Perhaps one of the most famous maritime tragedies, the RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic on 15th April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. It remains the deadliest peacetime sinking of an ocean liner or cruise ship in history. Of the estimated 2,200 passengers and crew on board, more than 1,500 died.
The RMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat at the time she entered service and was the second of three ocean liners of its kind. It was one of the flagship cruise liners operated by the White Star Line, one of the most prominent shipping companies in the world.
The beginnings of the Titanic
The ship was built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast and you can still visit the shipyard and museums dedicated to the Titanic in the city. It was created with advanced safety features, including watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, making the irony of its sinking even more amazing, it was marketed as being unsinkable. As you would expect from a passenger liner, the Titanic set sail with 16 lifeboat davits, each capable of lowering three lifeboats for a total of 48 boats. However, there were only 20 lifeboats on board for the voyage, four of which were collapsible and proved hard to launch while she was sinking. Together, the 20 lifeboats could hold 1,178 people, about half of the number of people on board. Though, this should be noted that this was consistent with the maritime regulations of the time.
The name Titanic came from the Titans of the Greek myths and was the second of three Olympic class ocean liners, alongside the RMS Olympic and the HMHS Britannic. They were by far the largest vessels in White Star Line’s fleet, which featured 29 other ships at the time. White Star were working in competition with Cunard, who had launched the Lusitania and the Mauretania, the fastest passenger ships in service at the time. The Lusitania would also come to a tragic end.
The ship’s design
The Titanic was 882 feet long and had a maximum breadth of 92 feet long. She was 104 tall and had ten decks, excluding the officer’s quarters, eight of which were for passenger use.
From top to bottom these were:
The boat deck
This is where the lifeboats were housed, it was from here that the lifeboats were lowered on that fateful day. The bridge and wheelhouse were at the front and the entrance to the First Class Grand Staircase and gym were located midship, along with the raised roof of the First Class lounge. The rear of this deck featured the roof of the First Class smoking room and the Second Class entrance. The deck also featured a promenade which was divided into four, for officers, First Class passengers, engineers and Second Class passengers. Lifeboats lined the deck, except in the First Class area, so as to not spoil the view.
A Deck
Known as the promenade deck, this was reserved exclusively for First Class passengers and contained First Class cabins, the First Class lounge, smoke room, reading and writing rooms and additional First Class areas.
B Deck
Also known as the Bridge Deck featured more First Class cabins, with six staterooms, featuring their own private promenades. An A la carte restaurant and café were both found on this deck and were run by subcontracted chefs and staff, all of whom were lost in the tragedy. Further along the deck was a Second Class smoking room and entrance hall. A further section, near the cargo holds, was used as a promenade by Third Class passengers. It was here that many of the passengers and crew made their last stand as the ship sank.
C Deck
The shelter deck, was the highest deck to run interrupted the length of the ship. It included both well decks, with one serving as part of the Third Class promenade. Crew cabins were housed here and Third Class public rooms were below the deck. In between were the majority of First Class cabins and the Second Class library.
D Deck
The Saloon deck, dominated by three large public rooms, the First Class reception room, the First Class dining saloon and the Second Class dining saloon. An open space was provided for Third Class passengers, First, Second and Third Class passengers had cabins on this deck with berths for firemen located in the bow.
E Deck
The Upper Deck was mostly used for passenger accommodation for all three classes, plus berths for crew members. It was serviced by a long passageway known as Scotland Road and was used by mostly Third Class passengers and crew members.
F Deck
The middle deck was the last complete deck and mainly accommodated Second and Third Class passengers and the crew. The Third Class dining area was located here, as well as s swimming pool, Turkish bath and kennels.
G Deck
The lower deck was the lowest complete deck that carried passengers and had the lowest portholes, many just above the waterline. Here there was a squash court, along with a post office and storage areas.
Below G Deck was a series of cargo spaces and where the engines, boilers, turbines, generators and more were found. They were accessed via spiral staircases near the bow which connected to D Deck.
During her maiden voyage, the Titanic was carrying some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of migrants from the British Isles and across Europe who were looking to start a new life in the USA and Canada. The first class accommodation was designed to be the highest quality of comfort and luxury imaginable and featured everything including gyms, swimming pools, smoking rooms, a Turkish bath, high class restaurants and very luxurious cabins. For the less wealthy passengers, they were confined to much more basic accommodation. The general décor was made to look like a contemporary high class hotel, with the Ritz as a reference point. The aim was for passengers to feel as though they were on a floating hotel, rather than a ship.
The Titanic featured several novel additions, not before seen on passenger ships which were available to First Class passengers. These included a swimming pool, gym, squash court and Turkish bath. Other facilities for First Class included lounges, reading and writing rooms, smoking rooms, reception rooms, restaurants, cafes and more. The dining saloon located on D Deck was the largest room afloat and could seat around 600 passengers at a time.
Third Class, commonly known as steerage, did not have the luxury of the First and Second class passengers, but still had better accommodation than other ships of the time. The cabins for Third Class passengers on other similar ships resembled open dormitories towards the front of the ship in which hundreds of people slept, often without suitable toilet facilities. The Third Class dormitories also separated men and women, with single men being housed at one end of the ship and single women and families at the other. On the Titanic however, Third Class passengers received small, private cabins that could sleep up to 10 people. The Titanic also featured open deck space, reading room and smoking room, though these were not as luxurious as those for First Class.
Fares on board varied depending on class and length of journey. Third Class fares cost the equivalent of £800 today, while the cheapest First Class fare would be £2,400 in today’s money. The most expensive First Class suites were priced at £92,000 in today’s money.
The maiden voyage
The Titanic’s maiden voyage was intended to be the first of many trans-Atlantic crossings between Southampton and New York via Cherbourg and Queenstown before returning via Plymouth in England.
The Titanic would follow the same route as existing ships, including other White Star Liners, with each ship setting sail once every three weeks from Southampton, special trains were put on between London and Paris to get passengers to Southampton and Cherbourg ready to board the vessel.
The Titanic had around 885 crew members on board for her maiden voyage, unlike vessels today, the crew were not permanent and were casual workers who only came on board a few hours before setting sale. The Captain, Edward Smith was the most senior of the White Star Line’s captains and transferred from another ship, the Olympic to take control of the Titanic. He was joined by Henry Wilde, who took the post of chief mate.
Most of the crew signed on in Southampton on 6th April, in all, around 700 of the crew came from there. A few specialist staff were self employed or subcontracted, including the postal clerks and the staff of the restaurants. The 8 musicians were employed by an agency and travelled as Second Class passengers.
When it came to passengers, there were around 324 in First Class, 284 in Second Class and 709 in Third Class. Of these, the majority were male. There were 107 children on board, the largest amount of which were in Third Class, all in all, the ship was significantly under capacity.
The most notable passengers travelling in First Class were:
Isidor and Ida Straus – owners of Macys
Karl Behr and Dick Williams – Tennis players
Dorothy Gibson – Silent film actress (she actually went on to star in a film about the disaster)
Leila Saks Meyer and Edgar Joseph Meyer, daughter and son in law of Andrew Saks, department store owner
John Jacob Astor was the wealthiest person aboard the Titanic, he was an American millionaire and was travelling with his wife Madeleine who was pregnant at the time.
The Titanic’s owner, J P Morgan was supposed to be on board but cancelled at the last minute. White Star Line’s director J Bruce Ismay and the ship’s designer, Thomas Andrews however, were both on board.
The maiden voyage began on 10th April 1912, with passengers arriving from 9.30am. Third Class passengers boarded first, as there were a larger number of passengers travelling on this fare. Stewards showed guests to their cabins and Captain Smith personally greeted those travelling First Class, they set sail at noon as scheduled, however narrowly avoided an accident when mooring lines got caught and a moored ship began moving towards the Titanic. The incident delayed the departure for around an hour. First stop was Cherbourg, though as the dock was not big enough for a ship the size of the Titanic, passengers stopping here or embarking, had to be ferried across in smaller boats. This process took around 90 minutes and the Titanic proceeded to Queenstown, Ireland, at 8pm.
The Titanic set sail from Queenstown (Cobn) at 1.30pm on 11th April before continuing on to New York. They were supposed to arrive at New York Pier 59 on 17th April, between the 11th and the sinking on 15th, a fire began in one of the coal bunkers and continued to burn for several days but the passengers were unaware of this. Fires frequently occurred onboard ships at the time and was extinguished by 14th April.
The Titanic received a series of warnings from other ships of drifting ice in the days leading up to the crash, but these were ignored by Captain Smith, who continued to proceed at full steam ahead. Ice warnings were often seen as advisories and the responsibility for avoiding them fell to the look outs on the bridge. It was generally thought that ice posed little danger to large vessels.
The incident
On 14th April at around 11.40pm (ship time), lookout Frederick Fleet spotted an iceberg immediately ahead of the Titanic and alerted the bridge. First Officer William Murdoch ordered the ship to be steered around the iceberg and the engines to be reversed, but it was too late. The starboard site struck the iceberg, which caused a series of holes below the waterline. The holes caused five of the watertight compartments to be breached, it soon became clear that the ship could not remain afloat with more than four compartments flooded.
Those abroad the Titanic were not prepared for such an emergency, at the time, ships this large were seen as unsinkable and lifeboats were intended to transfer passengers to nearby vessels, rather than actually save lives. The Titanic only had enough lifeboats to carry about half of those on board and the crew had not been adequately trained in carrying out an evacuation, with many of them not knowing the safe number of people to put aboard the lifeboats. As such, many were launched only half full. First Class passengers were prioritised and Third Class passengers were largely left to fend for themselves, with several trapped below decks. A protocol of “women and children” first was followed when leading the lifeboats and as such, women and children survived at a rate of around 75% compared to male passengers, only 20% of whom survived.
Just after 2am, the boat’s deck dipped underwater and sea began to pour in. The stern rose out of the water and exposed the propellors, causing the ship to break in two main places, the stern became almost vertical, with hundreds of people clinging to it, before foundering at around 2.30am. It was believed that the Titanic sank in one piece, but the discovery of the wreckage proved that it did break in two. As this began to happen, all the remaining passengers and crew were dropped into water that was -2 degrees. Many were left to fend for themselves, despite the nearby lifeboats having room for almost 500 more people. The lifeboats that had been lowered were found to only be around 60% full.
Distress signals were sent by wireless, rockets and lamp, but none of the ships that responded were close enough to reach the Titanic before it sank. In total, 706 people survived and continued on to New York by another passenger ship. It is believed that over 1,500 people died. The area that the Titanic sank is now known as Iceberg Alley and ships passing through immediately afterwards described the stretch of water as being studded with ice bergs, some measuring around 200 feet.
The aftermath
The surviving passengers and crew were taken onwards to New York by the RMS Carpathia, a Cunard vessel, which took three days to reach New York after leaving the scene of the disaster. Her journey was slowed by the weather but the crew were able to pass on details of the disaster to the outside world.
Prior to the voyage, White Star Line had insured the Titanic for around £1 million. Following the disaster, White Star Line was paid the full sum owed to them within 30 days. Many charities were set up to help survivors and their families and several survivors teamed up to sue for loss of life and baggage. White Star ended up settling with the survivors, but only paid out around 27% of what was asked for.
The British Board of Trade and a US Senate inquiry into the disaster was launched soon after the incident. The British Board of Trade approved the ship and had little interest in its own or White Star’s conduct. Both inquiries took testimony from passengers and crew, as well as the Captain of the Carpathia and other experts. Neither found negligence and that the disaster was an Act of God and that Captain Smith and the crew had been following long-standard practice that had not previously been thought of as unsafe. The recommendations included strong suggestions for major changes in maritime regulations, including ensuring more lifeboats were provided, that drills were carried out and that wireless equipment was manned around the clock. An International Ice Patrol was set up to monitor icebergs in the North Atlantic. The way in which the Titanic sank, brought to light some serious issues with the designs of the Olympic class ships and the other two vessels were given major refurbishments.
Only 333 bodies of Titanic victims were recovered. Many sank with the ship, while others were dispersed for miles because of currents which made them difficult to recover. The last one recovered was found on 22nd May 1915 and was buried in Halifax, the nearest city to the crash site.
The last living survivor of the Titanic, Millvina Dean, who was the youngest passenger on board at just 9 weeks old, died aged 97 in 2009. Other surviving passengers, Violet Jessop and Arthur John Priest, who were part of the crew, survived not only the sinking of the Titanic but also the HMHS Britannic and were aboard the RMS Olympic when it suffered an accident in 1911.
The wreckage
The wreckage of the Titanic sits around 12,000 feet below the ocean’s surface. It took until 1985 for an expedition to find the wreck after several unsuccessful attempts. It was at this point that it was proven that the ship had in fact split in two, the two halves lie just under a mile apart from each other. Many artefacts have been recovered and are displayed in touring exhibitions around the world and in two permanent displays in Las Vegas. The wreckage is part of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage, which protects it from exploitation or removal of any sections.
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