The Titanic, known as the largest and most luxurious passenger ship, was designed to be unsinkable with 16 watertight compartments and 20 lifeboats. However, on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in 1912, it collided with an iceberg and sank, resulting in the death of 1,517 passengers and crew. Despite warnings from other ships, the Titanic continued at full speed and hit the iceberg, causing it to sink within hours. Most lifeboats were not filled to capacity, leading to a low survival rate.
Titanic was well known as the largest and most luxurious passenger ship in the world in the early 20th century. Designed by Thomas Andrews of Harland and Wolff and financed by JP Morgan and the International Mercantile Marine Co., Titanic was commonly dubbed by the press and advertisers as “unsinkable”. It’s no wonder then that news of her colliding with an iceberg and inevitable sinking in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 20, 15 sent shockwaves around the world.
Unsinkable construction
Construction of the Titanic began on March 31, 1909 at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. When completed and laid out three years later, she had a length of 882.5 feet (269 m), a width of 92.5 feet (28.2 m) at her widest part, and a carrying capacity of nearly 47,000 tons, 66,000 tons when fully loaded. The Titanic was powered by powerful inverted four-cylinder engines and a low-power turbine that controlled three propellers. With 159 coal-fired furnaces and 29 boilers, she reached speeds of 23 knots, or 26.7 miles per hour (43 km/h).
In addition, the Titanic had a hull with 16 watertight compartments. The liner could stay afloat with the first or last four compartments flooded, or two compartments flooded, or 11 possible combinations of three compartments flooded. Any other situation would sink the liner. This remarkable feat of engineering technology was impressive at the time, earning the Titanic its reputation for being unsinkable.
An additional “reassuring” point was that the Titanic carried 20 lifeboats on board, which was more than the legal requirement. Upon close scrutiny though, the lifeboats were sufficient for just over 50% of the people aboard. White Star Line’s decision on the number of lifeboats was prompted by legal support and standard emergency procedures, under which lifeboats would leave passengers safely and then return to rescue others. Thus, providing lifeboat capabilities for more than half of the souls on board seemed adequate.
With such a sturdy construction, the Titanic safely departed on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York, United States on April 10, 1912. There were a total of 1,324 passengers in first, second and third class (Steerage), as well as 899 crew on this first transatlantic voyage.
Collision of the iceberg
Four days into the voyage, on Sunday afternoon, April 14, 1912, Captain Edward Smith of the Titanic received many iceberg warnings from other ships making the transatlantic voyage, such as the Caronia, Baltic, Amerika, California and the Mesaba. Each of these Morse code messages was translated and annotated by the radio operators, and subsequently transmitted to the proper officers in charge. Despite these warnings, the Titanic continued at full speed on her chosen course, where a field of icebergs lay ahead.
The temperature dropped as the liner continued her course. The sea was calm and peaceful and the night sky was clear. No one suspected the imminent fate that awaited the Titanic.
At 11:40, Lookout Officers Reginald Lee and Frederick Fleet glimpsed an iceberg ahead. The fleet sounded the alarm bell and telephoned the bridge officer to inform him of the iceberg. First Officer Murdoch immediately ordered the engines shut down and the liner veered to port, but it was already too late. The iceberg grazed the starboard side of the Titanic below the waterline and frozen water rapidly began to fill the watertight compartments.
The sinking of the Titanic
Seawater filled five compartments, one more than the Titanic could handle to stay afloat. After a thorough assessment of the situation by Captain Smith and ship’s designer Thomas Andrews, it became certain that Titanic would sink within hours. It was past midnight when ship’s officers sent distress signals to other vessels nearby. The lifeboats were lowered and filled with passengers as quickly as possible.
Despite this dire situation, most of the lifeboats were not filled to capacity. In a lifeboat built for 65 people, only 28 were seen boarding some of the boats. Thus, although Titanic’s lifeboats could have saved 1,178 people, only 706 ultimately survived. 1,517 passengers and crew perished at sea that night, either drowning or dying of hypothermia in the 28° Fahrenheit waters (- 2.2° Celsius). At approximately 2:20 am on Monday April 15, 1912, less than three hours after the collision, the great Titanic broke into two separate parts and sank to the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean, where she remains to this day.
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