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Henri Jean (Ocala, Florida)
August 14, 2013

Halifax - the story of the Titanic

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Construction of the RMS Titanic began on March 31, 1909 at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She was one of three large transatlantic liners commissioned at the time by the White Star Line that were intended to be the biggest and most luxurious ships ever built. Carrying the RMS (Royal Mail Ship) title, the ship began its maiden voyage on April 10, 1912 at Southampton, England, bound for New York under the command of Captain Edward J. Smith.

As the passengers boarded the gangplank at Southampton, England for a trans-Atlantic crossing they were no doubt pleased to be a part of the maiden voyage of the invincible Titanic ship which they believed to be unsinkable. Little did they know, however; that in just a few short days their names and the Titanic would be forever immortalized.

After stops at Cherbourg, France and Queenstown, Ireland to pick up more passengers and mail, the Titanic continued toward New York with 2,207 people aboard. The first-class section boasted 324 passengers including some of the most prominent and wealthy people in the world. These names included industrialist Benjamin Guggenheim, U.S. presidential aide Archibald Butt, Macy's department store owner Isidor Strauss and his wife Ida, journalist William Thomas Stead, silent film actress Dorothy Gibson, and many others. The passenger list also included Thomas Andrews, one of Harland & Wolff's Managing Directors (and nephew of Harland & Wolff's chairman William J. Pirrie) and White Star managing director J. Bruce Ismay. An additional 277 second-class passengers, 708 third-class passengers, 885 crewmembers, and 13 postal clerks and musicians filled cabins on the lower decks

For four days the ship's elite passengers reveled in the brand new amenities of the Titanic ship, replete with every modern luxury known at the time. During the early part of the 20th century, it was considered quite sophisticated for wealthy families to spend portions of their time in Europe, which necessitated crossing the Atlantic at least once per year. Even to these jaded travelers, however, the Titanic ship was like no other. Nothing had been spared to insure the comfort of the first class guests. The ship was even equipped with only 20 lifeboats, so that precious deck space for the first class passengers would not be taken up by bulky lifeboats.

Down below, however, it was a different story. While the luxury liner teemed with a significant number of first class passengers, hundreds of second class and third class passengers survived the first few days of the voyage in cramped compartments. Most of these individuals were immigrant families who had scraped together every bit of money they had to travel to America aboard the grandest, and supposedly, safest ship ever built.

At 11:40pm on the freezing cold, calm, and clear night of April 14, lookouts spotted an iceberg directly in Titanic's path. Captain Smith had received iceberg warnings over the wireless the last few days, and altered the ship's course slightly to the south, though now it was clear that the course had not been shifted enough. First Officer Murdoch immediately ordered a turn to port and then a stop on all engines. However, large ships like Titanic were not designed to turn rapidly. The ship was not able to clear the iceberg resulting in a scrape along the hull on the starboard side.

After the ship stopped Captain Smith ordered an inspection below decks. Just before midnight it became apparent the Titanic would sink within a few hours. A distress call was sent out and lifeboats were readied. Many passengers were initially reluctant to leave Titanic, believing the ship unsinkable. The reluctance was compounded by the passengers' fear of being separated due to the "women and children first" policy that the crew were enforcing (men were generally allowed aboard the lifeboats only as crew or oarsmen).

The trim of the ship became more pronounced only after most of the lifeboats had left, causing panic among the remaining passengers. Sadly, Titanic only had 20 lifeboats -- more than the British Board of Regulations called for at the time, yet with a total capacity of only 1178 persons - well below the number of people aboard. In the confusion not all of the lifeboats departed with a full complement of passengers. As an example, one of the boats designed to hold 40 people left the ship with only 12 aboard.

By 2:05 AM, all lifeboats except for two had been launched and the entire bow was submerged. By 2:10 AM, the stern rose from the water (possibly after the keel broke apart amidships) and the Boat Deck sank up to the waterline. At this point a large number of people were still on deck scrambling towards the highest point afloat - the stern section. As the stern rose straight up in the air, the ship broke in two pieces, and the bow sank. This was followed a few seconds later, at 2:20 AM, by the stern descending vertically into the sea. In all, 1495 people perished, many of them dying of hypothermia in the freezing water after failing to reach a lifeboat.

Among the victims were 123 first-class passengers, 159 second-class passengers, all the postmen and musicians (who continued to play as the ship sank to try and instill a sense of calm), 673 crew members, and 527 third-class passengers, many of whom were still below in the lower decks.

The last survivor of the Titanic disaster was British resident Millvina Dean, who was two months old at the time of the sinking and who passed away in 2010 at the age of 98.


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