History Of The Titanic
Who hasn't shed a few tears while watching Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in James Camaron's Titanic? This epic romance film saw even the most hard-hearted person crying and sniffing. However, there is a lot more to RMS Titanic than Rose DeWitt Bukater and Jack Dawson. Nearly everyone has heard about the Titanic and its ill-fated maiden voyage when the ship sunk after hitting an iceberg. |
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RMS Titanic was considered a great achievement when it was built. It was a passenger steamer that was had all the amenities that were not present in other passenger steamships. In addition, the ship was also huge and had the speed to go with its size. The ship was built by White Star Line, a leading shipbuilding company.
On the outset, White Star Line came up with an idea to design and build three passenger liners, namely Olympic, Titanic and Britannic. Initially, the company concentrated on the first two ships and it took them around one year to design the two ships. The construction of Olympic began in the year 1908 and the following year Titanic was constructed. It took around two years for the Titanic to be completed and it was already famous before it had set sail. The shipyard in Belfast had to be redesigned in order to undertake this huge project and the pier in New York City where the ship was going to dock after it voyage across the Atlantic had to be made longer. Finally, on 31 May 1911 the Titanic was launched with a lot of publicity. Just as the date for Titanic's voyage was drawing closer, the Olympic had a collision and needed a lot of repair. As a result the voyage date of Titanic was postponed from March 20 to April 10.
The Titanic was a huge ship. It was about 883 feet in length and around 92 feet in width. From its keel to the top of the smokestack, it was nearly 175 feet tall and nearly 35 feet of the ship was under the waterline. It was the largest made-made object that could move. Hence, it was considered a technological and shipbuilding marvel. At the time, the ship was high advanced and had all the so-called safety measures. The hull was double plated and this consisted of two 1-inch thick steel place and 16 compartments that were water tight and could be sealed with the help of an electric switch or when the water sensors went off. The design of Titanic could accommodate 32 lifeboats, but because the deck looked messy with so many lifeboats, White Star Line decided to just have 16 lifeboats, which had the ability to hold 1,178 souls. This was actually low when you take into consideration that the ship had the ability to carry 3,500 people, including the crew. And when it set sail from England, Titanic was carrying 2,200 people. Taking into consideration all the safety measures, the media called the ship unsinkable.
The Titanic set sail on 10 April 1912 from Southampton, England for the United States. It docked at Ireland and France to pick up more passengers and then set sail across the Atlantic to its destination -- New York City. The passengers, who had sailed across the Atlantic before, were highly impressed with the size and amenities present on the high. They hardly experienced the rocking motion and the engines were silent. The ship sailed at 22 knots per hour and was covering the distance quite fast.
Initially, the Titanic experienced clear weather with no problems whatsoever. The previous winter was mild and this had caused many icebergs to break loose and some of them had managed to find their way into the open ocean. However, the ship had the wireless telegraph system from Marconi and it was being manned 24 hours. On the fifth day after the ship set sail from England, it received five warnings about floating icebergs. However, the captain of the ship, Edward Smith, was not worried about these warnings, as the ship was no where near these loose icebergs. On 14 April 1912, the Titanic received another warning. This was in the night, but the operator, who was manning the wireless telegraph did not pay attention to this warning. He had no idea that the ship was quite close to an iceberg. So, the operator just kept aside the warning and as a result it did not reach the captain. On that fateful night, the ocean was calm and the night was dark and clear. These conditions made it difficult to spy icebergs, as there was no sign of water breaking against the sides of the icebergs.
Then at 11.40, the lookout spotted an iceberg right in the middle of the path of the Titanic. Immediately an alarm went of. The First Officer order the ship be turned to port. He also ordered the engine room to reverse. This step was taken immediately. However, the large size of Titanic and its speed made the task next to impossible. So, it became apparent that there was no way Titanic could avoid crashing into the iceberg. Unfortunately, Titanic rammed into the sixth iceberg and this huge maritime disaster ended up taking lives of 705 souls. Just 1,502 souls escaped. The ship that was dubbed as unsinkable sank and passed into history.
The sinking of Titanic was a disaster that the world was shocked by. The number of people who died was just too huge for the world to comprehend, especially as no one imagined that the Titanic was capable of sinking after all the safety measures it had onboard.
When the film Titanic was released, it became an instant success. Though the movie concentrated on the fill-fated romance of two fictional characters, Rose and Jack, it also showed how vulnerable the ship was. While the movie was depiction about the history of the Titanic, it is quite possible that it was very close to what actually happened aboard and how the poor passengers lost their lives.
More Articles :
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: History Of RMS Titanic
http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=7536
Wikipedia: RMS Titanic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic
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