• In 1898 (14 years prior to the Titanic tragedy), Morgan Robertson wrote a novel called Futility. This fictitious novel was about the largest ship ever built hitting an iceberg in the Atlantic ocean on a cold April night. The fictional ship (named Titan) and the real ship Titanic were similar in design and their circumstances were remarkably alike. Both ships were labeled "unsinkable".
  

• RMS stands for Royal Mail Steamer. RMS, in formal terms, means "Royal Merchant Ship". However, the dual meaning was also "Royal Mail Steamer", because the Titanic carried mail under the auspices of His Majesty's postal authorities. At that time, all ships, military and civilian, that were under the British flag carried the distinction of "R.M.S." This, in effect, gave the ship the protection of the British Crown. An attack on an R.M.S. was considered an attack on the crown and an act of war.
  
• Two dogs were among the Titanic survivors.
  
• There were no cats on the Titanic. Cats were often brought on ships as a form of good luck. They also controlled rodents.
  
• The Titanic is about as long as the Empire State building is tall.
  
• The Tower Bridge, located in London England, is approximately the same length and height as the Titanic.
  
• Originally, the Titanic's design only included 3 funnels (smokestacks). The aftmost funnel (towards stern) was added to make the Titanic look more impressive-it gave the feeling of "power and grace". It only functioned as an air vent.

• No one ever claimed that the Titanic was "unsinkable". The quote, "practically unsinkable" was taken out of context. In 1911, Shipbuilder magazine published an article describing the construction of the Titanic. The article stated that when the watertight doors were closed, the ship would be "practically unsinkable".
  

• It was customary to break a bottle of champagne on the bow of a boat when launched. The Titanic launching did not include the traditional bottle-breaking.
  
• Many of the passengers were not originally suppose to be traveling on the Titanic. Due to a strike, coal was in short supply. This shortage threatened Titanic's maiden voyage and forced the White Star Line to cancel travel on the Oceanic and Adriatic and transfer their passengers and coal stocks to the Titanic.
  
• Captain Smith was planning to retire after Titanic's maiden voyage.
  
• The Titanic had 4 elevators (3 in First class and 1 in Second class).
  
• At the time, Titanic's whistles were the largest ever made.
  
• Titanic's whistles could be heard from a distance of 11 miles.
  
• The Titanic carried 900 tons of baggage and freight.
  
• The Titanic used 14,000 gallons of drinking water every 24 hours.
  
• Coal consumption per day: 825 tons.
  
• Carried 20 lifeboats and 3560 life jackets. The life jackets were made of canvas and cork.
  
• More than 3 million rivets were used to build the Titanic.
  
• In a test done to determine stopping distance, the Titanic was accelerated to 20 knots and then the engines were reversed at full power. The distance required to stop the Titanic was about half a mile.
  
• The Titanic's radio call sign was: MGY.
  
• Port of Registry - Liverpool, England. Registry date: March 24, 1912.
  
• Official ship number: 131,428

• The lookouts in the crow's nest did not have binoculars. Having binoculars might have prevented the Titanic tragedy.
  

• The time interval from first sighting of the iceberg to impact was a little over 30 seconds.
  
• The Titanic sank 2 hours and 40 minutes after hitting the iceberg.
  
• The Titanic hit the iceberg on the starboard (right) side of the bow. It has been speculated that the Titanic may have suffered only minor damage and minimal loss of life had it hit the iceberg head-on. It has also been suggested that the Titanic may have completely avoided colliding with the iceberg had the bridge not requested that the engines be reversed ("Full Astern"), prior to steering the ship to the left ("Hard-a-starboard"). This action would have decreased the forward momentum of the Titanic causing it to turn at a slower rate.
  
• July and August are the only two months the weather permits expeditions to the Titanic wreck site.

Strange, but True:

British spiritualist, William T. Stead, wrote a tale similar to Futility (mentioned at the top of the page). "How the Mail Steamer went down in the Mid Atlantic, by a survivor" appeared in the March, 1886 issue of Pall Mall Gazette. In this story, Stead tells of a large steamship that sinks after colliding with another ship. Many lives are lost due to lack of lifeboats. Stead wrote that, "This is exactly what might take place and what will take place, if the liners are sent to sea short of boats". Stead was travelling to the United States at the request of President Taft to address a peace conference at Carnegie Hall on April 20, 1912. Stead sat calmly in the library reading a book as the North Atlantic sea water came rushing in as the ship he was traveling on sank. That ship was the Titanic. Stead did not survive.

William T. Stead also authored the novel From the Old World to the New. In this book, he describes the sinking of a ship in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg. To add to the irony, the captain of the ship which picked up the survivors, was Edward J. Smith -- the eventual captain of Titanic.

Lifeboats:

The Titanic carried a total of 20 lifeboats. 14 of these lifeboats were wooden and each one had a capacity of 65 persons, 2 were wood cutters with a capacity of 40 persons each and 4 were collapsibles (wood bottoms and canvas sides) and each collapsible was capable of carrying 47 persons. The total capacity of all 20 lifeboats was 1,178 people. This was obviously not enough lifeboats to save all the 2201 people on board the Titanic. If every lifeboat left the Titanic filled to maximum capacity, 1,023 persons would have been left behind. Unfortunately, very few lifeboats were filled to maximum capacity when they were lowered from the Titanic into the icy water. This caused the death toll to rise dramatically. When the order came from Captain Smith to commence loading the lifeboats, the Titanic's Officers were probably unaware of the magnitude of the situation. Their apparent complacency did not instill a sense of urgency and therefore caused many passengers to balk at the opportunity to get into a lifeboat. To make matters worse, there were never any lifeboat drills and the crew had not been informed that each lifeboat could be safely lowered when filled to capacity. Only 711 persons were rescued and 1490 died. Luckily, the Titanic was not filled to capacity (3,547 persons). If this were the case, there would only be enough lifeboats to save one-third of the people (assuming that every lifeboat was filled to capacity).

Why so few lifeboats? Well, believe it or not, the Titanic actually exceeded the number of lifeboats required by the Board of Trade at that time. The regulations, ratified in 1894, applied to ships of 10,000 gross tons or larger. As ships increased in size over the years, the lifeboat requirements stayed the same. The Titanic was designed to carry a total of 48 lifeboats, but the White Star Line decided that passenger comfort was most important. They believed that an increase in the number of lifeboats (beyond 20) would have cluttered the decks and taken up valuable space. Harland and Wolff tried to persuade the White Star Line to install more lifeboats, but eventually gave up the fight. As they say, "the customer is always right".

When the lifeboat needs were finalized, the general feeling was that the modern ship was engineered and built so well that even if a ship was in a situation where it might sink, there would be plenty of time for other ships in the area to come to the rescue. It was also believed that the main purpose of the lifeboats was to ferry passengers and crew from the distressed ship to the rescue ship(s). The Titanic tragedy prompted laws requiring that ships carry enough lifeboats for all passengers and crew.

A Meal Fit for a King

View Titanic's dinner menus from April 14, 1912. For many people, this was their last meal.

Provisions
Titanic was well stocked with food and supplies. The following provisions were loaded onto Titanic prior to sailing. Please note that although the lists are not complete, it does give insight into the vast quantities of supplies necessary to accommodate Titanic's passengers and crew.

Statements by Titanic Captain Edward John (E.J.) Smith:

The following excerpt is from an interview with Captain Smith in 1907 after he brought the Adriatic to New York on its maiden voyage:

"When anyone asks how I can best describe my experience in nearly 40 years at sea, I merely say, uneventful. Of course there have been winter gales, and storms and fog the like, but in all my experience, I have never been in any accident of any sort worth speaking about. ...... I never saw a wreck and never have been wrecked, nor was I ever in any predicament that threatened to end in disaster of any sort".

Another quote from Captain Smith about the Adriatic:

"I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern ship building has gone beyond that".
 
 

Other statements:

A Quote from a Titanic passenger:

"To say a ship was unsinkable was flying in the face of God".

A quote from a White Star Line employee at the launch of Titanic:

"Not even God himself could sink this ship".

Spreading the Word:

As news of the Titanic accident started to trickle in, the newspapers reported any information they received. There was no reliable way to separate the rumors from the truth and fact from fiction. Most newspapers were reporting that the Titanic hit an iceberg, but all passengers were safe. The mood was very optimistic.

Even the White Star Line helped promote the feeling that all was well. A group of reporters gathered at the New York offices of the White Star Line and questioned the company's vice-president Phillip Franklin when he showed up for work. Franklin reassured everyone with the following statement:

"There is no danger that Titanic will sink. The boat is unsinkable and nothing but inconvenience will be suffered by the passengers".

Unfortunately, most of the newspaper accounts were wrong, but as the hours passed the reports still seemed to indicate a favorable outcome. Only one paper, The New York Times, decided run an article that presented the breaking Titanic story from a different angle. Using all of the information they received they were the first to report that Titanic actually sank. They ran the following headline:

Eventually, the rumors gave way to reality as the media began to report the actual events that tragically turned the "ship of dreams" into the world's worst nightmare. The headlines now read:

A statement issued by Eleanor Smith (Captain Smith's wife) following the sinking of Titanic:

"To my poor fellow-sufferers: My heart overflows with grief for you all and is laden with sorrow that you are weighed down with this terrible burden that has been thrust upon us. May God be with us and comfort us all".

Captain Smith Remembered:

In 1914, a statue of Captain Edward John Smith was erected in Beacon Park in Lichfield Staffordshire, England.

Captain Smith was born in Stoke Staffordshire, England. In light of all of the recent publicity and interest surrounding Titanic, the city of Stoke has been trying to have the statue moved there. As for now, it looks like Captain Smith will remain in Lichfield.

All statue photos are courtesy of Nick Carter and are used with his permission.

Click here for more Captain Smith related photos

Iceberg Facts and Figures:

What is an iceberg?
An iceberg is a large piece of ice that has broken away from a glacier. Most icebergs are found in the ocean, but all consist of frozen fresh water. Icebergs are usually white, blue or green and extend above and below the water surface. They may extend downward 1,000 feet (305 meters) and reach a height of more than 200 feet (61 meters). The degree of submergence depends on the density, rock content and shape of the iceberg.

Icebergs float because the density of ice is lower than the density of seawater. The ratio of these densities tells us that 7/8 of the iceberg's mass must be below water. Usually, icebergs are 20 to 30% longer under water than above and not quite as deep as they are long at the waterline.

The term "iceberg" probably originates from the Dutch term "ijsberg", which means ice hill. In German, the word "berg" means mountain.

How do icebergs form?
Glaciers form on land as a result of a net accumulation of snow over thousands of years. Successive layers compress earlier accumulations until glacial ice is formed. Glaciers "flow" or "creep" outward under their own weight like a viscous fluid. When the edge of a glacier advances into the ocean, the pieces of ice that break off are what we call icebergs. The majority of icebergs in the North Atlantic come from about 100 iceberg producing glaciers along the Greenland coast.

Classification of iceberg size: (Source: International Ice Patrol)

• Feet = Meters multiplied by 3.2808

The largest Northern Hemisphere iceberg on record was encountered near Baffin Island in 1882. It was 13 km (7.9 miles) long, 6 km ( 3.7 miles) wide and had a freeboard (height above water) of about 20 m (66 feet). The mass of that iceberg was in excess of 9 billion tons - enough water for everyone in the world to drink a liter (1.05 quarts) a day for over 4 years. Despite this staggering statistic, icebergs from Antarctica may be many times larger than this. In 1987 an iceberg with an area of 6350 square kilometers broke from the Ross ice shelf. That berg had a mass of around 1.4 trillion tons and could have supplied the world with 240 tons of pure drinking water.

This may be the actual iceberg responsible for sinking Titanic. The photo was taken in the vicinity where Titanic reportedly struck the iceberg.

Compared to others, the iceberg that Titanic hit was fairly small. Titanic survivors estimate that its height was about 100 feet above the water. It is estimated that the iceberg extended 500 feet below the surface.

What ever happened to the "Titanic iceberg"?
It kept floating south until it reached warmer waters and eventually melted away.

How cold are icebergs?
The interior temperature of icebergs off the coast of Newfoundland is in the range of -15° to -20° C (+5° to -4° F). Only at the surface does the temperature increase to 0° C (+32° F) -- the melting point. Oddly, icebergs in warm water appear colder than those in cold water because the fast melting steepens the internal temperature gradient exposing the cold interior.

What shapes do icebergs come in?
A fantastic variety of shapes result from the deterioration process of icebergs. Despite the fact that no two icebergs are the same, there are certain categories of shapes that are used for iceberg observation.

How stable are icebergs?
Often, icebergs are very unstable. Their highly random shape and non-uniform melting and breakup lead to frequent shifts in orientation. Tabular bergs are generally the most stable, whereas domed and wedge shaped bergs may roll completely over in seconds without any apparent provocation.

Other cool icebergs facts!
Icebergs are not salty. Remember that icebergs are comprised of pure fresh water. There may be some dust embedded in the ice and salt water may be on the surface, but it does not penetrate the ice. Icebergs are quite safe to consume.

When an iceberg melts, it makes a fizzing sound. The sound comes from the popping of compressed air bubbles which are in the ice. The bubbles form when air is trapped in the snow layers which are compressed to form glacial ice. Note that the released air is as old as the ice - thousands of years!

Icebergs appear mostly white because of the air bubbles in the ice. The bubble surfaces reflect white light giving the iceberg an overall white appearance. Ice that is bubble-free has a blue tint which is due to the same light phenomenon that tints the sky.

In Newfoundland, iceberg ice is "Harvested" for bottled water and vodka production. More products should be expected as more people enter the iceberg ice business.

Most of the iceberg information presented here is courtesy of Dr Stephen Bruneau, Ph.D., P.Eng. from Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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