More than a century has passed since the Royal Mail Ship (RMS) Titanic began its fateful maiden voyage from Southampton, UK, only to sink in the North Atlantic, turning into the ship’s freezing graveyard. The grand ocean liner collided with an iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912, and the collision caused the ship to sink on April 15, resulting in the loss of over 1,500 lives.
It was one of the greatest maritime disasters in history and with the 109th anniversary of the disaster knocking on the door, read on to learn little-known facts and the final moments of the ship, once called the ‘Floating City’.
Titanic was built during the golden age of seafaring and the ship was designed to compete with other cruise liners that catered to the growing number of immigrants and wealthy travelers in the early 20th century for trade from Europe to New York. Was doing. British shipping company White Star Line began construction of three ‘Olympic class’ liners. Construction of the Titanic began on March 31, 1909, and took four years to complete at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Titanic cost a total of US$7.5 million to build, which is roughly $192 million in today’s money. With 16 waterproof compartments (known as bulkheads) that could be closed to prevent flooding, the cost was quite high at the time.
After two years of non-stop work, more than 3,000 workers worked hard to complete the construction of Titanic. On May 31, 1911, the massive hull of the ship made its way out and the event was witnessed by over 10,000 people. Despite several setbacks, the RMS Titanic sailed on its maiden voyage from Southampton, UK with over 2,200 passengers and crew. Since it was a Royal Mail ship, it also carried over 3,000 bags of mail.
While it was the largest ship at the time, the appeal was not just its size. The ship’s chief designer, Thomas Andrews, once left no stone unturned to astound passengers on the ship and featured an iron and glass vaulted ceiling and oak paneling. Among its many super-rich passengers were John Jacob Astor IV, Astoria Hotel owner, Isidore, and Macy’s department store owner Ida Strauss on the ship. Unfortunately all of them lost their lives.
“Iceberg, right ahead” – three famous words that changed the history of Titanic. Four days after its maiden voyage, on April 14, at 11:40 pm, the grand ship came to an end when it collided with an iceberg.
Even though the ship’s lookout sounded the alarm, it was too late to quickly reverse the engines and turn the ship sharply. By then, the iceberg had grazed the sides of the cruise liner. A frantic evacuation operation ensued, with women and children being lowered into the first lifeboats. Sadly, there were only 20 lifeboats on board.
About three hours after the accident, at around 2:20 a.m. on 15 April, the ship finally sank into the sea.
Many of the passengers, who could not find a seat on the lifeboat, slowly starved to death and at around 4.10 pm, the RMS reached the Carpathia and picked up the survivors of the first lifeboat. More than 700 of the more than 2,200 passengers survived the tragedy.
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