Titanic

For other uses, see Titanic.

The Titanic leaving Belfast for sea trials, 2 April 1912.
Career
Nationality:	British
Owners:	White Star Line
Builders:	Harland and Wolff shipyard, Belfast
Captain:	Edward John Smith
Port of registry:	Liverpool, England
Laid down:	31 March 1909
Launched:	31 May 1911
Christened:	Not christened
Maiden voyage:	10 April 1912
Fate:	Struck an iceberg at 23:40 on 14 April 1912. Sank on 15 April 1912, at 02:20; wreck discovered in 1985 by Robert Ballard.
Current location:	41°43′32″N 49°56′49″W
General characteristics
Gross tonnage:	46,328 GRT
Displacement:	52,310 Long Tons
Length:	882 foot 9 inches (269 m)
Beam:	92 foot 6 inches (28 m)
Draught:	34 foot 7 inches (10.5 m)
Power:	25 double-ended and 4 single-ended Scotch boilers at 215 psi. Two four-cylinder triple-expansion reciprocating engines each producing 16,000 hp (12 MW) for outer two propellers. One low-pressure (about 7 psi absolute) steam turbine producing 18,000 hp (13.5 MW) for the center propeller. Total 50,000 hp (37 MW)
Propulsion:	Two bronze triple-blade side propellers. One bronze quadruple-blade central propeller.
Service speed:	21 knots (40.6 km/h) (24.5 mph)
Top speed:	23.75 knots (42.6 km/h) (26.5 mph)
Number of passengers (maiden voyage):	1912 - Total 2,208 First-class: 324 Second-class: 285 Third-class: 708 Crew: 891 Passengers and crew who survived: Unknown precisely but estimates commonly place the figure at 705 Passengers and crew who perished: Unknown precisely but estimates commonly place the figure between 1,502 and 1,523 casualties

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Artwork RMS Titanic 1912

RMS Titanic was an Olympic class passenger liner that became infamous for her collision with an iceberg on 14 April 1912 and dramatic sinking on 15 April 1912. The second of a trio of superliners, Titanic and her sisters were designed to provide a three-ship weekly express service and dominate the transatlantic travel business for the White Star Line.

Built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, Titanic was the largest passenger steamship in the world at the time of her sinking. During Titanic's maiden voyage (from Southampton, England; to Cherbourg, France; Queenstown (Cobh), Ireland; then New York City), she struck an iceberg at 23:40 (ship's time) on Sunday 14 April 1912, sinking two hours and forty minutes later at 02:20 on Monday 15 April, having broken into two pieces at the aft expansion joint.

Titanic was designed to compete with rival company Cunard Line's Lusitania and Mauretania, luxurious ships and the fastest liners on the Atlantic. Titanic and its Olympic class sisters, Olympic and the then upcoming Gigantic, were intended to be the largest, most luxurious ships ever to operate (The planned name Gigantic was changed to Britannic after the disaster). Titanic was designed by Harland and Wolff chairman William Pirrie, head of Harland and Wolff's design department Thomas Andrews and general manager Alexander Carlisle, with the plans regularly sent to the White Star Line's managing director J. Bruce Ismay for suggestions and approval. Construction of the Titanic, funded by the American J.P. Morgan and his International Mercantile Marine Co., began on 31 March 1909. Titanic No. 401 was launched two years and two months later on 31 May 1911. Titanic's outfitting was completed on 31 March the following year.

Titanic was 882 feet 9 inches (269 m) long and 92 feet 6 inches (28 m) at the beam (6 inches longer than twin ship RMS Olympic). She had a Gross Register Tonnage of 46,328 tons, and a height from the water line to the boat deck of 60 feet (18 m). She contained two reciprocating four-cylinder, triple-expansion, inverted steam engines and one low-pressure Parsons turbine. These powered three propellers. There were 25 double-ended and 4 single-ended Scotch-type boilers fired by 159 coal burning furnaces that made possible a top speed of 23 knots (43 km/h). Only three of the four 63 foot (19 m) tall funnels were functional; the fourth, which served only as a vent, was added to make the ship look more impressive. Titanic could carry a total of 3,547 passengers and crew and, because she carried mail, her name was given the prefix RMS (Royal Mail Steamer) as well as SS (Steam Ship).

The Titanic was considered a pinnacle of naval architecture and technological achievement, and was thought by The Shipbuilder magazine to be "practically unsinkable". Titanic had a double-bottom hull, containing 44 tanks for boiler water and ballast to keep the ship safely balanced at sea (later ships also had a double-walled hull). Titanic exceeded the lifeboat standard, with 20 lifeboats (though not enough for all passengers). Titanic was divided into 16 compartments by doors held up, i.e. in the open position, by electro-magnetic latches and which could be closed by a switch on the ship's bridge.

Unsurpassed luxury

Titanic rudder and propellers

For her time, Titanic was unsurpassed in luxury and opulence. She offered an onboard swimming pool, a gymnasium, a Turkish bath, libraries for each passenger class, and a squash court. First-class common rooms were adorned with elaborate wood panelling, expensive furniture and other elegant decorations. In addition, the Café Parisienne offered superb cuisine for the first-class passengers with a delightful sunlit veranda fitted with trellis decorations.

The ship was technologically advanced for the period. She had an extensive electrical subsystem with steam-powered generators and ship-wide electrical wiring feeding electric lights. She also boasted two wireless Marconi radio sets manned by operators who worked in shifts, allowing constant radio contact and the transmission of many passenger messages.

Even third-class accommodation and common rooms were considered to be as opulent as those in the first-class sections of many other ships of the day. Titanic had three lifts (i.e. elevators) for use of first-class passengers and, as an innovation, offered one lift for second-class passengers.

The crown jewel of the ship's interior was undoubtedly her forward first class grand staircase, between the forward and second funnels. Extending down to E-Deck and decorated with oak panelling and gilded balustrades, it was topped by an ornate wrought-iron and glass dome which brought in natural light. On the uppermost landing was a large panel containing a clock flanked by the allegorical figures of Honour and Glory crowning Time. A similar but less ornate staircase, complete with matching dome, was located between the third and fourth funnels.

Comparisons with the Olympic

The Titanic was almost identical to her older cousin Olympic but there were a few differences — some suggested by Bruce Ismay and based on observations he had made of the Olympic. Two of the most noticeable were that half of the Titanic's forward promenade A-Deck (below the lifeboat deck) was enclosed against outside weather, and her B-Deck configuration was completely different from the Olympic's. The Titanic had a speciality restaurant called Café Parisienne, a feature that the Olympic wouldn't receive until 1913. Some of the flaws found on the Olympic, such as the creaking of the aft expansion joint, were corrected on the Titanic. Other differences, such as the skid lights that provide natural illumination on A-deck, were round, while on Olympic they were oval. The Titanic's wheelhouse was made narrower and longer than the Olympic's. These, and other modifications, made the Titanic 1,004 gross tonnes larger than the Olympic.

Passengers

The first-class passenger list for Titanic's maiden voyage included some of the richest and most prominent people in the world. Among them were millionaire John Jacob Astor IV and his pregnant wife Madeleine; industrialist Benjamin Guggenheim; Macy's department store owner Isidor Straus and his wife Ida; Denver millionaire Margaret "Molly" Brown; Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon and his wife, couturiere Lady Duff-Gordon; streetcar magnate George Dunton Widener, his wife Eleanor and their 27-year-old son, Harry Elkins Widener and their 6 yr. old son, William Widener; Pennsylvania Railroad executive John Borland Thayer, his wife Marion and their 17-year-old son, Jack; journalist William Thomas Stead; Charles Hays, president of Canada's Grand Trunk Railway, with his wife, daughter, her husband, and two employees; the Countess of Rothes; United States presidential aide Archibald Butt; author and socialite Helen Churchill Candee; author Jacques Futrelle,and their friends, Broadway producers Henry and Rene Harris; writer and painter Francis Davis Millet; pioneer aviation entrepreneur Pierre Maréchal Sr.; American silent film actress Dorothy Gibson, White Star Line's Managing Director J. Bruce Ismay (who survived the sinking) and, from the ship's builders, Thomas Andrews, who was on board to observe any problems and assess the general performance of the new ship.

Among the second-class passengers was Lawrence Beesley, a journalist who wrote one of the first-hand accounts of the voyage and the sinking. Father Thomas R.D. Byles was a Catholic priest on his way to America to officiate at his younger brother's wedding. Also in second-class was Michel Navratil, a Frenchman kidnapping his two sons, Michel Jr. and Edmond and taking them to America.

Both J. P. Morgan and Milton S. Hershey had plans to travel on the Titanic but cancelled their reservations before the voyage.

Disaster

Main article: Sinking of the RMS Titanic

Photograph of an iceberg in the vicinity of the RMS Titanic’s sinking taken on April 15, 1912 by the chief steward of the liner Prinze Adelbert.

On the night of 14 April/15 April 1912 the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank, with great loss of life. The United States Senate investigation reported that 1,517 people perished in the accident, while the British investigation has the number at 1,490. Regardless, the disaster ranks as one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters in history and by far the most infamous. The media frenzy about the Titanic's famous victims, the legends about what happened on board the ship, the resulting changes to maritime law, Walter Lord's 1955 non-fiction account A Night to Remember, and the discovery of the wreck in 1985 by a team led by Robert Ballard and Jean Louis Michel have made the Titanic persistently famous.

The Break-up

For the next seventy years after the disaster, it was believed that the Titanic had sunk intact. Although there were several passengers who insisted that the ship had broken in two as it sank (including Jack Thayer, who even drew a set of sketches depicting the sinking), the inquiries believed the statements of the ship's officers and first-class passengers saying it had sunk in one piece.

In 1985, when the wreck was rediscovered by Robert Ballard and his crew, they discovered that the ship did in fact break in two when it sank. It was theorized that as the Titanic sank, the stern rose out of the water. It supposedly rose so high that the unsupported weight caused the ship to split in half from the top down. This became the accepted way the ship had sunk.

In 2005, new evidence suggested that, in addition to the side damage that the Titanic was known for, the ship also sustained damage to the underside of the hull. This new evidence seemed to support a less popular theory that the Titanic split apart from the bottom up. This method of the break-up is supported by Jack Thayer's sketches.

Long-term implications

The sinking of the RMS Titanic was a factor that influenced later maritime practices, ship design, and cultural changes. These included an international ice patrol and new regulations related to life boats, among other changes.

International Ice Patrol

The Titanic disaster led to the convening of the first International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea in London, on 12 November 1913. On 30 January 1914, a treaty was signed by the conference and resulted in the formation and international funding of the International Ice Patrol, an agency of the United States Coast Guard that to the present day monitors and reports on the location of North Atlantic Ocean icebergs that could pose a threat to transatlantic sea lane traffic. It was also agreed in the new regulations that all passenger vessels would have sufficient lifeboats for everyone on board, that appropriate safety drills would be conducted, and that radio communications would be operated 24 hours a day along with a secondary power supply, so as not to miss distress calls. In addition, it was agreed that the firing of red rockets from a ship must be interpreted as a distress signal. This treaty was scheduled to go into effect on 1 July 1915, but was upstaged by World War I.

Ship design changes

The sinking of the Titanic also changed the way passenger ships were designed, and many existing ships, such as the Olympic, were refitted for increased safety. Besides increasing the number of lifeboats on board, improvements included reinforcing the hull and increasing the height of the watertight bulkheads. The bulkheads on Titanic extended 10 feet (3 m) above the waterline, and after Titanic sank, the bulkheads on other ships were extended higher to make compartments fully watertight. While Titanic had a double bottom, she did not have a double hull; after her sinking, new ships were designed with double hulls; also, the double bottoms of other ships (including the Olympic) were extended up the sides of their hulls, above their waterlines, to give them double hulls.

Name change

After the disaster, the name Gigantic was no longer considered acceptable for the third Olympic class liner. She was named Britannic instead. (Due to World War I, Britannic never saw passenger service. She was sunk in the Mediterranean Sea in 1916 while serving as a hospital ship.)

Speed

The conclusion of the British Inquiry into the sinking was “that the loss of the said ship was due to collision with an iceberg, brought about by the excessive speed at which the ship was being navigated”.

At the time of the collision it is thought that the Titanic was at her normal cruising speed of about 22 knots, which was less than her top speed of around 24 knots. At the time it was common (but not universal) practice to maintain normal speed in areas where icebergs were expected. It was thought that any iceberg large enough to damage the ship would be seen in sufficient time to be avoided.

After the sinking the British Board of Trade introduced regulations instructing vessels to moderate their speed if they were expecting to encounter icebergs.

It is often alleged that J. Bruce Ismay instructed or encouraged Captain Smith to increase speed in order to make an early landfall, and it is a common feature in popular representations of the disaster. There is little evidence for this having happened, and it is disputed by many.

Lifeboats

No single aspect regarding the huge loss of life from the Titanic disaster has provoked more outrage than the fact that the ship did not carry enough lifeboats for all her passengers and crew. This is partially due to the fact that the law, dating from 1894, required a minimum of 16 lifeboats for ships of over 10,000 tons. Since then the size of ships had increased rapidly, meaning that Titanic was legally required to carry only enough lifeboats for less than half of her capacity. Actually, the White Star Line exceeded the regulations by including four more collapsible lifeboats—making room for slightly more than half the capacity.

In the busy North Atlantic sea lanes it was expected that in the event of a serious accident to a ship, help from other vessels would be quickly obtained, and that the lifeboats would be used to ferry passengers and crew from the stricken vessel to her rescuers. Full provision of lifeboats was not considered necessary for this.

It was anticipated during the design of the ship 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 refuted this allegation during the British Inquiry.

The lack of lifeboats was not the only cause of the tragic loss of lives. 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. Afterwards, the crew worked quite efficiently, taking a total of 80 minutes to lower all 16 lifeboats. Since the crew was 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.

Yet another factor in the high death toll that related to the lifeboats was the reluctance of the passengers to board them. They were, after all, on a ship deemed to be "unsinkable". Because of this, some lifeboats were launched with far less than capacity, the most notable being Lifeboat #1, with a capacity of 65, launched with only 12 people aboard.

The excessive casualties has also been blamed on the "women and children first" policy for places on the lifeboats. Although the lifeboats had a total capacity of 1,178 - enough for 53% of the 2,224 persons on board - the boats launched only had a capacity of 1,084, and, unfortunately, all together only 705 people were actually saved - 32% of those originally on board. This is a tragic result when the 1,084-person capacity of the lifeboats actually launched had sufficient room to include all of the 534 women and children on board, plus an additional 550 men (of which there were 1,690 on board). It has been suggested based on these figures that allowing one man on board for each woman or child from the start would not only have increased the number of women and children saved, but also had the added benefit of saving more lives in total. In addition, the psychological impact of seeing fully loaded lifeboats may have spurred more passengers to evacuate, and the resulting less crowded and chaotic deck would have made the process much more efficient. There would also have been the added benefit of keeping families united, whereas in the policy adopted aboard the Titanic, this was not the case. Unfortunately, as it was, the many desperate men had to be held off at gunpoint from boarding the lifeboats, adding to the chaos of the scene and there were many more casualties - of women, children and men - than otherwise with many lifeboats not filled to capacity.

Use of SOS

The sinking of the Titanic was not the first time the internationally recognized Morse code distress signal "SOS" was used. The SOS signal was first proposed at the International Conference on Wireless Communication at Sea in Berlin in 1906. It was ratified by the international community in 1908 and had been in widespread use since then. The SOS signal was, however, rarely used by British wireless operators, who preferred the older CQD code. First Wireless Operator Jack Phillips began transmitting CQD until Second Wireless Operator Harold Bride suggested, half-jokingly, "Send SOS; it's the new call, and this may be your last chance to send it." Phillips, who perished in the disaster, then began to intersperse SOS with the traditional CQD call.

Titanic's rudder and turning ability

The memorial to the Titanic's engineers in Southampton

Although Titanic's rudder was not legally too small for a ship its size, the rudder's design was hardly state-of-the-art. According to researchers with the Titanic Historical Society: [The] "Titanic's long, thin rudder was a copy of a 19th-century steel sailing ship. Compared with the rudder design of the Cunard's Mauretania or Lusitania, Titanic's was a fraction of the size. Apparently no account was made for advances in scale, and little thought given to how a ship 882½ feet (269 m) in length might turn in an emergency, or avoid a collision with an iceberg. This was the Titanic's Achilles' heel."

Perhaps more fatal to Titanic was her triple-screw engine configuration, which had reciprocating steam engines driving its wing propellers, and a steam turbine driving its centre propeller. The reciprocating engines were reversible, while the turbine was not. When 1st Officer Murdoch gave the order to reverse engines to avoid the iceberg, he inadvertently handicapped the turning ability of the ship. Since the centre turbine could not reverse during the "full speed astern" manoeuvre, it simply stopped turning. Furthermore, the centre propeller was positioned forward of the ship's rudder, diminishing the turning effectiveness of the rudder.

Had Murdoch reversed the port engine, and reduced speed while maintaining the forward motion of the other two propellers (as recommended in the training procedures for this type of ship), experts theorise that the Titanic might have been able to navigate around the berg without a collision. However, given the closing distance between the ship and the berg at the time the bridge was notified, this might not have been possible.

Additionally, Titanic experts have hypothesised that if Titanic had not altered its course at all and had run head-on into the iceberg, the damage would only have affected the first or, at most, the first two compartments. The Guion liner SS Arizona had such a head-on collision with an iceberg in 1879, and although badly damaged had managed to make St John's, Newfoundland, for repairs. Some dispute that Titanic would have survived such a collision, however, since Titanic's speed was higher than Arizona's and her hull much larger, and the violence of the collision could have compromised her structural integrity.

Legendary Titanic band

Some events during the Titanic disaster have had a legendary impact. One of the most famous stories of Titanic is of the band. On 15 April, Titanic's eight-member band, led by Wallace Hartley, had assembled in the first class lounge in an effort to keep passengers calm and upbeat. Later they would move on to the forward half of the boat deck. Band members had played during Sunday worship services the previous morning, and the band continued playing music even when it became apparent the ship was going to sink.

A memorial in Southampton to the Titanic's musicians

None of the band members survived the sinking, and there has been much speculation about what their last song was. Some witnesses said the final song played was the hymn "Nearer, my God, to Thee". However, there are three versions of this song in existence and no one really knows which version, if any, was played. Hartley reportedly said to a friend if he was on a sinking ship "Nearer, My God, to Thee" would be one of the songs he would play. Walter Lord's book A Night to Remember popularised wireless operator Harold Bride’s account that before the ship sank, he heard the song "Autumn" (a hymn similar to the former but contains the maritime line about "mighty waters"). It is considered Bride either meant the hymn called "Autumn" or "Songe d'Automne," a popular ragtime song of the time. Others claimed they heard "Roll out the Barrel."

Hartley's body was one of those recovered and identified. Considered a hero, his funeral in England was attended by thousands.

Faults in construction

Though the topic is seldom discussed, there is some speculation as to whether Titanic was constructed by methods considered sufficiently robust by the standards of the day. In the documentary series Seconds from Disaster, this was investigated further. Rumoured faults in the construction included problems with the safety doors and missing or detached bolts in the ship's hull plating. This may have been a major contributing factor to the sinking and that the iceberg, in part with the missing bolts and screws, eventually led to the demise of Titanic. Possibly, if the watertight bulkheads had completely sealed the ship's compartments (they only went 3m above the waterline), the ship would have stayed afloat.

However, Titanic's hull was held together by rivets, which are intended to be a permanent way of attaching metal items together, whereas bolts can be removed and would require periodic tightening unless the nut and bolt are welded after being screwed together. Welding technology in 1912 was in its infancy, so this was not done. While issues with Titanic's rivets have been identified from samples salvaged from the wreck site, many ships of the era would have been constructed with similar methods and did not sink after becoming involved in collisions. There was a claim that the rivets of the Titanic had not been properly tempered, leaving them brittle and sensitive to fracture in the infamous collision.

Although sealing off the watertight bulkheads with watertight decks would have increased the survivability of a vessel such as Titanic, it would have by no means ensured the survival of a ship with as much underwater damage as Titanic sustained in her collision with the iceberg: it was a big iceberg. Even if the compartments themselves had remained completely watertight, the weight of the water would still have pulled the bow of the ship down to the point where decks above the watertight deck would have been below the waterline. The ship would then have flooded via the portholes and sunk anyway. It should also be noted that watertight decks would have hampered access to the lower sections of the ship and would have required watertight hatches, all of which would have had to have been properly sealed to maintain the barrier between the incoming water and the rest of the ship. As the increased survivability that such watertight decks would have offered is questionable, they are generally considered to this day to be impractical in merchant vessels (though some military vessels, which are exposed to much greater risk of flooding by virtue of being targets for enemy mines and torpedoes, do feature such decks).

It should also be noted that Olympic, built to almost identical specifications by the same builders as Titanic, was involved with several collisions during the course of her operational lifetime, one of which occurred before Titanic sank; and Olympic's hull was modified to protect her from flooding in a fashion similar to her ill-fated sister's. None of these collisions threatened to sink the ship, suggesting that the Olympic-class liners were built to be sufficiently tough and did not suffer from slipshod construction.

Alternative theories and curses

Main article: Titanic alternative theories

As with many famous events, many alternative theories about the sinking of Titanic have appeared over the years. Theories that it was not an iceberg that sank the ship or that a curse caused the disaster have been popular reading in newspapers and books. Most of these theories have been debunked by Titanic experts, citing inaccurate or incomplete facts on which the theories are based.

A novella written by Morgan Robertson, Futility (The Wreck of the Titan, new edition title), published in 1898, concerned the sinking of a ship called Titan. Other similarities with the later sinking of the Titanic are noticeable, including the month and location of the fictitious disaster.

In 2003 Captain L. M. Collins, a former member of the Ice Pilotage Service published The Sinking of the Titanic: The Mystery Solved proposing, based upon his own experience of ice navigation and witness statements given at the two post-disaster inquiries, that what the Titanic hit was not an iceberg but low-lying pack ice.

Another theory is that the Titanic was sacrificed because, once construction had been completed, she was expected to be a potential perpetual financial loss. Supporters of this theory cite the claim that everyone concerned, the company and the officers aboard, had received iceberg warnings and yet the Titanic maintained a northern course instead of sailing to the south of the warning limit. The book Starship Titanic by Douglas Adams and Terry Jones involves the extremely luxurious cruise ship being scuttled for the insurance money.

There was a minor school of thought that it was not Titanic that sank but Olympic. Conspiracy theorists cited evidence in favour, includes the Hawke incident, which supposedly left Olympic crippled. This supposedly motivated management to scuttle Olympic/Titanic and file an insurance claim. Conspiracy theorists also cited the fact that the two ships were drydocked at the same yard at the same time (possibly enabling a switch), the claim that a ship sailed to the site of the collision beforehand with 3,000 blankets on board (for survivors), and cosmetic changes presumably made to make the two ships more similar. This theory was clearly debunked with the discovery of the wreck in 1985.

There is even a curse legend. While the ship was being built in the Belfast shipyard, several Catholic workers reportedly walked off the job in protest when they noticed horrible blasphemies against Catholicism and the Virgin Mary spray-painted by Protestant workers on parts of the ship. One of the workers stated, "This ship will not finish its first voyage". The graffiti was noted by coal-fillers when the ship stopped at Cobh, Ireland.

A similar legend states that the Titanic was given hull number 390904 (which, when seen in a mirror or written using mirror writing, looks like "no pope"). This is a myth.

One popular myth states that Titanic was carrying a cursed Egyptian mummy. The mummy, nicknamed Shipwrecker, after changing hands several times, and causing many terrible things to each of its owners, exacts its final revenge by sinking the famous ship. This myth is untrue.

Another myth says that the bottle of champagne used in christening Titanic did not break on the first try, which in sea lore is said to be bad luck for a ship. In fact, Titanic was not christened, as White Star Line's custom was to launch ships without a christening.

There is a persistent urban legend in Scotland that the Aberdeen Press and Journal, a paper notorious for its parochial coverage, reported the sinking of Titanic with the headline "Aberdeenshire Man Drowned at Sea" (or something similar). This is untrue.

Rediscovery

File:Titanic-bow seen from MIR I submersible.jpeg

Titanic's bow as seen from the Russian MIR I submersible

The idea of finding the wreck of Titanic and even raising the ship from the ocean floor had been perpetuated since shortly after the ship sank. No attempts even to locate the ship were successful until 1 September 1985, when a joint American-French expedition, led by Jean-Louis Michel of IFREMER, Dr. Nicholas S.E. Cappon and Dr Robert Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, sailing on the Research Vessel Knorr, discovered the wreck using the video camera sled Argo. It was found at a depth of 12,500 feet (3800 m), south-east of Newfoundland at 41°43′32″N 49°56′49″W, 13 nautical miles (24 km) from where Titanic was originally thought to rest.

The most notable discovery the team made was that the ship had split apart, the stern section lying 1,970 feet (600 m) from the bow section and facing opposite directions. There had been conflicting witness accounts of whether the ship broke apart or not, and both the American and British inquiries found that the ship sank intact. Up until the discovery of the wreck, it was generally assumed the ship did not break apart. In 2005, a theory was presented that a portion of Titanic's bottom broke off right before the ship broke in three. The theory was conceived after an expedition sponsored by The History Channel examined the three hull pieces.

The bow section had embedded itself more than 60 feet (18 m) into the silt on the ocean floor. Besides parts of the hull having buckled, the bow was mostly intact, as the water inside had equalized with the increasing water pressure. The stern section was in much worse condition. As the stern section sank, water pushed out the air inside tearing apart the hull and decks. The speed at which the stern hit the ocean floor caused even more damage. Surrounding the wreck is a large debris field with pieces of the ship (including a large amount of coal), furniture, dinnerware and personal items scattered over one square mile (2.6 km²). Softer materials, like wood and carpet, were devoured by undersea organisms. Human remains suffered a similar fate.

Later exploration of the vessel's lower decks, as chronicled in the book Ghosts of the Titanic by Dr Charles Pellegrino, showed that much of the wood from Titanic's staterooms was still intact. A new theory has been put forth that much of the wood from the upper decks was not devoured by undersea organisms but rather broke free of its moorings and floated away. This is supported by some eyewitness testimony from the survivors. Also, while filming James Cameron's Titanic, the Grand Staircase set broke free of supports when it was flooded for sinking sequences of the film. This has led historian Don Lynch and historical artist Ken Marschall to believe that the Grand Staircase in fact exited the sinking ship in this way (as mentioned in DVD commentary of the film).

Although the British inquiry had determined mathematically that the damage to the ship could not have comprised more than twelve square feet, the popular notion was that the iceberg had cut a 300 feet (90 m) long gash into Titanic's hull. Since the part of the ship that the iceberg had damaged was buried, scientists used sonar to examine the area and discovered the iceberg had caused the hull to buckle, allowing water to enter Titanic between its steel plates. During subsequent dives, scientists retrieved small pieces of Titanic's hull. A detailed analysis of the pieces revealed the ship's steel plating was of a variety that loses its elasticity and becomes brittle in cold or icy water, leaving it vulnerable to dent-induced ruptures. Furthermore, the rivets holding the hull together were much more fragile than once thought. It is unknown if stronger steel or rivets could have saved the ship.

The samples of steel rescued from the wrecked hull were found to have very high content of phosphorus and sulphur (four times and two times as high as common for modern steels), with a manganese-sulphur ratio of 6.8:1 (compare with over 200:1 ratio for modern steels). High content of phosphorus initiates fractures, sulphur forms grains of iron sulphide that facilitate propagation of cracks, and lack of manganese makes the steel less ductile. The recovered samples were found to be undergoing ductile-brittle transition in temperatures of 32 °C (for longitudinal samples) and 56 °C (for transversal samples—compare with transition temperature of −27 °C common for modern steels—modern steel would become as brittle between −60 and −70 °C). The anisotropy was likely caused by hot rolling influencing the orientation of the sulphide stringer inclusions. The steel was probably produced in the acid-lined, open-hearth furnaces in Glasgow, which would explain the high content of phosphorus and sulphur, even for the times.

Dr. Ballard and his team did not bring up any artefacts from the site, considering it to be tantamount to grave robbing. Under international maritime law, however, the recovery of artifacts is necessary to establish salvage rights to a shipwreck. In the years after the find, the Titanic has been the object of a number of court cases concerning ownership of artifacts and the wreck site itself.

The iceberg buckled the Titanic's hull allowing water to flow into the ship.

Ownership and litigation

Upon discovery in 1985, a legal debate began over ownership of the wreck and the valuable artefacts inside. On 7 June 1994, RMS Titanic Inc. was awarded ownership and salvaging rights of the wreck by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. (See Admiralty law) RMS Titanic Inc., a subsidiary of Premier Exhibitions Inc., and its predecessors have conducted seven expeditions to the wreck between 1987 and 2004 and salvaged over 5,500 objects. The biggest single recovered artefact was a 17-ton section of the hull, recovered in 1998. Many of these artefacts are part of travelling museum exhibitions.

Beginning in 1987, a joint American-French expedition, which included the predecessor of RMS Titanic Inc., began salvage operations and, during 32 dives, recovered approximately 1,800 artefacts which were taken to France for conservation and restoration. In 1993, a French administrator in the Office of Maritime Affairs of the Ministry of Equipment, Transportation, and Tourism awarded RMS Titanic Inc's predecessor title to the artefacts recovered in 1987.

In a motion filed on 12 February 2004, RMS Titanic Inc. requested that the District Court enter an order awarding it "title to all the artifacts (including portions of the hull) which are the subject of this action pursuant to the law of finds" or, in the alternative, a salvage award in the amount of $225 million. RMS Titanic Inc. excluded from its motion any claim for an award of title to the 1987 artefacts, but it did request that the district court declare that, based on the French administrative action, "the artifacts raised during the 1987 expedition are independently owned by RMST." Following a hearing, the district court entered an order dated 2 July 2004, in which it refused to grant comity and recognize the 1993 decision of the French administrator, and rejected RMS Titanic Inc's claim that it should be awarded title to the artefacts recovered since 1993 under the maritime law of finds.

RMS Titanic Inc. appealed to the United States court of appeals. In its decision of 31 January 2006 the court recognized "explicitly the appropriateness of applying maritime salvage law to historic wrecks such as that of Titanic" and denied the application the maritime law of finds. The court also ruled that the district court lacked jurisdiction over the "1987 artifacts", and therefore vacated that part of the court's 2 July 2004 order. In other words, according to this decision, RMS Titanic Inc. has ownership title to the artefacts awarded in the French decision (valued $16.5 million earlier) and continues to be salvor-in-possession of Titanic wreck. The Court of Appeals remanded the case to the District Court to determine the salvage award ($225 million requested by RMS Titanic Inc.).

Current condition of the wreck

Many scientists, including Robert Ballard, are concerned that visits by tourists in submersibles and the recovery of artifacts are hastening the decay of the wreck. Underwater microbes have been eating away at Titanic's iron since the ship sank, but because of the extra damage visitors have caused, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that "the hull and structure of the ship may collapse to the ocean floor within the next 50 years." Several scientists and conservationists have also complained about the removal of the crow's nest on the mast by a French expedition.

Ballard's book, Return to Titanic, published by the National Geographic Society, includes photographs showing the deterioration of the promenade deck and damage caused by submersibles landing on the ship; however, Ballard was the first person to crash a camera sled into the wreck, and also the first person to repeatedly land on its deck in a submersible. The mast has almost completely deteriorated, and repeated accusations were made in print by Ballard that it had been stripped of its bell and brass light by salvagers, despite his own original discovery images clearly showing that the bell was never actually on the mast- it was recovered from the sea floor. Even the memorial plaque left by Ballard on his second trip to the wreck was alleged to have been removed; Ballard replaced the plaque in 2004. Recent expeditions, notably by James Cameron, have been diving on the wreck to learn more about the site and explore previously unexplored parts of the ship before Titanic decays completely.

Comparable maritime disasters

Titanic was at the time one of the worst maritime disasters in history, a comparable loss of life having never happened before on the heavily travelled North Atlantic route. It remains the worst civilian maritime disaster in British history. The biggest civilian maritime disaster in the Atlantic Ocean up to that time had been the wreck of SS Norge off Rockall in 1904 with the loss of 635 lives. However, Titanic's death toll had been matched or exceeded a number of times outside the Atlantic. The explosion and sinking of the steamboat Sultana on the Mississippi River in 1865 claimed an estimated 1,700 lives. 1904's General Slocum disaster, involving a steamship circling Manhattan, took over 1,020 lives. Two years after the Titanic disaster, a Canadian liner, the Empress of Ireland sank in the Saint Lawrence River with 1,012 lives lost after colliding with the Norwegian coal freighter Storstad. The ratio has been repeated with the sinking of the RMS Lusitania and the RMS Leinster, both by German U-boats in World War I.

Also similar to Titanic was Hans Hedtoft. In January 1959 Hans Hedtoft, a Danish liner sailing from Greenland, struck an iceberg and sank. Hans Hedtoft was also on its maiden voyage and was boasted to be "unsinkable" because of its strong design. In 1987, the MV Doña Paz, sank in the Philippines after colliding with the oil tanker Vector and catching fire and claimed between 1,500 and 4,000 lives. In 2002, a Senegalese government-owned ferry MV Joola capsized off the coast of Gambia resulted in the deaths of at least 1,863 people.

The worst maritime disasters happened during World War II. The RMS Lancastria sank during the evacuation from Dunkirk in June 1940 with the loss of over 4,000 lives. This remains Britain's worst maritime disaster. However, the most deadly maritime disasters in WWII involved German ships. The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff with an estimated death toll over 9,000 remains the worst disaster in shipping history in terms of loss of life in a single vessel (sunk on 30 January 1945 having been the target of four Soviet torpedoes). The SS Cap Arcona (which, ironically, stood in for Titanic in the 1943 film version of the tragedy) was sunk by the Royal Air Force on 3 May 1945, with an estimated death toll of more than 7,700. The Goya was sunk with an estimated 7,000 dead, again by Soviet submarine on 16 April 1945.

The Titanic was not the only White Star Line ship to sink with loss of life. RMS Tayleur, which has been compared to the sinking of the Titanic, sank after running aground in Ireland. Tayleur was also technically innovative when it sank on its maiden voyage in 1854. Of its 558 passengers and crew, 276 were lost. The White Star Line had also previously lost RMS Atlantic on rocks near Nova Scotia in 1873 with 546 fatalities, and the SS Naronic in 1893, probably in an iceberg collision near the Titanic's position, with the loss of all 74 aboard. Three years before Titanic, on 24 January 1909, another palatial and "unsinkable" White Star Line passenger liner, RMS Republic sank 50 miles off the coast of Nantucket killing six persons. Titanic's sister ship Britannic sank in the Mediterranean Sea while serving as a British hospital ship during World War I after hitting a mine. Thirty-four people died when one of the ship's lifeboats was launched before the ship had come to a total stop and the boat was sucked into a still revolving propeller.

Popular culture

File:InNacht'1912.jpg

In Nacht und Eis (1912)

Main article: RMS Titanic in popular culture

The sinking of Titanic has been the basis for many novels describing fictionalised events on board the ship, such as Titanic: The Long Night written by Diane Hoh. Many reference books about the disaster have also been written since Titanic sank, the first of these appearing within months of the sinking. Several films and TV movies were produced the first being In Nacht und Eis very soon after in 1912. The 1997 film Titanic, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet was a critical and commercial hit, winning eleven Academy Awards and holding the record for the highest box office returns of all time.

The book A Night to Remember, was made into a movie in 1958 and was also transformed into Titanic: The Musical, with a book by Peter Stone and music and lyrics by Maury Yeston. The musical ran from 23 April 1997 to 21 March 1999 and won five Tony Awards for 1997, including Best Score, Best Book, and Best Musical. The production originally starred Michael Cerveris, John Cunningham, David Garrison, Victoria Clark, Brian d'Arcy James, Jennifer Piech, and Martin Moran.

Living survivors

There are two survivors of the Titanic still living. They are:

• Barbara West Dainton; 95 years old and lives in Truro, England.
• Millvina Dean; 95 years old and lives in Southampton, England.

On 6 May 2006, the last American survivor and the last survivor to have memories of Titanic's sinking, Lillian Gertrud Asplund, died at her home in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. Asplund, who was just 5 years old at the time, lost her father and three brothers (including her fraternal twin) in the tragedy. Her mother Selma Asplund and brother Felix, then three, survived.

Last ten survivors

• Beatrice Irene Sandström (9 August 1910 – 3 September 1995), died aged 85
• Eva Miriam Hart (31 January 1905 – 14 February 1996), died aged 91
• Edith Eileen Haisman (née Brown) (27 October 1896 – 20 January 1997), died aged 100
• Louise Laroche (2 July 1910 – 28 January 1998), died aged 88
• Eleanor Ileen Shuman (née Johnson) (23 August 1910 – 9 March 1998), died aged 87
• Michel Marcel Navratil (12 June 1908 – 18 April 2001), died aged 92 (last male survivor, the eldest of the brothers known as the Titanic Orphans)
• Winnifred Vera van Tongerloo (née Quick) (23 January 1904 – 6 July 2002), died aged 98
• Lillian Gertrud Asplund (21 October 1906 – 6 May 2006), died aged 99 (last survivor who could remember the sinking)
• Barbara Joyce Dainton (née West) (born 24 May 1911), currently the oldest living survivor
• Elizabeth Gladys "Millvina" Dean (born 2 February 1912), youngest passenger and survivor

Robertha Josephine "Bertha" Marshall (née Watt) and Ellen Natalia "Helen" Callaghan (née Shine), at the time of their deaths, the twelfth and eleventh remaining survivors, died in close proximity: Marshall died on 4 March 1993 and Callaghan on 5 March 1993 at ages 93 and 101 respectively. Callaghan was the last remaining Titanic survivor from Ireland.

100th Anniversary

On 15 April 2012, the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic will be commemorated around the world. By that date the Titanic Quarter in Belfast will have been completed. The area will be regenerated and a signature memorial project unveiled to celebrate the Titanic and its links with Belfast, the city that built the ship.

See also

• Royal British Columbia Museum, Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition until October 14, 2007.
• List of shipwrecks
• The US 1910 wireless ship act
• List of ship and ferry disasters
• Casualties of the RMS Titanic sinking
• Provisioning (RMS Titanic)
• SS Nomadic
• RMS Carpathia
• List of famous ships
• Sister ships of the Titanic
  • HMHS Britannic
  • RMS Olympic
• Violet Jessop
• Grand Staircase of the Titanic
• Frank Lucks Towers

References

• Brander, Roy. The RMS Titanic and its Times: When Accountants Ruled the Waves. Elias P. Kline Memorial Lecture, October 1998 http://www.cuug.ab.ca/~branderr/risk_essay/Kline_lecture.html
• Butler, Daniel Allen. Unsinkable: The Full Story of RMS Titanic. Stackpole Books, 1998, 292 pages
• Collins, L. M. The Sinking of the Titanic: The Mystery Solved Souvenir Press, 2003 ISBN 0-285-63711-8
• Eaton, John P. and Haas, Charles A. Titanic: Triumph and Tragedy (2nd ed.). W.W. Norton & Company, 1995 ISBN 0-393-03697-9
• Gardener, R & van der Vat, D The Riddle of the Titanic Orion 1995
• Kentley, Eric. Discover the Titanic Ed. Claire Bampton and Sue Leonard. 1st ed. New York: DK, Inc., 1997. 22. ISBN 0-7894-2020-1
• Lord, Walter (1997). A Night to Remember Introduction by Nathaniel Philbrick. Bantam. ISBN 0-553-27827-4
• Lynch, Donald and Marschall, Ken. Titanic: An Illustrated History Hyperion, 1995 ISBN 1-56282-918-1
• O'Donnell, E. E. Father Browne's Titanic Album Wolfhound Press, 1997. ISBN 0-86327-758-6
• Quinn, Paul J. Titanic at Two A.M.: An Illustrated Narrative with Survivor Accounts. Fantail, 1997 ISBN 0-9655209-3-5
• Wade, Wyn Craig, The Titanic: End of a Dream Penguin Books, 1986 ISBN 0-14-016691-2
• US Coast Guard. International Ice Patrol History. Page viewed May 2006. http://www.uscg.mil/LANTAREA/IIP/General/history.shtml
• Beveridge, Bruce. Olympic & Titanic: The Truth Behind the Conspiracy
• Chirnside, Mark. The Olympic-Class Ships
• Layton, J. Kent. Atlantic Liners: A Trio of Trios
• Ballard, Robert B. Lost Liners
• Halpern, Samuel Somewhere About Twelve Feet
• Pellegrino, Charles R. Her Name, Titanic Avon, 1990 ISBN 0-380-70892-2

External links

• Encyclopedia Titanica, an invaluable source of information concerning the sinking of the Titanic, including over 10000 biographies and articles.
• Titanic Historical Society
• Titanic Inquiry Project Complete transcripts of both the US Senate and British Board of Trade inquiries into the disaster, along with their final reports.
• A collection of Titanic essays and links to websites.
• Titanic Archive A site which contains well-written texts suitable for students, plus images taken aboard Carpathia and photographs showing recovery of bodies.
• Titanic's Construction Project, an analysis of the project and its impact on the disaster provides many lessons for today's projects.
• Titanic-Titanic.com A large reference for all things to do with the RMS Titanic.
• RMS Titanic, Inc Corporate information and the official Titanic archive.
• Titanic Home at Atlantic Liners.
• Titanic News Headlines
• Titanic - A model ship.
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, Titanic
• Titanic A collection of Titanic related articles and news.
• [9]Award winning detailed account of the Titanic story and of her sister ships.
• Online Titanic Museum, displaying a large private collection of authentic memorial items as well as items removed from the Titanic prior to its sailing.
• WebTitanic.net An Irish tribute to Titanic.
• The Wreck of RMS Titanic Dive on the wreck of Titanic via a detailed model researched at Woodshole. Includes technical notes on the sinking and the condition of the wreck.
• Maritimequest RMS Titanic Photo Gallery
• The Unsinkable RMS TITANIC
• Posted Aboard RMS Titanic An online exhibit honouring the five postal clerks who died on Titanic.
• PBS Online - Lost Liners
• Titanic.com Large photo collection, especially recent additions not found elsewhere. Young community.
• Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co.'s role in rescue of 700 passengers Interactive presentation by Marconi Corp. plc
• Ocean Planet:How Deep Can they Go?
• Titanic Facts
• Sinking Titanic and the reasons (systematic analysis of the facts)
• Father Frank Browne photographer of Titanic.
• Survivors of the Titanic Disaster
• Father Thomas Byles of the Titanic
• http://www.southampton.gov.uk/leisure/museums-and-galleries/maritime-museum/default.asp#0
• Titanic's centre anchor - About Titanic's anchor
• OlyBlog Anna Sjoblom, Titanic survivor
• The Board of Trade and the Loss of the Titanic
• The Maritime Network's Article On Titanic
• "Titanic" memorial in Washington, D.C. at the Sites of Memory webpage
• Titanic Inverness
• Titanic Research & Modeling Association Excellent source on technical aspects of the ship.
• Titanic passenger lists (scanned original documents)
• books by Robert Ballard, the discoverer of the wreck of the Titanic