Introduction

On March 31, 1909, the construction began on the Titanic at Harland and Wolff's ship yard in Belfast, Ireland. The Titanic was successfully dry-docked at Belfast's Thompson Graving dock. The Titanic set sail on April 10, 1912 in route to New York. On April 14, at 11:40 p.m. the Titanic struck an iceberg. The Titanic sank at 2:20 a.m. leaving about 1500 souls to their fate. At 3:30 a.m. the R.M.S. Carpathia, which had received the S.O.S. messages, arrived at the scene. The Carpathia arrived in New York on April 18, with 705 survivors.

History of the White Star Line

In 1867, a British financier named Thomas Henry Ismay purchased the White Star Line. The company of sailing vessels was originally founded about 1850 and mainly engaged in trade on the Australian goldfields. In 1869, Ismay formed the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company in order to establish White Star as a high class steamship service in the Atlantic passenger trade. In 1902, the White Star Line was purchased by the International Mercantile Marine Company, a shipping trust headed by U.S. financier, J. Pierpont Morgan. White Star was now an American owned company but still had its ships fly the Union Jack and carry its original British crew.

History of Titanic

At a dinner party at William J. Pirrie's London mansion in 1907, J. Bruce Ismay (son of Thomas Ismay who was now managing director for the White Star Line) discussed the construction of two huge ships to compete with luxury, size and speed of rival lines. On July 31, a contract letter was signed for the construction in Belfast for the Olympic and Titanic. The R.M.S. Titanic was to be 882ft 9in long, 94 feet wide, and 100 feet high to bridge level. The final cost of the Titanic was $75,000,000. On March 31, the keel was laid down at Harland and Wolff's shipyard.

On May 31, 1911, the Titanic's hull was successfully launched. The event was witnessed by more than 100,000 people (at the time she was the largest man made object ever moved. After the launching, the ship was towed by tugs to a fitting-out basin. In October, White Star officially announced the date of her maiden voyage in the London Times as April 12, 1912. Later, the Titanic was successfully dry-docked at Belfast's Thompson Graving Dock. While at Thompson, she was fitted out with 46,000 horse power engines, 29 huge boilers, 159 furnaces, and four funnels rising 73 feet above the boat deck. Her final weight was a whopping 46,329 gross tons with a water displacement of 522,250 tons. On April 2, she had her sea trials where she was tested for speed and durability. Titanic successfully passed the test on the same day. On April 8, fresh food supplies were taken aboard while her designers pranced about the ship making final inspections. All seemed "a okay" for the maiden voyage.

Titanic's maiden voyage

Sailing Day, Wednesday April 10 - Captain Edward J. Smith boards the Titanic at 7:30 a.m. with full crew. Smith receives the sailing report from chief officer Wilde.

8:00 a.m - Partial crew perform a brief lifeboat drill using starboard lifeboats 11 and 15.

9:30 to 11:00 a.m - Second and Third class passengers arrive and board ship.

11:30 a.m - Arrival of First Class, passengers board and are escorted to cabins.

12:00 p.m - The Titanic is cast off from dry dock by tugs. During down stream passage, the water displacement by the Titanic's movement cause six mooring ropes on the R.M.S. New York to break and her stern swings toward the Titanic. Quick action narrowly averts a collision by only four feet. Departure is delayed for an hour.

1:00 p.m - The Titanic resumes a 24 mile trip down stream to the English Channel en route to Cherbourg, France.

5:30 p.m - Cherbourg Passengers board

8:10 p.m - Anchor is raised and the Titanic leaves for Queenstown, Ireland taking her through the English Channel.

April 11 @ 11:30 a.m - The Titanic arrives in Queenstown Harbor about two miles from land. Seven passengers disembark as one hundred and thirteen Third class and seven Second class passengers board from 2 ferry tenders with 1385 bags of mail.

1:30 p.m - The anchor is raised for the last time, and the Titanic departs on her first and final transatlantic crossing.

April 11 to 12 - The Titanic covers 386 in fine, calm, clear weather.

April 12 to 13 - The Titanic covers 519 miles in fine, calm, clear, weather conditions. Various ice warnings are received which is nothing uncommon for April crossings.

April 14, Sunday @ 9:00 a.m - The Titanic picks up a wireless message from the S.S. Caronia warning the Titanic of a field of ice at 42`N from 49` to 51`W. Soon after being sent, the Caronia's message is received by Captain Smith. It reads as follows: Captain, Titanic - West-bound steamer reports bergs growers and field of ice 42°N from 49° to 51°W, Compliments-Barr."

5:50 p.m - Captain Smith alters ship's course slightly to the south and west of the normal course possibly as a precaution to avoid ice.

11:40 p.m - The Titanic cruises at 20 1/2 knots when the ship's lookout (Frederick Fleet) sees an iceberg dead ahead, 500 yards away towering 55 to 60 feet above the water. Fleet immediately sounds the warning bell with three sharp rings. Then he calls the bridge and says "iceberg dead ahead." First officer Murdoch calls a hard a starboard. After a few seconds, the Titanic begins to veer to port, but the iceberg strikes the starboard bow side and brushes along side of the ship.

11:50 p.m - During the first 10 minutes after impact, water rises 14 feet from the bow and the first five compartments begin to take on water.

April 15 , 12:00 a.m - Captain Smith asks Thomas Andrews (ship's designer) for his assessments. He accumulates that the ship can stay afloat for 1 to 1 1/2 hours only. The ship is doomed. Captain Smith orders " C.Q.D. " , a distress call.

12:05 a.m - Orders are given to uncover lifeboats and muster the crew and passengers.

12:10 a.m. to 1:50 a.m - Several crew members on the S.S. Californian, which is positioned some 10 to 14 miles away, ignores the Titanic's rockets and the lookout comments "They don't seem like distress signals."

12:15 a.m - The Titanic's band begins to play lively Ragtime tunes in the First class lounge on A Deck. Later, they move to the Boat Deck near the port entrance to the Grand Staircase.

12:25 a.m - The order is given to start loading the lifeboats. The strict tradition of "women and children first" is strongly used. The Carpathia, steaming southeast some 58 miles away receives the distress call and immediately heads full speed to the rescue.

12:45 a.m - The first lifeboat (No. 7) is safely lowered on the starboard side.safely lowered away. It can carry 68 people but leaves with 28 people aboard.

12:55 a.m - The first port side lifeboat (No.6) is lowered down with only 28 aboard including the famous Molly Brown and Major Peuchen.

1:15 a.m - Water begins to reach the Titanic's name on the bow and she lists to port.

1:20 a.m - Starboard lifeboat No. 9 leaves with 56 people. At this point, the ship has developed a noticeable list to starboard.

1:30 a.m - Signs of panic begin to appear among some of the passengers on the ship.

1:35 a.m - Port side boat No. 16 is lowered with 50 people and starboard boat 15 follows 30 seconds later with 70 aboard.

1:40 a.m - Most of the forward boats have now been cast away and remaining passengers begin to move to the stern area. Ismay leaves on collapsible C with 39 others aboard and the last lifeboat on the starboard side is launched.

2:00 a.m - The sea is now only 10 feet below Promenade deck.

2:05 a.m - There are still 1,500 people left on the sinking ship. The Titanic's forecastle deck sinks underwater and the tilt begins to grow steeper.

2:10 a.m - Captain Smith releases wireless operaters Bride and Phillips from their duty. Disregarding Smith's command, Phillips continues to send C.Q.D.'s and S.O.S.'s.

2:17 a.m - Phillips sends the last radio message while Captain Smith tells the remaining crew members " It's every man for himself. " Smith then returns to the bridge where as most cases have it, he is never seen again.

2:18 a.m - A huge roar is heard as all movable objects inside crash toward the submerged bow. The ship's lights blink once and then turn off for good. The R.M.S. Titanic break's apart.

2:20 a.m - The Titanic's broken stern section settles back into the water righting itself for a moment. It slowly fills with water and tilts its stern higher in the air before sinking into the sea. In the short period of about 2 hours following this, the remaining 1500 souls drown or freeze in the icy cold waters. The Titanic disaster becomes one of the greatest maritime tragedies in history.

After the sinking of Titanic

3:30 a.m - The Carpathia's rockets are sighted by the lifeboats. Her regular speed of 14 1/2 knots is risen to an unstable 17 1/2 knots as she races to rondevue with the survivors.

4:10 a.m - Lifeboat No. 2 is picked up by the Carpathia. Ice is seen floating all about the disaster area amid debris from the Titanic.

8:30 a.m - The last boat, No.12 , is picked up by the Carpathia. Second officer Lightoller is the last survivor to come on board. The Californian arrives at the site and steams through the floating wreckage to check for survivors.

8:50 a.m - The Carpathia leaves the area bound for New York as she carries the 705 survivors. An estimated 1522 souls have been lost.

April 17 - The S.S. Mackay-Benett (hired by White Star) leaves Halifax to search for bodies.

April 18 @ 9:00 p.m - The Carpathia arrives to a dark, wet New York City. One hundred thousand spectators are on hand as the Carpathia steams past the Statue of Liberty. The Titanic's lifeboats hang from the sides as she passes the Cunard pier ( No. 54 ) and steams on up to the White Star pier to lower the Titanic's lifeboats. The Carpathia then returns to the Cunard pier to finally unload the survivors. A mob of spectators crowds the pier.

The Aftermath
(The Senate Hearing)

April 19 to May 25 - Inquiry into the Titanic disaster is undertaken by United States Senate Inquiry headed by Senator A. Smith.

At the hearing, Bruce Ismay,(age 49) became the first witness. He was permitted to make a statement before submitting himself for questioning by Senator Smith. Ismay expressed the grief over the high loss of life and he welcomed the inquiry saying he had "nothing to hide." Attempting to lay to rest the charge that the ship had been trying for a transatlantic record, Ismay said "the Titanic being a new ship, well...we were gradually working her up." The first day of the inquiry ended at last at 10:30 p.m. , leaving the press with reams of sensational material for the next day's edition. White Star's American attorney asked that the bulk of the survivors should be allowed to go home, but was reluctant to release anyone.

On Tuesday, April 23, Ismay asked if he could return to England or at least New York. He later asked on Saturday and was refused again. (Ismay stayed to the end of the month.)
Ismay was invited to describe White Star loss. Ismay recalled that the Republic and the Naronic - almost new, which simply vanished at sea, had not being insured. He then added that a head on collision could not have sunk her. Ismay also said that he entered th last collapsible because he saw it was nearly empty. Here is one of the inquiry's questions and Ismay's response.

Q. Why did you enter it?

A. Because there was room in the boat, she was being lowered away. I felt the
ship going down and I got in the boat. I understand that my behavior aboard the Titanic and subsequently on board the Carpathia has been severely criticized.

It was recalled that the company's owner, J.P. Morgan, pleaded illness as his excuse for not joining the ship on it's first and only voyage. Two days after the Titanic sank he was found by the American Press at the Grand Hotel in a French spa of Aix-les-Basin, where he was bathing in the water. He seemed in excellent health and was in the company of his French mistress.

In the conclusion of the Senate Hearings, the British government was blamed for its laxity over safety standards at sea and two British captains - one dead, the other without a trial, were held to be negligent.

Titanic over the years (and present...)

From this point on, the Titanic lies silent in darkness in the North Atlantic until her discovery 73 years later. But in the meantime...

November 18, 1929 - a huge earthquake in the area of the wreck site was thought to have triggered a large underwater mud slide which some felt might have buried the wreck of the Titanic.

July 1980 - the U.S. entrepreneur and explorer Jack Grimm funded a scientific expedition which set out to locate the wreck of the Titanic. Dogged by bad weather and equipment malfunction, the expedition fails to find the Titanic.

June 1981 - Jack Grimm's second expedition sets out to locate the Titanic, but fails to find the wreck.

July 1983 - Third and final expedition funded by Grimm fails to find the Titanic.

September 1, 1985 - the French-American scientific expedition led by Dr. Robert Ballard finally discovers and photographs the remains of the wreck of the Titanic at a depth of 12,460 feet on the ocean floor.

Other expeditions follow in the continuing years which further photograph and film the site. Artifacts are also taken from the site. (For those wanting more info on expeditions to the Titanic, check out the expedition/exhibition section of Titanic Legacy.)

Many of these artifacts go on display as part of the Titanic Exhibition in Memphis, Tenn, in 1996. In May of '96, a musical entitled Titanic, opens on Broadway. The play receives several Tony awards and is highly acclaimed to be one of the best, and most successful Broadway musicals of all time.

November of 1997 - The Titanic Exhibition moves to its next stop, St. Petersburg, Fl.

December 19, 1997 - "Titanic" probably the most expensive movie ever made makes it's debut in the United States.

February 21, 1998 - "Titanic" has spent its TENTH week at number one in the USA this last weekend. It has now pushed aside Jurassic Park and ET and is now the #2 grossing film of all time with $402.5 Million Dollars so far, just in the States.

March 7, 1998 @ 4:05 PM CT - Titanic survivor Eleanor Shuman passed away peacefully (of pneumonia) at the age of 87. She was staying in Sherman Hospital in her local Elgin, IL were she was accompanied by friends and family.