RMS Titanic

The Story Behind the Ship

Construction• The RMS Titanic was owned and operated by the

White Star Line, based out of Liverpool, England.

• Was part of a group of 3 sister ships, consisting

of the RMS Olympic, RMS Titanic, and RMS

Britannic.

• The keel was laid down at the Harland and Wolff

shipyards in Belfast, Ireland on March 31st, 1909.

• The hull was launched on May 31st, 1911.

• The next few months were spent outfitting the

ship with its boilers, engines, funnels, and

interiors.

• 882.5 feet long, 92 feet wide, 175 feet wide.

Capacity for 3,500 passengers and crew.

Luxury at Sea

• The Olympic class were

designed to be the most opulent

and luxurious ships on the seas.

• The second class

accommodations on these ships

were said to be equivalent to

first class on many other lines.

• Fun fact: one of the first ships to

contain a swimming pool!

Safety• Titanic and its sisters were designed to be among the safest ships

afloat.

• In addition to their sheer size, each ship was built with a double

bottomed hull, and 16 watertight compartments, each separated

by one of 15 watertight bulkheads.

• The doors separating the compartments were able to be remotely

operated from the bridge of the ship with the simple turn of a

switch. If this did not occur, there was a backup system of floats

designed to close the doors when water reached them.

• 4 compartments were able to flood at any one time, without

endangering the ship’s buoyancy.

Maiden Voyage• Due to propeller issues with the

Olympic, Titanic’s maiden

voyage was pushed back from

March, 1912, to April 10th, 1912

• Sailed out of Southampton,

England

• Titanic was to sail from

Southampton to Cherbourg,

France, Queenstown, Ireland,

then on to New York City.

Maiden Voyage (Cont’d)

• Once fully loaded with passengers and crew after the

Queenstown stop, Titanic carried 2,200 people.

• April 12th and 13th consisted of smooth sailing.

• During this time period, multiple ice warnings came in

from different ships across the Atlantic.

April 14th, 1912

• The night of the 14th was a cold, moonless night.

• The lookouts would have a hard time spotting the

icebergs in the water, because there was no

moon to reflect in the water breaking around their

bases.

• Also, the lookouts did not have the aid of

binoculars, because they were thought left in

Southampton.

The Collision

• At around 11:40PM, the lookouts spotted an iceberg

looming around 500 yards off the Titanic’s bow.

• Evasive maneuvers such as turning the helm hard to

starboard and reversing the engines were preformed.

• Because of Titanic’s speed (22knots), and position

relative to the iceberg, the maneuvers were

unsuccessful.

• The Titanic struck the berg on the starboard bow,

puncturing 5 of the 16 watertight compartments.

The Sinking

• Remember what I said about the watertight

compartments? That 4 could flood and not endanger the

ship? Well, 5 were breached in the collision.

• As the water flowed into the breached hull, the bow was

pulled deeper and deeper under water.

• As this occurred, water began to spill over the tops of the

bulkheads, which were only as high as “E” Deck.

• This process continued, pulling the bow lower and raising

the stern higher.

The Sinking

• Once it was determined that the

Titanic was doomed, orders were

given to abandon ship, with the

famous “Women and children first”

order.

• The total capacity of the life boats

was somewhere around 1,100 people.

Titanic was carrying 2,200. Only half

had a chance of being saved.

• By the time the last boat left the ship,

1,500 were still trapped aboard.

The Sinking

• As Titanic’s stern rose higher, more and more

stress was put upon the hull of the ship.

• Eventually, the stresses became too great, and

she split in half.

The Sinking

• After the breakup, the bow sank to the bottom, leaving

the stern behind.

• Slowly, the stern also began to sink, taking with it the

1,500 people still clinging to its rails.

• Titanic sank at 2:20am on April 15th, 2 hours and 40

minutes after the initial collision.

• Those not lucky enough to get into one of the lifeboats

were left to die in the freezing North Atlantic waters.

Rescue• Those left in the boats had nothing to do but wait for help, while

floating in the cold, dark, desolate expanse of the North Atlantic Ocean.

• After an all out dash in the dark ice infested waters, the Cunard liner

RMS Carpathia showed up to rescue the survivors. The ship’s normal

top speed was 14 knots, but on this night the captain ordered every

heater and ounce of hot water to the ship cut off, and all of duty

firemen were sent to the boiler rooms so that every bit of steam

generated could be sent to the engines. The Carpathia ended up

achieving a speed of 17knots.

• Once all survivors were picked up, Carpathia began its trip back to New

York City.

Aftermath

• Because of the Titanic disaster, many lessons were learned.

• The British and American inquiries into the disaster both determined

that excessive speed and defiance of ice warnings had contributed

to the disaster.

• Also, both determined that the ship was not properly equipped in the

case of disaster. As such, the rules were rewritten so that all ships

now have to carry enough lifeboats for all passengers and crew.

• Also, all ships were required to be equipped with wireless radio

systems, so that any and all distress calls will be heard by all.

• Since the disaster, no lives have been lost due to ice.