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Titanic: The History of an Oceanliner

~Eighty-Seven (Eighty-Eight in April) years ago the Titanic crashed into an iceberg and sank into the North Atlantic, killing about 1,500 people (more than half of the 2,201 passengers and crew members on board)
~The Titanic had 3 'sisters' including itself, Britannic, and the Olympic. (Which captian E.J. Smith did her maiden voyage. He also struck something with her, but was able to make it back into port), and Britannic (whose original name was Gigantic, but was changed after Titanic sank.
~ Titanic's maiden voyage began on April 7,1912. She made two stops before proceeding west to New York.
~The Titanic had many luxurious features such as: a swimming pool, gym, bars, elevators, boiler rooms, engine rooms, many first, second and third class rooms. It also was the most luxurious ship (of her time) ever created.
~The Titanic had 16 water tight compartments.
~She could stay afloat with 4 water tight compartments blocked/closed.
~The Grand Staircase was on the first class level.
~There were 9 movies made about Titanic.
~ Just 19 minutes before Titanic hit the iceberg, there was a reported ship within a few miles, the 'Californian', who later reported no SOS or CDQ distress calls from the 'Titanic'
~There were 3 classes first, second, third (third being the worst).
~Scientists have announced that they think the ship may have sunk because of structural damage in some of the ships most basic parts; the rivets.After analyzing 2 recovered rivets that held the ship's steel plates together.Scientists found the metal bolts were structurally weak.
~Scientists also discovered that the iron used to make Titanic was structurally weak/cheap.
~The Titanic was 883 feet long , weighed 46,328 tons, she was 92 feet wide, and 104 feet tall from keel to bridge. (Which, 35 feet were below the waterline.)
~A man named Carlos F. Hurd was aboard the Carpathia when it came to Titanic's (or what was left of it) rescue-he was a Post Dispatcher Reporter.
~Carlos F. Hurd got the information and wrote a 5,000 word article on the Titanic.
~The Titanic was constructed by the White Star Line in shipyards at Belfast, Northern Ireland; completed on March 31, 1912. It was trumpeted by it's owners as "unsinkable."
~The Titanic began its maiden voyage on April 7, 1912, from Southampton, England, headed for NewYork.
~Total on board: 2,201 people; 1,316 passengers; 885 crew members.
~Struck a huge iceberg at 11:40 p.m. on April 14, gashing open the starboard side.
~She sank at 2:20 a.m. on April 15, breaking in half as it went down.
~Total killed: about 1,500 passengers and crew members; includingthe Captain,Edward J. Smith. Of the 951 male passengers, 805 died.
~Total saved: about 700 people, mostly women and children, in the Titanic's 20 lifeboats, which were capable of holding 1,178 people.Many of the boats were only half filled when they left the sinking ship.
~Survivors were rescued by the steamer, Carpathia,which had been 58 miles away when it received distress signals from the Titanic.
~Number of survivors still living: seven.Three are in the United States-Eleanor Shuman of Elgin, III; Lillian Asplund of Shrewsbury, Mass., and Winifred Van Tongerloo of Warren, Mich.Two survivors are in England and 2 are in France.
~Only the hardiest of constitutions could endure for many minutes such a numbing bath. The first vigorous strokes (away from the ship) gave way to heartbreaking cries of "Help"...
~The boat cost 7.5 million dollars to make.
~People lined the streets to watch the procession to the cemetery for the Titanic's bandmaster.
~Of the 4 smokestacks on the original 'Titanic' only 3 actually blew engine steam. The other one was connected to the kitchen.
~The third class passengers were not all locked inside the ship, some White Star Line employees let out the trapped passengers.
~The average person would die in 30 minutes or less in freezing water up to their neck.
~That previous summer was the warmest summer ever recorded in the previous fifty years and that's why there were so many icebergs broken off from greenland that spring of 1912.
~Ben Guggenheim was real, along with J. Dawson, Molly Brown....etc.
~There was a man who drank heavily in the last hour of the sinking (who was next to Rose and Jack in the movie) which thinned his blood and allowed him to pay no attention to the cold water and was saved by a boat.
~In first class, the cost for a ticket was $4350.00 dollars, in todays money that would probably be around $50,000.00 dollars.
~Titanic's unladened weight (empty) 46,328 tons--her ladened weight was 64,000 tons. Alot of the weight came from the fact she needed 620 tons of coal a day to operate and also that she did have excess cargo on.
~ She was sinkable, the Shipbuilder knew this, the designer, and White Star Lines. It was all started by somebody saying she was "unsinkable." Which White Star Lines used in they're press release of Titanic.
~The temperature of the water was 28*F.
~Morgan Robertson wrote a novel, Futility in 1898,(14 years before the Titanic sank) .Let's look at the similarities:
~Titan~Ship length:800 ft. Ship tonnage:75,000 ons Propellers:3 Speed at impact:25 knots Passengers:3,000 Month of disaster: April
~Titanic~Ship length:882.5 ft. Ship tonnage:66,000 Propellers:3 Speed at impact:23 knots Passengers:2,201 Month of disaster:April


List of Prominent passangers that where onborad the TiTanic*

1. Colonel John Jacob Astor- “He was a real-estate mogul reputed to have been worth $100 million; his market bottomed out when he went down along with his Airedale named Kitty.”

2. Bengamin Guggenheim- “Swiss-American sultan of the smelting who because immortalized for spending part of his final hours changing into formal evening wear, in order to go down like a gentlemen. Guggenheim’s valet also decided to go down with him.”

3. Isidor and Ida Straus-”Elderly owners of Marcy’s department stores; the story of Ida refusing a seat in a lifeboat to stay with her husband has been lumping up throats for over 85 years”

4. Mr. and Mrs. George Widener and son Harry- “hosts of Titanic’s swanky last supper. George and Harry were lost, but she survived and later endowed Harvard’s Widener Library in Harry’s name.”

5. Mr and Mrs. John B. Thayer- “The self-made president of Pennsylvania Railroad. He died, but she and her son went on to provide poignant commentary on the disaster.”

6. Sir Cosmom and Lady Lucile Duff-Gordon “She was a cutting-edge dress designer and he was an English baronet. They signed on board the Titanic under the assumed name, “Mr. and Mrs. Morgan.” “

7. “Unsinkable” Molly Brown- “ Outspoken “new-money” refugee from a Western silver mine. When her estranged husband herad she survived, he said, “She’s too mean to sink”!”

8. Mrs. Charlotte Drake Cardeza-” Famous for arriving on board with three baggage crates, four suitcases,and 14 trunk. She later valued her luggage at over $175,000.”

* More Titanic Facts*

“The Titanic only had enough life-boats to hold 1,178 of its 2,200-plus people on board. As precuous as lifeboat space was, it wasn’t utilized efficiently. Only a few more than 700 people survived the disaster. If the lifeboats had been filled, more than 400 additional people could have been saved.”

A List of Those in Command on the Tianic

1.Captain Edward J. Smith-”Served as captain with White Star Line for 25 years before going down with his last ship at the age of 60.”

2. Chief Officer Henry Wilde-” Assigned to the Titanic as an afterthough as a result of his experience on the Olympic, the Titanic’s sister ship. He went down with the ship.”

3. First Officer William Murdoch-”In Charge on the bridge when the iceberg was sighted by the lookouts. He gave the order “hard a-starboard!” in time to avoid a direct collision, but too late avoid a long, fatal scrap. He was lost with the ship.”

4. Second Officer Charles Lightoller-”The highest ranking officer to survive. He supervised the loading of a number of lifeboats and was a stickler for “women and childern first.” “

5 Third Officer John Pittman- “ Ordered to take charge of lifeboat #5 by Officer Murdoch after supervising its loading.”

6. Forth Officer Joseph Boxhall-”survived the disaster and later served as a technical sonsultant for the making of the 1958 Titanic flim, A Night to Remember. Boxhall’s ashes were scattered at the site of Titanic’s sinking upon is death in 1967.”

7. Fifth Officer Harold Lowe- “In charge of the only lifeboat to return for survivors after the Titanic sink. Lowe is also reported to have yelled , “Get the hell out of the way!” to White Star exec Ismay for interfering in the lowering of the lifeboats.”

8. Sixth Officer James Moody-”Relayed the message from the lookout to Officer Murdoch that the iceberg had been sighted. He went down with the ship.”

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