The Great Titanic
A relatively unknown incident occurred when the Titanic was first pulling away from port. Some of the passenger’s to the Titanic were a bit unnerved, such as Renee Harris, the wife of a theatrical producer in New York. A complete stranger asked her, “Do you love life?” to which she answered, “Yes, I love it.” The stranger then told her, “That was a bad omen. Get off this ship at Cherbourg, if we get that far. That’s what I’m going to do” (Barczewski). When the Titanic sank in 1912, the world was shocked because the ship was deemed “unsinkable” even before it was put in the water. The Titanic may have been a majestic ship, but because of what the ship was made of, where the ship sank, and where and how the people were rescued, it was also a very dangerous one.
The builders of the Titanic, Harland & Wolff of Belfast, which was the largest shipyard at the time, had determined there were only three reasons why a ship would sink: first, it could run aground, second, it could run into an object, either a natural hazard or another ship, or third, another ship could run into it. They figured that if safety measures were provided for those reasons, most of the risk would be eliminated (Barczewski). To deal with the first threat, Harland & Wolff gave the ship a double bottom, meaning that its keel carried a second set of steel plates seven feet above the first. This way, if the keel scraped the bottom of the ocean, the ship would not be exposed to water. For the second and third risks, Harland & Wolff fitted the ship with fifteen bulkheads that divided the hull into sixteen watertight compartments. So if it ran into something that crushed its bow, it could float with the first four compartments flooded. And if something ran into it, then the ship could float with any two of the central compartments flooded (Barczewski). In order for the passengers and crew to get from one part of the ship to another, it was necessary to have some openings in the bulkheads. These openings were equipped with watertight doors that could easily be closed with a flip of a switch, or if the compartment flooded with more than six inches of water, it closed automatically with the help of a float mechanism (Barczewski). White Star Line, the company that hired Harland & Wolff to build the Titanic, suggested that they cut down on the number of lifeboats from forty-eight to twenty, in order to save money and clear up some of the clutter on board. This meant that the ship would only carry sufficient lifeboat space for about one-third of its 3,300-person carrying capacity, and it was still four lifeboats more than the law required (Heyer). Harland & Wolff’s managing director Alexander Carlisle is quoted as saying, “We spent two hours discussing the carpets for the first-class cabins and fifteen minutes discussing lifeboats,” in a meeting in which plans for the Titanic and its sister ship the Olympic were finalized (Barczewski). Harland & Wolff’s lack of concern for safety issues, such as lifeboats, contributed to the tragic deaths of the Titanic passengers.
Somewhere around Newfoundland was where the Titanic scraped by the famous iceberg, spotted by Sixth Officer James Moody. Moody relayed the message to First Officer William Murdoch, who ordered Quartermaster Robert Hitchens to “hard-a-starboard”, or put the ship’s wheel hard to the left. He also telegraphed the engine room to stop and then reverse the engines. At first, the ship kept going straight ahead, but at the last moment, it swung left leaving everyone bracing for a collision. It appeared the ship would clear, but there was a faint grinding sound from far below, and a slight tremor passed through the ship. Unsure if the ship had been damaged, Murdoch flipped the switch that closed the watertight doors separating its sixteen compartments. The ship’s carpenter, Jim Hutchinson, burst onto the bridge and announced, “She’s making water fast!” (Barczewski). The rescue ship Carpathia would show up about twelve hours after Titanic started to sink.
Many of the lifeboats only held a dozen or so passengers, when most could hold around thirty people. According to Howells, many men aboard the ship wanted to die like gentlemen, letting women and children go ahead of them onto the lifeboats. Admiral Lord Beresford described everyone’s behavior as “chivalrous” in a letter to the Times, and at the statue unveiling he particularly praised the “chivalrous conduct” of Captain Smith (Howells). In the end, 1,523 people were lost, 705 saved (Eaton). Most of the saved passengers were discovered a mile away from where the Titanic originally sank. It would only be a short 73 years later that the wreckage of the ship would be found, on September 1, 1985.
The sinking of the Titanic, as some would say the greatest ship a human mind could think of- is disheartening. To imagine that such a grand, impressive vessel could be brought down by frozen water is almost impossible to comprehend. And for a country just beginning to industrialize to create such a magnificent structure is mind blowing. By all accounts, the greatest ship to have ever been built by mankind and destroyed by nature is extraordinary.
The builders of the Titanic, Harland & Wolff of Belfast, which was the largest shipyard at the time, had determined there were only three reasons why a ship would sink: first, it could run aground, second, it could run into an object, either a natural hazard or another ship, or third, another ship could run into it. They figured that if safety measures were provided for those reasons, most of the risk would be eliminated (Barczewski). To deal with the first threat, Harland & Wolff gave the ship a double bottom, meaning that its keel carried a second set of steel plates seven feet above the first. This way, if the keel scraped the bottom of the ocean, the ship would not be exposed to water. For the second and third risks, Harland & Wolff fitted the ship with fifteen bulkheads that divided the hull into sixteen watertight compartments. So if it ran into something that crushed its bow, it could float with the first four compartments flooded. And if something ran into it, then the ship could float with any two of the central compartments flooded (Barczewski). In order for the passengers and crew to get from one part of the ship to another, it was necessary to have some openings in the bulkheads. These openings were equipped with watertight doors that could easily be closed with a flip of a switch, or if the compartment flooded with more than six inches of water, it closed automatically with the help of a float mechanism (Barczewski). White Star Line, the company that hired Harland & Wolff to build the Titanic, suggested that they cut down on the number of lifeboats from forty-eight to twenty, in order to save money and clear up some of the clutter on board. This meant that the ship would only carry sufficient lifeboat space for about one-third of its 3,300-person carrying capacity, and it was still four lifeboats more than the law required (Heyer). Harland & Wolff’s managing director Alexander Carlisle is quoted as saying, “We spent two hours discussing the carpets for the first-class cabins and fifteen minutes discussing lifeboats,” in a meeting in which plans for the Titanic and its sister ship the Olympic were finalized (Barczewski). Harland & Wolff’s lack of concern for safety issues, such as lifeboats, contributed to the tragic deaths of the Titanic passengers.
Somewhere around Newfoundland was where the Titanic scraped by the famous iceberg, spotted by Sixth Officer James Moody. Moody relayed the message to First Officer William Murdoch, who ordered Quartermaster Robert Hitchens to “hard-a-starboard”, or put the ship’s wheel hard to the left. He also telegraphed the engine room to stop and then reverse the engines. At first, the ship kept going straight ahead, but at the last moment, it swung left leaving everyone bracing for a collision. It appeared the ship would clear, but there was a faint grinding sound from far below, and a slight tremor passed through the ship. Unsure if the ship had been damaged, Murdoch flipped the switch that closed the watertight doors separating its sixteen compartments. The ship’s carpenter, Jim Hutchinson, burst onto the bridge and announced, “She’s making water fast!” (Barczewski). The rescue ship Carpathia would show up about twelve hours after Titanic started to sink.
Many of the lifeboats only held a dozen or so passengers, when most could hold around thirty people. According to Howells, many men aboard the ship wanted to die like gentlemen, letting women and children go ahead of them onto the lifeboats. Admiral Lord Beresford described everyone’s behavior as “chivalrous” in a letter to the Times, and at the statue unveiling he particularly praised the “chivalrous conduct” of Captain Smith (Howells). In the end, 1,523 people were lost, 705 saved (Eaton). Most of the saved passengers were discovered a mile away from where the Titanic originally sank. It would only be a short 73 years later that the wreckage of the ship would be found, on September 1, 1985.
The sinking of the Titanic, as some would say the greatest ship a human mind could think of- is disheartening. To imagine that such a grand, impressive vessel could be brought down by frozen water is almost impossible to comprehend. And for a country just beginning to industrialize to create such a magnificent structure is mind blowing. By all accounts, the greatest ship to have ever been built by mankind and destroyed by nature is extraordinary.
