The Titanic Was A Marvelous Feat

The Titanic was a marvelous feat of engineering, an unsinkable way to america, so why did it sink? The answer lies in the hearts of men who refused to listen to the warning calls. The number of casualties could have decreased as well by putting more lifeboats. Overall, there were multiple factors in the sinking of, and the deaths on the titanic.

The Titanic was built by the White Star Line to compete with the ships built by Cunard line. It was one of the three Olympic class ships built by White Star. The other two being the Brittanic, and the Olympic. The Olympic class were a group of Royal Mail Steamships (RMS) intended to ferry mail and passengers across the Atlantic.

With funding from J.P Morgan, who indirectly owned White Star, They were able to start the constructing of the Titanic. The Harland and Wolff shipbuilding company was hired to construct the whole Olympic class of ships. Implementing new features such as watertight electronic doors and a new hull design. Even God himself could not sink this ship. announced the notorious Captain Edward John Smith.

Construction of the Titanic started in 1909 with modifications of the shipyard. The Titanic and her sister Olympic, were built side by side. The hull was then built and equipped with 16 watertight compartments, each could automatically close once it reached the water line. When the Titanic hit the iceberg, it was revealed that six of the compartments were flooded. Also supplied with twenty four double ended boilers, each twenty feet long, the Titanic had a max speed of 23 knots (26 mph). This may not seem like that much but the weight of the titanic was 46,328 tons, and the propellers were registered at 50,000 horsepower. The Titanic had four funnels transported from a different shipyard. Only three of the funnels were used to dispel smoke, the fourth was used to make the ship look more powerful.

The Titanic took about 26 months to complete and costed over 7.5 million dollars (just under two hundred million in 2018). Over three thousand carpenters, electricians, painters, and plumbers equipped the ship with the latest marine technology of the time. All of this just reinforced people’s belief of the ship to be unsinkable. Although White star did not directly claim its invulnerability.

If the first class passengers weren’t impressed by the sheer size of the steamship, they certainly would by the interior. The Titanic was furnished with several amenities including a gym a barbershop a swimming pool, and a squash court. There were also first, second, and third class smoking rooms. A Marconi wireless room was also built into the ship and two telegram operators would attend to it at every moment. The marconi room is based on Marconi’s invention of a radio transmitter/receiver system built upon Samuel Morse’s idea of morse code. The gymnasium included all the latest equipment, a rowing machine, an electric horse, and a bicycle. Separate gyms were available for men, women, and children.

The Olympic, Titanic’s sister, was the first to be completed. She finished her maiden voyage without incident. Five voyages into her career, however, she had an accident. Under the Command of Captain E.J Smith, The Olympic was running parallel with a british warship, HMS Hawke, and the ship suddenly veered into the hull of the Olympic. Most likely by the wake of the ship, or the Olympics massive propellers. The government placed the blame on the White Star Line, and they were forced to pay for the full repairs of the HMS Hawke, as well as the repairs for the Olympic.

After the maiden voyage of the Olympic in 1911, slight changes were made to the Titanic. In 1912, the Titanic successfully completed her sea trials, and was ready for her maiden voyage. Finally on April 10, 1912, the Titanic embarked on her Maiden voyage, travelling from Southampton, England, to New York City. The Steamship was captained by Edward J. Smith, who had a reputation of captaining several large ships, including the Olympic. The voyage almost started off as a disaster when the docked ship New York, swung out in front of the titanic as a result of the immense displacement of water from the ship’s weight. After an hour of careful maneuvering, the captain managed to launch the Titanic without incident.

The Titanic stopped at Cherbourg, France, to pick up passengers, however, due to the docks being too small for the gigantic ship, passengers were forced to be ferried to the boat. Among the passengers were John Jacob Astor, and his wife. After a couple hours anchored, the Titanic resumed its journey to America. 1,300 passengers were on the ship, along with 900 crew members. There was also a small coal fire discovered in on of the bunkers, though it was not big enough to degrade any of the metal. On April 14 they came across an Iceberg, they have had radio warnings for days, According to awesomestories.com the mesaba sent the following message, To Titanic, Ice report in lat 42.n to 41.25n Long 49w to long 50.30w saw much heavy pack ice and great number large icebergs also field ice. Weather good clear. The operator replied with his infamous message ?Shut up, Shut up. I am busy. I am working Cape Race.’ Cape Race was a nearby radio transmitter. The Titanic was speeding towards an ice field at 22.5 knots.

At about 11:30 p.m, April 14, a lookout by the name of Frederick Fleet saw an Iceberg dead ahead. He telephoned the engine room, and the propellers were quickly reversed. The crew turned the ship sharply to port (left) and they scraped across the side of the iceberg, spraying ice onto the deck. The captain, having concluded that there was no serious damage to the hull, continued about his day. What the captain did not know was that the iceberg had carved a 300 foot gash in the starboard side. By the time the captain had inspected the damage with a shipwright from Harland and Wolff, Thomas Andrews, five of the electronic watertight compartments on the front side had already filled with water.

Andrews concluded that the ship would most likely sink in an hour and a half. The captain, having already ordered the operator to send the call for help, ordered all of the lifeboats to be unloaded. At this point the bow was rapidly sinking and the ship was beginning to flip upside-down lengthwise. The first lifeboat was quickly unloaded and 28 people got to the boat. The maximum capacity was 65 people. The woman and children were loaded first and the men were last. Many of the lifeboats were greatly underfilled, some with only a handful of people in them. To Andrews’ surprise, the Titanic ended up staying afloat for over 3 hours. Many selfless people remained behind so that their family can go free, and stayed behind to be with family while they most tragically sank. Over 1,500 people lost their life on that woeful night. Only about 700 passengers and crew survived.

The bow of the ship continued to sink while the stern rose into the air. Finally with a massive crash, the ship snapped in half and the bow and stern separated, spiraling towards the bottom of the sea.
Having received the SOS Signal from the titanic before it sank, the Carpathia made its way towards the Titanic survivors. The Carpathia eventually would be sunk by german torpedoes.

Many famous people died in the sinking of the titanic. Chief among them was a very rich man by the name of John Jacob Astor IV. John was a Lieutenant colonel in the spanish war, he had amassed his fortune in real estate, and his many works of literature. He was also an inventor. He made many inventions including the bicycle brake, a revolutionary design for a turbine engine. During his 47 year life, he had gone to Harvard University and had collected $87 Million, now equivalent to $2.2 billion in 2018.

Another man of importance was Benjamin Guggenheim, who had amassed his fortune in his family coal business and a very large inheritance. He is widely known for his last act of bravery on the titanic, he dressed in a very expensive suit and grabbed his wife and told her, We’ve dressed up in our best and prepared to go down like gentlemen.
Isidor Straus, co-owner of Macy’s department store, also died that night on the Titanic. He served for over a year in the United States House of Representatives, and his body was eventually found and buried at the Woodlands Cemetery in New York.
After the sinking of the Titanic, many safety precautions were installed on the Olympic, and the Brittanic. Some of them being a reinforced double hull, and more lifeboats.

But what happened to the other Olympic class liners? The Olympic stayed in service for a while but eventually, White Star was forced to sell it to the british navy. It was repurposed to transport troops, and had several guns installed on it. It was in service for 24 more years before it was demolished. The Brittanic was also sold to the british navy, this ship, however was repurposed into a medical ship, it got a new paint job with large red crosses on it. Eventually this ship ended up sinking due to a german u-boat, however, due to more lifeboats, warmer water, and more help, only 30 of the 1,036 died.

Many conspiracies are in place about the sinking of the titanic. Some say that the company’s financier, J.P Morgan, built the ship for the sole reason of inviting his opponents onboard and sinking the ship. He wanted to seize control of the Federal Reserve Bank, and his only opponents were three of the people that died when the ship sank.
Another theory is that when the RMS Olympic got rammed by the HMS Hawke, White Star repaired the hull as best as they could in a week, changed the name, and ship number to that of the Titanic’s and change the titanic’s name to the Olympic. Then the Olympic would be launched in place of the Titanic, and it would be planned to sink the ship sooner so less people died. White Star would get the money from insurance and save from having to repair the Olympic, at a cost of lives.