A ship built so prestigiously and one thought to be unsinkable, a ship synonymous with grandeur and majesty, the RMS Titanic fell to the waters under unfortunate circumstances. Here are some facts about the ship that sunk on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City taking down with it thousands of its passengers.
- At the time of its entry into service on 2 April 1912, the RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Titanic was the largest ship in the world requiring the burning of 600 long tons of coal per day.
- Twenty horses were required to carry the main anchor.
- The majestic ship had facilities on board including a gym, pool, Turkish bath, a kennel for first class dogs, and a squash court. It even had its own on board newspaper – the Atlantic Daily Bulletin.
An interior portion of the ship
- Only 3 of the 4 iconic smokestacks worked, the fourth was just to make the ship look more impressive.
- The ship received six warnings about icebergs during the voyage but its speed was not decreased as the North Atlantic liners gave importance to time-keeping over anything else.
- The ship collided with the iceberg just 37 seconds after it was sighted.
The iceberg believed to be responsible for the sinking of Titanic
- It took about 2 hours 40 minutes for the ship to sink completely after the collision.
An animation showing the sequential sinking of the ship.
- 1514 people died in the disaster which makes it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. Out of this, only 336 bodies of the Titanic were recovered.
- Not a single engineer made it off the Titanic. They stayed till their last breath and kept the power on so others could escape.
- Even the musicians on board played continuously till the ship sank and all of them left their lives.
- There was a book written about an ‘unsinkable’, 800-foot cruise liner ship, that hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic on an April night, that didn’t have enough lifeboats, and killed most of its passengers. The ship was called ‘The Titan’. The book was written in 1898 about 14 years before the actual Titanic sank.
- Edward Smith, the ship’s captain, also went down with the vessel. His last words were:
“Well boys, you’ve done your duty and done it well. I ask no more of you. I release you. You know the rule of the sea. It’s every man for himself now, and God bless you.”
- The last remaining survivor of the disaster, Millvina Dean, died on May 31, 2009, aged 97. She was two months old at the time.
- The wreck of the Titanic was discovered in 1985 and lies 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, around 12,500 feet below the surface.
The bow penetrated 18 meters into the sea bed.
- An Australian millionaire Clive Palmer announced the construction of Titan II, a modern day replica of the RMS Titanic in April 2012. The intended launch date was originally set in 2016. However, construction of the ship has been delayed to 2018. Whether it will set to sail then or not, we have to wait and watch!
Image sources: Wikipedia, WordPress, Lifebuzz.
