Thursday, 17 May 2012
Wednesday, 16 May 2012
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100th Anniversiry
At 12:13 pm on 31 May 2011, exactly 100 years after Titanic rolled down her slipway, a single flare was fired over Belfast's docklands in commemoration. All boats in the area around the Harland and Wolff shipyard then sounded their horns and the assembled crowd applauded for exactly 62 seconds, the time it had originally taken for the liner to roll down the slipway in 1911.[225] On 12 March 2012 BBC's Songs of Praise, from Belfast, took the form of a Titanic memorial. The programme included a selection of maritime hymns and ended with Nearer, My God, to Thee, allegedly the last tune played by the ship's band.[226]
On 4 April 2012, the 100th anniversary of Titanic's completion and her maiden voyage was celebrated by the theatrical re-release of the 1997 feature film, Titanic in 3D.[227] ITV1 produced a four-part Titanic mini-series, written by Oscar-winner Julian Fellowes, broadcast in March and April 2012.[228] Titanic Tales: Stories of Courage and Cowardice is a dramatic production co-written by Duncan McCargo and Stephanie Winters, based on original testimonies of survivors, along with authentic music. It was commissioned by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and premiered in New York on 12 April 2012.[229]
An original stageplay called Iceberg – Right Ahead! will be performed at Upstairs at the Gatehouse, London from 22 March – 22 April 2012, the Lyric Theatre, Belfast is performing White Star of the North, and the street theatre event Sea Odyssey: Giant Spectacular was held in Liverpool over the weekend of 20-22 April.[230] The event which attracted 600,000 spectators[231] was inspired by a letter written by a 10-year-old Liverpudlian girl, May McMurray, in 1912 to her father William, a bedroom steward on the Titanic who did not survive the sinking. The letter never reached him and is now on display at the Merseyside Maritime Museum.[232][233][234]
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performed The Titanic Requiem, a work composed by singer/songwriter Robin Gibb and his son RJ Gibb, at the premiere on 10 April in London.[235] The event includes a hologram show depicting the sea, the ship, and the iceberg.[236]
The cruise ship Balmoral, operated by Fred Olsen Cruise Lines, has been chartered by Miles Morgan Travel to follow the original route of Titanic, intending to stop over the point on the sea bed where she rests on 15 April 2012.[237]
On 14 April 2012, Halifax’s Maritime Museum of the Atlantic held a candle-lit procession by the water from the museum to Halifax's Grand Parade, which passed some of the city’s Titanic related landmarks along the way. Following this, Halifax’s Fairview Lawn Cemetery held an interfaith memorial service in remembrance of the hundreds of lives lost in the Titanic tragedy and for the 121 Titanic victims buried at the cemetery, followed by a wreath-laying and musical performance the next day.[citation needed]
The SeaCity Museum in Southampton, Hampshire opened on 10 April 2012, the date when RMS Titanic made her maiden voyage out of Southampton.[138] It was designed to show Southampton's 2000 years of sea history, as well as commemorate the 549 city residents who sunk with the Titanic.[138]
To mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking, the BBC World Service broadcast, on 10 April 2012, a radio documentary in the "Discovery" series, entitled Titanic - In Her Own Words. The programme was conceived and created by Susanne Weber and was narrated by Sean Coughlan who had previously written a book on the Titanic radio messages.[238] The programme used voice synthesis to re-create ". the strange, twitter-like, mechanical brevity of the original Morse code messages.. " transmitted by Titanic and neighbouring ships. The messages often included the fashionable slang expressions of the time such as "old man". The BBC noted: "All such messages were recorded at the time in copper plate handwriting, and were now scattered across the world in different collections, but together formed a unique archive".[239] On 14 April BBC Radio 2 aired a three hour minute-by-minute account of the disaster to coincide with the time it happened.[240]
Besides commemorations on land, two ships participated in memorial services at the spot where Titanic sank. Azamara Journey left New York on 10 April, with passengers interested in the Titanic story, many dressed in period attire. A stop was made at Halifax to visit the graves of 121 victims. A second ship, MS Balmoral, set sail from Southampton, with 1309 passengers, on 8 April and also held onboard memorial services, 640 kilometres off the coast of Newfoundland.[241]
Postage stamps have been issued to mark the centennial: Canada Post issued a series of five designs, Britain's Royal Mail issued a set of 10, Gibraltar created five stamps,[242] Isle of Man, six.[243] and the Republic of Ireland's post office, An Post, issued four commemorative stamps [244] The Canadian Mint produced a $10 silver commemorative coin, and two coloured collector coins (25¢ and 50¢) and the British Mint two £5 coins.[245][246]
Museem
A number of museums around the world have displays on Titanic. In Northern Ireland, the ship is commemorated by the Titanic Belfast visitor attraction, opened on 31 March 2012, that stands on the site of the shipyard where Titanic was built.[218] The Ulster Folk and Transport Museum also has a substantial exhibition called TITANICa. In England, artefacts relating to the disaster are preserved at the SeaCity Museum in Southampton and the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool, which has the original 20 feet (6.1 m) long builder's model of the ship.[219] The National Maritime Museum also has a large Titanic-related collection, donated by the author and producer of A Night to Remember.[220]
Several Titanic museums operate in the United States. The Titanic Museum in Indian Orchard, Massachusetts, presents the collection of the Titanic Historical Society. It includes artefacts including original blueprints of the ship, the lifejacket of John Jacob Astor (which he gave to his wife when they parted aboard Titanic), and original wireless messages. In Branson, Missouri a Titanic Museum is located inside a half-size replica of the ship, complete with iceberg. It presents replicas of the ship's lobby, cabins and wireless rooms and various items of memorabilia and artefacts. The same company operates the Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, which recreates the ship's Grand Staircase as well as enabling visitors to experience the cold of the ocean and the heat of the boiler rooms. Titanic – The Experience in Orlando, Florida likewise recreates the Grand Staircase, the Verandah Café, a first-class suite and part of the Promenade Deck. Actors in period dress provide guided tours to visitors.[221] RMS Titanic Inc., which is authorised to salvage the wreck site, has a permanent Titanic exhibition at the Luxor Las Vegas hotel and casino in Nevada which features a 22-ton slab of the ship's hull. It also runs a travelling exhibition which travels around the world.[222]
In Nova Scotia, Halifax's Maritime Museum of the Atlantic displays many items that were recovered from the sea a few days after the disaster. They include pieces of woodwork such as panelling from the ship's First Class Lounge and an original deckchair,[223] as well as objects recovered from the bodies of the victims who were buried in the city's cemeteries.[221] At Cape Race, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Myrick Wireless Interpretive Centre is set to open a permanent Titanic exhibit. This site of a former Marconi wireless station was the first on land to respond to Titanic's distress call, transmitted hundreds of messages from passengers, and was used to coordinate the rescue effort
Legends and myths
Legends and myths
Main article: Legends and myths regarding RMS Titanic
The Titanic has gone down in history as the ship that was called unsinkable.[i] However, even though countless news stories after the sinking called Titanic unsinkable, prior to the sinking the The White Star Line had used the term "designed to be unsinkable" and other pre-sinking publications described the ship as "virtually unsinkable".[208] Another well-known story is that of the ship's band, led by Wallace Hartley, who heroically played on while the great steamer was sinking. This seems to be true but there has been conflicting information about which song was the last to be heard. The most reported is "Nearer, My God, to Thee", though "Autumn" has been mentioned.[58][j] Finally, a widespread myth is that the internationally recognised Morse code distress signal "SOS" was first put to use when the Titanic sank. While it is true that British wireless operators rarely used the "SOS" signal at the time, preferring the older "CQD" code, "SOS" had been used internationally since 1908. The first wireless operator on Titanic, Jack Phillips, sent both "SOS" and "CQD" as distress calls.
Memorials and monuments
Main article: Memorials and monuments to the RMS Titanic victims
Memorial to Titanic's engineers in Southampton, England, unveiled in 1914
The Titanic disaster was commemorated though a variety of memorials and monuments to the victims, erected in several English-speaking countries and in particular in cities that had suffered notable losses. These included Southampton, Liverpool and Belfast in the United Kingdom; New York and Washington, D.C. in the United States; and Cobh (formerly Queenstown) in Ireland.[211] Individual British victims of the disaster are commemorated in a number of places, notably Captain Smith in Lichfield,[212] wireless operator Jack Phillips in Godalming[213] and musician Wallace Hartley in his home town of Colne.[214] Most of the bodies recovered after the disaster are buried under simple black granite headstones in Halifax, Nova Scotia.[215] Two towns in Australia, Ballarat and Broken Hill, built memorials to the ship's musicians.
Popular culture
Titanic has played a prominent role in popular culture ever since her sinking. The disaster has inspired numerous books, plays, films, songs, poems and works of art, and has lent itself to a great variety of interpretations of its significance, meaning and legacy. The immediate aftermath of the sinking saw an outpouring of poetry, though much of it was dismissed by The New York Times as "worthless" and "intolerably bad" and by Current Literature as "unutterably horrible",[194] though Thomas Hardy's The Convergence of the Twain (1912) was one of the more significant works to emerge from the disaster. Several survivors wrote books about their experiences[195] and various hack writers cashed in on the tragedy by producing sensationalist "dollar books" culled from the often inaccurate press coverage.[196] 1955 saw the publication of Walter Lord's influential non-fiction book A Night to Remember which weaved numerous personal accounts from survivors.
The sinking of the Titanic has been a popular subject for visual artists, whether in paintings and illustrations or on the screen. The first Titanic newsreel films were released within days of the disaster; one by the Gaumont Film Company was a huge hit and played to packed houses around the world,[197] often accompanied by the audience singing the hymn Nearer, My God, to Thee at the climax of the film.[198] There have also been many drama films set aboard Titanic. The first such film about the disaster, Saved from the Titanic, was released only 29 days after the ship sank and had an actual survivor as its star – the silent film actress Dorothy Gibson.[199] The story of the sinking was also told in heavily fictionalised form as a Nazi propaganda movie (Titanic, 1943) and as an American melodrama (Titanic, 1953). The British film A Night to Remember (1958) is still widely regarded as the most historically accurate movie portrayal of the sinking,[200] but the most successful by far has been James Cameron's Titanic (1997), which became the highest-grossing film in history up to that time.[201]
A great variety of memorabilia was also produced. Memorial postcards sold in huge numbers; one popular series produced in Britain showed verses from Nearer, My God, to Thee alongside a mourning woman and Titanic sinking in the background.[202] The disaster was commemorated in numerous other forms, ranging from tin candy boxes to commemorative plates, whiskey jiggers,[203] and even black mourning teddy bears.[204] The latter are now hugely sought-after and examples have sold for over $135,000.[205] On 30 April, 2012, Clive Palmer, an Australian mining magnate declared his plans of building Titanic II, a replica of the original Titanic which he said would hopefully sail from England to New York in 2016.[206][207]
Wreck
Titanic was long thought to have sunk in one piece and, over the years, many schemes were put forward for raising the wreck. None came to fruition.[181] The fundamental problem was the sheer difficulty of finding and reaching a wreck that lies over 12,000 feet (3,700 m) below the surface, in a location where the water pressure is over 6,500 pounds per square inch.[182] A number of expeditions were mounted to find Titanic but it was not until 1 September 1985 that a Franco-American expedition succeeded.[183]
The team discovered that Titanic had in fact split apart, probably near or at the surface, before sinking to the seabed. The separated bow and stern sections lie about a third of a mile (0.6 km) apart in a canyon on the continental shelf off the coast of Newfoundland. They are located 13.2 miles (21.2 km) from the inaccurate coordinates given by Titanic's radio operators on the night of her sinking,[184] and approximately 715 miles (1,150 km) from Halifax and 1,250 miles (2,000 km) from New York. Both sections hit the sea bed at considerable speed, causing the bow to crumple and the stern to collapse entirely. The bow is by far the more intact section and still contains some surprisingly intact interiors. In contrast, the stern is completely wrecked; its decks have pancaked down on top of each other and much of the hull plating was torn off and lies scattered across the sea floor. The much greater level of damage to the stern is probably due to structural damage incurred during the sinking. Thus weakened, the remainder of the stern was flattened by the impact with the sea bed.[185]
The two sections are surrounded by a debris field measuring approximately 5 by 3 miles (8.0 × 4.8 km).[186] It contains hundreds of thousands of items, such as pieces of the ship, furniture, dinnerware and personal items, which fell from the ship as she sank or were ejected when the bow and stern impacted on the sea floor.[187] The debris field was also the last resting place of a number of Titanic's victims. Most of the bodies and clothes were consumed by sea creatures and bacteria, leaving pairs of shoes and boots – which have proved to be inedible – as the only sign that bodies once lay there.[188]
Since its discovery, the wreck of Titanic has been revisited numerous times by explorers, scientists, filmmakers, tourists and salvagers, who have recovered thousands of items from the debris field for conservation and public display. The ship's condition has deteriorated significantly in recent years, partly due to accidental damage caused by submersibles but mainly because of an accelerating rate of growth of iron-eating bacteria on the hull.[189] It has been estimated that within the next 50 years the hull and structure of Titanic will collapse entirely, eventually leaving only the more durable interior fittings of the ship intermingled with a pile of rust on the sea floor.[190]
Many artefacts from Titanic have been recovered from the sea bed by RMS Titanic Inc., which exhibits them in touring exhibitions around the world and in a permanent exhibition at the Luxor Las Vegas hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.[191] A number of other museums exhibit artefacts either donated by survivors or retrieved from the floating bodies of victims of the disaster.[192]
On April 16, 2012, a day after the 100th anniversary of the sinking, photos were released showing possible human remains resting on the ocean floor. The photos, taken by Robert Ballard during an expedition led by NOAA in 2004, show a boot and a coat close to Titanic's stern which experts called "compelling evidence" that it's the spot where somebody came to rest, and that human remains could be buried in the sediment beneath them.[193]
Retrieval and burial of the dead
Once the massive loss of life became known, White Star Line chartered the cable ship CS Mackay-Bennett from Halifax, Nova Scotia to retrieve bodies.[171] Three other Canadian ships followed in the search: the cable ship Minia,[172] lighthouse supply ship Montmagny and sealing vessel Algerine.[173] Each ship left with embalming supplies, undertakers, and clergy. Of the 333 victims that were eventually recovered, 328 were retrieved by the Canadian ships and five more by passing North Atlantic steamships.[174][g]
The first body recovery ship to reach the site of the sinking, the cable ship CS Mackay-Bennett found so many bodies that the embalming supplies aboard were quickly exhausted. Health regulations required that only embalmed bodies could be returned to port.[176] Captain Larnder of the Mackay-Bennett and undertakers aboard decided to preserve only the bodies of first class passengers, justifying their decision by the need to visually identify wealthy men to resolve any disputes over large estates. As a result, third class passengers and crew were buried at sea. Larnder himself claimed that as a mariner, he would expect to be buried at sea.[177]
Bodies recovered were preserved for transport to Halifax, the closest city to the sinking with direct rail and steamship connections. The Halifax coroner, John Henry Barnstead, developed a detailed system to identify bodies and safeguard personal possessions. Relatives from across North America came to identify and claim bodies. A large temporary morgue was set up in a curling rink and undertakers were called in from all across Eastern Canada to assist.[177] Some bodies were shipped to be buried in their home towns across North America and Europe. About two-thirds of the bodies were identified. Unidentified victims were buried with simple numbers based on the order in which their bodies were discovered. The majority of recovered victims, 150 bodies, were buried in three Halifax cemeteries, the largest being Fairview Lawn Cemetery followed by the nearby Mount Olivet and Baron de Hirsch cemeteries.[178]
In mid-May 1912, RMS Oceanic recovered three bodies over 200 miles (320 km) from the site of the sinking who were among the original occupants of Collapsible A. When Fifth Officer Harold Lowe and six crewmen returned to the wreck site sometime after the sinking in a lifeboat to pick up survivors, they had rescued a female from Collapsible A, but left the dead bodies of three of its occupants.[h] After their retrieval from Collapsible A by Oceanic, the bodies were then buried at sea.[179]
Only 333 bodies of Titanic victims were recovered, one in five of the over 1500 victims. Some bodies sank with the ship while currents quickly dispersed bodies and wreckage across hundreds of miles making them difficult to recover. By June one of the last search ships reported that life jackets supporting bodies were coming apart and releasing bodies to sink.
Role of the SS Californian
One of the most controversial issues examined by the inquiries was the role played by the SS Californian, which had been only a few miles from Titanic but had not picked up her distress calls or responded to her signal rockets. Californian had warned the Titanic by radio of the pack ice that was the reason Californian had stopped for the night, but was rebuked by Titanic's senior wireless operator, Jack Phillips.[159]
Testimony before the British inquiry revealed that at 10:10 pm, Californian observed the lights of a ship to the south; it was later agreed between Captain Stanley Lord and Third Officer C.V. Groves (who had relieved Lord of duty at 11:10 pm) that this was a passenger liner.[159] At 11:50 pm, the officer had watched that ship's lights flash out, as if it had shut down or turned sharply, and that the port light was now visible.[159] Morse light signals to the ship, upon Lord's order, were made between 11:30 pm and 1:00 am, but were not acknowledged.[160]
Captain Lord had gone to the chartroom at 11:00 pm to spend the night;[161] however, Second Officer Herbert Stone, now on duty, notified Lord at 1:10 am that the ship had fired 5 rockets. Lord wanted to know if they were company signals, that is, coloured flares used for identification. Stone said that he did not know and that the rockets were all white. Captain Lord instructed the crew to continue to signal the other vessel with the morse lamp, and went back to sleep. Three more rockets were observed at 1:50 am and Stone noted that the ship looked strange in the water, as if she were listing. At 2:15 am, Lord was notified that the ship could no longer be seen. Lord asked again if the lights had had any colours in them, and he was informed that they were all white.[162]
Californian eventually responded. At around 5:30 am, Chief Officer George Stewart awakened wireless operator Cyril Furmstone Evans, informed him that rockets had been seen during the night, and asked that he try to communicate with any ship. He got news of the Titanic's loss, Captain Lord was notified, and the ship set out to render assistance. She arrived well after Carpathia had already picked up all the survivors.[163]
The inquiries found that the ship seen by the Californian was in fact the Titanic and that it would have been possible for the Californian to come to her rescue; therefore, Captain Lord had acted improperly in failing to do so.[164] However, Lord protested his innocence to the end of his life, and many researchers have asserted that the known positions of the Titanic and Californian make it impossible that the former was the infamous "mystery ship," a topic which has "generated . . . millions of words and . . . hours of heated debates" and continues to do so.[165]
Investigations into the disaster
Even before the survivors arrived in New York, investigations were being planned to discover what had happened, and what could be done to prevent a recurrence. The United States Senate initiated an inquiry into the disaster on 19 April, a day after Carpathia arrived in New York.[151]
The chairman of the inquiry, Senator William Alden Smith, wanted to gather accounts from passengers and crew while the events were still fresh in their minds. Smith also needed to subpoena all surviving British passengers and crew while they were still on American soil, which prevented them from returning to the UK before the American inquiry was completed on 25 May.[152] The British press condemned Smith as an opportunist, insensitively forcing an inquiry as a means of gaining political prestige and seizing "his moment to stand on the world stage". Smith, however, already had a reputation as a campaigner for safety on U.S. railroads, and wanted to investigate any possible malpractices by railroad tycoon J. P. Morgan, Titanic's ultimate owner.[153]
Lord Mersey was appointed to head the British Board of Trade's inquiry into the disaster, which took place between 2 May and 3 July. Each inquiry took testimony from both passengers and crew of Titanic, crew members of Leyland Line's Californian, Captain Arthur Rostron of Carpathia and other experts.[154] The two inquiries reached broadly similar conclusions; the regulations on the number of lifeboats that ships had to carry were out of date and inadequate,[155] Captain Smith had failed to take proper heed of ice warnings,[156] the lifeboats had not been properly filled or crewed, and the collision was the direct result of steaming into a dangerous area at too high a speed.[155]
The recommendations included major changes in maritime regulations to implement new safety measures, such as ensuring that more lifeboats were provided, that lifeboat drills were properly carried out and that wireless equipment on passenger ships was manned around the clock.[157] An International Ice Patrol was set up to monitor the presence of icebergs in the North Atlantic, and maritime safety regulations were harmonised internationally through the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea; both measures are still in force today.[158]
Arrival of Carpathia in New York
Carpathia took three days to reach New York after leaving the scene of the disaster. Her journey was slowed by pack ice, fog, thunderstorms and rough seas.[133] She was, however, able to pass news to the outside world by wireless about what had happened. The initial reports were confused, leading the American press to report erroneously on 15 April that Titanic was being towed to port by the SS Virginian.[134]
Later that day, confirmation came through that Titanic had been lost and that most of her passengers and crew had died.[135] The news attracted crowds of people to the White Star Line's offices in London, New York, Montreal,[136] Southampton,[137] Liverpool and Belfast.[citation needed] It hit hardest in Southampton, whose people suffered the greatest losses from the sinking.[138] 4 out of 5 crew members came from this town.[139]
The Salvation Army newspaper, The War Cry, reported that "none but a heart of stone would be unmoved in the presence of such anguish. Night and day that crowd of pale, anxious faces had been waiting patiently for the news that did not come. Nearly every one in the crowd had lost a relative."[140] It was not until 17 April that the first incomplete lists of survivors came through, delayed by poor communications.[141]
Carpathia docked at 9.30 pm on 18 April at New York's Pier 54 and was greeted by some 40,000 people waiting at the quayside in heavy rain.[142] Immediate relief in the form of clothing and transportation to shelters was provided by the Women's Relief Committee, the Travelers Aid Society of New York, and the Council of Jewish Women, among other organisations.[143] Many of Titanic's surviving passengers did not linger in New York but headed onwards immediately to relatives' homes. Some of the wealthier survivors chartered private trains to take them home, and the Pennsylvania Railroad laid on a special train free of charge to take survivors to Philadelphia. Titanic's 214 surviving crew members were taken to the Red Star Line's steamer SS Lapland, where they were accommodated in passenger cabins.[144] Carpathia was hurriedly restocked with food and provisions before resuming her journey to Fiume, Austria-Hungary. Her crew were given a bonus of a month's wages by Cunard as a reward for their actions, and some of Titanic's passengers joined together to give them an additional bonus of nearly £900 (£66,038 today), divided among the crew members.[145]
The ship's arrival in New York led to a frenzy of press interest, with newspapers competing to be the first to report the survivors' stories. Some reporters bribed their way aboard the pilot boat New York, which guided Carpathia into harbour, and one even managed to get onto Carpathia before she docked.[146] Crowds gathered outside newspaper offices to see the latest reports being posted in the windows or on billboards.[147] It took another four days for a complete list of casualties to be compiled and released, adding to the agony of relatives waiting for news of those who had been aboard Titanic. On 23 April, the Daily Mail reported:
"Late in the afternoon hope died out. The waiting crowds thinned, and silent men and women sought their homes. In the humbler homes of Southampton there is scarcely a family who has not lost a relative or friend. Children returning from school appreciated something of tragedy, and woeful little faces were turned to the darkened, fatherless homes."[148]
Many charities were set up to help the victims and their families, many of whom lost their sole breadwinner, or, in the case of many Third Class survivors, everything they owned. On 29 April opera stars Enrico Caruso and Mary Garden and members of the Metropolitan Opera raised $12,000 in benefits for victims of the disaster by giving special concerts in which versions of "Autumn" and "Nearer My God To Thee" were part of the program.[149] In Britain, relief funds were organised for the families of Titanic's lost crew members, raising nearly £450,000 (£33,018,954 today). One such fund was still in operation as late as the 1960s.[150]
Sinking
At 11.40 pm (ship's time), lookout Frederick Fleet spotted an iceberg immediately ahead of Titanic and alerted the bridge.[119] First Officer William Murdoch ordered the ship to be steered around the obstacle and the engines to be put in reverse,[120] but it was too late; the starboard side of Titanic struck the iceberg, creating a series of holes below the waterline. Five of the ship's watertight compartments were breached. It soon became clear that the ship was doomed, as she could not survive more than four compartments being flooded. Titanic began sinking bow-first, with water spilling from compartment to compartment as her angle in the water became steeper.[121]
Those aboard Titanic were ill-prepared for such an emergency. The ship's lifeboats had only enough space to carry about half of those on board; if the ship had carried her full complement of about 3,339 passengers and crew, only about a third could have been accommodated in the lifeboats.[122] The crew had not been trained adequately in carrying out an evacuation. The officers did not know how many they could safely put aboard the lifeboats and launched many of them barely half-full.[123] Third-class passengers were largely left to fend for themselves, causing many of them to become trapped below decks as the ship filled with water.[124] The "women and children first" protocol was generally followed for the loading of the lifeboats[124] and most of the male passengers and crew were left aboard.
Two hours and forty minutes after Titanic struck the iceberg, her rate of sinking suddenly increased as her forward deck dipped underwater and the sea poured in through open hatches and grates.[125] As her unsupported stern rose out of the water, exposing the propellers, the ship split apart between the third and fourth funnels due to the immense strain on the keel.[126] The stern remained afloat for a few minutes longer, rising to a nearly vertical angle with hundreds of people still clinging to it.[127] At 2:20 am, it sank, breaking loose from the bow section. The remaining passengers and crew were plunged into lethally cold water with a temperature of only 28 °F (−2 °C). Almost all of those in the water died of hypothermia, cardiac arrest, or drowning within minutes.[128] Only 13 of them were helped into the lifeboats though these had room for almost 500 more occupants.[129]
Distress signals were sent by wireless, rockets and lamp, but none of the ships that responded were near enough to reach her before she sank.[130] A nearby ship, the Californian, which was the last to have been in contact with her before the collision, saw her flares but failed to assist.[131] Around 4 am, RMS Carpathia arrived on the scene in response to Titanic's earlier distress calls.[132] 710 people survived the disaster and were conveyed by Carpathia to New York, Titanic's original destination, while 1,514 people lost their lives.[85]
Departure and westbound journy
On Wednesday 10 April 1912 the Titanic's maiden voyage began. Following the embarkation of the crew the passengers began arriving from 9.30 am when the London and South Western Railway's boat train from London Waterloo station reached Southampton Terminus railway station on the quayside, right alongside Titanic's berth.[102] The large number of Third Class passengers meant that they were the first to board, with First and Second Class passengers following up to within an hour of departure. Stewards showed them to their cabins and First Class passengers were personally greeted by Captain Smith on boarding.[103] Third Class passengers were inspected for ailments and physical impairments that might lead to them being refused entry to the United States – not a prospect that the White Star Line wished to see, as it would have to carry them back across the Atlantic.[100] 922 passengers were recorded as having embarked Titanic at Southampton. Further passengers were picked up at Cherbourg and Queenstown.[75]
The maiden voyage began on time at noon. An accident was narrowly averted only a few minutes later as Titanic passed the moored liners SS City of New York and Oceanic. Her huge displacement caused both of the smaller ships to be lifted by a bulge of water, then dropped into a trough. New York's mooring cables could not take the sudden strain and snapped, swinging her around stern-first towards Titanic. A nearby tugboat, Vulcan, came to the rescue by taking New York under tow and Captain Smith ordered Titanic's engines to be put "full astern".[104] The two ships avoided a collision by a matter of about 4 feet (1.2 m). The incident delayed Titanic's departure for about an hour while the drifting New York was brought under control
After making it safely through the complex tides and channels of Southampton Water and the Solent, Titanic headed out into the English Channel. She headed for the French port of Cherbourg, a journey of 77 nautical miles (89 mi; 143 km).[106] The weather was windy, very fine but cold and overcast.[107] Because Cherbourg lacked docking facilities for a ship the size of Titanic, tenders had to be used to transfer passengers from shore to ship. The White Star Line operated two at Cherbourg, the SS Traffic and the SS Nomadic. Both had been designed specifically as tenders for the Olympic-class liners and were launched shortly after Titanic.[108] (Nomadic is today the only White Star Line ship still afloat.) Four hours after Titanic left Southampton, she arrived at Cherbourg and was met by the tenders. 274 more passengers boarded Titanic and 24 left aboard the tenders to be conveyed to shore. The process was completed within only 90 minutes and at 8 pm Titanic weighed anchor and left for Queenstown[109] with the weather continuing cold and windy.[107]
At 11.30 am on Thursday 11 April, Titanic arrived at Cork Harbour on the south coast of Ireland. It was a partly cloudy but relatively warm day with a brisk wind.[107] Again, the dock facilities were not suitable for a ship of her size, and tenders were used to bring passengers aboard. 113 Third Class and seven Second Class passengers came aboard, while seven passengers left. Among the departures was Father Francis Browne, a Jesuit trainee, who was a keen photographer and took many photographs aboard Titanic, including the last-ever known photograph of the ship. A decidedly unofficial departure was that of a crew member, stoker John Coffey, a native of Queenstown who sneaked off the ship by hiding under mail bags being transported to shore.[110] Titanic weighed anchor for the last time at 1.30 pm and departed on her westward journey across the Atlantic.[110]
The route of Titanic's maiden voyage, with the coordinates of her sinking.
After leaving Queenstown Titanic followed the Irish coast as far as Fastnet Rock,[111] a distance of some 55
Maiden Voyage
Titanic was only to sail as a complete ship for two weeks before she sank; although she was registered at Liverpool, she never made it to her home port.[82]
Titanic's maiden voyage was intended to be the first of many cross-Atlantic journeys between Southampton in England, Cherbourg in France, Queenstown in Ireland and New York in the United States, returning via Plymouth in England on the eastbound leg. The White Star Line intended to operate three ships on that route: Titanic, Olympic and the smaller RMS Oceanic. Each would sail once every three weeks from Southampton and New York, usually leaving at noon each Wednesday from Southampton and each Saturday from New York, thus enabling the White Star Line to offer weekly sailings in each direction. Special trains were scheduled from London and Paris to convey passengers to Southampton and Cherbourg respectively.[83] The deep-water dock at Southampton, then known as the "White Star Dock" had been specially constructed to accommodate the new Olympic-class liners, and had opened in 1911.
Sea trials
Titanic's sea trials began at 6 am on Monday, 2 April 1912, just two days after her fitting out was finished and eight days before she was due to leave Southampton on her maiden voyage.[76] The trials were delayed for a day due to bad weather, but by Monday morning it was clear and fair.[77] Aboard were 78 stokers, greasers and firemen, and 41 members of crew. No domestic staff appear to have been aboard. Representatives of various companies travelled on Titanic's sea trials, Thomas Andrews and Edward Wilding of Harland and Wolff and Harold A. Sanderson of IMM. Bruce Ismay and Lord Pirrie were too ill to attend. Jack Phillips and Harold Bride served as radio operators, and performed fine-tuning of the Marconi equipment. Francis Carruthers, a surveyor from the Board of Trade, was also present to see that everything worked, and that the ship was fit to carry passengers.[78]
The sea trials consisted of a number of tests of her handling characteristics, carried out first in Belfast Lough and then in the open waters of the Irish Sea. Over the course of about twelve hours, Titanic was driven at different speeds, her turning ability was tested and a "crash stop" was performed in which the engines were reversed full ahead to full astern, bringing her to a stop in 850 yd (777 m) or 3 minutes and 15 seconds.[79] The ship covered a distance of about 80 nautical miles (92 mi; 150 km), averaging 18 knots (21 mph; 33 km/h) and reaching a maximum speed of just under 21 knots (24 mph; 39 km/h).[80] On returning to Belfast at about 7 pm, the surveyor signed an "Agreement and Account of Voyages and Crew", valid for twelve months, which declared the ship seaworthy. An hour later, Titanic left Belfast again – as it turned out, for the last time – to head to Southampton, a voyage of about 570 nautical miles (660 mi; 1,060 km). After a journey lasting about 28 hours she arrived about midnight on 4 April and was towed to the port's Berth 44, ready for the arrival of her passengers and the remainder of her crew
PArt 1
The interiors of the Olympic-class ships were subdivided into sixteen primary compartments divided by fifteen bulkheads which extended well above the waterline. Eleven vertically closing watertight doors could seal off the compartments in the event of an emergency.[66] The ships' exposed decking was made of pine and teak, while interior ceilings were covered in painted granulated cork to combat condensation.[68] The superstructure consisted of two decks, the Promenade Deck and Boat Deck, which were about 500 feet (150 m) long. They accommodated the officers' quarters, gymnasium, public rooms and first-class cabins, plus the bridge and wheelhouse. The ships' lifeboats were carried on the Boat Deck, the uppermost deck.[14] Standing above the decks were four funnels, though only three were functional – the last one was a dummy, installed for aesthetic purposes – and two masts, each 155 feet (47 m) high, which supported derricks for loading cargo. A wireless aerial was slung between the masts.[69]
The work of constructing the ships was difficult and dangerous. For the 15,000 men who worked at Harland and Wolff at the time,[70] safety precautions were rudimentary at best; a lot of the work was dangerous and was carried out without any safety equipment like hard hats or hand guards on machinery. As a result, deaths and injuries were to be expected. During Titanic's construction, 246 injuries were recorded, 28 of them "severe", such as arms severed by machines or legs crushed under falling pieces of steel. Six people died on the ship herself while she was being constructed and fitted out and another two died in the shipyard workshops and sheds.[71] Just before the launch a worker was killed when a piece of wood fell on him.[72]
Titanic was launched at 12:15 pm on 31 May 1911 in the presence of Lord Pirrie, J. Pierpoint Morgan and J. Bruce Ismay and 100,000 onlookers.[73] 22 tons of soap and tallow were spread on the slipway to lubricate the ship's passage into the River Lagan.[72] In keeping with the White Star Line's traditional policy, the ship was not formally named or christened with champagne.[73] The ship was towed to a fitting-out berth where, over the course of the next year, her engines, funnels and superstructure were installed and her interior was fitted out.[74]
Although Titanic was virtually identical to her earlier sister ship Olympic, a few changes were made to differentiate the two ships. The most noticeable of these was that Titanic (and her later sister Britannic) had a steel screen with sliding windows installed along the forward half of the A Deck promenade. This was installed as a last minute change at the personal request of Bruce Ismay, and was intended to provide additional shelter to first class passengers.[75] These changes made Titanic marginally heavier than her sister, and thus she could claim to be the largest ship afloat. The work took longer than expected due to design changes ordered by Ismay and a temporary pause in work occasioned by the need to repair Olympic, which had been in a collision in September 1911. Had Titanic been finished earlier, she might well have missed her rendezvous with an iceberg.[72]
Construction, launch and fitting-out
The sheer size of Titanic and her sister ships posed a major engineering challenge for Harland and Wolff; no shipbuilder had ever before attempted to construct vessels of this size. The ships were constructed on Queen's Island, now known as the Titanic Quarter, in Belfast Harbour. Harland and Wolff had to demolish three existing slipways and build two new slipways, the biggest ever constructed up to that time, to accommodate the giant ships.[7]
Their construction was facilitated by an enormous gantry built by Sir William Arrol & Co., a Scottish firm responsible for the building of the Forth Bridge and London's Tower Bridge. The Arrol Gantry stood 228 feet (69 m) high, was 270 feet (82 m) wide and 840 feet (260 m) long, and weighed more than 6,000 tons. It accommodated a number of mobile cranes. A separate floating crane, capable of lifting 200 tons, was brought in from Germany.[63]
The construction of Titanic and Olympic took place virtually in parallel, with Olympic's hull laid down first on 16 December 1908 and Titanic's on 31 March 1909.[12] Both ships took about 26 months to build and followed much the same construction process. They were designed essentially as an enormous floating box girder, with the keel acting as a backbone and the frames of the hull forming the ribs. At the base of the ships, a double bottom 5 feet 3 inches (1.60 m) deep supported 300 frames, each between 24 inches (61 cm) and 36 inches (91 cm) apart and measuring up to about 66 feet (20 m) long. They terminated at the bridge deck (B Deck) and were covered with steel plates which formed the outer skin of the ships.[64]
The 2,000 hull plates were single pieces of rolled steel, mostly up to 6 feet (1.8 m) wide and 30 feet (9.1 m) long and weighing between 2.5 and 3 tons.[65] Their thickness varied from 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) to 1 inch (2.5 cm).[66] The plates were laid in a clinkered (overlapping) fashion from the keel to the bilge. Above that point they were laid in the "in and out" fashion, where strake plating was applied in bands (the "in strakes") with the gaps covered by the "out strakes", overlapping on the edges. Steel welding was still in its infancy so the structure had to be held together with over three million iron and steel rivets which by themselves weighed over 1,200 tons. They were fitted using hydraulic machines or were hammered in by hand.[67]
Life Boats
Titanic carried a total of 20 lifeboats: 14 standard wooden Harland and Wolff lifeboats with a capacity of 65 people each and four Englehardt "collapsible" lifeboats (identified as A to D) with a capacity of 47 people each. In addition, she had two emergency cutters with a capacity of 40 people each.[57][b] Olympic herself did not even carry the four collapsibles A-D in the 1911-12 season. All of the lifeboats were stowed securely on the boat deck and, except for collapsible lifeboats A and B, connected to davits by ropes. Those on the starboard side were odd-numbered 1–15 from bow to stern, while those on the port side were even-numbered 2–16 from bow to stern. The two cutters were kept swung out, hanging from the davits, ready for immediate use, while collapsible lifeboats C and D were stowed on the boat deck (connected to davits) immediately inboard of boats 1 and 2 respectively. A and B were stored on the roof of the officers' quarters, on either side of number 1 funnel. There were no davits to lower them and their weight would make them challenging to launch.[58] Each boat carried (among other things) food, water, blankets, and a spare lifebelt. Lifeline ropes on the boats' sides enabled them to save additional people from the water if necessary.
Titanic had 16 sets of davits, each able to handle 4 lifeboats. This gave Titanic the ability to carry up to 64 wooden lifeboats[59] which would have been enough for 4,000 people – considerably more than her actual capacity. However, the White Star Line decided that only 16 wooden lifeboats and four collapsibles would be carried, which could accommodate 1,178 people, only one-third of Titanic's total capacity. At the time, the Board of Trade's regulations required British vessels over 10,000 tons to carry 16 lifeboats with a capacity of 990 occupants.[57] Therefore, the White Star Line actually provided more lifeboat accommodation than was legally required.[60][c] At the time, lifeboats were intended to ferry survivors from a sinking ship to a rescuing ship – not keep afloat the whole population or power them to shore. Had the SS Californian responded to the Titanic's distress calls, the lifeboats would have been adequate to ferry the passengers to safety as planned.
Mail and cargo
Although Titanic was primarily a passenger liner, she also carried a substantial amount of cargo. Her designation as a Royal Mail Ship (RMS) indicated that she carried mail under contract with the Royal Mail (and also for the United States Post Office Department). 26,800 cubic feet (760 m3) of space in her holds was allocated for the storage of letters, parcels and specie (bullion, coins and other valuables). The Sea Post Office on G Deck was manned by five postal clerks, three Americans and two Britons, who worked thirteen hours a day, seven days a week sorting up to 60,000 items daily.[54]
The ship's passengers brought with them a huge amount of baggage; another 19,455 cubic feet (550.9 m3) was taken up by first- and second-class baggage. In addition, there was a considerable quantity of regular cargo, ranging from furniture to foodstuffs and even motor cars.[54] Despite later myths, the cargo on Titanic's maiden voyage was fairly mundane; there was no gold, exotic minerals or diamonds, and one of the more famous items lost in the shipwreck, a jewelled copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, was valued at only £405 (£29,717 today) – hardly the stuff of legends.[55] Titanic was equipped with eight electric cranes, four electric winches and three steam winches to lift cargo and baggage in and out of the hold. It is estimated that the ship used some 415 tons of coal whilst in Southampton, simply generating steam to operate the cargo winches, heat and light.[
Engines, boilers and generators
Titanic was equipped with three engines – two reciprocating four-cylinder, triple-expansion steam engines and one centrally placed low-pressure Parsons turbine – each driving a propeller. The two reciprocating engines had a combined output of 30,000hp and a further 16,000hp was contributed by the turbine.[13] The White Star Line had previously used the same combination of engines on an earlier liner, the SS Laurentic, where it had been a great success.[23] It provided a good combination of performance and speed; reciprocating engines by themselves were not powerful enough to propel an Olympic-class liner at the desired speeds, while turbines were sufficiently powerful but caused uncomfortable vibrations, a problem that affected the all-turbine Cunard liners Lusitania and Mauretania.[24] By combining reciprocating engines with a turbine, fuel usage could be reduced and motive power increased, while using the same amount of steam.[25]
The two reciprocating engines were giants, each 63 feet (19 m) long and weighing 720 tons. Their bedplates alone weighed a further 195 tons.[24] They were powered by steam produced in 29 boilers, 24 of which were double-ended and 5 single-ended, which contained a total of 159 furnaces.[26] The boilers were 15 feet 9 inches (4.80 m) in diameter and 20 feet (6.1 m) long, each weighing 91.5 tons and capable of holding 48.5 tons of water.[27]
They were heated by burning coal, 6,611 tons of which could be carried in Titanic's bunkers with a further 1,092 tons in Hold 3. The furnaces required over 600 tons of coal a day to be shovelled into them by hand, requiring the services of 176 firemen working around the clock.[28] 100 tons of ash a day had to be disposed of by ejecting it into the sea.[29] The work was relentless, dirty and dangerous, and although firemen were paid relatively generously[28] there was a high suicide rate among those who worked in that capacity.[30]
Exhaust steam leaving the reciprocating engines was fed into the turbine, which was situated aft. From there it passed into a condenser so that the steam could be condensed back into water and reused.[31] The engines were attached directly to long shafts which drove the propellers. There were three, one for each engine; the outer (or wing) propellers were the largest, each carrying three blades of manganese-bronze alloy with a total diameter of 23.5 feet (7.2 m).[27] The central propeller was somewhat smaller at 17 feet (5.2 m) in diameter,[32] and could be stopped but not reversed.
Titanic's electrical plant was capable of producing more power than a typical city power station of the time.[33] Immediately aft of the turbine engine were four 400kW steam-driven electric generators, used to provide electrical power to the ship, plus two 30 kW auxiliary generators for emergency use.[34] Their location at the rear of the ship meant that they remained operational until the last few minutes before the ship sank.
Passenger facilities
The passenger facilities aboard Titanic aimed to meet the highest standards of luxury. The ship could accommodate 739 First Class passengers, 674 in Second Class and 1,026 in Third Class. Her crew numbered about 900 people; in all, she could carry about 3,339 people. Her interior design was a departure from that of other passenger liners, which had typically been decorated in the rather heavy style of a manor house or an English country house. Titanic was laid out in a much lighter style similar to that of contemporary high-class hotels – the Ritz Hotel was a reference point – with First Class cabins finished in the Empire style.[40] A variety of other decorative styles, ranging from the Renaissance to Victorian style, were used to decorate cabins and public rooms in First and Second Class areas of the ship. The aim was to convey an impression that the passengers were in a floating hotel rather than a ship; as one passenger recalled, on entering the ship's interior a passenger would "at once lose the feeling that we are on board ship, and seem instead to be entering the hall of some great house on shore."[41]
Passengers could use an on-board telephone system, a lending library and a large barber shop.[42] The First Class section had a swimming pool, a gymnasium, squash court, Turkish bath, electric bath and a Verandah Cafe.[41] First Class common rooms were adorned with ornate wood panelling, expensive furniture and other decorations while the Third Class general room had pine panelling and sturdy teak furniture.[43] The Café Parisien was located on a sunlit veranda fitted with trellis decorations and offered the best French haute cuisine for the First Class passengers
Technical facilities
itanic's rudder was large enough – at 78 feet 8 inches (23.98 m) high and 15 feet 3 inches (4.65 m) long, weighing over 100 tons – that it required steering engines to move it. Two steam-powered steering engines were installed though only one was used at any one time, with the other one kept in reserve. They were connected to the short tiller through stiff springs, to isolate the steering engines from any shocks in heavy seas or during fast changes of direction.[36] As a last resort, the tiller could be moved by ropes connected to two steam capstans.[37] The capstans were also used to raise and lower the ship's five anchors (one port, one starboard, one in the centreline and two kedging anchors).[37]
The ship was equipped with her own waterworks, capable of heating and pumping water to all parts of the vessel via a complex network of pipes and valves. The main water supply was taken aboard while Titanic was in port but in an emergency it could also distil fresh water from the sea, though this was not a straightforward process as the distillation plant was quickly clogged by salt deposits. A network of insulated ducts conveyed warm air, driven by electric fans, around the ship, and First Class cabins were fitted with additional electric heaters.[33]
Titanic was equipped with two 1.5 kW spark-gap wireless telegraphs located in the radio room on the Bridge Deck. One set was used for transmitting messages and the other, located in a soundproofed booth, for receiving them. The signals were transmitted through two parallel wires strung between the ship's masts, 50 feet (15 m) above the funnels to avoid the corrosive smoke.[33]The system was one of the most powerful in the world, with a range of up to 1,000 miles.[38] It was owned and operated by the Marconi Company rather than the White Star Line, and was intended primarily for passengers rather than ship operations. The function of the two wireless operators – both Marconi employees – was to operate a 24-hour service sending and receiving wireless telegrams for passengers. They did, however, also pass on professional ship messages such as weather reports and ice warnings.[39]
Background
Built in Belfast, County Antrim, Ireland, the RMS Titanic was the second of the three Olympic-class ocean liners – the others were the RMS Olympic and the HMHS Britannic (originally namedGigantic).[3] They were by far the largest vessels of the British shipping company White Star Line's fleet, which comprised 29 steamers and tenders in 1912.[4] The three ships had their genesis in a discussion in mid-1907 between the White Star Line's chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, and the American financier J. Pierpont Morgan, who controlled the White Star Line's parent corporation, theInternational Mercantile Marine Co. Years earlier, in 1888, Pirrie had been in talks with Bruce Ismay's father Thomas Henry Ismay about the construction of a four funneled giant of these dimensions but it was decided no existing engine combination could power the behemoth. The White Star Line faced a growing challenge from its main rivals Cunard, which had just launchedLusitania and Mauretania – the fastest passenger ships then in service – and the German lines Hamburg America and Norddeutscher Lloyd. Ismay preferred to compete on size rather than speed and proposed to commission a new class of liners that would be bigger than anything that had gone before as well as being the last word in comfort and luxury.[5] The company sought an upgrade in their fleet primarily in response to the Cunard giants but also to replace their largest and now outclassed ships from 1890, the SS Teutonic and SS Majestic. The former was replaced byOlympic while Majestic was replaced by Titanic. Majestic would be brought back into her old spot on White Star's New York service after Titanic's loss.
The ships were constructed by the Belfast shipbuilders Harland and Wolff, who had a long-established relationship with the White Star Line dating back to 1867.[6] Harland and Wolff were given a great deal of latitude in designing ships for the White Star Line; the usual approach was for the latter to sketch out a general concept which the former would take away and turn into a ship design. Cost considerations were relatively low on the agenda and Harland and Wolff was authorised to spend what it needed on the ships, plus a five percent profit margin.[6] In the case of the Olympic-class ships, a cost of £3 million for the first two ships was agreed plus "extras to contract" and the usual five percent fee.[7]
Harland and Wolff put their leading designers to work designing the Olympic-class vessels. It was overseen by Lord Pirrie, a director of both Harland and Wolff and the White Star Line; naval architect Thomas Andrews, the managing director of Harland and Wolff's design department; Edward Wilding, Andrews' deputy and responsible for calculating the ship's design, stability and trim; and Alexander Carlisle, the shipyard's chief draughtsman and general manager.[8] Carlisle's responsibilities included the decorations, equipment and all general arrangements, including the implementation of an efficient lifeboat davit design.[a]
On 29 July 1908, Harland and Wolff presented the drawings to J. Bruce Ismay and other White Star Line executives. Ismay approved the design and signed three "letters of agreement" two days later authorising the start of construction.[11] At this point the first ship – which was later to become Olympic – had no name, but was referred to simply as "Number 400", as it was Harland and Wolff's four hundredth hull. Titanic was based on a revised version of the same design and was given the number 401.[12]
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