RMS Titanic

1. RMS Titanic The Story Behind the Ship

2. Construction • The RMS Titanic was owned and operated by the White Star Line, based out of Liverpool, England. • Was part of a group of 3 sister ships, consisting of the RMS Olympic, RMS Titanic, and RMS Britannic. • The keel was laid down at the Harland and Wolff shipyards in Belfast, Ireland on March 31st, 1909. • The hull was launched on May 31st, 1911. • The next few months were spent outfitting the ship with its boilers, engines, funnels, and interiors. • 882.5 feet long, 92 feet wide, 175 feet wide. Capacity for 3,500 passengers and crew.

3. Luxury at Sea • The Olympic class were designed to be the most opulent and luxurious ships on the seas. • The second class accommodations on these ships were said to be equivalent to first class on many other lines. • Fun fact: one of the first ships to contain a swimming pool!

4. Safety • Titanic and its sisters were designed to be among the safest ships afloat. • In addition to their sheer size, each ship was built with a double bottomed hull, and 16 watertight compartments, each separated by one of 15 watertight bulkheads. • The doors separating the compartments were able to be remotely operated from the bridge of the ship with the simple turn of a switch. If this did not occur, there was a backup system of floats designed to close the doors when water reached them. • 4 compartments were able to flood at any one time, without endangering the ship’s buoyancy.

6. Maiden Voyage • Due to propeller issues with the Olympic, Titanic’s maiden voyage was pushed back from March, 1912, to April 10th, 1912 • Sailed out of Southampton, England • Titanic was to sail from Southampton to Cherbourg, France, Queenstown, Ireland, then on to New York City.

7. Maiden Voyage (Cont’d) • Once fully loaded with passengers and crew after the Queenstown stop, Titanic carried 2,200 people. • April 12th and 13th consisted of smooth sailing. • During this time period, multiple ice warnings came in from different ships across the Atlantic.

8. April 14th, 1912 • The night of the 14th was a cold, moonless night. • The lookouts would have a hard time spotting the icebergs in the water, because there was no moon to reflect in the water breaking around their bases. • Also, the lookouts did not have the aid of binoculars, because they were thought left in Southampton.

9. The Collision • At around 11:40PM, the lookouts spotted an iceberg looming around 500 yards off the Titanic’s bow. • Evasive maneuvers such as turning the helm hard to starboard and reversing the engines were preformed. • Because of Titanic’s speed (22knots), and position relative to the iceberg, the maneuvers were unsuccessful. • The Titanic struck the berg on the starboard bow, puncturing 5 of the 16 watertight compartments.

11. The Sinking • Remember what I said about the watertight compartments? That 4 could flood and not endanger the ship? Well, 5 were breached in the collision. • As the water flowed into the breached hull, the bow was pulled deeper and deeper under water. • As this occurred, water began to spill over the tops of the bulkheads, which were only as high as “E” Deck. • This process continued, pulling the bow lower and raising the stern higher.

12. The Sinking • Once it was determined that the Titanic was doomed, orders were given to abandon ship, with the famous “Women and children first” order. • The total capacity of the life boats was somewhere around 1,100 people. Titanic was carrying 2,200. Only half had a chance of being saved. • By the time the last boat left the ship, 1,500 were still trapped aboard.

14. The Sinking • As Titanic’s stern rose higher, more and more stress was put upon the hull of the ship. • Eventually, the stresses became too great, and she split in half.

15. The Sinking • After the breakup, the bow sank to the bottom, leaving the stern behind. • Slowly, the stern also began to sink, taking with it the 1,500 people still clinging to its rails. • Titanic sank at 2:20am on April 15th, 2 hours and 40 minutes after the initial collision. • Those not lucky enough to get into one of the lifeboats were left to die in the freezing North Atlantic waters.

16. Rescue • Those left in the boats had nothing to do but wait for help, while floating in the cold, dark, desolate expanse of the North Atlantic Ocean. • After an all out dash in the dark ice infested waters, the Cunard liner RMS Carpathia showed up to rescue the survivors. The ship’s normal top speed was 14 knots, but on this night the captain ordered every heater and ounce of hot water to the ship cut off, and all of duty firemen were sent to the boiler rooms so that every bit of steam generated could be sent to the engines. The Carpathia ended up achieving a speed of 17knots. • Once all survivors were picked up, Carpathia began its trip back to New York City.

18. Aftermath • Because of the Titanic disaster, many lessons were learned. • The British and American inquiries into the disaster both determined that excessive speed and defiance of ice warnings had contributed to the disaster. • Also, both determined that the ship was not properly equipped in the case of disaster. As such, the rules were rewritten so that all ships now have to carry enough lifeboats for all passengers and crew. • Also, all ships were required to be equipped with wireless radio systems, so that any and all distress calls will be heard by all. • Since the disaster, no lives have been lost due to ice.