Titanic

RMS Titanic was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 after hitting an iceberg on her first trip. She was sailing from Southampton, England, to New York City. Many of the 2,208 passengers and crew aboard died. It was one of the deadliest peacetime sinkings of a single ship.

Titanic, run by the White Star Line, carried some of the richest people in the world. It also carried hundreds of emigrants from the British Isles, Scandinavia, and other parts of Europe. They were hoping to start new lives in the United States and Canada. The disaster drew public attention and led to major changes in maritime safety rules. It has also become part of a lasting legacy in popular culture. It was the second time the White Star Line had lost a ship on her first voyage. The first was RMS Tayleur in 1854.

Titanic was the largest ship afloat when it began service. It was the second of three Olympic-class ocean liners built for the White Star Line by the Harland and Wolff shipbuilding company in Belfast. Thomas Andrews Jr., the shipyard's chief naval architect, died in the disaster. Captain Edward John Smith was in command and went down with the ship. The White Star Line's chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, survived by getting into a lifeboat.

The first-class rooms were designed to be very comfortable and luxurious. They had a gymnasium, a swimming pool, smoking rooms, fine restaurants and cafes, a Victorian-style Turkish bath, and many grand cabins. Passengers could also use a powerful radiotelegraph transmitter. The ship had advanced safety features, such as watertight compartments and doors that could be closed remotely. These features helped earn it the reputation of being "unsinkable."

Titanic had davits for lifeboats, but it carried only twenty lifeboats. These included two cutter lifeboats and four collapsible boats. There were not enough lifeboats for everyone on board. The British Board of Trade required fourteen lifeboats for a ship of its size, and Titanic carried more than that. However, the number was still not enough to save everyone.

For the film by James Cameron, see Titanic (1997 film). For other uses, see Titanic (disambiguation).

Background

The name Titanic comes from the Titans of Greek mythology. RMS Titanic was built in Belfast, Ireland. It was the second of three Olympic-class ocean liners. The lead ship was RMS Olympic, and the last was HMHS Britannic. These ships were the biggest in the fleet of the British company White Star Line. The idea began in mid-1907, when White Star Line chairman J. Bruce Ismay talked with the American businessman J. P. Morgan. Morgan controlled the company's parent business, the International Mercantile Marine Co. (IMM).

White Star had strong rivals, including Cunard Line. With help from the Admiralty, Cunard had built the fast ships Lusitania and Mauretania. German companies Hamburg America and Norddeutscher Lloyd were also rivals. Ismay chose to compete on size rather than speed. The new ships would replace RMS Teutonic, RMS Majestic, and RMS Adriatic. The shipbuilder Harland & Wolff of Belfast built the ships. It had worked with White Star since 1867. Wilhelm Wolff sketched the general ideas, and Edward James Harland turned them into designs. Lord Pirrie, Thomas Andrews, and Alexander Carlisle oversaw the design, which included a good lifeboat davit design. On 29 July 1908, the drawings were shown to Ismay, who approved them. The first ship had been called "Number 400." Titanic was based on a revised version of the same design and was given the number 401.

Dimensions and layout

Titanic was 882 feet 9 inches (269.06 m) long and 92 feet 6 inches (28.19 m) wide at its widest. It measured 46,329 GRT and 21,831 NRT. It had ten decks, eight of which were for passengers. The boat deck held the lifeboats, and the First Class Grand Staircase started there. A Deck, also called the promenade deck, ran along the whole length of the superstructure and was only for First Class passengers. B Deck had luxury dining rooms, including an à la carte restaurant. The raised poop deck at the back was used by Third Class passengers.

The lower decks had cabins, dining rooms, and areas for the crew. E Deck had a long hallway nicknamed 'Scotland Road', after a famous street in Liverpool. F Deck had a Turkish bath and a swimming pool for First Class passengers. The lowest levels, below the waterline, held cargo and the engine and boiler rooms. Passengers were not allowed to go there. The ship also had trimmers and orlop decks. Well decks separated the forecastle and poop deck from the bridge deck.

Features

Titanic was powered by three main engines: two steam engines and one steam turbine. Each one turned a propeller. Together, the two steam engines produced 30,000 horsepower (22,000 kW), and the turbine produced 16,000 horsepower (12,000 kW). The ship burned coal. 176 firemen shoveled the coal into the furnaces by hand, working around the clock. Its electrical plant could make more power than an average city power station of the time. The ship had a radio room run by the Marconi Company. Its operators sent passenger telegrams and navigation messages, including weather reports and ice warnings. The radio used Morse code.

Titanic was decorated in a lighter style, like a high-class hotel. Passengers could feel they were in a floating hotel rather than on a ship. First-class passengers could use a saltwater swimming pool, a gymnasium, a squash court, and a Victorian-style Turkish bath. One of the ship's most special features was the First Class staircase, called the Grand Staircase. It went down through seven decks. The dining saloon was the largest room afloat. It could seat almost 600 passengers at a time. Third Class rooms were better than those on many other ships of the time. They had small private cabins instead of open dormitories.

Titanic was mainly a passenger ship, but it also carried mail. It carried mail under contract with the Royal Mail and the United States Post Office Department. It also carried a large amount of cargo. The ship had 20 lifeboats. There were 14 standard wooden lifeboats, four collapsible lifeboats, and two emergency cutters. Together they could hold 1,178 people. That was only about one-third of the ship's total capacity. Still, this was more lifeboat space than the British rules of the time required. At that time, lifeboats were meant to carry people from a sinking ship to a rescue ship. They were not meant to keep everyone afloat or carry everyone to shore.

Building and preparing the ship

Building the Olympic class ships was a big challenge for Harland and Wolff. No shipbuilder had ever built ships this large. The ships were built on Queen's Island, which is now called the Titanic Quarter, in Belfast Harbour. The company had to remove three old slipways and build two new ones. A huge gantry helped with the work. It was built by the Scottish company Sir William Arrol & Co., which also built the Forth Bridge and London's Tower Bridge. The Arrol Gantry was 228 feet (69 m) tall and weighed more than 6,000 tonnes.

The ships were built like a huge floating box girder, with the keel as a backbone. The hull was covered with rolled steel plate. The plates overlapped in a clinkered pattern and were held together with more than three million rivets. Later studies found that the steel became very brittleness-prone in cold weather, which made the damage from the impact worse. The steel was good quality for its time. However, it was weaker than the steel used in later decades, because of advances in metallurgy and steelmaking. The largest centre anchor was forged by hand. Twenty Clydesdale horses pulled it from the forge of Noah Hingley & Sons Ltd.

Titanic was launched on 31 May 1911. Tallow was spread on the slipway to help the ship slide into the River Lagan. Its sister ship, Britannic, had a similar design. Titanic was moved into the Thompson Graving Dock, which was the largest dry dock in the world at the time. There it was to receive its propellers and final coating. However, it was moved out again so that Olympic could be repaired.

Sea trials began on 2 April 1912. Representatives from the company, including Harold Sanderson, watched the tests. Jack Phillips and Harold Bride tuned the radio equipment. The tests were first carried out in Belfast Lough. Then they moved to the open waters of the Irish Sea. There, the ship was driven at different speeds, its turning was tested, and a "crash stop" was performed. After the trials, the ship was declared seaworthy. It sailed to Southampton and arrived about midnight on 4 April.

Maiden voyage

The RMS Titanic began its first trip on Wednesday, 10 April 1912. It was meant to be the first of many trips across the Atlantic Ocean, between Southampton and New York. The ship would stop at Cherbourg in France and at Queenstown in Ireland. The ship was led by Captain Edward John Smith. It carried many wealthy passengers and crew members from many places. Before reaching the open sea, it sailed through the English Channel and picked up more passengers at both ports.

On the night of 14 April, the lookout Frederick Fleet saw an iceberg straight ahead of the ship. William Murdoch tried to steer around it, but the ship hit the iceberg and water began to come in. The ship could not stay afloat and sank in the early hours of 15 April. There were not enough lifeboats for everyone on board. The "women and children first" rule was mostly followed when people got into the lifeboats. Many lifeboats were not full when they were lowered. The Carpathia came to help, but it arrived after the ship had sunk. Many people died.

Main article: Sinking of Titanic and Iceberg that sank the Titanic

Aftermath of sinking

The New York Times had gone to press on 15 April. It knew about the collision but not the sinking. The International Mercantile Marine Company said on Monday, 15 April, that the ship was "unsinkable," even though no news had come from it. RMS Carpathia took three days to reach New York because of ice, fog, storms and rough seas, but it sent news by wireless. Early reports were confused. The American press wrongly said that Titanic was being towed by SS Virginian. Later, it was confirmed that Titanic had been lost and that most of her passengers and crew had died. Crowds gathered at White Star Line offices in London, New York, Montreal, Southampton, Liverpool and Belfast. The loss hit Southampton especially hard, because many of the crew came from that town. Carpathia docked at Pier 54 in New York on 18 April, where many people waited in the rain. The Travelers Aid Society of New York and the Council of Jewish Women were among the groups that gave quick help. The Pennsylvania Railroad ran a free special train to Philadelphia. The surviving crew members of Titanic were taken to the Red Star Line's steamer SS Lapland. Carpathia then went on to Fiume, Austria-Hungary. Reporters worked hard to be first with the survivors' stories, and some even paid their way onto the pilot boat New York.

In January 1912, Titanic and Olympic had been insured through Lloyd's of London and London Marine Insurance. Many charities were set up to help survivors and families. Many families had lost their only wage earner, and many third-class survivors had lost everything they owned. In New York, the American Red Cross and the Charity Organization Society worked together to give money to survivors and the families of those who died. Opera singers Enrico Caruso and Mary Garden and members of the Metropolitan Opera also held concerts to raise money. More than 60 survivors sued the White Star Line, but the company said it was only a limited liability company. In 1914, the United States Supreme Court ruled in White Star's favour, which greatly reduced what survivors could receive. The company settled for much less than the claims asked for.

Two inquiries were held after the disaster, one in the United States and one in the United Kingdom. The US Senate's inquiry began on 19 April, led by Senator William Alden Smith. The British inquiry, headed by Lord Mersey, took place between 2 May and 3 July.

Main articles: United States Senate inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic and British Wreck Commissioner's inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic

Both inquiries agreed on several points. The lifeboat rules were out of date. Captain Smith had not paid enough attention to ice warnings. The lifeboats had not been filled or crewed properly. The ship had sailed too fast into a dangerous area. Neither inquiry blamed the company. The American inquiry called the disaster an act of God, a term for a disaster that no one could control. The British inquiry said Smith had done what other skilled men would have done, though Lord Mersey did criticise the high speed. The inquiries recommended safety changes, such as more lifeboats and a radio watch at all times. An International Ice Patrol was set up to track icebergs. Safety rules were agreed internationally through the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea. Guglielmo Marconi also gave evidence about wireless telegraphy.

One of the most debated questions was the role of the SS Californian. It was only a few miles away but did not answer Titanic's distress calls or rockets. Its wireless operator, Cyril Furmstone Evans, had been told to stop sending messages by Titanic's operator Jack Phillips, who was busy with the Cape Race station. The ship's captain, Stanley Lord, was told that rockets had been seen, but he did not wake the wireless operator or try to reach Titanic. The ship later set out to help, but it arrived after Carpathia had already rescued the survivors. The inquiries found that Captain Lord had acted wrongly, because Californian could have helped with the rescue.

Only some of those aboard Titanic survived. Many people died, and the exact number is not known. The cold water was a major danger. Survival differed greatly by class and gender. Most first- and second-class women survived, while many third-class women did not. Many crew members also died.

Main articles: Passengers of the Titanic and Crew of the Titanic

The last living survivor, Millvina Dean, was only nine weeks old when the ship sank. She died in 2009 at age 97. Two other survivors were the stewardess Violet Jessop and the stoker Arthur Priest. Arthur Priest also survived the sinkings of HMHS Britannic and had been aboard RMS Olympic when it was rammed in 1911. A first-class passenger, Richard N. Williams, reached Collapsible A and was rescued by Lifeboat 14. Rhoda Abbott, a third-class passenger, was the only woman to survive in the cold water, reaching Boat A. Her two sons did not survive.

After the loss of life became known, White Star Line chartered the cable ship CS Mackay-Bennett from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, to recover bodies. The CS Minia, the Montmagny and a sealing vessel, Algerine, also searched. Most of the bodies recovered were found by these Canadian ships. Because supplies ran out, only first-class bodies were preserved, so many third-class passengers and crew were buried at sea. The bodies of passengers of the Titanic were numbered and their belongings were recorded. Halifax registrar John Henry Barnstead created a detailed system to identify the dead. A temporary morgue was set up in the curling rink of the Mayflower Curling Club. About two-thirds of the bodies were identified. The largest group was buried in three cemeteries in Halifax: Fairview Lawn Cemetery, Mount Olivet Cemetery and the Jewish Baron de Hirsch Cemetery. In May 1912, RMS Oceanic recovered three bodies from Collapsible A. Fifth Officer Harold Lowe had earlier rescued survivors from that boat. The last body recovered was found on 22 May.

Wreck

Main article: Wreck of the Titanic

For a long time, people thought Titanic had sunk in one piece. Many plans to raise the wreck were suggested, but none worked. The wreck lies more than 12,000 feet (3,700 m) deep, where the water pressure is about 370 standard atmospheres. This made it very hard to find and reach. A team from France and the United States, led by Jean-Louis Michel and Robert Ballard, finally found it on 1 September 1985. The team discovered that the ship had split apart, probably near or at the surface, before it sank. The two sections lie about one-third of a mile (0.54 km) apart in Titanic Canyon. This canyon is off the coast of Newfoundland, about 715 miles (1,151 km) from Halifax. Many items, such as pieces of the ship, furniture, dishes and personal belongings, lie in a debris field nearby.

Explorers, scientists, filmmakers, tourists and salvagers have visited the wreck many times. They have recovered thousands of items. Many of these artefacts are now shown by RMS Titanic Inc. in touring exhibitions and at the Luxor Las Vegas hotel in Nevada. The ship has weakened over the years. This happened partly because of accidental damage from submersibles and mostly because iron-eating bacteria on the hull are growing faster. In 2006, it was estimated that the hull could collapse entirely within 50 years. On 16 April 2012, photos taken by Robert Ballard during a NOAA expedition in 2004 were released. Experts called them "compelling evidence" of possible remains of people near the stern. The wreck is protected by the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. This agreement forbids taking items from the wreck and selling them. Because the wreck lies in international waters, countries share information to prevent activity there that is not scientific or not right. In 2023, the submersible Titan, operated by OceanGate, imploded in the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland. It was carrying tourists to view the wreckage.

Legacy

Main article: Changes in safety practices after the sinking of the Titanic

After the disaster, the British and American investigation boards recommended that ships carry enough lifeboats for everyone on board, hold lifeboat drills, and check their lifeboats. Many of these ideas were included in the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, passed in 1914. The United States passed the Radio Act of 1912, which said radios on passenger ships had to work all day and night with a backup power supply, so that calls for help would not be missed. The Board of Trade chartered the barque Scotia to work as a weather ship on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, watching for icebergs. The disaster also led to the International Ice Patrol, an agency of the U.S. Coast Guard that still tracks icebergs in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has worked every season since 1913, except during the two World Wars. No ship in its patrol area has been reported lost or damaged in a collision with an iceberg.

Main article: Cultural legacy of the Titanic

The Titanic story is remembered as a tragedy and a warning, mostly because people thought the ship could never sink. It has inspired stories, documentaries, memorials, and museum exhibits. The song "The Titanic" was written about the sinking. The first film about the disaster, Saved from the Titanic, came out just 29 days later. It starred a real survivor, Dorothy Gibson. That film is now lost. The British film A Night to Remember (1958) is still seen as the most historically accurate movie about the sinking. James Cameron's Titanic (1997) was the highest-grossing film of its time. It won 11 Oscars at the 70th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and Cameron won Best Director. Memorials were built in cities that lost many people, including Southampton, Liverpool, New York, Washington, D.C., Belfast, and Cobh. The most prominent museum display is in Belfast, where the ship was born (see below). A permanent exhibit is at the Luxor Las Vegas hotel in Nevada. Items recovered from the sea are shown at Halifax's Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. For the 2012 centenary, Royal Mail issued ten 1st class UK postage stamps. In 1898, Morgan Robertson wrote a novel called Futility about a made-up liner that sinks after hitting an iceberg. People often mention how similar it is to the real event. In Northern Ireland, the ship was built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast. For many decades, its story was a painful subject during the Troubles. After the Good Friday Agreement, a Titanic memorial and the Titanic Belfast visitor attraction opened in 2012 on the shipyard site. They helped share the story. In 2018, a group including Titanic Belfast and the National Museums Northern Ireland tried to buy the collection of the bankrupt company Premier Exhibitions. However, a group of hedge funds, including Apollo Global Management, bought the collection for US$19.5 million, according to The New York Times.

Diagrams and timeline

The diagrams show how RMS Titanic was built on the inside. One diagram shows the walls that divided the ship into separate parts, marked in red, and the areas damaged by the iceberg, marked in green. The decks are labeled from the Boat deck at the top down to the Lower deck at the waterline.

A cutaway diagram shows a slice through the middle of the ship, with its decks and lifeboats labeled.

Another picture compares the size of Titanic to modern vehicles and to a person.

The ship was ordered on 17 September 1908 and launched on 31 May 1911. Its trials were finished on 1 April 1912. On 10 April 1912, it began its first voyage from Southampton. It nearly crashed into the American liner New York but avoided it. It stopped at Cherbourg and Queenstown to pick up passengers, then sailed toward New York. At 11:40 pm on 14 April, it hit an iceberg. The ship sank at 2:20 am on 15 April. People were rescued between 3:30 and 8:50 am. An inquiry was held in the United States from 19 April to 25 May, and one in Britain from 2 May to 3 July. The wreck was found on 1 September 1985.

Replicas

Several people have suggested, and studied, building a copy of the Titanic.

In November 2016, a Chinese shipbuilding company, Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group Co., Ltd, started building a replica ship of the Titanic for a resort. The ship was to have many features of the original, including a ballroom, dining hall, theatre, first-class cabins, economy cabins, and a swimming pool. Visitors could stay inside the ship during their trip. The ship was to stay docked at the resort and include a sound and picture show about the sinking, which some people criticised. As of 2022, however, it was reportedly only about 25% finished, and its website and Twitter account were no longer online.