Different facts about the Titanic and its tragic story are today’s most curious and searched topics. How the great ship ” The Unsinkable” was wrecked and doomed on its maiden voyage gives birth to many mysterious facts.
Titanic, originally named Royal Mail Ship Titanic or RMS Titanic, set sail on April 1st, 1912, in the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, and it sank on April 15th, 1912.
RMS Carpathia was the first ship to rescue the stricken ship, but it took almost three and a half hours; hence, they could not save many people.
19 Astonishing Facts about the Titanic Ship
1. Titanic was Remarked as the Largest Ship of Its Age
Around 1912, the Titanic was the world’s largest and most opulent passenger ship. It marked the marvellous architecture of updated technology and was called the largest man-made object that could move on the Earth then.
The Titanic measured 882 feet in length, 92 feet wide, and weighed about 46,000 tons. This unparalleled size resulted from the competition between her owners at the white star line and Cunard Line.
2. Titanic’s Sister Ships
Two sister ships were built alongside the Titanic because it was very costly to design the Titanic solely because of its size and the new equipment required. They are –
(a) RMS Olympic was first constructed and introduced on 20 September 1910. Covering the period of the next 12 months, it was the largest one in the world. Improvisations like introducing a watertight inner skin and lifeboats for all passengers were made in this.
The Olympics behaved as a troop ship and carried Canadian soldiers to the European front. In October 1914, she rescued soldiers from the sinking British battleship during the World War.
(b) The Britannic was the third and most incredible ship. Its production starts after the Titanic disaster. She served on a British hospital ship that sank in 1916 after being hit by a mine.
3. The Titanic was Constructed During the Prestigious age of Shipbuilding
The Titanic and its sister ships were designed at Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland. Building the Titanic took almost 26 months, 15,000 men, and around 1.5 million euros. That period was considered the “Golden Age of Shipbuilding“.
Three giant propellers powered the ship through the sea. Watertight compartments were explicitly designed to protect the passengers and crew members. If water got through, the metal doors of the compartments would automatically close after 30 seconds.
4. Titanic was Jinxed at the Beginning
Even before the Titanic ship left Southampton, people died on this ship. During the construction period of the Titanic at the shipyard, 28 serious and 218 minor accidents were reported. Eight workers were killed by sustaining injuries falling from the ship or the surrounding staging.
James Dobbin, who was only a 43-year-old shipwright, was killed on the launch day of the Titanic.
On 31 May 1911, at 12.10, the massive ship slid from the yard over the river Lagan in front of 10,000 spectators. It was reported that Dobbin was in pieces while excluding the timber stays, keeping the ship upright.
5. Titanic was having the Capacity for Around One Thousand More People
The maximum capacity of Titanic was around 3,500, of which 1000 could be crewed, but board 2,200 people were there in 1912. Among them, 908 crew members and fewer passengers, consisting of 324 first-class passengers, 284 second-class passengers, and 709 third-class passengers, were there.
In 1912, when the Titanic sank, most of the people between 1600-1700 died, including Captain Smith.
6. Titanic was an Epitome of Luxury
The Titanic was big and beautiful, and the first-class Titanic was a luxurious place. The ship had around four restaurants, a delicate dining area, two libraries, reading rooms, two barber shops, and a photographic darkroom. The grand staircase was marvellous.
The restaurant served bone crockery from China given by Liverpool’s Stonier and Co. The restaurant had 50,000 pieces of expensive pottery and served delicious and gourmet food like eclairs, oysters, and filet mignon.
The Titanic had its paper printed on board, an Atlantic daily bulletin, including news, ship’s society gossip, and a menu of the day. For First class passengers on this luxurious ship, a warm swimming pool was kept aside, 1 shilling at a time. Baths of Turkey and electric baths, each for 4 shilling at a time, were also available.
A standard room is 30 euros, and a parlor suite is 875 euros.
For Third class passengers, there were around two baths available. They had to pay between 3 euros and 8 euros for rooms. Many of them stayed away in the 164-bed dormitory on deck G.
7. Titanic had many Rich People on Board
Among the first-class passengers on board, several rich people with an estimated $500 million in wealth were there.
John Jacob Astor IV alone attributes $87 million to the total wealth. He was among the richest people and the wealthiest passenger on the Titanic. He and his wife Madeleine were on their return journey on Titanic. Approximately $6 million worth of belongings sank with the Titanic.
8. Mail Delivery for the British Postal Service was the Official Responsibility of the Titanic
There was a post office and a room for the mail service on decks F and G, with 3,243 bundles of mail. Five mail clerks were there on board to handle the work. It was highlighted that the clerks moved the mail sacks to the topmost decks during the sinking duration.
9. A Scheduled Lifeboat Drill was Canceled Before the Sailing
The crew practised only one lifeboat drill when the ship was in the dockyard. On 14 April, a day before the sailing of the Titanic, a lifeboat drill was cancelled.
After the sinking of the ship, the Titanic’s lifeboats were released without their maximum capacity. If the crew had been better instructed, they would have been able to save more people.
10. Titanic Sank on its Maiden Voyage
The Titanic started its first-ever journey from South Hampton, England, on April 10, 1912. Only after four days of sailing, while going to New York City, the doomed ocean liner struck the disaster, and its fateful sinking occurred.
It was reported that at approximately 11.40 pm on April 14, 1912, the Titanic was at full speed, and while trying to move away from the iceberg, it struck that. The ship was scrapped on its starboard side under the waterline. This collision created a hole in the ship’s hull, and water filled the Titanic.
The crew sent several desperate distress signals, but no help came early, and slowly, the Titanic sank into the cold water of the Atlantic region at around 2.20 am on April 15, 1912, about 400 miles from Newfoundland. The Titanic took over two hours to sink into the water and slipped beneath the ocean waves.
11. Titanic’s Musician Played the Band During the Hours of the Sinking of the Titanic
“The show must go on” quote was followed by Titanic’s musicians. Wallace Hartley, the bandleader, believed in the ability of music. He and his team played the music during the sinking, hoping to calm the passengers while evacuating the ship.
It was reported that they continued to play music for 2 hours and 5 minutes and died in great honour performing their duty. This is one of the facts about the Titanic which makes you salute them. One of the ship’s musicians, Roger Bricoux, was not declared dead until 2000.
12. Multiple Radio Warnings were Sent about the Iceberg
The latest radio technology overwhelmed the radio operators, so several messages were repeatedly flying. Hence, it is one of the alarming facts about the Titanic. Before the disaster, the crew of the Titanic had been warned almost six times about the iceberg, but no response was there.
Titanic Chief telegraphist Jack Phillips sent distress signals till the last hours when the Titanic sank.
13. All the Engineers on the Titanic Died
There were 35 engineers on the ship. All the Titanic’s engineers performed their duty bravely till the last hours of the Titanic’s sinking and went downwards with the ship like the ship’s band.
They battled violently with the situation and tried to maintain the Titanic’s functioning like radio, different lights, and pumps, and helped many people escape until the Titanic sank. They sacrificed their lives, but they could not save everyone.
14. Titanic’s Captain Edward John Smith Died too in the Disaster
Captain Edward Smith also went down with the ship. There were different rumours and reports of Captain Smith.
Some claimed that he was shocked and froze during the disaster. Considering this as his failure, he hid in his cabin, while some claim that he helped people with the lifeboats and performed his duty till the last hour of the Titanic sinking.
Some criticize Captain Edward Smith for failing to heed the iceberg’s warnings, which resulted in the strike of the Titanic, and for not properly overseeing the fillings of lifeboats and releasing them into the water without their total capacity. Otherwise, more people would have been rescued.
Some also laud him for performing his duty and motivating distressed crew members.
15. Almost two-thirds of the People on the Ship died in The Titanic Disaster, but only 360 Bodies Were Recovered
Although 1500 people lost their lives on the ship, many of them became like icebergs in the spine-chilling water carrying life jackets, but only 340 bodies were recovered. Numerous vessels were sent to recover bodies after the disaster.
Among these, a cable ship named Mackay-Bennett carried 306 bodies from the nearby Halifax. They left around 100 bodies at the back since they ran out of preserving fluid.
16. Survivors of the Titanic
Almost 700 people tried to escape the doomed ship and withstand out of 2,240 passengers and crew members. The Titanic survivors were men and women, elderly and young, rich and poor. This is one of the facts about the Titanic.
“Women and children first” applied during the rescue of the people and while filling the lifeboats, so women and children were much more likely to survive than men. Approximately 74 percent of women and 52 percent of children survived, with 20 percent of men.
Some survivors like Millvina Dean, Eva Hart, Molly Brown, and actress Dorothy Gibson became famous.
Eva Hart survived with her mother, whose name is Esther, but her father, whose name is Benjamin, died when the ship sank. She later described the utter devastation with painful statements.
Six Chinese survivors were not mentioned in history among the Titanic survivors. The survivor stories focus on the British and American survivors.
The Chinese survivors faced harsh discrimination on their arrival in the United States and were later deported without any mention, despite surviving the Titanic sinking.
17. Binoculars may have Changed the Course of Disaster and Saved The Titanic
The RMS Titanic struck the iceberg, and the ship sank, but if the crew had access to binoculars, they would have been able to see the iceberg earlier and avert the disaster.
Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee, the ship’s lookout, said that binoculars could have helped them to see the iceberg earlier, and they would have reacted fast enough and may have saved the Titanic.
The ship’s second officer with the key to the binoculars’ was replaced at the last minute and forgot to hand over the case keys to the boarding crew members. The key to the case resurfaced at auction in 2010 and sold for over 130,000 dollars.
18. Titanic’s Wreck was Discovered in the Last 50 Years
3,700 meters below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean lies the Titanic wreck. The wreck site was discovered in 1985 by Robert Ballard and his team. He was conducting a military operation to survey some remains of a nuclear submarine. After this task, he was allowed to search for Titanic, his long-time passion and dream.
Debris from the ship is scattered in an area of 15 square miles. Most of the areas of the ship remain unexplored since they are inaccessible to underwater vehicles.
After Robert Ballard discovered the Titanic wreck in 1985, a private American company called RMS Titanic Inc. salvaged approximately 5,000 artifacts.
19. Titanic’s Legacy Continues
An inspiring legacy continues; Titanic’s sinking has inspired many films and documentaries till today. The movie Titanic portrays the incident very beautifully.
Robin and RJ Gibb wrote a requiem depiction of the Titanic’s launch, journey, sinking, and aftermath and performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Key Takeaways
It is almost more than 100 years since the tragic RMS Titanic disaster on its maiden voyage, these facts about the titanic illustrate the tragedy, pain, and mystery regarding one of history’s most infamous disasters.
Studying the facts of the unsinkable ship that sank causes agony in us, let alone the tragedy had definitely turned out the life of the passenger and their loved ones!
Last Updated on July 8, 2024 by Sathi Chakraborty
