TITANIC
The
Titanic was the second of a trio of ill-fated 45,000t ships constructed in Belfast for the White Star Line; she was preceded by the
Olympic, which was involved in no less than four collisions in a 24-year career, and followed by the
Britannic, which never saw mercantile service, being sunk by a German mine while serving as a hospital ship. All three had double bottoms and no less than 15 transverse watertight bulkheads, with electrically operated doors, although these only extended to the lower deck. When the
Titanic’s fateful collision came, breaching the integrity of the six foremost watertight compartments and flooding them so that the ship went down by the head, water poured over the remaining bulkheads one by one until she sank.
RMS
Titanic left Southampton on her maiden voyage, bound for New York via Cherbourg and Queenstown (Cork), on 10 April 1912. Her departure itself almost ended in tragedy, as the suction created by her three propellers dragged the Inman Line’s
City of New York away from the quay, snapping her mooring lines. By the afternoon of 14 April she was some 600 nautical miles (1100km) east of Newfoundland. Her wireless operators received warnings of ice in her path, but her captain, Edward Smith, chose to ignore them and continued at an undiminished 22 knots. At 2340 a lookout reported ice ahead. The First Officer gave orders to leave it to starboard, but the ship grazed an underwater spur, buckling her port-side hull plates along the riveted seams. She sank, with the loss of 1503 of the 2223 people aboard, in less than two and a half hours. Much of the resulting scandal centred on the disproportionate number of lives lost (75 per cent) amongst third-class passengers.
Tonnage: 46,328 grt
Dimensions: 852ft 6in x 92ft 6in x 34ft (259.85m x 28.2m x 10.35m)
Machinery: three-shaft, triple expansion plus low-pressure turbine; 50,000hp
Service speed: 21 knots
Role: passenger liner
Route: Southampton–New York
Capacity: 1034 1st, 510 2nd, 1022 3rd
Constructor: Harland & Wolff, Belfast
Material: steel
Built for: White Star Line
Pictured: The Titanic was just a few tons larger than her elder sistership as she was completed, making her the biggest of her day. The fourth of her funnels was false and was added only for aesthetic purposes.