THE TITANIC
Titanic Ship
Design and Engineering
The Titanic designed and constructed at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
She was 882 feet 9 inches in length and 92 feet in breadth. Her gross tonnage was 46,328 tons. Three propellers were driven by two four-cylinder, triple-expansion, inverted reciprocating steam engines and one low-pressure Parsons turbine. Steam was provided by 25 double-ended and 4 single-ended Scotch-type boilers fired by 159 coal burning furnaces that gave her a theoretical top speed of 23 knots.
Construction
Titanic was built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, UK, and designed to compete with the rival Cunard Line's Lusitania and Mauretania. Titanic, along with her Olympic-class sisters, Olympic and the soon-to-be-built Britannic (originally named Gigantic), were intended to be the largest, most luxurious ships ever to sail. The designers were Lord Pirrie, a director of both Harland and Wolff and White Star, naval architect Thomas Andrews, Harland and Wolff's construction manager and head of their design department, and the Right Honourable 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. Carlisle would leave the project in 1910, before the ships were launched, when he became a shareholder in Welin Davit & Engineering Company Ltd, the firm making the davits.
Size comparison with the Airbus A380, a bus, a car, and an average-sized human
Construction of RMS Titanic, funded by the American J.P. Morgan and his International Mercantile Marine Co., began on 31 March 1909.[18] Titanic's hull was launched at 12:13 on 31 May 1911, and her outfitting was completed by 31 March the following year. Her length overall was 882 feet 9 inches (269.1 m), the moulded breadth 92 feet 0 inches (28.0 m), the tonnage 46,328 GRT, and the height, from the water line to the boat deck, 59 feet (18 m). She was equipped with two reciprocating four-cylinder, triple-expansion steam engines and one low-pressure Parsons turbine, each driving a propeller. There were 29 boilers fired by 159 coal burning furnaces that made possible a top speed of 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph). Only three of the four 62 foot (19 m) funnels were functional: the fourth, which only provided ventilation, was added to make the ship look more impressive. The ship could carry a total of 3,547 passengers and crew.
Of the two steam-powered steering engines installed, one was kept in use and one kept in reserve; the engines could be slid away and disengaged when not required. A quarter-circle rack-and-pinion drive was connected to the short tiller through stiff springs, to isolate the engines from any shocks in heavy seas or during fast changes of direction. As a last resort, the tiller could be moved by ropes connected to two steam capstans
Features
The Titanic's design and construction featured luxury and opulence. The First-class section had a swimming pool, a gymnasium, squash court, Turkish bath, Electric bath and a Verandah Cafe. First-class common rooms were adorned with ornate wood panelling, expensive furniture and other decorations. In addition, the Café Parisien offered cuisine for the first-class passengers, with a sunlit veranda fitted with trellis decorations. There were libraries and barber shops in both the first and second-class, while the third class general room had pine panelling and sturdy teak furniture. The ship incorporated technologically advanced features for the period, including three electric elevators in first class and one in second class. She also had an extensive electrical system powered by steam-driven generators and ship-wide wiring for electric lights and two Marconi radios. One 5,000-watt set was manned by two operators working in shifts sending and receiving passenger messages, keeping the ship in constant contact with the outside world. First-class passengers paid a hefty fee for such amenities; the most expensive one-way trans-Atlantic passage was £875[citation needed](equivalent to £64,204 as of 2011), or $4,375 ($99,237 as of 2011).
Ship history
Sea trials
Titanic's sea trials took place shortly after she was fitted out at Harland & Wolff shipyard. The trials were originally scheduled for 10.00 am on Monday, 1 April, just nine days before she was due to leave Southampton on her maiden voyage, but poor weather conditions forced the trials to be postponed until the following day.
Aboard Titanic were 78 stokers, greasers and firemen, and 41 members of crew. No domestic staff appear to have been aboard. Representatives of various companies travelled on Titanic's sea trials, including Harold A. Sanderson of I.M.M and Thomas Andrews and Edward Wilding of Harland and Wolff. Bruce Ismay and Lord Pirrie were too ill to attend. Jack Phillips and Harold Bride served as radio operators, and performed fine-tuning of the Marconi equipment. Mr Carruthers, a surveyor from the Board of Trade, was also present to see that everything worked, and that the ship was fit to carry passengers. After the trial, he signed an 'Agreement and Account of Voyages and Crew', valid for twelve months, which deemed the ship sea-worthy.
Maiden voyage
The vessel began her maiden voyage from Southampton, bound for New York City on 10 April 1912, with Captain Edward J. Smith in command. As Titanic left her berth, her wake caused the liner SS New York, which was docked nearby, to break away from her moorings, whereupon she was drawn dangerously close (about four feet) to Titanic before a tugboat towed New York away. The incident delayed departure for about half an hour. After crossing the English Channel, Titanic stopped at Cherbourg, France, to board additional passengers and stopped again the next day at Queenstown (known today as Cobh), Ireland. As harbour facilities at Queenstown were inadequate for a ship of her size, Titanic had to anchor off-shore, with small boats, known as tenders, ferrying the embarking passengers out to her. When she finally set out for New York, there were 2,240 people aboard.
John Coffey, a 23-year-old stoker, jumped ship at Queenstown by stowing away on a tender and hiding amongst mailbags destined for the shore. A native of the town, he had probably joined the ship with this intention, but afterwards he said that the reason he had smuggled himself off the liner was that he held a foreboding about the voyage. He later signed on to join the crew of Mauretania.
On the maiden voyage of Titanic some of the most prominent people of the day were travelling in first class. Among them were millionaire John Jacob Astor IV and his wife Madeleine Force Astor, industrialist Benjamin Guggenheim, Macy's owner Isidor Straus and his wife Ida, Denver millionairess Margaret "Molly" Brown (known afterward as the "Unsinkable Molly Brown" due to her efforts in helping other passengers while the ship sank), Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon and his wife, couturière Lucy (Lady Duff-Gordon), George Dunton Widener, his wife Eleanor, and son Harry, cricketer and businessman John Borland Thayer with his wife Marian and their seventeen-year-old son Jack, journalist William Thomas Stead, the Countess of Rothes, United States presidential aide Archibald Butt, author and socialite Helen Churchill Candee, author Jacques Futrelle and his wife May and their friends, Broadway producers Henry and Rene Harris and silent film actress Dorothy Gibson among others. Banker J. P. Morgan was scheduled to travel on the maiden voyage, but cancelled at the last minute. Travelling in first class aboard the ship were White Star Line's managing director J. Bruce Ismay and the ship's builder Thomas Andrews, who was on board to observe any problems and assess the general performance of the new ship.
Alternative theories
A number of alternative theories diverging from the standard explanation for Titanic's demise have been brought forth since shortly after the sinking. Some of these include a coal fire aboard ship, or Titanic hitting pack ice rather than an iceberg. In the realm of the supernatural, it has been proposed that Titanic sank due to a mummy's curse.
Insufficient lifeboats
No single aspect regarding the huge loss of life from Titanic has provoked more outrage than the fact that the ship did not carry enough lifeboats for all her passengers and crew. The most recent law, dating from 1894, required a minimum of 16 lifeboats for ships of over 10,000 tons. This law had been established when the largest ship afloat was the 12,950-ton RMS Lucania. Since then, the size of ships had increased rapidly without a corresponding increase in lifeboat requirements, with a result that the 46,328-ton Titanic was legally required to carry only enough lifeboats for less than half of her capacity. The White Star Line actually exceeded the regulations by including four more collapsible lifeboats, providing a total capacity of 1,178 people (still only around a third of Titanic's total capacity of 3,547).
In the event of a serious accident in the busy North Atlantic sea lanes, assistance from other vessels was assumed to be close at hand. In this case, the lifeboats would be used to ferry passengers and crew from the stricken vessel to its rescuers. Full provision of lifeboats on the ship was considered unnecessary to support this activity.
During design of the ship, it was anticipated that the British Board of Trade might require an increase in the number of lifeboats at some future date. Therefore, lifeboat davits capable of handling up to four boats per pair of davits were designed and installed, to give a total potential capacity of 64 boats. The additional boats were never fitted. It is often alleged that J. Bruce Ismay, the President of White Star, vetoed the installation of these additional boats to maximise the passenger promenade area on the boat deck. Harold Sanderson, Vice President of International Mercantile Marine, rejected this allegation during the British Inquiry.
The delay in launching lifeboats was also a factor. After the collision with the iceberg, one hour was taken to evaluate the damage, recognise what was going to happen, inform first class passengers, and lower the first lifeboat. Afterward, the crew worked efficiently, taking a total of 80 minutes to lower all 16 lifeboats. Since the crew were divided into two teams, one on each side of the ship, an average of 10 minutes of work was necessary for a team to fill a lifeboat with passengers and lower it.
The initial reluctance of the passengers to board the lifeboats contributed to the death toll. For example, Lifeboat #7 launched first, at 12:45 am and with only 28 people aboard, despite its capacity of 65. Titanic did not initially appear to passengers to be in imminent danger, so they were reluctant to leave the apparent safety of the ship. The idea that the ship was unsinkable is not likely to have contributed to the low utilisation of the early life boats.
Unsinkable
Contrary to popular mythology, Titanic was never described as "unsinkable", without qualification, until after she sank. There are three trade publications (one of which was probably never published) that describe Titanic as practically unsinkable, prior to her sinking, but there is no evidence that the notion of Titanic's unsinkability had entered public consciousness until after the sinking. Harland and Wolff did not claim she was actually unsinkable, but a promotional item from the White Star Line stressed the safety of Olympic and Titanic, claiming that "as far as it is possible to do so, these two wonderful vessels are designed to be unsinkable" .
The trade journal The Shipbuilder and Marine Engine Builder described in their June 1911 Special Number devoted to Olympic and Titanic that "The captain may, by simply moving an electric switch, instantly close the watertight doors throughout, making the vessel virtually unsinkable." In fact the vessel was designed to comply with Grade 1 subdivision proposed by the 1891 Bulkhead Committee, meaning that it could stay afloat with any two adjoining out of its 16 main compartments open to the sea. The height of the bulkhead deck above the water line in flooded condition was well above the requirements and the vessel indeed would have been able to float with three adjoining compartments flooded in 11 of 14 possible combinations.
The first unqualified assertion of Titanic's unsinkability appears in the The New York Times on 16 April 1912, a day after the tragedy. Philip A. S. Franklin, vice president of the International Mercantile Marine Company (White Star Line's holding company) stated after being told of the sinking "I thought her unsinkable, and I based my opinion on the best expert advice available. I do not understand it." This comment was seized upon by the press and the idea that the White Star Line had previously declared Titanic to be unsinkable (without qualification) gained immediate and widespread currency.
Titanic Launch
Titanic was launched at Harland & Wolff’s yard at Queen’s Island, Belfast Lough on May 31, 1911. The ship then sailed from Southampton on April 10th, 1912, but called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland to take on more passengers. She then began her maiden voyage proper across the Atlantic towards New York.
Titanic was launched at Harland & Wolff’s yard at Queen’s Island, Belfast Lough on May 31, 1911 in the presence of thousands of ticket-holding spectators and more than a hundred representatives of the press. It was a spectacular occasion, not just because one of the two largest vessels in the world was taking to the water, but because the great and good were in attendance.
Building the Titanic
In the early 1900’s there was fierce competition between transatlantic shipping companies for the lucrative business of passenger’s transportation.
The two big players were the Liverpool based White Star Line and Cunard.
Cunard had already set the bar in terms of speed with liners like Mauretania and Lusitania. They were setting speed records for the Southampton to New York crossing. White Star decided to fight back, not in terms of speed, but by building liners of the highest standards of luxury and bigger than anything on the seas. In this way, they could take more fare paying passengers per run and could charge top dollar for the large suites designed to take families and staff.
Competition at Sea
There is a certain irony in the fact that these two fierce competitors, White Star and Cunard, ended up merging together to form one company in the economic downturn of the 1930’s. The transatlantic route was an extremely lucrative one so it was important to White Star to have the lion’s share of the business. The technical innovations of the time in terms of engine design, vision and construction technique meant that shipbuilding could take giant leaps forward from the old timber and iron ships which had previously carried passengers. The Victorian industrial revolution led to a greater demand for modernisation. Everything had to be bigger, faster, more efficient and better in order to compete in this new capitalist world. By the early 1900’s there was a hunger for new innovation, new inventions.
Vision
In stark contrast to the ship they were building, many of Titanic’s workers lived in homes with only basic facilities. While Titanic used electricity to power everything from lights to lifts, shipyard men lit their kitchen houses by candlelight and later with town gas. From this vision of progress and innovation, Olympic and Titanic were born.
Titanic Design
RMS Titanic was conceived one July evening in 1907 when Lord Pirrie, chairman of Harland & Wolff, shipbuilders, hosted in his London home J. Bruce Ismay, chairman of the white Star Line. They agreed that the world-famous Belfast shipyard would build for the White Star Line three “Olympic” class liners that Ismay hoped would secure and safeguard the transatlantic luxury passenger trade for his company. The ships were to be called Olympic, Titanic and, it was reported, Gigantic (renamed Britannic).
The Largest Ships in History
But the proposed ships, the largest in history, were as much the product of the great nineteenth-century Age of Machinery as of the imaginations of Pirrie and Ismay. The advanced technology of Titanic extended the striking sequence of technological inventions and discoveries during the preceding 25 years.
These included the combustion engine, powered flight, radio transmission, pneumatic tyres and celluloid film. Passenger liners themselves had been growing ever bigger, faster and better engineered as a small number of ship owning companies competed for the lucrative transatlantic business. The “leviathans” of the sea which Pirrie and Ismay envisaged were also a natural projection of engineering and shipbuilding prowess in Belfast generally and Harland & Wolff in particular.
Edward Harland
The first passenger steamer was built in Belfast in 1838, but the shipbuilding and engineering industries of the city received a boost when Edward (later Sir Edward) Harland, an engineer and ship designer of genius, arrived from England in 1854. Viscount Pirrie succeeded Harland in 1895 and under his chairmanship the shipyard grew until it was described as “the greatest business of the kind that has existed in the world since men first began to go down to the sea in ships”. Harland’s ships, with their graceful profiles, long hulls and narrow beams, had become known as “ocean greyhounds”, and Titanic and her sisters were meant to maintain this beauty of design.
Engineering
It was said at the time that out of all the crafts, shipbuilding is the one which demands the most science. Under Edward Harland’s leadership, Harland & Wolff applied the revolutionary idea that iron ships need not imitate the designs of wooden ships, and the company continued to apply this and other new design ideas to their vessels. The firm was a pioneer in the introduction of marine propulsion and perfected the reciprocating engine. The baton of Sir Edward Harland’s genius for applied science was passed to William James (later Lord) Pirrie, born in Quebec, Canada of Ulster stock.
William PirriePirrie joined Harland & Wolff as an apprentice at the age of fifteen and rose to become head draughtsman by 1869. Five years later he became a partner and soon was head of the entire concern. There were other designers and engineers of talent alongside Pirrie. Alexander Carlisle, Pirrie’s cousin and brother-in-law, joined the firm in 1870 and rose to become managing director and co-designer of Titanic.
Thomas Andrews
Thomas Andrews, who went down with Titanic was also a relative of Pirrie’s: his mother was Pirrie’s sister. Andrews was born in Comber, Co. Down and having joined Harland & Wolff, worked his way through all of its major departments and offices until he became Chief Designer during the time Titanic and her sisters were created, and was much admired by all the shipyard workers.
The Build
The keel of Olympic was laid just before Christmas 1908 and that of Titanic in late March, 1909. The sister ships sat side by side on the stocks and as they gradually took shape inside an enclosure of gantries, cranes and scaffolding, they rose towards the sky and dwarfed increasingly the thousands of men who worked to bring ships into being.
The Irish writer, Filson Young likened the scene to the construction of half-a-dozen cathedrals. There are well-known photographs that confirm Young’s impressions of the almost nightmarish scale of operations. It was necessary and efficient to build the ships quickly and by October 1910 Olympic was ready for launching. Titanic was ready for her launch in late May of 1911. Young was staggered that these machines – almost 300 yards (or 274 metres) in length, over 45,000 tons in weight, eleven-storey buildings in height - could become earth’s largest moving objects. It all required imagination, organisation, efficiency and willpower.
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