History of the RMS Titanic

		The Discovery of the Titanic -- a book to read if you want more information on the history of the actual ship. You can buy it now.
		The Last Days of the Titanic : Photographs and Mementos of the Tragic Maiden Voyage -- another good illustrated book on the subject of sinking of the RMS Titanic. You can buy it now.

The Royal Marine Ship Titanic was built between 1910 and 1912. She cost $7.3 million and was the grandest ship of that time. Her overall length was 882.5 feet, her beam was 92.5 feet and she was 60.5 feet from water line to boat deck. Her gross tonnage was 46,328 tons, net tonnage of 24,900 tons. She had nine decks including the orlop deck. Below the top most boat deck were decks A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Below G deck were the boiler rooms and holds etc.

The ship looked almost identical to her sister the Olympic, but the Titanic was 1004 gross tons larger and was in several ways more luxurious.

The Titanic was designed to remain afloat with any two or three compartments flooded and to withstand a collision at the joint of two compartments in that case. She was reagarded to be unsinkable, to be herself a lifeboat. The Titanic carried 20 lifeboats, and she well met the requirements of The British Board of regulations. In fact, no liner afloat at that time carried enough lifeboats to evacuate all passengers and crew. At that time any large ship in trouble was expected to remain afloat for many hours or even days and wait for the help which would be summoned by radio, and the lifeboats were used only to ferry passengers. Sixteen of the 20 lifeboats on the Titanic were regular wooden type and four Englehardt collapsibles known as A, B, C and D.

She was launched on May 31 1911 at noon. On April 2nd 1912 the completed ship set sail from Belfast for her sea trials. The Titanic left for her first and the last voyage on Wednesday April 10 1912 at noon from the White Star Pier at Southampton. She was heading for New York, but never reached it. The next day the Titanic arrived in Queenstown in Ireland around lunch time and then she sailed on a direct collision course with a large iceberg. The westward voyage from Queenstown was uneventful for the first several days. From Sunday morning, her radio operators were receiving many warnings of icebergs ahead. At 10:00pm that evening the bridge watch changed and the new crew was headed by First Officer Murdoch, who had served with Captain Smith on the Olympic. At 11:40pm a call came from the crows nest "Iceberg right ahead".

Murdoch ordered full stop, then full astern. At the same time her ordered a hard turn to port. This order actually made the collision more certain. The greater the forward motion the more quickly she turned, so each second that the propellers reduced her speed was absolutely important. A short time later Captain Smith arrived on the bridge and asked Murdoch what had she hit. Smith ordered the water-tight doors closed and asked Murdoch if the warning bell had been rung. Murdoch confirmed it had. Captain Smith then ordered various officers to check for damage assessment. A few minutes later damage reports started coming in, disastrous news for Captain Smith, at least five, possibly six of the water-tight compartments were flooding. Thomas Andrews, the ship designer had also made his way to the bridge and did not take long to confirm that she could not survive and would inevitably sink within a few hours.

Most passengers at this point were unaware of the seriousness of the collision or even that a collision had occurred. As her list became more prominent it became easier to find people who were willing to get into a life boat, but officers were reluctant to fill then in the early stages, just in case the boats buckled under the stress of a full load. Only when a few boats remained were they filled to capacity. At 12:15 or so Captain Smith ordered the wireless operator to start sending distress signals, the "CQD" signal, which stands for "CQ" call to any station and "D" distress, and also the newer distress call "SOS". Officers on the bridge saw the lights of ship, most believe this was the Leyland Liner Californian. Captain Smith had the radio room try to reach it, but there was no response. He also tried the morse lamp, but still no response. For the next hour or so he tried a total of eight rockets in an attempt to attract its attention, but no response was received.

The radio message was picked up by other ships. The Olympic and the Carpathia were steaming full speed toward the Titanic's radioed position. This position was incorrect. She sank roughly 13.5 miles south east of her radioed position, 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland. Her estimated speed of 22.5 knots was inaccurate and must have been in fact about 20.5 knots.

Titanic's situation was getting progressively worse as the bow sank lower and lower. After all the lifeboats had gone, the remaining 1520 or so passenger must have started to come to terms with their fate and the panic by this stage was hectic.

Power on the Titanic stayed on until the very last moment, due mainly to the bravery of the Firemen and associated crew staying at their posts. All the lights remained aglow and reports suggest that drinks in the smoking lounge were free. The ships orchestra continued to play throughout the entire ordeal and they all perished along with everyone else.

At 2:05 the last lifeboat departed and 2:17 the stern rose high in the air, a thundering crash was heard obviously when the ship broke into three pieces. The lights flickered once, when out, came on again briefly then went out for the very last time for the rest of eternity. The stern settled back then almost immediately stood vertically on end, spun around 180 degrees, stayed there for a short time then plunged from view. The time was 2:20am April 15th 1912.

The survivors reported horrible cries of 1500 odd souls in the frigid waters of the Atlantic Ocean. One by one they succumbed to the cold and died. Only one lifeboat returned (Lifeboat 14) to help the 1500 victims. This was probably due to the fear of them being capsized by panic. Of approximately 2227 people on board only about 705 survived. Just at the break of dawn, Carpathia was spotted and was greeted by a small number of boats. All that remained of a 46000 ton luxury liner. The sinking of the Titanic had become the greatest shipwreck in the 20th century, and in the lifetime.

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