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Titanic was built in the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland and the hull was launched on May 31, 1911. She was the second ship of the Olympic-class liners of the White Star Line Company built in that shipyard, and was one of the largest and most prestigious passenger liners of the day. The Titanic was 882 ft 9 in (260 metres) long and 92 ft 6 in (28 metres) wide, 46 328 tons. Although she enclosed more space and therefore had a larger gross tonnage, her hull was exactly the same size as her elder sister Olympic. The ship had 899 crewmen and was built for up to 3,300 passengers. Because she carried mail, she was also called RMS Titanic (RMS standing for Royal Mail Steamer). As big as the ship was, only three of its four funnels were functional. The fourth was a dummy, and its sole practical purpose was to serve as a flue for the main kitchen.
For its time the ship was unsurpassed in its luxury and opulence. While not the first ship to offer onboard swimming pools, exercise rooms, baths and elevators, the Titanic pulled out all the stops and offered a level of service never seen before. The ship offered 3 elevators for use of passengers in first class, and as an innovation, it offered one elevator for those in second. Passengers in steerage were still made to take the stairs.
She was considered a pinnacle of technological achievement, and with her 16 watertight compartments she was thought to be well protected from sinking. At the ship's sailing, one employee was quoted as saying to Second Class Passenger Sylvia Caldwell, "Not even God himself could sink this ship".
The ship began her maiden voyage from SouthamptonThis page discusses the English city of Southampton. For other places named Southampton, see Southampton (disambiguation). Southampton is a city and major port situated on the south coast of England. It is the closest city to the New Forest and lies at th, EnglandEngland is the largest, the most populous, and the most densely populated of the four " Home Nations" which make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). Occupying the south-eastern portion of the island of Great Britain, England, to New YorkSkyline, with Statue of Liberty New York, New York" redirects here. For alternate meanings, see New York, New York (disambiguation). New York — officially named City of New York and often called New York City to distinguish it from the state of New York,, USAThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in on April 10April 10 is the 100th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (101st in leap years). There are 265 days remaining. April Tenth" is also a song by the band Garbage. It was released on the B-side of the "Shut Your Mouth" single from the beautifulgarbage a, 1912, with Edward SmithFor the recipient of the Victoria Cross see Edward Smith (VC); for the science fiction writer, see E. Captain Edward John Smith Royal Naval Reserve ( 27 January 1850 15 April 1912) was the captain of the RMS Titanic''. He was born in Hanley in Stoke-on-Tr as its captain. When it left its berth, the liner New York nearly collided with the Titanic's hull due to suction. The near collision caused an hour's delay. The ship called at Cherbourg, FranceThe French Republic or France ( French: Republique francaise or France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents., and Queenstown (known today as Cobh), Ireland,
On the night of April 14, while sailing south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, lookouts spotted an iceberg directly ahead of the ship. One of the lookouts, Fredrick Fleet, sounded the ship's bell three times and telephoned the bridge. First Officer William Murdoch ordered an immediate turn to port. The iceberg brushed the ship's starboard side, denting the hull in several places, popping rivets below the starboard waterline, and flooding the first six watertight compartments. The weight of the water in her bow pulled it just low enough for the sea to spill over the watertight compartments, which were open at E deck.
On the port side, the lifeboats were loaded with women and children. On the starboard side, men were allowed refuge once women were no longer in the area. Consequently, many more people were rescued on the starboard than port side.
Lifeboat 7 left the ship at around 12:45 am. Collapsible lifeboat D left at 2:05 am. The two boats left on the sloping deck floated off -- one flooded, the other upside-down.
Over a period of three minutes, starting at 2:18 AM, events happened very rapidly. First, at 2:18, the #1 funnel broke away and sank, killing several in the water. A minute later, the ship began to split in two, the completely flooded bow falling away into the depths. The stern, momentarily freed of the weight of the bow, bobbed back up and momentarily righted itself before beginning its own death plunge at 2:20. There had been enough lifeboats on board for barely half the passengers and crew. In this tragedy -- the worst maritime incident during peacetime -- only 705 people from a total of 2,228 survived. 1,523 perished. Among the victims were the rich and famous: Benjamin Guggenheim, Isidor Straus , John Jacob Astor IV, Jacques Futrelle, Francis David Millet, and Charles Hays . Among the survivors was Margaret Brown (thus becoming known as the "Unsinkable" Molly Brown) who kept order on her lifeboat and assisted with the rescue efforts, and who later formed a survivors group.
As the ship fell into the depths, the two sections ended their final plunges very differently. The streamlined bow planed off about 2,000 feet below the surface and slowed somewhat, landing relatively gently. The stern, however, fell violently to the ocean floor and smashed into the bottom at high speed, and then was struck full force by the wake of its fall, causing severe damage and grinding the hull deep into the silty bottom. By some estimates, the bow may have landed as much as ten minutes after the stern.
One crew member, Violet Jessop, survived not only the sinking of the Titanic, but an earlier accident involving her sister ship Olympic, and finally, the later sinking of the other of Titanic's sisters, the HMHS Britannic.
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