TITANIC FACTS

The RMS Titanic was a British registered four funnelled ocean liner built for the transatlantic passenger and mail service between Southampton and New York.

Constructed at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland Titanic was, on her maiden voyage, the largest vessel afloat.

On April 10th 1912 the Titanic sailed from Southampton with 2,200 passengers and crew, four days later the Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank. 1500 people died and 700 survived. This website attempts to tell their story and that of the great ship with which their fate would be inextricably linked.

Construction and Build Facts

1.Construction of Titanic began on 31st March 1909, when her keel was laid
2.Her sister ship, RMS Olympic was already three months into her build on the slipway beside Titanic
3.The two ships were built under a huge structure called the Arroll Gantry (PIC)
4.A keel laying ceremony was important to the builders because Harland and Wolff would receive the first payment from White Star
5.All the steel used in Titanic’s hull had to be imported.
6.Once the keel was fully laid, a rib-like structure was built
7.Steel plates were riveted onto the ribs of the ship which formed the frame of the hull.
8.Many riveters ended up with hearing problems in later life because of the noise they endured while driving home rivets.
9.Heater boys were employed to heat up the rivets on coke furnaces to make them easier to work with.
10.Titanic was fully framed by April 1910.
11.All the steel plates were in place by October of the same year.Over three million rivets were used in Titanic’s hull.
12.Around the same time, Harland and Wolff had seen demonstrations of a new form of ship construction called welding.
13.During the ship’s construction, a dry dock was being built about a mile away, big enough to dock the Olympic class liners.
14.The Harbour board also started work to deepen the channel in front of the slipways by 32 feet
15.Seventeen men died during the construction of Olympic and Titanic including a father and son.
16.Heavier items such as the funnels were lifted on board Titanic using a crane capable of lifting 200 tons to a height of nearly 150 feet
17.Titanic stayed at the fitting out wharf for ten months
18.The fitting out wharf is still used today by Harland and Wolff, as their ship repair division
19.Titanic entered the dry dock in February 1912 to have her propellers fitted and her hull painted.
20.The dry dock could hold 21 million gallons of water and was controlled by steam pumps.
21.The pumps could empty the dock in just over an hour and a half.
22.The Thompson dry dock took seven years to build and replaced the Alexandra Dock.
23.The third ship in the line, Britanic was completed in 1914. She served as a hospital ship in World War One.
24.Britanic hit a mine in the Aegean Sea and sank.

Titanic Launch Facts

1.RMS Olympic was launched in October 1910, less than two years after she was started.
2.Titanic was launched on 31st May 1911.
3.White Star line did not “christen” their ships with a naming ceremony and champagne.
4.On the same day, Olympic was handed over to her new owners and sailed to Liverpool.
5.The day was also the birthday of Lord Pirrie, the chairman of Harland and Wolff and his wife, Lady Margaret Pirrie
6.A celebration dinner was held for Harland and Wolff and White Star bosses following the launch.
7.The press who were covering the launch were taken to lunch at Belfast’s Grand Central Hotel.
8.A shipwright called James Dobbin was injured during the launch when his legs were trapped under the ship. He died in hospital the next day.
9.Over one hundred thousand people watched the launch, some paying a small admission charge which was donated to Belfast hospitals.
10.Titanic took just 62 seconds to make her journey down Slipway number 2 into the water.
11.At Titanic’s launch, Thomas Andrews’ 5 year old nephew, John was allowed to knock away one of the small wedges which held her in place.
12.Once launched, Titanic was towed by five tugs to the deep water fitting out wharf. Four of these tugs came from the Alexandra Towing Company in Liverpool.

Ship Facts

1.Titanic had two reciprocating engines, each turning a propeller on the wing of the ship
2.The third engine, a steam turbine, turned the central propeller.
3.At the wharf, her boilers, funnels and other machinery were added. The state rooms and cabins were also fitted out.
4.The fitting out process adhered to a builder’s specification book which had been agreed between the shipyard and White Star.
5.Titanic was fitted with enough lifeboats to meet Board of Trade regulations. Unfortunately, these regulations had not been updated as ships became larger.
6.Her sea trials were conducted on 2nd April 1912, having been delayed for 24 hours because of the weather.
7.The trials were the first time the engines were tested and the ship briefly reached a speed of nearly 21 knots.

Titanic Engineer Facts

1.The chief naval architect on Titanic was Thomas Andrews Junior, who succeeded Alexander Carlisle in 1910.
2.Both Carlisle and Andrews were related to the chairman, Lord Pirrie. Carlisle was his brother in law, Andrews was his nephew.
3.Any modifications to the design had to be discussed at a meeting of department heads at Harland and Wolff.
The Titanic Disaster Facts1.Between November 191 1and April 1912, 20 other boats had sunk off the shores of Newfoundland
2.On April 13th Captain Smith received a message from the Baltic warning of large amounts of icebergs
3.An iceberg was reported 'dead ahead' at 11.40pm on the 14th April 1912
4.Titanic foundered at 2.20am on the 15th April 1912
5.Many of the lifeboats were launched less than half full
6.The Carpathia came to the rescue of the Titanic passengers in lifeboats. It was too late to save those left on the ship
7.The rescue ship arrived in New York with 705 surviving passengers
8.There is no possibility of raising the Titanic from her watery grave