TITANIC HISTORY

Welcome to the History of the Titanic

The Titanic's tragic yet inspiring story still captivate vast audiences with its concept of dramatic irony, love, and tragedy. Those significant events that caused the Titanic to become a timeless part of American history have inspired millions to continuously seek more information. As technology develops and more research is conducted, new information becomes available.

The Titanic's preceding events leading up to its unfortunate demise will hold audience's interest because of the historical nature and entertaining qualities. Our website provides a plethora of information to help audiences learn about the Titanic's construction and all aspects of its history. The entertaining and informative features will ignite your senses and help you embark upon the momentous journey of the Titanic.

Titanic 2

In an effort to reconstruct the RMS Titanic, an Australian man named Clive Palmer has set out to build a complete replica. The project has been in the works since 2012, and the expected launch date is 2016, when the ship will sail from Southampton to New York.

Designing the Titanic 2

This is no toy boat; the 2016 Titanic is expected to weigh about 65,000 gross tons, which is more than the weight of the original ship. When the Australian billionaire announced his new project in April of 2012, he began using a naval architecture firm from Finland to create an impressive design. In order to keep the project as historically accurate as possible, Blue Star Lines also hired a historian and design consultant named Steve hall. The interiors will be coordinated by another expert named Daniel Klistorner.

According to designers, the Titanic 2’s interior will be very similar to the original. The wood paneling of the original will be a veneer to appease fire regulations. In addition, passengers in the third-class cabins will not be regulated to unappealing quarters. They will be modernized.

The Safety of the new Titanic

Many people are wondering how this replica will avoid a similar fate to the original Titanic. This boat is intended to be as similar to the original ship as possible, with considerably more safety precautions. The ship will have greater stability as well as a welded hull. The building of the new ship will feature diesel engines rather than coal-fired steam ones. A new safety deck will feature lifeboats and other evacuation supplies.

Who will be onboard for the Titanic 2016 launch ?

In an effort to pay homage to the original ship during the Titanic 2016 launch, there will be at least two relatives of Titanic survivors setting sail. Terry Ismay, the great-great nephew of survivor Joseph Ismay will be on board, as will the great-granddaughter of The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Helen Benziger.

In building a new version of the Titanic, it is not clear what Palmer’s main reasons for building are. Many people have described him as an eccentric billionaire with too much money on his hands. Many people are excited to see the maiden voyage of this new ship, while others are taking a much more superstitious approach.

Construction of the Titanic.

Finding a location to begin construction of the Titanic ship was an engineering feat itself. Harland and Wolff, shipbuilders for White Star Line, had substantially revamped an existing shipyard to accommodate construction of the Olympic-class liners. Construction of the Titanic began on March 31, 1909

It took approximately three years to complete construction of the 882 foot long and 92 foot wide vessel. Work on the ship was difficult and dangerous; eight people were killed and nearly 250 injured. The Titanic was launched May 31, 1911 but was not fully fitted and ready for service until spring of 1912. Displacing 52,310 tons, the RMS Titanic was the largest passenger ship in the world.
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A Modern Marvel.

Inspired by the technological innovations of the industrial revolution, White Star Line wanted the Titanic to epitomize modern technology, engineering, safety and luxury. It had a grand staircase. The ship featured electric lights, elevators and heaters. Guests could relax in a Turkish bath or spend their time playing tennis, swimming or exercising in the on-board gym.

Despite its disastrous sinking, engineers had designed the Titanic ship with safety as a top priority. The ship featured a double steel hull and 16 separate compartments capable of being sealed off from one another in the event of an emergency. The Titanic was also capable of carrying 64 lifeboats. However, in a fateful decision, White Star Line chose only to carry 16. This, combined with collapsible lifeboats, met the requirements of an outdated law mandating enough lifeboats for only 75 percent of the ship's passenger capacity. 

The Maiden Voyage of the RMS Titanic.

On April 10, 1912, the Titanic set out for New York City from Southampton, England. White Star Line highly publicized the Titanic's maiden voyage. They went so far as to call the ship “unsinkable.” The promotion campaign attracted many prominent members of British and American society including nobility and wealthy industrialists. After two stops, one in France and one Ireland. The Titanic began its transatlantic crossing with 2,216 passengers.

The Night of April 14.

The history of the Titanic was forever altered when the ship struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912. Having received iceberg warnings via wireless telegraph, Captain Edward Smith altered the ship's course. However, the radio operators were more concerned with relaying private messages to passengers than passing along updated iceberg warnings to the bridge. 

At approximately 11:40 p.m., lookouts spotted an iceberg directly in the path of the ship. Evasive action was taken in an attempt to avoid the collision. A sharp turn to the port side was ordered, and the iceberg struck the ship on the right side damaging the hull. Captain Smith ordered a full stop to assess the damage. Initially, only five compartments were flooded, and the watertight doors had been closed to prevent additional flooding. However, water was able to flow over the top of bulkheads and in through normal openings causing two more compartments to flood. It quickly became obvious the Titanic would sink.

Evacuating the Ship.

The first lifeboat was lowered about an hour after the collision. It had a 65 person capacity; only 19 were aboard. Tragically, many of the lifeboats were launched far under capacity. This is attributable to several factors. Assured by the still working electricity and seeming calm, many passengers didn't think the ship was sinking. In addition, many of the third class passengers became lost or trapped in the ship and didn't make it to the lifeboats. Due to a women and children first rule, many men did not board lifeboats despite there being space.

Radio operators broadcasted distress signals, but the RMS Carpathia, the closest ship, was four hours away. All but two lifeboats were successfully launched. Eventually, the Titanic split and was completely sunk by 2:20 a.m. Roughly four hours after receiving the distress call, the Carpathia arrived and began rescue efforts. More than 1,500 people died.

True Facts about the rms Titanic

Here are 15 intresting facts about the Titanic.

• When the rms Titanic struck the iceberg, she remained afloat for 2,5 hours.


• The Titanic sister ship Britannic had originally been designed to be 1,000 feet, but when the Titanic sank her dimensions were altered.


• There were only twenty lifeboats on the Titanic. The first lifeboats that departed were less than half full.


• Many passengers were so convinced that the Titanic was “unsinkable,” that they ignored the news that she had struck an iceberg and continued dining and dancing.


• The price of a single first class ticket for the maiden voyage on the Titanic was $4,700, the equivalent of about $50,000 today.


• There were many dogs on the ship, but only two survived, a Pomeranian and a Pekingese, which were both taken to safety on lifeboats by their owners.


• A man named Daniel Buckley dressed as a woman, to be allowed onto one of the lifeboats ahead of the other men.


• A 1996 attempt to raise part of the shipwreck’s hull showed tears in six of the compartments, revealing how the ship sank.


• One of the interesting Titanic facts indicates that a man called Charles Joughin was actually able to survive the 31 degree temperature of the Atlantic ocean waters because he had been drinking heavily before the ship sank.


• Millvina Dean, the last living survivor of the sinking of the Titanic, passed away on May 31, 2009. Millvina Dean was nine weeks old when the Titanic went down.


• One of the ironic facts about the Titanic is that it contained a heated swimming pool, the first of its kind for a luxury ocean liner.


• It is said that the ship was still so brand new when it set sail on April 10, 1912, that were still spots where the paint had not yet dried.


• There are reports that the crew on the ship received information about icebergs in the area, but they continued to push ahead at full speed in spite of the possible danger.
• More than 3,000 artifacts have been recovered from the wreck.


• Several survivors reported that at least one gun was fired, as panic to enter the remaining lifeboats increased.

The build of the Titanic

It took just over three years to build and fit out the RMS Titanic, and it took the ship less than three hours to sink beneath the North Atlantic Ocean on April 14-15, 1912. Well before, the White Star Line's "unsinkable" ship set sail on its first and only voyage and launched countless stories, however, high stakes and grand plans went into its design and construction.

Who built the Titanic ?

The Titanic was built by Harland and Wolff, shipbuilders for White Star Line.

Designing the Titanic.

Competition spawned the Titanic. In 1907, the White Star Line's rival, Cunard, launched the two fastest passenger ships then in service, the Mauritania and the Lusitania. That same year, the White Star Line's Chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, wanted to top Cunard, and he decided to do so based, not on speed but on size and luxury.

To design and build these new ships, dubbed the Olympic class, the White Star Line, turned to Harland & Wollf, its longtime shipbuilder. Naval architect Thomas Andrews, who later perished when the Titanic sank, headed up the design of the new vessels. Construction started on the first such vessel, dubbed the Olympic, in late 1908.

Designed to be the world's largest passenger steamship upon its completion, the Titanic was nearly 883 feet long and 104 feet high. Accommodations for first class passengers included palatial state rooms, some with their own promenades, along with a grand staircase, library, smoking room, squash court, sumptuous restaurants and other amenities. Second and Third Class accommodations, while far less posh, were still considered better than their counterparts on other ships.

Where was the Titanic built ?

The Titanic was built in Belfast, north Ireland.

The Titanic built to be Unsinkable?

While Harland & Wolff claimed that it never advertised the Titanic as unsinkable, a White Star Line brochure indeed said that the Titanic was designed not to sink. The media of the day, of course, seized on this idea of an unsinkable ship.

The primary design concept meant to make the Titanic unsinkable was a series of sixteen compartments separated by watertight bulkheads in the lower portion of the ship. Rather than, force passengers to use stairs to move between compartments, the ship's designers included doors between them. In case of emergency, those doors could be closed with the flip of a switch, sealing the compartments off from one another and theoretically keeping water confined to the breached compartments. Even if, two middle or four front compartments were breached, the theory ran, the ship would stay afloat. Unfortunately, the iceberg that sank the Titanic breached five compartments.

How was the Titanic built ?

In the spring of 1909, nearly two years after Ismay hatched his plan to top Cunard, construction began on the Titanic at Harland & Wolff's large shipyard in Belfast, Ireland. Of Harland & Wolff's 15,000 workers, around 3,000 labored on the Titanic. Records show injuries to nearly 250 workers, with two workers dying in construction accidents in the shipyard and six more dying on board ship during building and fitting. Given the lax worker protection standards at the time, this was actually a good safety record.

The Titanic and Olympic, which were built at essentially the same time, were so much larger than previous ships that Harland & Wolff had to dismantle three existing slipway and build two new dry docks to house them. It took two years to complete the actual construction of the Titanic, during which time workers placed 2,000 steel plates to form the hull, held together with more than three million rivets. Many riveters reported developing hearing problems later in life as a result of the noise the accompanied this task.

Meanwhile, British forging company N. Hingley & Sons cast Titanic's side and center anchors. The center anchor, over 18 feet long and weighing over 15 tons, was the largest hand-forged anchor ever made at the time. Most links in the anchor chains N. Hingley & Sons forged were 33 inches long, though the largest links were a full three feet in length. In all, the Titanic received nearly 1,200 feet of chain for its anchors.

Once construction was complete, on May 31, 1911, the Titanic moved to a berth for the next year to await fitting out. During that year, workers installed the Titanic's engines and funnels and completed its remarkable interior. By April 2, 1912, the ship was set to begin its sea trials. 

Twenty-five stories high, weighing 46,000 tons, and the largest moving object ever built at the time, the Titanic was ready to sail. Nevertheless, not all of the Titanic's fixtures were in place when the ship departed Southampton, England on its maiden voyage on April 10, 1912. Gilbert Logan, working in Harland & Wolff's cabinet workshops, had designed a table, sideboard and chairs to be placed in the Captain's private quarters on board ship, but these pieces were not finished until a few days after the Titanic set sail. Today, these pieces are on display in Belfast.

The Sinking of the Titanic

1912 sinking of titanic

The sinking of the Titanic is one of the most talked about events of the twentieth century. Yet what really happened on that dreadful night in 1912? Here we will look at the events immediately leading up to and during the sinking of this massive ship.

When did the Titanic sink?

The RMS Titanic had received numerous warnings about heavy ice in the area and the need for the Titanic to slow down, all throughout the day by a series of wireless telegrams sent from other ships. The first warning came from the RMS Caronia at 9:00am. Another came from the RMS Baltic at 1:42pm reporting large amounts of field ice. This report was said to have been shown to White Star Line CEO, Bruce Ismay, who was aboard the ship. Unfortunately, the ship's crew ignored the seriousness of the warnings and the Titanic proceeded traveling at full speed on Ismay's orders, so they would reach New York ahead of schedule and surprise everyone. Field ice and even icebergs were not uncommon and were thought to pose very little danger to the large ocean liner. 

The date and time of the sinking of the Titanic has become etched in history. On Sunday, April 14, 1912 the RMS Titanic was approximately 300 miles from its final destination of New York City when, at 11:40pm, it struck an iceberg. The iceberg tore six holes into the side of the ship, approximately ten feet from the ship's bottom. Above the waterline, however, there was very little evidence of the impact and reports from passengers reveal that many on the ship felt only a slight bump when the ship hit the iceberg. 

How long did it take for the Titanic to sink?

It took nearly three hours from the time of the initial collision at 11:40 pm to finally sink beneath the waves at 2:20am on the morning of the 15th. The lower decks of the Titanic were separated into compartments by bulkheads, which were designed to seal off rising flood waters. Though the bulkheads extended past the water line, they were not sealed at the top. The RMS Titanic was designed to float with a couple of the compartments flooded, however, five compartments had become flooded, which caused the bulkheads to become completely submerged beneath the water. Once this happened, there was no saving the ship. The Titanic would sink.

The final three hours before the ship went down were filled with great panic and the fact that there were not enough life rafts to carry the passengers to safety was a major concern. As there were only 16 lifeboats, the now old-fashioned policy of "women and children first" was put into effect. Though this was so, some men were allowed on the life rafts early in the evacuation proceedings and Ismay made the controversial decision to save his own life by climbing aboard one of the boats, becoming one of the few precious survivors of the Titanic. Even if all 20 boats aboard the ship were filled to capacity, only half of the people aboard the Titanic would have been saved. The Titanic snapped in half at 2:18am and, with the flooded bow weighing her down, fully sank only two minutes later. Those without life rafts froze to death or drowned in the frigid waters of the Atlantic.

Where did the Titanic sink map

Rescuing the Survivors

The Carpathia arrived an hour and a half after the Titanic sinking. Fortunately, it wasn't filled to capacity and was able to rescue the remaining survivors from the lifeboats. It rescued 705 passengers that day.

Changes in safety practices after the sinking of the rms titanic

After the Titanic sunk, there were changes made to the construction of ships. Safety regulations were also put into place so that inadequate lifeboats would never be a problem again. These safety rules and regulations are still used today. 

The Titanic sinking has since been the topic of endless books, films, articles, and scholarly papers, and interest in the awful tragedy shows no signs of fading. The story of the Titanic will forever be the cautionary tale that no matter what advancements are made in technology, we remain forever vulnerable to the laws of nature.