Titanic Essays - RMS Titanic, Canada, United Kingdom, United States

Titanic Titanic When people hear the name Titanic many vivid and emotional images come to mind. Visions of the very last yet frantic final moments titanic spent afloat before sinking to its watery grave miles below the surface. No one however pictures everything that had happened before and after the great liner sank, or the passengers and crew who were doomed to be aboard the massive ship. Many factors made what was titanic, her crew the passengers and the inevitable crash. The story of titanic started in Belfast, Ireland where hundreds of hard working men spent countless hours building what was at 46,328 gross tonnage the largest moving object at the time. The R.M.S. Titanic was owned by American tycoon J.P. Morgan, but was being operated on the British owned White Star line. The ship was reported to have cost some where between $7,500,000 - $10,000,000. It was to be Bruce Ismay's crowning achievement and at 882 feet long and 100 feet high it truly was. Mr. Thomas Andrews the ship designer gave her a revolutionary layout, and it appears that titanic was built to accommodate up to 64 lifeboats yet had only 16 aboard and 4 collapsible lifeboats were added last minute giving a life boat capacity of only 1,176. Now we come to the passengers and crew who were aboard the ill-fated liner. The captain was Edward James Smith a very reputable and respected captain. The maiden voyage was to be Captain Smith's last and he has even been quoted as saying "nothing exciting ever happens on my trips". As Titanic was the ship of al ships her passengers were the whose who of the world. Aboard were American millionaire John Jacob Astor and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Isador Strauss, Mr. Benjamin Guggenheim and his mistress, the "unsinkable" Molly Brown and the Countess of Rothes. As it seems the massive liner was doomed to infamy from the very beginning. At on Wednesday April 10, 1912 the R.M.S. Titanic started to depart from Southampton on its way to New York City. Just as titanic left port a dangerous suction started and pulled another ship the New York into a crash course with the immense ship and it wasn't until the last possible minute that a huge surge of water pushed the New York out of harms way. Yet just as it seemed that disaster was averted another major problem started. In coal bunker # 5 spontaneous combustion caused a very destructive fire that took 3 days to extinguish. Mr. Andrews was sent to examine the damages and reported that the fire compromised the steel and could have possible damaged the airtight compartments. The next topic needed to cover is the controversial events leading up to and including the crash on April 14, 1912. The day started out with clear weather and with the boat at a full 22 knots what seemed to be smooth sailing, but nothing could have prepared them for what would happen later that night. That night the temperature suddenly dropped down t a chilling 31 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill of only 0 degrees Fahrenheit in the crow's nest. Titanic was travelling too fast in condition so dangerous that other ships had stopped for the night. At 10:00 p.m. Frederick Fleet took his place as look out in the crow's nest, with only one problem his binoculars had been missing since leaving Southampton 4 days earlier. At 11:40 p.m. that night everything was calm including the usually turbulent ocean, but the calm was suddenly shattered by what is now one of the most famous quotes ever "Iceberg right ahead". Almost immediately Officer Murdoch ordered the ship to full reverse and hard to port which basically means to turn left. One major design flaw came into play here, the rudders were too small so the ship did not turn in time and so the ship hit the iceberg on her starboard side leaving a tiny trail of small punctures in the hull. These small breaks were all that was needed to seal the fate of titanic and her passengers for now over 400 tons of water was pouring in every minute. As soon as the reality of everything set in Mr. Andrews was sent to inspect that damage caused by the iceberg, the results were almost unbelievable. The iceberg caused 5 of the 16 airtight compartments to fill with water, one more that ever imagined in any accident. Mr. Andrews conclusion was that the ship everyone said, "G-D himself could not sink" was going to be at the