Titanic - Some interesting facts

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".

he 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.

It probably took Titanic about 15 minutes to sink to her final resting place on the ocean floor. That means that Titanic sank at a rate of 10 miles per hour (or 16 km per hour).

In 1907, J. Bruce Ismay (President of the White Star Line) and Lord Pirrie (Chairman of Harland & Wolff shipbuilders) dreamed up the idea to build luxurious ocean liners as a way for the White Star Line to compete in the transatlantic passenger market. A total of three ships were planned: The Olympic, Titanic and Gigantic. The next year was spent doing extensive design work.

On July 30, 1908, authorization was given to build the Titanic and her sister ship the Olympic. In 1911, the order was placed for the third ship Gigantic. When this ship was completed, it was ultimately named the Britannic. Many believe that the name was changed because Gigantic sounded too similar to Titanic.

The keel for the Titanic was laid on March 31, 1909.

The Titanic was launched on May 31, 1911 at 12:15 pm.

The Titanic left Belfast, Ireland and headed for Southampton, England on April 2, 1912.

Titanic arrives in Southhampton on April 3, 1912.

The Titanic left Southampton on its maiden voyage on Wednesday, April 10, 1912 at 12:00 Noon.

The Titanic struck an iceberg on Sunday, April 14, 1912 at 11:40 pm.

The Titanic sank on Monday, April 15, 1912 at 2:20 am.

The wreck of the Titanic was found on September 1, 1985.

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.

Source: http://www.titanicstory.com/