RMS Titanic

15th April 1912

This day in history...RMS Titanic sinks at 2:27am off Newfoundland as band plays on

The story of the Titanic is one of the most famous and tragic historical stories. Whilst it was simply a boat sinking; the size of the boat, the number of victims and the events that unfolded around the titanic make it such a memorable and devastating story. Most people know about the Titanic, whether they read about it, were told about it or watched the many documentaries and films produced on the subject. So today's blog won't go through the step-by-step events, instead we'll look at some interesting facts and images from the Titanic. 

Image retrieved from Google. Will remove at owner's request
RMS Titanic

The Ship:

• 2200 people on board, of which 900 were crew members
• The Titanic was designed to carry 64 lifeboats, but to save from cluttering the decks only 20 were carried on the voyage
• Most lifeboats were not filled to full capacity. Lifeboat 7 only carried 24, despite being able to carry 65; Lifeboat 1 carried only 7 crew and 5 passengers, although there was enough room for 40
• Most passengers had to share bathrooms and the third classes only had 2 bathtubs between 700 people - 1 for men, 1 for women
• The fourth funnel was just for show. The other three released steam from the boilers. It was designed this way to look more powerful and impressive
• It was a Royal Mail ship with 3,243 sacks of mail on board - none of which was recovered
• No drills were held on board before the disaster, despite one being scheduled 
• The wrong signalling was sent from the Titanic after some confusion. Instead of a 'distress' signal, the flare that was sent translated as 'We are having navigation problems. Please stand clear.'
• The Titanic even had its own newspaper; "The Atlantic Daily Bulletin" which informed people about news, advertisements, the dinner choices that day and stock prices

Image retrieved from Google. Will remove at owner's request.
Poster 1912

The Rich:

• The cost of the most expensive ticket (First Class Parlour) to New York was $4,350, which is $69,600 today
• The Titanic was stocked with around 20,000 bottles of beer and stout, 1,500 bottles of wine and 8,000 cigars for use of first-class passengers only
• The last dinner served included 11 courses 
• Every first-class passenger was given a song book with 352 songs. They could request any song to be played by the band, who had to know every song in the book
• 60% of the first-class passengers survived
• J. Bruce Ismay, owner of the Titanic, jumped into a lifeboat and was rowed away. He lived the remainder of his life in seclusion in Ireland
• John Jacob Astor IV, richest man on board, went down with the ship. Immediately after the ship hit the iceberg, Astor was reported to have said to a waiter "I asked for ice, but this is ridiculous.'
• Macy's department store partner Isidour Straus and his wife, Ida, both died together. Ida had reportedly had her foot on the edge of a lifeboat and was about to climb in. She however, returned to her husband to share the same fate

Image retrieved from Google.
Will remove at owner's request.
J. Bruce Ismay

Image retrieved from Google.
Will remove at owner's request
First-class parlour suite

The 'Others':

• Gates that separated the lower classes from the top classes remained locked even after the collision
• 42% of second-class passengers survived
• 25% of third-class passengers survived
• Third class passenger Rhoda Abbott jumped from the Titanic with her 2 sons. The boys both drowned but Rhoda survived - she was the only female survivor to be pulled from the water
• All 8 members of the band went down with the ship
• The Captain, E.J.Smith, went down with the ship, despite plans to retire after the voyage

Image retrieved from Google. Will remove at owner's request.
Captain E.J. Smith

Image retrieved from Google. Will remove at owner's request.
The band that played on

Aftermath:

• 1514 people died

Passenger category	Number aboard	Number saved	Number lost	Percentage saved	Percentage lost
Children, First Class	6	5	1	83.4%	16.6%
Children, Second Class	24	24	0	100%	0%
Children, Third Class	79	27	52	34%	66%
Women, First Class	144	140	4	97%	3%
Women, Second Class	93	80	13	86%	14%
Women, Third Class	165	76	89	46%	54%
Women, Crew	23	20	3	87%	13%
Men, First Class	175	57	118	33%	67%
Men, Second Class	168	14	154	8%	92%
Men, Third Class	462	75	387	16%	84%
Men, Crew	885	192	693	22%	78%
Total	2224	710	1514	32%	68%

• The British Newspaper The London Daily Mail reported "Titanic Sunk, No Lives Lost" in its initial April 16,1912, story
• The New York Times devoted 75 pages to cover the Titanic in the first week of the sinking
• The St. Louis Post-Dispatch suggested that the suffrage movement would end after the Titanic's sinking because they believed women would fear that suffrage would end the "women and children first" lifeboat rule
• The U.S Senate inquiry made it law that sufficient lifeboats were needed to accommodate all passengers on ships
• 23 films have been made about the Titanic (James Cameron's adaptation with Leonardo Dicaprio has made $1.84 billion worldwide so far)
• 20 TV films and documentaries have been made about the Titanic

Image retrieved from Google. Will remove at owner's request.
London Daily Mail initial story

Image retrieved from Google. Will remove at owner's request.
James Cameron's film Titanic

Things to consider:

• The Titanic's launch was delayed by six weeks. That delay put seasonal icebergs right in the Titanic's path
• At 11:40pm on the 14th April, Frederick Fleet was the first person to spot the iceberg. He described it as something "even darker than the darkness"
• The iceberg was 100 feet tall
• The lookout was not equipped with binoculars to see the iceberg in time to avoid collision
• The berg sliced through 6 of the Titanic's watertight compartments. If it had only gone through 4, the Titanic would have survived
• If the ship had hit the berg head on, Titanic probably would have survived as the bulkheads were so strong
• Some theories believe that the whole thing was an insurance scam and that Titanic's sister ship Olympic was the boat that sank

Image retrieved from Google. Will remove at owner's request.
Image depicting the scene

As you can see, a lot of events and factors surround the Titanic making it one of the most interesting, influencing and talked about subject for many years to come. Research and discovery is ongoing even today into the causes and effects of such a devastating time. If you are interested in finding out more, simply typing Titanic into Google will give you more than enough hits to satisfy your interests. What are your thoughts on the Titanic? Leave your comments below

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