In 1898, Morgan Robinson wrote a novel called
"Futility", which told of the story of the sinking of the Titan.
She was 70,000 tons displacement (a figure different from gross tonnage),
and 800 feet long, which made her the largest ship in the world. She
set sail in early April, struck an iceberg by a glancing blow, and began
to sink. The tragic part of the story is that because the Titan
did not carry enough lifeboats to accommodate all her passengers in the
event of such an emergency. As Titanic was part of the Olympic-Class
trio of liners for the White Star Line, with the intention of beating the
Cunard Line's Lusitania and Mauretania in size and
luxury. There was no intention of attempting to wrest the Blue
Riband from the Mauretania. Titanic was built by
Harland The Titanic differed from the Olympic in
a number of ways, based on the experience on the Olympic's maiden
voyage. First off, the On
April 10, 1912, the Titanic began her maiden voyage, from
Southampton to New York, via Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown,
Ireland. Captain Edward J. Smith, formerly the captain of the Olympic,
As the Titanic was leaving Southampton, suction
from her propellers caused the New York, which was laid up in order
for her coal to power Titanic, to begin drifting, enough to where
her mooring lines snapped. She started drifting towards the Titanic's
stern. It appeared that a collision was imminent, but then at the
last possible moment, a burst on the Titanic's starboard propeller On April 14, just before midnight, the lookout on the Titanic spotted an iceberg dead ahead. He rang his warning bell, and telephoned the bridge. Upon the answer of the call, the lookout told the officer, "Iceberg right ahead!" His warning was answered by a polite thank you. The wheel was ordered hard-a-starboard, but it was not enough. Instead of a head-on collision, which the Titanic could have almost certainly survived (note this situation in the collision between the Stockholm and the Andrea Doria), she hit the iceberg at a glancing blow, popping rivets and buckling hull plates in the process. It was not the fabled huge 300-foot gash that was believed to have sunk the Titanic. In fact, a gash of that size and length in the Titanic's hull would have brought her to the bottom faster than the Lusitania, which took only twenty minutes to sink. When Captain Smith learned of the collision with the iceberg, he sent for the ship's designer, Thomas Andrews. After a tour below decks to inspect the damage, the outlook was grim, as Andrews told Captain Smith, "I give her an hour, maybe two. Not much more." Despite the claims that she was unsinkable (though White Star had never made any such claims), the Titanic was heading to the bottom. This left Captain Smith in a rather uncomfortable predicament. The Titanic's sixteen regulation lifeboats and four collapsible lifeboats could only hold about half of the ship's passengers. However, the evacuation still proceeded, with the order of "women and children first", as the ship was slightly listing, and the tilt of the decks grew steeper and steeper... By 2:20 AM, all of the lifeboats were gone. As the ship continued to sink at the head, the stern began to raise out of the water. At that point, the power on the ship finally failed, and everything went dark. Soon after this, the sound of everything that was not bolted down on the ship moving towards the bow was heard. This consisted of pianos, furniture, equipment, people, even some of the boilers, perhaps, though this is in question. After this, another, different kind of sound came across the ocean. This was a booming, cracking kind of sound. What this sound ended up being was the Titanic actually physically breaking in two between her third and fourth funnels. After breaking, the bow section went under, but the stern section lingered for a little while, before it headed to the bottom as well. Over 1,500 people died with the Titanic that night. Later, as dawn came, the Carpathia, which had
responded to the Titanic's distress call, came on the scene. Titanic's
705 survivors were brought Except for the inquiries into the disaster, that was the end of the Titanic until 1985, when her remains were discovered by a joint French-American expedition, headed by Dr. Robert Ballard. In 1986, a second expedition was made to the Titanic using the submersible Alvin, and the remotely operated vehicle, Jason Jr. This expedition documented the entire wreck on film, as well as much of the debris field. Subsequent expeditions have brought artifacts up from the wreck scene, a controversial act in itself. Some people are fine with the idea of bringing up artifacts - one survivor was given her father's pocket watch, which was recovered. Others feel it is akin to grave-robbing. Whatever the stand on the raising of artifacts may be, the Titanic is on the bottom, and there she will stay. How long she will remain with us has yet to be seen, as marine growth and the like continue to consume her hull. Hopefully, she will remain with us, two and a half miles beneath the sea, for a very long time. Titanic Vital Statistics: Gross tonnage: 46,329 Length: 882 feet Width: 92 feet Draft: 34 feet Machinery: Steam triple-expansion engines geared to triple screw Speed: 21 knots, plus Capacity: 905 First, 564 Second, 1,134 Third Built: Harland and Wolff Limited, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1912 Demise: Struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912 and sank the following morning The Classic Liners of Long Ago © 2000-2007 Nick Works, Inc. |
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a result, most of her passengers died
in the icy sea. Fourteen years later, the same thing would happen
to another ship, but this time for real. Her name: Titanic.
and Wolff in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and launched on May 31,
1911. Due to mishaps in the Olympic's early voyages, work was delayed on the Titanic on
two different occasions. The picture shown at left is one of the few
occasions when the Olympic and Titanic were seen together,
in Belfast, when the Olympic was in because she dropped a
propeller.
deck
space was considered rather excessive, and thus more rooms could be
created in this space. This is why the Titanic had a higher
gross tonnage than the Olympic, and why the Titanic's B-deck
windows are irregularly spaced compared to Olympic's, which were
evenly spaced. Furthermore, the Olympic's forward A-deck was
the subject of more spray than intended. As a result of this, the Titanic's
forward A-deck was fitted with screens to prevent the passengers from
experiencing this spray.
would be her master on this voyage. At the time of her maiden
voyage, a coal strike was in progress, and as a result, there was a
shortage of coal, which liners like Titanic consumed by the
hundreds of tons per day. In order to allow the Titanic to
depart with full bunkers, other IMM ships were laid up, and their coal was
transferred to the Titanic. Their passengers were also
transferred to Titanic.
pushed
the New York away from the Titanic, allowing for the
tugboats to get hold of New York, and move her away from the Titanic.
aboard, and given accommodation on the
Carpathia, and headed for New York. The captain of Titanic's
sister ship, Olympic,
had offered to render assistance, but was asked not to by the White Star
Managing Director Bruce Ismay, because it would not be good for the
passengers to see a carbon copy of the ship that they were just on that had
gone under.
