Oh
they loaded the boats so very far from the shore
but the
rich refused to associate with the poor
So they
put the poor below,
where
they were the first to go.
It was
sad when the great ship went down.
-Folksong
Interesting Facts & Firsts
| Titanic was 883 feet long (1/6 of a mile) |
| 92 feet wide and weighed 46,328 tons. |
| She was 104 feet tall from keel to bridge almost 35 feet of which were below the waterline even so, she stood taller above the water than most urban buildings of the time |
| Total capacity: 3547 passengers and crew, fully loaded |
| Decks: 9 in total (counting the orlop deck) the boat deck, A,B,C,D,E,F,G and below G boiler rooms. |
| Watertight compartments: 16, extending up to F deck |
| Lifeboats:
20 total as follows:
14 wood lifeboats each 30’0" long by 9’1" by 4’0" deep with a capacity of 65 persons each 2 wood cutters 25’2" long by 7’2" by 3’0" deep with a capacity of 40 persons each. 4 Englehardt collapsible boats 27’5" by 8’0" by 3’0" deep with a capacity of 47 persons each. |
| Lifeboat Total Rated Capacity: 1,178 persons |
| Personal floatation devices: 3560 life jackets and 49 life buoys |
| Fuel requirement: 825 tons of coal per day |
| Water consumption: 14,000 gallons of fresh water per day |
| Top Speed: 23 knots |
| She was the largest movable object made by man. |
| The original
design called for 32 lifeboats. However, White Star management felt that
the boat-deck
would look cluttered, and reduced the number to 20, for a total life-boat capacity of 1178. This actually exceeded the regulations of the time, even though Titanic was capable of carrying over 3500 people. |
More Facts
| The Cost of a one way ticket on Titanic: |
| First Class (parlor suite) £870/$4,350 ($50,000 today) |
| First Class (berth) £30/$150 ($1724 today) |
| Second Class £12/$60 ($690 today) |
| Third Class £3 to £8/$40 ($172 to $460 today) |
| Cost of
the Titanic (in 1912): $7,500,000
Cost to build Titanic today: $400,000,000 |
| Titanic
now rests:
1000 miles due east of Boston, Massachusetts, and 375 miles southeast of St.- John's, Newfoundland. Depth: 12,500 feet. Stern Section: 41°43'35" N, 49°56'54" W Boilers:41°43'32" N, 49°56'49" W Bow Section:41°43'57" N, 49°56'49" W |
Aboard Titanic
| 337 First Class | 285 Second Class |
| 721 Third Class | 885 Crew |
| Tea Cups: 3,000 | Dinner Plates: 12,000 |
| Ice Cream Plates: 5,500 | Wine Glasses: 2,000 |
| Salt Shakers: 2,000 | Aprons: 4,000 |
| Table Cloths: 6,000 | Table Napkins: 45,000 |
| Blankets: 7,500 | Quilts: 800 |
| Single Sheets: 15,000 | Double Sheets: 3,000 |
| Pillow-slips: 15,000 | Bath Towels: 7,500 |
| Fresh Meat 75,000 lbs | Fresh Fish 11,000 lbs |
| Bacon and Ham 7,500 lbs | Poultry and game 25,000 lbs |
| Fresh Eggs 40,000 | Potatoes 40 tons |
| Onions 3,500 lbs | Tomatoes 3,500 lbs |
| Lettuce 7,000 heads | Coffee 2,200 lbs |
| Tea 800 lbs | Sugar 10,000lbs |
| Flour 250 barrels | Cereals 10,000 lbs |
| Fresh Butter 6,000lbs | Fresh Milk 1,500 gal |
| Apples 36,000 | Oranges 36,000 |
| Lemons 16,000 | Grapes 1,000lbs |
| Grapefruit 13,000 | Wines 1,000 bottles |
| Spirits 850 bottles | Cigars 8,000 |
Titanic Time Line
| 1867 -The unprofitable White Star Line is purchased by Thomas Henry Ismay and Sir Edward Harland |
| 1891- Thomas Ismay's eldest son, J. Bruce Ismay is made a partner of White Star and one year later Thomas retires. |
| 1907-J. Bruce Ismay and Lord James Pirrie, a partner in the firm of Harland and Wolff meet at a dinner party. Plans are made to build two luxury ships, the Olympic and the Titanic, with a third, the Gigantic (renamed Britannic), to be built later |
| 1908-1909- Construction of the Olympic and Titanic begins in Belfast, Ireland, at the Harland and Wolff shipyards. |
| October 20, 1910- The Olympic is successfully launched. |
| June 1911- The Olympic leaves on her maiden voyage. |
| January 1912-Sixteen wooden lifeboats, along with four collapsible canvas-sided boats, are fitted on board the Titanic. |
| March 31, 1912- The outfitting of the Titanic is complete. |
| April
10: Wednesday
9:30 to 11:30 am: Passengers arrive in Southampton and board ship. 12:00pm: The Titanic casts off and begins her maiden voyage. She has a near miss with the steamer New York caused by the suction of Titanic's enormous displacement. 6:30 pm: The Titanic rides anchor in Cherbourg, France. 8:10pm: The Titanic leaves for Queenstown, Ireland. |
| April
11: Thursday
1:30pm: Anchored off of Roche's Point, Queenstown, Ireland. Francis Browne, a Jesuit seminarian, disembarks and takes the last known photograph of the Titanic for the next 73 years. The Titanic leaves Queenstown for New York. |
| April
12 and 13: Friday and Saturday
The Titanic sails through calm, clear weather. |
| April
14: Sunday
Seven ice warnings are received during the day. Reports come in from the Noordamm, Caronia, Baltic, Amerika, Californian and Mesaba. |
| 10:50pm: The Californian sends a wireless message directly to the Titanic telling them that were stopped and surrounded by ice. |
| 11:39pm:
The Titanic is steaming at 20.5 knots. Suddenly, lookouts, Fredrick Fleet
and Reginald Lee, see an iceberg dead ahead about 500 yards away towering
some 55-60 feet above the water. Murdoch then activates the lever to close
all watertight doors below the waterline. The helmsman spins the wheel
as far as it will go. After several seconds, the Titanic
begins to veer to port, but the iceberg strikes starboard bow side and brushes along the side of the ship and passes by. The impact is not noticed by many of the passengers. Thirty-seven seconds have passed from sighting to collision. |
| 11:50pm: Captain Smith asks designer Thomas Andrews and the ship's carpenter to conduct a visual inspection of the damage. Water has poured in and risen 14 feet in the front part of the ship. |
| April
15: Monday
12:00am: Captain Smith is told by Andrews that the ship can only stay afloat for a couple of hours. He orders radio operators Harold Bride and Jack Phillips to send "CQD", the distress call. The boilers are shut down and relief pipes against funnels blow off huge noisy clouds of steam. |
| 12:05am: Orders are given to uncover the lifeboats and to get the passengers and crew ready on deck. But there is only enough room in the lifeboats for about half of the estimated 2,228 people on board. |
| 12:15 to 2:17am: Numerous ships receive the Titanic's distress signal, including her sister ship the Olympic, some 500 miles away. |
| 12:25am: The order is given to start loading the lifeboats with women and children first. The Carpathia heads, full speed, to the rescue. |
| 12:45am: The first of the lifeboats is safely lowered away. It can carry 65 people but pulls away from the Titanic carrying only 28. The first distress rocket is fired. Eight rockets are fired throughout the night. |
| 1:15am: Water begins to reach the Titanic's name on the bow. The tilt of the deck grows increasingly steeper. Lifeboats now begin to leave more fully loaded. |
| 1:40am: Most of the forward lifeboats have been lowered. Passengers now move towards the stern of the ship. |
| 2:05am: The last lifeboat leaves. There are now over 1,500 people left on board the sinking ship. The tilt of the Titanic's decks grows steeper by the minute. |
| 2:17am:
Phillips continues to send last radio message. Capt. Smith tells crew members,
"It's every man for himself," and returns to the bridge to await the end.
Titanic's bow plunges under enabling the ensnared collapsible B to float
clear upside down.
The ships band stops playing. Many passengers and crew jump overboard The Titanic's forward funnel collapses crushing a number of swimming passengers. As many as half, have now died |
| 2:18am: Items in the ship are heard crashing through walls and falling toward the sinking bow. The ship's lights blink once and then go out. Several survivors see the ship break in two. The bow section sinks. |
| 2:20am: The Titanic's broken off stern section settles back into the water, becoming level for a few moments. Slowly it fills with water and again it tilts its end high into the air, before sinking vertically into the sea. Those struggling in the icy water slowly freeze to death. Over 1500 people perish. |
| 3:30am: The rescue ship, Carpathia's rockets are sighted by the survivors in the lifeboats. |
| 4:10am: The first lifeboat is picked up by Carpathia. |
| 8:50am: The Carpathia leaves the area bound for New York, carrying 705 survivors. J.Bruce Ismay wires White Star New York offices: "Deeply regret advise you Titanic sank this morning after a collision with an iceberg, resulting in serious loss of life. |
| April 17: Hired by White Star, the Mackay-Bennet leaves Halifax to search for bodies at the disaster site. |
| April 22 to May 15: Several ships are sent to the disaster site to search for bodies. A total of 328 bodies were found floating around the area. |
| April 1913: As a result of the Titanic disaster, the International Ice Patrol is created to guard the North Atlantic sea lanes. |
| June 1913: In the midst of public ridicule and rumors, J. Bruce Ismay loses his position as chairman of White Star Lines. |
| 1937- J. Bruce Ismay dies at the age of 74. |
| June 1981-Jack Grimm unsuccessfully attempts to locate the Titanic on his second expedition. |
| July 1983-The third and final expedition funded by Jack Grimm fails to find the Titanic. |
| September 1, 1985-A joint French - American scientific expedition, IFREMER/Woods Hole, led by Dr. Robert Ballard discovers the wreck of the Titanic at a depth of 12,500 feet |
| 1986-Dr. Ballard returns to the Titanic and conducts extensive photographic exploration of the wreck. |
| 1987-RMS Titanic Inc. is formed by an international group of businessmen anxious to see the Titanic's remains preserved. Titanic Inc. conducts research and recovery expeditions to the wreck site in 1987, 1993, 1994 and 1996. Some 5,000 artifacts have been recovered and are being preserved. |
| 1994-The Wreck of the Titanic - a major exhibition - opens at the National Maritime Museum, London, displaying artifacts recovered by Titanic Inc. between 1987 and 1993 |
| 1995 - P. P. Shirsov Institute & James Cameron conduct underwater filming for a fictional motion picture slated for release in late 1997. |
| August 1996 -Titanic Inc. perform site mapping, artifact recovery, and photographic exploration of the interior and exterior. The expedition tries, but fails, to bring up an 11-ton piece of the hull. |
| December 18,1997-The movie "Titanic", written and directed by James Cameron, begins its release around the world. At over $200 million, "Titanic" is the most expensive motion picture ever made! |