Little Book of Titanic

Contents

Chapter 2: The Latest, Largest and Finest Steamer Afloat

Chapter 3: Design Features that Contributed to the Tragedy

Chapter 4: Life on Board

Chapter 5: The Ship’s Crew

Chapter 6: Notable Passengers

Chapter 7: Other Major Figures

Chapter 8: The Maiden Voyage

Chapter 9: The Final Moments

Chapter 10: The Sinking of the Titanict

Chapter 11: Aftermath

Chapter 12: Discovery

Chapter 13: The Titanic Myths

Chapter 14: The Titanic in Popular Culture

Chapter 15: Titanic in Retrospect

Glossary

Publishing Rights

Chapter 1: Introduction

It is approaching 100 years since the ‘practically unsinkable’ White Star liner Titanic sank beneath the waves and into the history books. In the years that followed that night in April 1912 much has been written about the ship and the tragic loss of life that occurred following its collision with an iceberg during its maiden voyage to New York, but still the Titanic continues to fascinate. In film, too, the story of the sinking has been told or reinterpreted – from A Night to Remember, based on Walter Lord’s pioneering history of the sinking, through Sir Lew Grade’s costly film of Clive Cussler’s bestselling novel, Raise the Titanic, to James Cameron’s blockbuster Titanic starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.

*A scene from the film A Night to Remember.

For more than 70 years the wreck of the Titanic lay undisturbed, but with its discovery, a whole new industry has been spawned with film crews recording the ship’s remains and tours down to view it. Artefacts removed from the debris field have been exhibited and concern over the wreck’s condition has led to legal action over its actual ownership. Such has been the activity over the 25 years since its discovery that the wreck’s condition has deteriorated rapidly and it may well completely disintegrate by the end of the current century.

*Action from the James Cameron film Titanic.

The fascination with the sinking of the Titanic is easy to explain. The loss of such a prestigious ship on its maiden voyage was bound to cause interest, particularly as the passenger list included many of the era’s rich and famous, leading to rumours that the ship was conveying a veritable treasure trove of wealth. There was the drama of the actual sinking itself, the band playing on as the ship slid under the waves and the failure of the crew to fully utilise the admittedly inadequate lifeboat provision. There were tales of heroism, such as the engineering crew who died trying to keep the pumps and generators going but whose action probably delayed the sinking for over an hour, allowing the lifeboats to get away, and of those employed in the wireless room who stuck to their posts as long as possible trying to summon assistance to the stricken vessel.

This book provides an overview of the history of the sinking of the Titanic and of its aftermath.

Chapter 2: The Latest, Largest and Finest Steamer Afloat

Competition between shipping lines was fierce during the last decade of the 19th century, and profits for the shipping companies involved were limited. In 1893 during a crossing of the Atlantic, the notable financier John Pierpont Morgan, who had interests in banking, railways and steel, was asked whether it was practical to try to buy up shipping lines in order to reduce competition and so encourage more realistic (and profitable) fares. Morgan thought that it ought to be, but it was not until later in the decade that he started to put this policy into practice when he acquired American Inman and Red Star lines.

*The Titanic under construction in the Arrol Gantry at the Harland & Wolff shipyard, Belfast.

In 1902 Morgan created the International Mercantile Marine Company (IMM) with the idea that competition on the all-important transatlantic route could be reduced through co-operation and thus profitability enhanced; IMM’s route to co-operation was to buy up competitors.

Morgan bought into a number of shipping lines, including Atlantic Transport, Leyland and Dominion, before turning his attention to the larger British-owned companies, Cunard and White Star. After a bitter battle Morgan acquired White Star Line for £10 million, making former White Star Line managing director J Bruce Ismay chairman and managing director of IMM in early 1904. However, the Cunard deal was thwarted by the British government offering Cunard a soft loan that allowed the line to construct the Lusitania and Mauretania, and also providing £150,000 per annum as part of the mail contract. The scene was set for the development and construction of the ‘Olympic’ class of liner in order to compete with the new ships under construction for Cunard.

*The Titanic in dry dock, February 1912.

Cunard’s new liners, both entering service in 1906, had been built for speed in an effort to claim the ‘Blue Riband’ title for the fastest crossing of the North Atlantic, but there was a price to be paid for speed. Each additional knot required ever increasing amounts of coal and this added both to weight and cost. In looking towards Olympic and her sister vessels Titanic and Britannic, White Star Line decided against competing on speed but in favour of providing the greater luxury. Of the three, only the Olympic ever completed a commercial sailing, with Titanic being sunk on her maiden voyage and Britannic, converted for use as a hospital ship, being sunk in the Aegean Sea before she could enter commercial service following a mine strike during World War I.

Work was not yet complete on the Olympic when the keel of the Titanic was laid down in the Belfast shipyard of Harland & Wolff on 31 March 1909 as yard (ship) No 401 with hull No 390904. At 882ft 9in in length, the second in the Olympic class was six inches longer than the Olympic, but had an identical beam of 92ft 6in and a draught of 34ft 7in. The Titanic had a Gross Registered Tonnage (GRT) of 46,238 tons and a displacement of 52,310 tons.

She was fitted with two reciprocating four-cylinder, triple expansion steam engines to turn the two bronze triple-blade side propellers, and a single low-pressure Parsons turbine for the bronze four-blade central propeller. The engines that powered the three propellers were fed by 25 double-ended and four single-ended Scotch-type boilers, rated at 215psi, fired by 159 coal-burning furnaces. In all, the engines provided enough power to achieve a maximum speed of 23.75 knots with a service speed of 21 knots.

The ship was constructed with a double hull, designed to accommodate water for use in the boilers and additional water to provide ballast (hence stability) whilst at sea. The ship was, however, designed and built with only a single-skin hull.

Three of the ship’s four funnels were used to exhaust smoke and fumes from the engine room, whilst the fourth provided ventilation for the engine room and the air required to keep the fires in the furnaces alight. Thus, steam and smoke should only ever have been seen emerging from the leading three funnels; images that show smoke emerging from the fourth are incorrect.

Following the laying down of the keel, work proceeded rapidly on ship No 401, with the ship being launched shortly after noon on 31 May 1911 watched by an estimated crowd of some 100,000. On top of the gantry above the ship flew the Union Flag on one side and the Stars and Stripes on the other, with the White Star Line’s red pennant flying in the middle. Below, a line of signal flags proclaimed the message ‘SUCCESS’.

With the