Ally

# Gross Tonnage - 46,239 tons
# Dimensions - 259.83 x 28.19m (852.5 x 92.5ft)
# Number of funnels - 4
# Number of masts - 2
# Construction - Steel
# Propulsion - Triple screw
# Engines - Eight-cylindered triple expansion engines and steam turbines
# Service speed - 21 knots
# Builder - Harland & Wolff, Belfast
# Launch date - 31 May 1911

To cope with the construction of these giant vessels changes had to be made at the Queens Island shipyard of Harland & Wolff. During the building of the ships the number of employees at the yard doubled to over 11,300. On 31 March 1909 the keel of the Titanic was laid and it was launched on 31 May 1911, being watched by some 100,000 people. The construction cost of the two vessels had run to £3 million. They had service speeds of 21 knots and safety was well taken care of. The ship was subdivided into 16 watertight compartments by 15 transverse bulkheads. It was also designed to be a 'two compartment ship', which meant that it could stay afloat with two consecutive major compartments open to the sea. In the case of emergency the captain could close the watertight doors in the bulkhead from the bridge by moving an electrical switch and thereby make the vessel practically unsinkable.

The number of lifeboats carried was prescribed by a Board of Trade regulation formulated in 1894. This stated that the number of lifeboats carried was dependant upon the tonnage of the vessel and not the number of passengers on board. Any ship over 10,000 tons was required to carry sixteen lifeboats. Only ten years later the tonnage of large ships had doubled but the regulations had not changed to reflect these increases. White Star exceeded the regulations by providing four additional collapsible lifeboats. Perhaps it was reasoned that if anything serious did happen to the liner it could stay afloat for long enough for the lifeboats to transfer passengers to rescue craft and return to the ships to pick up more.

By 2 April 1912 the Titanic was ready for trials and sailed into the Irish Sea. The trials were successful. Captain Smith had been in charge, his experience with the Olympic reaping dividends in obviating any initial worries. Captain Smith lived in Southampton and was a popular skipper with the passengers and a respected favourite with the crew that sailed with him. He was White Star's ideal senior captain and was reputedly the highest paid on the North Atlantic. He held an Extra Master's Certificate and his two brothers were also with White Star, one a skipper and the other a marine superintendent in New York. For many years he had taken new White Star vessels on their maiden voyages, as he was shortly due to retire the maiden voyage of the Titanic was to be the pinnacle of his career.

The Titanic left Belfast for Southampton at 10PM on 2 April and steamed into Spithead at around 10PM the following evening. By midnight the ship was in the White Star dock. April 4 was spend readying the ship for sea and whilst it was at Southampton there was a reshuffle amongst the officers and crew. Captain Smith requested Henry Wilde as Chief Officer. Murdoch reverted from Chief to First Officer, Lightoller to Second and Blair, the former second, had to leave the ship. Board of Trade inspections were carried out on the ship whilst in Southampton. On 10 April the Titanic set sail for its maiden voyage , at noon. The movement of the ship displaced water to such an extent that the New York, which was moored along the Test quay just aft of the Oceanic, strained at its moorings and pulled away towards the Titanic. Tugs, however, managed to control the New York and thus avert any collision.

The ship reached Cherbourg at 6.30PM and embarked further passengers. It then sailed overnight to Queenstown and picked up further passengers, mainly emigrants. Whilst there a crew member deserted the ship and some passenger disembarked, their short journey to Ireland complete. On board now were 322 1st class, 277 2nd class and 709 3rd class passengers. The ship left Queenstown at 1.30AM, the following day, and headed past Roche Point to America. By Monday 15 April newspapers carried unconfirmed reports of an accident. Initial reports stated that the Titanic had been in collision, there was talk of an iceberg, but the liner was being towed to Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was then confirmed in the early hours of the following morning that the Titanic had sunk.

By 13 April, on board the Titanic, things were beginning to happen for the navigation department. Due to prevailing conditions in Greenland and Canada over the previous year an unusually large amount of ice had drifted further south than usual. This consisted of pack ice and icebergs stretching down from the north towards the shipping lanes. As the Titanic began to near these icefields it received several warnings from other vessels in the area. The fact that the ship's wireless had broken down two days previously meant that once it was repaired there was a backlog of messages which needed to be cleared.

The ship was due to make an alteration of course late in the afternoon on 14 April when it would reach 'The Corner', a point on the Atlantic route where ships using the track changed their heading for New York. Captain Smith delayed the timing of this change as he wanted to travel further south to avoid the reported ice. From early evening the temperature of the sea, taken at various points, had dropped 10 degrees. The lookouts were now following a special order to keep a careful watch for ice. The Titanic was now travelling at 22 knots. This may have been in an attempt to make up for time lost travelling further south or just due to the fact that it was now lighter due to consumed fuel.

At 9.40PM a wireless message was received from the Mesaba reporting heavy pack ice and large numbers of icebergs. Phillips, the wireless operator, noted the signal but, because his assistant was still off duty and there were a large number of private messages still waiting to be sent, put this message to one side for later delivery to the bridge. This message was telling the Titanic's navigators that they had not travelled far enough south and that the ice lay directly in their path. At 11PM the Leyland Line's Californian was not very far way. The Titanic's wireless was tuned to Cape Race and when the Californian's operator sent a message to say that his vessel had stopped, completely blocked in by ice, Phillips disregarded this.

At 11.40PM the message came from the crow's nest that there was an iceberg dead ahead. A collision seemed inevitable but at the last moment the Titanic swung slowly to port. As the iceberg passed along the starboard side, before disappearing aft, it seemed like a near thing. During the passing the iceberg had come into contact with the hull below the waterline. Over a length of 250 feet it had bumped and grazed the hull plates, sheared off rivet heads and opened the overlapping plate seams. The whole contact had taken just 10 seconds. Captain Smith ordered the watertight doors to be closed and the ship was ordered to stop. After inspections it was found that hull plates had been damaged in at least 6 compartments and that water was rapidly rising in 5 of them. It was calculated that so much water was being taken on board that it would eventually pull the liner's bow down further into the water until the affected compartments were completely filled. The water would then slop over the top of the next bulkhead and fill that compartment, and so on. It was estimated that the ship would stay afloat for 1.5 to 2 hours.

Ally

Captain Smith ordered the lifeboats to be uncovered and provisioned, knowing that there was only enough boat capacity for half the people on board the Titanic. At 12.15PM the wireless operator tapped the first CQD (Come Quickly, Distress), outlining the ships position. A revised signal was sent at 12.25PM. The Carpathia was around 60 miles away and the Captain, Arthur Rostron, immediately altered course at 12.45PM an SOS signal was sent. At about this time the first lifeboat was being lowered and rockets were being fired to attract the attention of any ships in the vicinity. By now the ship's band was playing on the deck to ease the passengers concerns and passengers were being woken by the stewards. Despite the fact that the lifeboats had been ordered to standby many moved away from the ship to avoid the suction, should the ship sink. Other lifeboats were ordered to row for a ship whose light had been spotted 4 or 5 miles away. They would then be able to land passengers and return. The source of this light would remain an elusive mystery.

The Titanic's bows were now sinking lower and lower. Now that it seemed that all women and children were in the lifeboats men were allowed in. 1st and 2nd class passengers were led to the Boat Deck whilst 3rd class were generally left to their own devices. At 1.30AM an attempted rush on one of the lifeboats was quelled by 5th Officer Lowe, who fired his revolver. The final rocket was fired at 1.40AM. By the time boat number 4 was lowered it was only 15 feet above the level of the Boat Deck, the usual distance between deck and water being 62 feet. The last rigid boat was lowered at 1.55AM and then the crew turned their attention to the collapsibles. The last of these was lowered at 2.05PM. The order was then issued 'every man for himself'. The engineers remained below decks ensuring that there was enough power to provide light and use of the wireless.

At 2.10AM there was sudden lurch and the bow sank deeper, the resulting wave washed men off the deckhouse and one of the collapsible boats that was in the process of being launched. The stern rose out of the water and the forward funnel crashed over to starboard, killing several swimmers in the water as it fell. 1,500 people were still on board the vessel with little or no hope of rescue. As the occupants of the lifeboats watched, the stern rose higher until it was almost vertical. The lights then flickered and the Titanic glided downwards, disappearing beneath the Atlantic Ocean.

Those in the lifeboats heard the cries of hundreds of people struggling in the freezing water but were either unable, because of already crowded conditions or distance, or unwilling, because of fear of being swamped, to attempt to return to the scene to rescue their former fellow travellers. It was ascertained from the surviving Marconi operator, Bride, who was standing on an upturned collapsible boat, that the Carpathia was on its way. The Carpathia arrived at the scene at 4.30AM on 15 April. At 8.30 AM, after taking 705 survivors on board, it left for New York. The Californian had meanwhile arrived on the scene and remained there to check for further survivors - none were found.

The Californian's actions of the 14 April were to cause furore in the coming weeks as it was believed by many that it was within rescue distance of the Titanic. It was also believed that the ship had actually witnessed the disaster from a distance several miles away. The arrivals of survivors in New York meant virtual arrest for the crew, as they were detained for enquiries. Memorial services were held and over the ensuing years maritime legislation, memorials, poems, books, films, plays, music, proposed salvage plans and the formation of special interest clubs have ensured that the legend of the Titanic is kept alive.

The wreck of the Titanic was lost until dicovered at 1AM on 1 September 1985 by an expedition from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute led by Dr Robert Ballard in the research vessel Knorr. Many photographs and footage of film was taken of this incredible voyage of discovery. On the second visit a manned submersible and remote controlled camera probe took incredible photographs of the wreck and its scattered artefacts in July 1986. The liner is still broken but on an even keel, its funnels gone. It is severed just aft of the second funnel and a good deal from in between is missing, laying in shattered segments over the sea bed.

Attached Images

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