Where would you like to see Wikimedia in five years Submit a proposal Learn more  Hide Help us with translations    RMS Titanic From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia   Redirected from RMS Titanic Jump to navigation search Titanic redirects here For other uses see Titanic disambiguation  RMS Titanic before departing Southampton England Photo taken Good Friday  April   Career   Name RMS Titanic  Owner  White Star Line  Port of registry  Liverpool  Route Southampton to New York City  Ordered July    Builder Harland and Wolff yards in Belfast Ireland  Yard number   Laid down  March   Launched  May   Christened Not christened  Completed  March   Maiden voyage  April   Identification Radio Callsign MGY UK Official Number   Fate Sank on  April  after hitting an iceberg  General characteristics  Class and type Olympicclass ocean liner  Tonnage  gross register tons GRT  Displacement  tons  Length  ft  in  m  Beam  ft  in  m  Height  ft  m Keel to top of funnels  Draught  ft  in  m  Depth  ft  in  m  Decks  Lettered A through G with boilers below  Installed power  doubleended six furnace and  singleended three furnace Scotch marine boilers  Two fourcylinder reciprocating tripleexpansion steam engines each producing  hp for the two outboard wing propellers at  revolutions per minute  One lowpressure turbine producing  hp   HP design   HP maximum    Propulsion Two bronze tripleblade wing propellers  One bronze quadrupleblade centre propeller    Speed  knots  kmh  mph   knots  kmh  mph maximum    Capacity Passengers and crew fully loaded    Staterooms  total  First Class   Second Class   Third Class   plus  open berthing areas    Topics about Titanic  List of passengers List of crew members Films about the Titanic Titanic Historical Society   The RMS Titanic was an Olympicclass passenger liner owned by British shipping company White Star Line and built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast United Kingdom For her time she was the largest passenger steamship in the world  On the night of  April  during the ships maiden voyage Titanic hit an iceberg and sank two hours and forty minutes later early on  April  The sinking resulted in the deaths of  people making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history The high casualty rate was due in part to the fact that although complying with the regulations of the time the ship did not carry enough lifeboats for everyone aboard The ship had a total lifeboat capacity of  people although her capacity was  A disproportionate number of men died due to the womenandchildrenfirst protocol that was followed  The Titanic used some of the most advanced technology available at the time and was popularly believed to have been described as unsinkable It was a great shock to many that despite the extensive safety features and experienced crew the Titanic sank The frenzy on the part of the media about Titanics famous victims the legends about the sinking the resulting changes to maritime law and the discovery of the wreck have contributed to the continuing interest in and notoriety of the Titanic  Contents hide  Construction   Features   Lifeboats   Comparisons with the Olympic   Ship history   Sea trials   Maiden voyage   Sinking   Lifeboats launched   Final minutes   Aftermath   Arrival of Carpathia in New York   Survivors victims and statistics   Retrieval and burial of the dead   Memorials   Investigations into the RMS Titanic disaster   SS Californian inquiry   Rediscovery of the Titanic   Current condition of the wreck   Ownership and litigation   Possible factors in the sinking   Construction   Rudder construction and turning ability   Orientation of impact   Adverse weather conditions   Excessive speed   Insufficient lifeboats   Alternative theories   Legends and myths regarding the RMS Titanic   Unsinkable   David Sarnoff wireless reports and the use of SOS   Titanics band   The Predictions of WT Stead   The Titanic curse   See also   References   Explanatory notes   Notes   Bibliography   External links      Construction   The firstclass Grand Staircase aboard the Titanic  The nd class Aft Staircase aboard the TitanicThe Titanic was a White Star Line ocean liner built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast and designed to compete with the rival Cunard Lines Lusitania and Mauretania The Titanic along with her Olympicclass sisters the Olympic and the soontobebuilt Britannic which was to be called Gigantic at first were intended to be the largest most luxurious ships ever to operate The designers were Lord William Pirrie a director of both Harland and Wolff and White Star naval architect Thomas Andrews Harland and Wolffs construction manager and head of their design department and Alexander Carlisle the shipyards chief draughtsman and general manager Carlisles role in this project was the design of the superstructure of these ships particularly the superstructures streamlined joining to the hullscitation needed as well as the implementation of an efficient lifeboat davit design Carlisle would leave the project in  before the ships were launched when he became a shareholder in Welin Davit  Engineering Company Ltd the firm making the davits  Construction of RMS Titanic funded by the American JP Morgan and his International Mercantile Marine Co began on  March  Titanics hull was launched on  May  and her outfitting was completed by  March the following year She was  feet  inches  m long and  feet  inches  m wide with a gross register tonnage of  long tons and a height from the water line to the boat deck of  feet  m She was equipped with two reciprocating fourcylinder tripleexpansion inverted steam engines and one lowpressure Parsons turbine which powered three propellers There were  boilers fired by  coal burning furnaces that made possible a top speed of  knots  kmh  mph Only three of the four  feet  m funnels were functional the fourth which served only for ventilation purposes was added to make the ship look more impressive The ship could carry a total of  passengers and crew   Features   Gymnasium aboard the TitanicIn her time Titanic surpassed all rivals in luxury and opulence She offered an onboard swimming pool a gymnasium a squash court a Turkish bath a Verandah Cafe and libraries in both the first and second class  Firstclass common rooms were adorned with ornate wood panelling expensive furniture and other decorations The third class general room had pine paneling and sturdy teak furniture There were also barber shops in both the first and second class In addition the Caf Parisien offered cuisine for the firstclass passengers with a sunlit veranda fitted with trellis decorations The ship incorporated technologically advanced features for the period She had  electric elevators in first class and  in second class She had also an extensive electrical subsystem with steampowered generators and shipwide wiring feeding electric lights two Marconi radios including a powerful watt set manned by two operators working in shifts allowing constant contact and the transmission of many passenger messages Firstclass passengers paid a hefty fee for such amenities The most expensive oneway transAtlantic passage was  which is more than  in todays currency    Lifeboats For its maiden voyage Titanic carried a total of  lifeboats of three different varieties  Lifeboats  and   emergency wooden cutters  long by  wide by  deep capacity  cubic feet or  persons  Lifeboats  to   wooden lifeboats  long by  wide by  deep capacity  cubic feet or  persons  Lifeboats A B C and D  Englehardt collapsible lifeboats  long by  wide by  deep capacity  cubic feet or  persons  Total capacity of  persons  The lifeboats were predominantly stowed in chocks on the boat deck not connected to the falls of the davits Those on the starboard side were numbered        and  from the bow while those on the port side were numbered       and  from the bow The emergency cutters lifeboats  and  were kept swung out hanging from the davits ready for immediate use while collapsible lifeboats C and D were stowed on the boat deck immediately inboard of boats  and  respectively Collapsible lifeboats A and B were however kept on the roof of the officers quarters on either side of number  funnel During the sinking this proved to make these boats difficult to launch as it was first necessary to