White Star Line, an industry leader, wanted to revolutionize travel by building the finest and biggest luxury passenger ships in the world.
Designing the Titanic.
The
RMS Titanic was one of three ships belonging to the Olympic-class of
White Star Line vessels. In addition to the Titanic, there was the RMS
Olympic and the RMS Britannic. Responding to growing competition,
design for the Olympic-class liners began in 1907. The decision was
made to focus on luxury and size rather than speed. Joseph Bruce Ismay,
managing director of White Star Line, wanted to build a ship larger
than any that had come before.
Construction of the Titanic.
Finding a location to begin construction of the Titanic ship was an engineering feat itself. Harland and Wolff, shipbuilders for White Star Line, had substantially revamped an existing shipyard to accommodate construction of the Olympic-class liners. Construction of the Titanic began on March 31, 1909.
It took approximately three years to complete construction of the 882 foot long and 92 foot wide vessel. Work on the ship was difficult and dangerous; eight people were killed and nearly 250 injured. The Titanic was launched May 31, 1911 but was not fully fitted and ready for service until spring of 1912. Displacing 52,310 tons, the RMS Titanic was the largest passenger ship in the world.
A Modern Marvel.
Inspired
by the technological innovations of the industrial revolution, White
Star Line wanted the Titanic to epitomize modern technology,
engineering, safety and luxury. The ship featured electric lights,
elevators and heaters. Guests could relax in a Turkish bath or spend
their time playing tennis, swimming or exercising in the on-board gym.Despite its disastrous sinking, engineers had designed the Titanic ship with safety as a top priority. The ship featured a double steel hull and 16 separate compartments capable of being sealed off from one another in the event of an emergency. The Titanic was also capable of carrying 64 lifeboats. However, in a fateful decision, White Star Line chose only to carry 16. This, combined with collapsible lifeboats, met the requirements of an outdated law mandating enough lifeboats for only 75 percent of the ship's passenger capacity.
The Maiden Voyage of the RMS Titanic.
On April 10, 1912, the Titanic set out for New York City from Southampton, England. White Star Line highly publicized the Titanic's maiden voyage. They went so far as to call the ship “unsinkable.” The promotion campaign attracted many prominent members of British and American society including nobility and wealthy industrialists. After two stops, one in France and one Ireland. The Titanic began its transatlantic crossing with 2,216 passengers.
The Night of April 14.
The history of the Titanic was forever altered when the ship struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912. Having received iceberg warnings via wireless telegraph, Captain Edward Smith altered the ship's course. However, the radio operators were more concerned with relaying private messages to passengers than passing along updated iceberg warnings to the bridge. At approximately 11:40 p.m., lookouts spotted an iceberg directly in the path of the ship. Evasive action was taken in an attempt to avoid the collision. A sharp turn to the port side was ordered, and the iceberg struck the ship on the right side damaging the hull. Captain Smith ordered a full stop to assess the damage. Initially, only five compartments were flooded, and the watertight doors had been closed to prevent additional flooding. However, water was able to flow over the top of bulkheads and in through normal openings causing two more compartments to flood. It quickly became obvious the Titanic would sink.
Evacuating the Ship.
The first lifeboat was lowered about an hour after the collision. It had a 65 person capacity; only 19 were aboard. Tragically, many of the lifeboats were launched far under capacity. This is attributable to several factors. Assured by the still working electricity and seeming calm, many passengers didn't think the ship was sinking. In addition, many of the third class passengers became lost or trapped in the ship and didn't make it to the lifeboats. Due to a women and children first rule, many men did not board lifeboats despite there being space.
Radio operators broadcasted distress signals, but the RMS Carpathia,
the closest ship, was four hours away. All but two lifeboats were
successfully launched. Eventually, the Titanic split and was completely
sunk by 2:20 a.m. Roughly four hours after receiving the distress call,
the Carpathia arrived and began rescue efforts. More than 1,500 people
died.Discovery of the Wreckage. The full history of the Titanic would not be known for decades. The
wreckage was discovered September 1, 1985 through a combined American
and French effort. Researchers learned much of what actually caused the
“unsinkable” Titanic's tragic end.
Public interest in the history of Titanic persists to this day. Perhaps
the fascination stems from the arrogance of the ship's designers or
from the significance of such an impressive ship during a cultural and
technological transition. Whatever the case, the history of the Titanic
continues to captivate both historians and popular culture a century
later.
Titanic mistake
RMS Titanic was a ship deemed unsinkable, yet four days into her maiden voyage, the “unsinkable” ship collided with an iceberg. She went to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean and 1,517 people died. Despiteformal inquiries and much informal speculation, a definitive cause for the collision has never been identified.
Number of mistakes.
There
is no question that a number of mistakes contributed to the sinking of
the Titanic. Captain E. J. Smith was sailing his retirement voyage as
the Titanic was making her maiden trip. Smith reportedly did not give
orders to slow the ship despite reports of icebergs in the water, a
common practice at the time. Smith also ignored or discounted a total
of seven iceberg warnings from other ships and his own crew. J. Bruce
Ismay, the Managing Director of Titanic’s parent corporation, the White
Star Line, was on board the ship. Some people have speculated that
Ismay put pressure on Smith to maintain speed as the White Star Line
wanted to prove it could make a six-day crossing.Mistakes during the build of the Titanic.
Another mistake, or perhaps a deliberate action, occurred during the building process. Substandard iron was used in the rivets holding the iron plates of the ship. The collision with the iceberg sheared the rivets and caused many sections of the ship to buckle. Yet another mistake lay in the height of the watertight compartments, which did not reach as high as they should have because the increased height would have cut into the living quarters of the first class compartments. Aside from the actual sinking, the ship carried only enough lifeboats for about one-third of the passengers and crew, which undoubtedly led to increased loss of life.
Mistakes by other vessels.
Not
all the mistakes were made by people directly connected with the
Titanic. Another ship, the Californian, had stopped for the night only
19 miles from the doomed ship. When the Titanic fired distress rockets,
the Californian’s captain, Stanley Lord, decided the rockets were being
fired because the Titanic was partying. The Californian’s radio had
been turned off, and she missed the Titanic’s distress call; had the
radio been on, the Californian should have been able to save all the
passengers. Close to a century after the Titanic went down, yet another possible mistake surfaced. The granddaughter of senior officer Charles Lightoller claimed the man at the wheel of the Titanic either did not hear an order or responded incorrectly; he turned right instead of left, putting the ship on a collision course with the iceberg. Louise Patten says her grandfather -- who survived the sinking -- lied about the mistake to prevent lawsuits against his employers and to protect his job. Patten also says that the chairman of the White Star Line ordered the ship to continue sailing on its intended course to reach land, in the hope of avoiding negative publicity, which may have increased the amount of water flowing into the ship. If what Patten says is true, despite all the other errors, in the end it may have been a simple misunderstanding that led to a titanic mistake.
