RMS Titanic

The **RMS Titanic** was a British passenger liner operated by the White Star Line (WSL) company, which sank in the Atlantic Ocean after striking an iceberg on April 14, 1912. Out of the 2,224 people on board. 1,500 people perished and there were only 706 survivors of the disaster. Titanic sank on her first maiden voyage which was from Southampton, United Kingdom to NYC, New York. This is one of the worst maritime disaster ever.

RMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat at the time she entered service and the second of three *Olympic*-class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line. She was built by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. Thomas Andrews, the chief naval architect of the shipyard, died in the disaster. Titanic was under the command of Captain Edward Smith, who went down with the ship. The ocean liner carried some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland, Scandinavia, and elsewhere throughout Europe, who were seeking a new life in the United States and Canada.

## Construction

The name *Titanic* derives from the Titans of Greek mythology. Built in Belfast, Ireland, in what was then the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, RMS *Titanic* was the second of the three Olympic-class ocean liners—the first was RMS Olympic and the third was HMHS Britannic. Britannic was originally to be called Gigantic and was to be over 1,000 feet (300 m) long. They were by far the largest vessels of the British shipping company White Star Line's fleet, which comprised 29 steamers and tenders in 1912. The three ships had their genesis in a discussion in mid-1907 between the White Star Line's chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, and the American financier J. P. Morgan, who controlled the White Star Line's parent corporation, the International Mercantile Marine Co. (IMM).

The White Star Line faced an increasing challenge from its main rivals, Cunard—which had recently launched Lusitania and Mauretania, the fastest passenger ships then in service—and the German lines Hamburg America and Norddeutscher Lloyd. Ismay preferred to compete on size rather than speed, and proposed to commission a new class of liners that would be larger than anything that had gone before, as well as being the last word in comfort and luxury. The White Star Line sought an upgrade of its fleet primarily in order to respond to the introduction of the Cunard giants, but also to considerably strengthen its position on the Southampton–Cherbourg–New York service that had been inaugurated in 1907. The new ships would have sufficient speed to maintain a weekly service with only three ships instead of the original four. Thus, the Olympic and Titanic would replace RMS Teutonic of 1889, RMS *Majestic* of 1890 as well as RMS Adriatic of 1907. RMS Oceanic would remain on the route until the third new ship could be delivered. *Majestic* would be brought back into her old spot on White Star Line's New York service after Titanic's loss.

The ships were constructed by the Belfast shipbuilder Harland and Wolff, which had a long-established relationship with the White Star Line dating back to 1867. Harland and Wolff was given a great deal of latitude in designing ships for the White Star Line; the usual approach was for the latter to sketch out a general concept which the former would take away and turn into a ship design. Cost considerations were a relatively low priority; Harland and Wolff was authorised to spend what it needed on the ships, plus a five percent profit margin. In the case of the Olympic-class ships, a cost of £3 million (approximately £310 million in 2019) for the first two ships was agreed plus "extras to contract" and the usual five percent fee.

Harland and Wolff put their leading designers to work designing the Olympic-class vessels. The design was overseen by Lord Pirrie, a director of both Harland and Wolff and the White Star Line; naval architect Thomas Andrews, the managing director of Harland and Wolff's design department; Edward Wilding, Andrews' deputy and responsible for calculating the ship's design, stability and trim; and Alexander Carlisle, the shipyard's chief draughtsman and general manager. Carlisle's responsibilities included the decorations, equipment and all general arrangements, including the implementation of an efficient lifeboat davit design.

On 29 July 1908, Harland and Wolff presented the drawings to J. Bruce Ismay and other White Star Line executives. Ismay approved the design and signed three "letters of agreement" two days later, authorizing the start of construction. At this point the first ship—which was later to become Olympic—had no name but was referred to simply as "Number 400", as it was Harland and Wolff's four-hundredth hull. Titanic was based on a revised version of the same design and was given the number 401.

Olympic and Titanic were next to each other during construction. Later, the Britannic was also constructed.

## Service

On April 2, 1912, Titanic left Belfast bound for Southampton on its testing voyage.

Both Olympic and Titanic registered Liverpool as their home port. The offices of the White Star Line, as well as Cunard, were in Liverpool, and up until the introduction of the Olympic, most British ocean liners for both Cunard and White Star, such as Lusitania and Mauretania, sailed from Liverpool followed by a port of call in Queenstown, Ireland. Since the company's founding in 1845, a vast majority of their operations had taken place from Liverpool. However, in 1907 White Star Line established another service from Southampton on England's south coast, which became known as White Star's "Express Service". Southampton had many advantages over Liverpool, the first being its proximity to London.

In addition, Southampton, being on the south coast, allowed ships to easily cross the English Channel and make a port of call on the northern coast of France, usually at Cherbourg. This allowed British ships to pick up clientele from continental Europe before recrossing the channel and picking up passengers at Queenstown. The Southampton-Cherbourg-New York run would become so popular that most British ocean liners began using the port after World War I. Out of respect for Liverpool, ships continued to be registered there until the early 1960s. Queen Elizabeth 2 was one of the first ships registered in Southampton when introduced into service by Cunard in 1969.

*Titanic*'s maiden voyage was intended to be the first of many trans-Atlantic crossings between Southampton and New York via Cherbourg and Queenstown on westbound runs, returning via Plymouth in England while eastbound. Indeed, her entire schedule of voyages through to December 1912 still exists. When the route was established, four ships were assigned to the service. In addition to Teutonic and Majestic, RMS *Oceanic* and the brand new RMS Adriatic sailed the route. When the Olympic entered service in June 1911, she replaced Teutonic, which after completing her last run on the service in late April was transferred to the Dominion Line's Canadian service. The following August, Adriatic was transferred to White Star Line's main Liverpool-New York service, and in November, Majestic was withdrawn from service impending the arrival of Titanic in the coming months, and was mothballed as a reserve ship.

White Star Line's initial plans for Olympic and Titanic on the Southampton run followed the same routine as their predecessors had done before them. Each would sail once every three weeks from Southampton and New York, usually leaving at noon each Wednesday from Southampton and each Saturday from New York, thus enabling the White Star Line to offer weekly sailings in each direction. Special trains were scheduled from London and Paris to convey passengers to Southampton and Cherbourg respectively. The deep-water dock at Southampton, then known as the "White Star Dock", had been specially constructed to accommodate the new Olympic-class liners, and had opened in 1911.

When Titanic departed Southampton on its first voyage. The ship SS City of New York broke from its berth and almost collided with the Titanic. Captain Smith slowed down the ship and steered gently so the ships don't collide.

Titanic proceeded without hitting the ship.

## Sinking

On April 14, 1912, Titanic was sailing through the Atlantic Ocean, when at 11:40 PM, the ship struck an iceberg on its starboard side breaking open 5 out of the 16 compartments. The ship could only star afloat with 4 compartments flooded. Watertight doors were closed later. Captain Edward Smith commanded the crew to setup life vests and lifeboats. A lifeboat rule where "Women and Children" can only board the lifeboats.

Those aboard Titanic were ill-prepared for such an emergency. In accordance with accepted practices of the time, as ships were seen as largely unsinkable and lifeboats were intended to transfer passengers to nearby rescue vessels, Titanic only had enough lifeboats to carry about half of those on board; if the ship had carried her full complement of about 3,339 passengers and crew, only about a third could have been accommodated in the lifeboats. The crew had not been trained adequately in carrying out an evacuation. The officers did not know how many they could safely put aboard the lifeboats and launched many of them barely half-full. Third-class passengers were largely left to fend for themselves, causing many of them to become trapped below decks as the ship filled with water. The "women and children first" protocol was generally followed when loading the lifeboats, and most of the male passengers and crew were left aboard. In 2022, Claes-Gõran Wetterholm, an author and expert on Titanic, argued it was "not true" that women and children survived thanks to the gallantry of men; of the last survivors escaping on the final lifeboats leaving the starboard side of the ship, he said, the majority were men. However, women and children survived at rates of about 75 percent and 50 percent, respectively, while only 20 percent of men survived.

Between 2:10 and 2:15 am, a little over two and a half hours after Titanic struck the iceberg, her rate of sinking suddenly increased as the boat deck dipped underwater, and the sea poured in through open hatches and grates. As her unsupported stern rose out of the water, exposing the propellers, the ship broke in two main pieces between the second and third funnels, due to the immense forces on the keel. With the bow underwater, and air trapped in the stern, the stern remained afloat and buoyant for a few minutes longer, rising to a nearly vertical angle with hundreds of people still clinging to it, before foundering at 2:20 am. It was long generally believed the ship sank in one piece; but the discovery of the wreck many years later revealed that the ship had broken fully in two. All remaining passengers and crew were immersed in lethally cold water with a temperature of −2 °C (28 °F). Sudden immersion into freezing water typically causes death within minutes, either from cardiac arrest, uncontrollable breathing of water, or cold incapacitation (not, as commonly believed, from hypothermia), and almost all of those in the water died of cardiac arrest or other bodily reactions to freezing water, within 15–30 minutes. Only five of them were helped into the lifeboats, though the lifeboats had room for almost 500 more people.

Distress signals were sent by wireless, rockets, and lamp, but none of the ships that responded were near enough to reach Titanic before she sank. A radio operator on board SS Birma, for instance, estimated that it would be 6 am before the liner could arrive at the scene. Meanwhile, SS Californian, which was the last to have been in contact before the collision, saw Titanic's flares but failed to assist. Around 4 am, RMS Carpathia arrived on the scene in response to Titanic's earlier distress calls.

706 people survived the disaster and were conveyed by *Carpathia* to New York, Titanic's original destination, and 1,517 people died. Carpathia's captain described the place as an ice field that had included 20 large bergs measuring up to 200 feet (61 m) high and numerous smaller bergs, as well as ice floes and debris from Titanic; passengers described being in the middle of a vast white plain of ice, studded with icebergs. This area is now known as Iceberg Alley.

## Aftermath

The ship RMS Carpathia took three days to reach New York after leaving the scene of the disaster. Her journey was slowed by pack ice, fog, thunderstorms and rough seas. She was, however, able to pass news to the outside world by wireless about what had happened. The initial reports were confusing, leading the American press to report erroneously on 15 April that Titanic was being towed to port by SS Virginian. Later that day, confirmation came through that Titanic had been lost and that most of her passengers and crew had died. The news attracted crowds of people to the White Star Line's offices in London, New York, Montreal, Southampton, Liverpool and Belfast. It hit hardest in Southampton, whose people suffered the greatest losses from the sinking; four out of every five crew members came from this town.

Carpathia docked at 9:30 pm on 18 April 1912 at New York's Pier 54 and was greeted by some 40,000 people waiting at the quayside in heavy rain. Immediate relief in the form of clothing and transportation to shelters was provided by the Women's Relief Committee, the Travelers Aid Society of New York, and the Council of Jewish Women, among other organizations. Many of Titanic's surviving passengers did not linger in New York but headed onwards immediately to relatives' homes. Some of the wealthier survivors chartered private trains to take them home, and the Pennsylvania Railroad laid on a special train free of charge to take survivors to Philadelphia. Titanic's 214 surviving crew members were taken to the Red Star Line's steamer SS Lapland, where they were accommodated in passenger cabins.

Carpathia was hurriedly restocked with food and provisions before resuming her journey to Fiume, Austria-Hungary. Her crew were given a bonus of a month's wages by Cunard as a reward for their actions, and some of Titanic's passengers joined to give them an additional bonus of nearly £900 (£95,000 today), divided among the crew members.

The ship's arrival in New York led to a frenzy of press interest, with newspapers competing to be the first to report the survivors' stories. Some reporters bribed their way aboard the pilot boat New York, which guided Carpathia into harbor, and one even managed to get onto Carpathia before she docked. Crowds gathered outside newspaper offices to see the latest reports being posted in the windows or on billboards. It took another four days for a complete list of casualties to be compiled and released, adding to the agony of relatives waiting for news of those who had been aboard Titanic.

RMS Olympic later brought back some of Titanic's lifeboats, some lifeboats of the Titanic went missing.

Later the CS Mackay Bennett went to search for the dead on April 21, 1912. The ship recovered 306 bodies at the accident spot. One of the victims was identified as a Third-Class Passenger who is known to be Sidney Goodwin. CS Mackay Bennett also got a few luggage and debris from the wreckage.

The last living normal survivor of the RMS Titanic was Millvina Dean. The last living time traveler survivor of the RMS Titanic is Sanjeev Pinjala who leaves behind a Titanic Mystery.

## Wreck

The Wreck of the Titanic was discovered on September 1, 1985 by Robert Ballard a retired navy officer. The wreck is located in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 400 miles from Newfounland, Canada. The Titanic is at a depth of 12,500 ft. Salvage operations costed around millions of dollars to raise the wreckage even to this day. The wreck became a great habitat for sea animals which made the Titanic their home. One of the ship's bells were recovered and placed in the Titanic Museum.