R.M.S.Titanic!

Least we forget cross

The Titanic! What a legened.

There is a quote which is often qoted in the newspapaers these days. God himself can not sink this ship. She was appropriately named, the Titans dared to challenge the Gods, and for their arogance they were cast down, into hell!
Captain E.J. Smith.

Ship Statistics

Class of ship-Olympic-Titanic class

Gross Tonnage-46,239 tons

Dimensions-852.5 x 92.5ft

Number of funnels-4

Number of masts-2

Construction Material-Steel

Propultion-Triple screw

Engines-2x Eight-cylindered triple expansion resiprocating engines + steam engines

Top speed-21 knots

Ships Builder-Harland and Wolff ( Belfast Ireland )

Total cost-Pounds 1 million

Launch date-31st of May 1911

Passenger accomodation-1,034 1st class,
510 2nd class,
and 1,022 3rd class

R.M.S.Titanic

At 12pm on Wednesady the 10th of April 1912, the R.M.S. Titanic left South Hampton on her maiden voyage. She was heading to Cherbourg, and from there, was heading to Queenstown, before heading out on the North Atlantic to New York .
On Sunday the 14th of April 1912, at 11:40pm, while travelling at a speed of 22 knots, the Titanic struck an iceberg, fatally wounding the ship. Captain E.J. Smith ( who was not on the bridge, at the time of the collision ) ordered for the ships architect Thomas Andrews ( Nephew of Lord Pirie, Chairman of Harland and Wolff ) to be brought to the bridge. The captain told Andrews to inspect the damage.
What Andrews saw when he went below decks, to inspect the damage, was shocking. In the 10 seconds it took, for the Titanic to run along the side of the iceberg, and then the iceberg to be left behind the ship, it had sraped between 250 and 300 feet of the hull, damaging hull plates in 6 compartments, shearing off rivet heads, and opening the overlapping plate seams, all this damage was done below the hulls waterline. Upon his inspection below, Andrews reported back to the captain, that the Titanic was going to founder. He told the captain, that she was going down by the head, and he estimated that she would only stay afloat for maybe one and half to two hours tops. Going by what Andrews said, the captain ordered all women and children to the life boats. At first not realizing the actual extent of danger with the situation, many of the women refused to leave their husbands.
At 12:15am, the wireless operator started sending out a CQD ( Come Quickly, Distress ), giving the ships position. The Carpathia responded to this CQD, but was 60 miles away, from the Titanics reported position. Captain Arthur Rostron on board the Carpathia, still ordered his ship, to alter course, and at full speed ahead, head for the strickened Titanic.
At 12:45am, the Titanic sent out a new distress singnal, an SOS ( Save Our Souls ) also at this time, the first of the Titanics lifeboats was being lowered, and the captain ordered that rockets ( flares ) be fired, to attract the attention of a ship about 10 miles away from the Titanic, which appeared to be anchored for the night.
At 2:10am, with 1502 souls still on board, the Titanics stern rose high out of the water, at this time,one of the funnels broke, and came crashing down on serveral people in the water, killing them instantly. The Titanics stern, kept rising out of the water, then loud cracks could be heard, as the stern snapped, leaving the bow to sink below the water. The stern full of air, rose verticle out of the water again, bobbing around like a buoy, and then she slowly started gliding into the freezing North Atlantic.
The Carpathia got to the scene at 4:30am on the 15th of April. Once all the survivors was aboard, the crew of the Carpathia took a head count, out of 2207 passengers and crew, on board the Titanic, only 705 survived.

The Titanic was discovered by Dr Robert Ballard on the 1st of september 1985, at 1am.

The Titanic disaster could have so easily had very different results. The ship that was spotted 10 miles away from the Titanic, The Californian, if her captain instead of sleeping, had listened to his crew, and gone to investigate, why a large ship was firing rockets, he would have been able to save everyone on board.
During the inquest which followed the sinking of the Titanic, the captain of the Californian was blamed, but was he really at fault? Should he have been the scape goat for this disaster?
When the Olympic-Titanic class ships were first designed by Andrews, he had designed them with enough lifeboats to cover everyone on board. Whitestar line didn't want the decks to look cluttered, so they went with the minimal amount of lifeboats they were allowed to carry. The Titanic was also not carrying the right colored rockets for distress. She should have been firing red rockets to show a ship in distress, instead all she had aboard was white rockets.

Whitestar line was negligent through this all, some believe that J Bruce Ismay and J.P. Morgan bribed the court of inquest, so Whitestar line would not be found negligent in any way. This of course is speculation.