Titanic Ship History – Interesting fact behind the sinking Ship

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A century has passed since the luxury steamship RMS Titanic Ship met its tragic end in the North Atlantic ocean after it hit an iceberg during its maiden voyage. It disappeared deep into the darkness of ocean taking over 1500 souls along with it forever. The gigantic ship was destined to reach the Port of New York but fate had other ideas and a deep-sea grave became its final destination. Titanic ship was the largest ship of her time to sail the waters. It was truly a wonder and anyone who looked at the magnificent piece of beauty was mesmerized by it. When Titanic sank in the early morning of 15 April 1912 it became the worst sea disaster in the modern history. This tragedy has attracted a lot of attention over the years and ahs inspired a lot of books and movies. Most of you might remember the iconic movie titled “Titanic” released in 1997 directed by James Cameron. The love story of Jack and Rose has become the symbol of titanic. In the year 1985, the resting place of Titanic was discovered.

Here let us take a look at the actual story behind Titanic Ship.

Titanic Ship – The making

Titanic derived her name from the Greek mythology which means gigantic. It was the product of White Star Lane, a leading British shipping company of the time. The RMS Titanic ship was the second ship of the famous three Olympic-class ocean liners. The first of the series was the RMS Olympic and the third one was the HMHS Britannic.

In the first half of the 20th century, there was intense competition among rival shipping lines White Hart Lane and Cunard. Cunard had recently launched the two most luxurious and sophisticated ships of their time – Mauretania and  Lusitania. They were two of the fastest passenger ships at that time. In fact,  Mauretania held the record of being the fastest traveling ship for 22 years while Lusitania was appreciated for luxurious interiors. Both the ships were launched in the year 1907.

In the same year in order to overtake their rivals, J. Bruce Ismay, chief executive of White Star met the chairman of the Belfast-based shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff, William J. Pirrie. They discussed the construction of three gigantic ships. Ismay said that that they should compete with the size of the ships rather than speed thus making it the largest ever to sail and the ultimate home to luxury. These three ships would be the part of new “Olympic” class of liners.

The construction of Titanic ship started In March 1909 in the massive yard of Harland and Wolff and continued until the spring of 1911.

Titanic was launched at 12:15 p.m. on 31 May 1911 in the presence of J. Pierpoint Morgan, Lord Pirrie and J. Bruce Ismay.  Thousands of people attended the event. It was the largest manmade movable object of the time. The first time ever Titanic ship slipped into the water was into the River Lagan in Belfast. They spread 22 tons of soap and tallow on the slipway to lubricate the ship’s passage into the river. Thousands of workers spent most of the next year constructing her lavish interiors, building the ship’s decks, and installing the 29 giant boilers that would power her two main steam engines. It had a swimming pool, an on-board gymnasium, libraries, high-class restaurants, barber shop, Turkish bath and opulent cabins. The enormous ship was882 feet in length and 92.5 feet.

THE MAIDEN VOYAGE WHICH PROVED TO BE ITS LAST

on April 10, 1912, Titanic departed from Southampton, England, for its maiden voyage. It had to stop in Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown and Ireland.  After which Titanic set sail for New York with 2,240 passengers and crew. The world’s most celebrated ship was carrying some of the most important and famous personalities of the world which included wealthy industrialists, high-ranking officials, dignitaries and celebrities. Along with them, there were emigrants from Europe who were looking to start a new life in America.

Among the notable personalities were J. Bruce Ismay who was accompanied by Thomas Andrews, the ship’s builder from Harland and Wolff. J.P. Morgan who was the financier of the whole project was also to join them but had to cancel his trip at the last minute because of business reasons. Lucky him.

 
John Jacob Astor IV was the wealthiest passenger on the ship who had made headlines by marrying 18-year-old Madeleine Talmadge Force. She was 29 years junior to him. Other prominent personalities were industrialist Benjamin Guggenheim, along with his mistress, valet and chauffeur, owner of Macy’s, Isidor Straus, and his wife Ida;  and widow and heiress Margaret “Molly” Brown. All the wealthy passengers traveled in the first class.

In the second class were the employees, tourists and journalists. The third class had the most number of passengers. It had more than 700 passengers which were more than those in first and second class combined. These passengers in third class were the main source of profit for the shipping lines. Titanic had specially designed the chambers for these passengers and provided them facilities superior to those they would find in other shipping lines. Many passengers had paid less than 20 dollars to make the crossing.

Titanic began its maiden voyage in the noon. Just before it was about to set sail from Southampton, the crew members discovered that there was a coal fire in one of the bunkers. It was alarming but common occurrence on steamships of the time. The captain and chief engineer made the assessment that the fire did not do any damage to the hull structure and they ordered the stokers to continue to control the fire at the sea.

There is a small group of experts who believe that after the ship left Southampton, the fire became uncontrollable. This forced the crew to move at a full speed and thus was unable to avoid the collision with the iceberg which took Titanic to her doom.

Another incident happened when Titanic just left the dock. It narrowly avoided a collision with America Line’s S.S. New York.

THE DISASTER- AS IT HAPPENED

The tragic accident took place at about 11:40 p.m. on April 14. A lookout, Frederick Fleet saw an iceberg in the path of the Titanic and immediately rang the warning bell and alerted the bridge.  William Murdoch, the first officer ordered to stop the engines and turn the ship away from the path of the obstacle. They thought that the worst had been avoided. But it was a little too late as the starboard side of the ship struck the iceberg.  It had slashed a 300-foot gash and created a series of holes well below the ship’s waterline. The water had breached the five compartments of the ship by the time the captain reached the affected area and it was clear that Titanic was heading towards her doom. The bow of the ship was sinking down and the water was filling into one compartment from other as the angle of the ship into the water was becoming steeper. Andrews predicted that Titanic might remain afloat for about an hour and a half.

The crew of Titanic was not prepared to face such an emergency. The ship did not have enough lifeboats to carry the passengers to safety. The crew was not trained properly to carry out the evacuation. They had no idea how many people one lifeboat could accommodate. Due to this, they launched many lifeboats underfilled with just a few passengers in them. The evacuation process was unorganized ant it began after an hour the ship hit the iceberg. The third class passengers were left on their own which resulted in many of them get trapped below decks. Women and children were first allowed to get on the lifeboats. Men were allowed only if there were no women and children around.

After 2 hours and 40 minutes after Titanic the iceberg, she began to sink faster as the front deck completely dipped under water. The floodgates opened and water started entering the ship at a much faster rate. The stern of the ship rose out of the water the ship broke into two halves. The stern remained afloat for a final few minutes at a vertical angle before disappearing into the deep waters forever.

Titanic was overwhelmed with emotions during those horror three hours. She witnessed many acts of cowardice and bravery during the turmoil. Men were wishing their wives and children final goodbyes and many had separated from their families. There was a lot of chaos and confusion and amidst cries for help. Many selfless people chose to remain on the sinking ship so that they could be with their loved ones during their final time and another needy passenger could get on the life boat in their place.

Ismay helped in loading some of the lifeboats and later abandoned the ship. He could not bear the burden of such a disaster.

The chief designer of Titanic, Thomas Andrews was last seen staring at the picture of Titanic on a wall in the first class smoking room. Astor took Madeleine to a lifeboat. He asked permission to accompany her saying that she was pregnant but was not allowed. He kissed her final goodbye as the lifeboat was being lowered.

Isidor Straus,  an elderly passenger was offered a seat on the lifeboat but he refused to go. His wife Ida too decided to stay with him. The couple went back to their cabin and died there.

Benjamin Guggenheim and his valet went back to their rooms and changed into formal evening dress. They later emerged onto the deck and Benjamin famously declared that they are dressed in their best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen.

Molly Brown helped in unloading a lot of lifeboats. The crew finally convinced her to escape in the last remaining lifeboat. She insisted the crew return to the ship to look for survivors but they refused.

Finally at approximately 2:20 a.m. on April 15 the nearly perpendicular glowing Titanic ship went down in the deep ocean never to rise gain. Titanic had sent many signals for help but none of the ships wee near enough to help. Only 710 people survived the disaster and over 1500 souls lost their lives thus making it the worst sea disaster of all time.

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