Titanic was the second of three Olympic-Class ocean liners
which were by far the largest vessels in the White Star Line’s fleet. It was constructed by Belfast shipbuilders
Harland and Wolff, who had a long established relationship with the White Star
which dated back to 1867.
However, The White Star Line faced a growing challenge from
its main rivals Cunard, which had just launched Lusitania and Mauretania which
were the fastest passenger ships in service. Harland and Wolff were given a
good deal of leeway in designing ships for White Star and they were authorised
to spend what it needed to on the shop plus a profit margin of 5%. In the case
of the Olympic vessels a cost of £3 million for the first two ships plus
“extras to contract “ and the 5% fee.
On 10th April 1912 the Titanic set sail on her maiden
voyage from Southampton to New York with some 2200 people on board ( 1316 passengers
and just short of 900 crew members ). Her passengers included some of the
wealthiest people in the world, including millionaires Benjamin Guggenheim,
Isidor Strauss as well as over a thousand emigrants from countries including
Ireland and Scandinavia seeking a new
life in America. Her voyage took her across to France where she called in at
Cherbourg and Queenstown in Ireland before heading west towards New York.
The ship was the ultimate in comfort and luxury with a gym,
swimming pool , libraries as well as high class restaurants. There were many
advance safety features such as watertight compartments and remotely activated
watertight doors, but one fundamental mistake was the fact that she lacked
sufficient lifeboats to accommodate all those on board, the total number of
lifeboats on board would carry 1178 passengers, which was just a third of her
total number on board.
At approximately 11.40pm on 14th April about 375
miles south of Newfoundland she hit an iceberg. The collision caused the
Titanic’s hull plate to buckle inwards in several places on her starboard side
and opened five of her sixteen watertight compartments to the sea. The ship
gradually filled with water and the ship began to sink. Passengers and some
crew were evacuated in lifeboats , many of the lifeboats were launched only
partially full of passengers. A Women and children first policy prevailed and
as a result a high number of men were left on board.
At just before 2.20am on 15th April the Titanic
broke up and sank bow first with more than a thousand people still on board.
Those in the water died within minutes from hyperthermia cause by immersion
into the freezing ocean. A few hours later the survivors were taken aboard from
the lifeboats by the RMS Carpathia, only 710 people survived.
The disaster shocked the world public inquiries in both the
UK and The USA led to major improvements in maritime safety. One of the most
important legacies was the establishment of the International Convention for
the Safety of Life at Sea in 1914, which still covers maritime safety almost a
century later.
The wreck of the Titanic remains on the
seabed, gradually disintegrating at a depth of more than 12000 feet (3,770 m).
Since its rediscovery in 1985, thousands of artefacts have been recovered from
the sea bed and put on display at museums around the world. Titanic has become
one of the most famous ships in history, her memory kept alive by numerous books, films, video's and TV documentaries.
To commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the Titanic
tragedy there will be a number of special memorial services. Belfast will house
the Titanic Belfast Festival , local theatre companies are taking part in plays
and there will be specially commissioned television dramas shown, one being
Titanic ( a four part drama ) and the other being Titanic : Blood and Steel.
Over the years a number of books have been written about
the Titanic, at Stort Books you can find and purchase a number of these titles
including :-
Myth, speculation and guess work surrounds the sinking of
the unsinkable Titanic in April 1912
On Wednesday April 10th 1912 ,R M S Titanic left
Southampton on her maiden voyage to New York . Four days later , she struck an
iceberg. By 2 a m the last lifeboat had rowed frantically away .Then , within
only twenty minutes, the great ship had sunk and 1500 people had lost their lives.Every
Man for himself recaptures those four crucial days lost with the ship.
This is the compelling, firsthand account of Dr. Ballard’s
12 year quest to find the sunken Titanic. The book contains many
never-before-seen photographs and rare archival pictures bringing to life the
drama of the expeditions that found her.
No other peacetime nautical tragedy is as heart rendering
and tragic as that of the "Titanic", in 1912 more than 1500 of its
passengers drowned in the freezing waters of the North Atlantic. The book tells
the full tale of the ship, detailing all the events leading up to and during
that horrifyng night, exploding the myths and exploring the superstitions.
This is a recreation of the sinking of the great ship using
many previously unpublished photographs, letters and oral histories.
Ten years after the Titanic was discovered, eighty years
after she sank, the world's most famous disaster seems all the ore mysterious.
Even the recovery of the relics has not solved any of the outstanding
issues.Why did Captain Smith accelerate in uniquely treacherous weather towards
an exceptionally dangerous ice field of which he had been warned many times?
What caused the hole in the bow? Why is the position of the wreckk pinpointed
by latest technology irreconcilable with the ships SOS calls? The authors
conclude that the apparently ruthless American disaster hearings covered up the
role of the ship's true owner, the arch capitalist Pierpont Morgan, that the
apparently dispassionate British inquiry dominated by an insider-dealing
Attorney General whitewashed a complacent government and that White Star
covered up its own gross negligence by bribing key witnesses. What of the wreck
itself, here the plot deepens further for there have been claims that the wreck
is in fact that of the Titanic's Sister Ship, the Olympic.The results of this
book are tantalising.
