April 14, 2012 saw the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Famously thought to be "virtually" unsinkable, the passenger liner R.M.S. Titanic hit an iceberg during her maiden voyage. It took less than three hours for the ship to sink into the Northern Atlantic.
In the century that's followed, the tragedy of the Titanic has captured the fascination and imagination of people around the world. Books, documentaries, and films abound, making the Titanic the subject of about as much fascination now as she was a century ago.
And the Titanic was, indeed, a source of much fascination even before she first set sail. When the hull of the Titanic was launched in 1911 at the Harland and Wolff shipyards in Ireland, a crowd of 100,000 spectators came to see. The ship had been conceived by J. Bruce Ismay (president of the White Star Line company) and Lord Pirrie (chairman of Harland and Wolff shipbuilders) as one of three gigantic ocean liners. Titanic -- and her sister ships Olympic and Britannic -- were meant to be the ultimate in travel experiences, ships unrivaled in size, speed, and elegance.
Whether or not the White Star Line ever billed their ship as truly "unsinkable" is a source of debate to this day. But if aspects of the Titanic disaster has been romanticized in our popular fiction, perhaps it's understandable. The hopes -- and the hubris -- that launched with the ship on her maiden voyage only made her ultimate fate that much more tragic -- and that much more unforgettable.
Some Titanic Facts & Stats:
- The ship was 268 meters long (or 882 feet and 8 inches), and 28 meters (92.5 feet) wide at her widest point. The ship's full length exceeded the height of all the skyscraper buildings of her day.
- From the waterline to the boat deck, the Titanic was 60.5 feet high. The full height, from the keel to the top of the funnels, was 175 feet.
- She needed 825 tons of coal per day.
- Her three anchors weighed a total of thirty-one tons, roughly the same weight as twenty cars.
- The ship cost $7,500,000 to build. (That's $400 million in today's money.)
- A first-class ticket cost £870 -- that's $4,350. Translated to today's money? $50,000. (An original ticket for the maiden voyage launch was recently sold at auction, fetching $56,250.)
- The Titanic struck the iceberg at 11:40 P.M., "sideswiping" the starboard side of the ship. Had the Titanic hit the iceberg directly -- instead of attempting to avoid it, resulting in the sideswipe -- it's theorized that the ship likely would have survived.
- The ship sank two hours and forty minutes later, at 2:20 A.M.
- 710 people survived the sinking. 1,517 did not.
Some Little-Known Facts:
- Only three of the four famous smokestacks were working. (The fourth one was just for looks!)
- Isidor Straus, who was the owner of Macy's, died in the shipwreck. Andrew Carnegie spoke at Straus's funeral.
- The sinking of the Titanic was "predicted" fourteen years earlier, by American author Morgan Robertson. He wrote a book entitled Futility, or the wreck of the Titan, about a ship called the Titan that was described as unsinkable, only to hit an iceberg and sink in mid-April. Fourteen years later, it really happened -- to the Titanic.
- There were 20 lifeboats on the Titanic. The lifeboats could carry 1,179 people; Titanic was carrying 2,228 passengers. However, Titanic was actually carrying more than the number of lifeboats required by regulation standards. The maritime safety regulations were based on the tonnage of the ship, not the number of passengers. (The sinking of Titanic would go on to prompt changes to the outdated rules.)
- One of the survivors of the Titanic disaster was Dorothy Gibson, a silent film actress. She would go on to star in the first motion picture about the tragedy, a short picture entitled Saved from the Titanic. It opened less than a month after the ship was lost; the film itself has since been lost.
- Believe it or not, Titanic Captain Edward J. Smith had put in thirty-eight years of service with the White Star Line ... and was planning on retiring after this final voyage.
For more on the Titanic:
- Titanic's Dead Mourned 100 Years Later in Poignant Ceremony at Sinking: Reuters
- TITANIC: 'The Titanic Was Unsinkable' - Myth or Not?
- Titanic Universe: Extensive information and resources for Titanic enthusiasts.
-- Post by Ms. B
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