at the edges of the bergs.
At 11:40,
a lookout in the crow's nest spotted an iceberg dead ahead. He
notified
the bridge
and First Officer Murdoch ordered the ship turned hard
to port.
He signaled
the engine room to reverse direction,full astern.The ship
turned
slightly,but it
was much too large, moving much too fast, and the
iceberg
was much too close. 37
seconds later,the greatest maritime disaster
in history
began.During that night of heroism,
terror and tragedy, 705 lives
were
saved, 1502 lives were lost,and many legends
were born.
Titanic Full passenger list : Passenger List
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