Page 60 - All About History - Issue 09-14

The unsinkable ship

made worse due to the fact that no ship building of
this size had been attempted before. Construction
of the Titanic began in the spring of 1909 and
was carried out by the men of Harland and Wolff,
the firm given the mammoth task. During its
construction just under 250 injuries were recorded,
with 28 of these classified as ‘severe’, where limbs
were severed by the gigantic cutting machinery or
workers were crushed on the building site by stray
pieces of metal. Official figures put the death count
during the making of the ship at nine; these would
not be the last deaths caused by the ship made to
be the last word in luxury. The Titanic and the Olympic were built at the same time
The docks at Southampton on 9 April 1912
were a flurry of activity; high-class gentlemen and
ladies arrived in motorcars with servants carrying
their luggage filled with the finest clothes, silent-
film stars milled about and families looking for a
new life and adventure on the other side of the
world in the United States tried to control their
excitable children from running around the deck.
The ship may have been luxurious but it was
financially unfeasible to fill a ship this size with
only the upper class, so different-class tickets were
available: A first-class ticket cost between £30 A group of shipbuilders gather under the
($50) and £660 ($1,080) – or £1,875 ($3,060) to Titanic’s propellers to give an idea of its size
£41,000 ($67,000) in today’s money. Second-class
tickets were available from £12 ($20) – £750 ($1230)
in today’s money, and buried out of sight in the
bottom of the ship, a third-class ticket could be
purchased from £3 ($5), which equals £190 ($310)
today. The largest third-class cabins could hold ten
passengers, a world away from the resplendent
luxury of first class.
At 12pm the next day the passengers boarded
the ship and its journey began. There were 2,223
people on board (1,324 passengers), of which there
were 13 couples on their honeymoon. The journey
almost got off to an inauspicious start when, after
pulling away from Southampton docks, the wash
from the giant ship’s propeller caused a laid-up The iceberg that it is believed sunk the Titanic The Titanic under construction
ship called New York to break from her moorings

1. Journey begins
5. Warnings ignored On 10 April 1912, the
The Californian, a ship not far away Titanic sets sail on her
from the Titanic, sends an ice maiden voyage from
warning at around 7.30pm on 14 Southampton, England to
April. Captain Smith is at dinner and New York, USA.
doesn’t receive the message. Later
that night the Titanic radio operator
receives more ice warnings that 3. Ireland
The Titanic stops
6. Iceberg ahead evening but doesn’t act on them at Queenstown in
At approximately 11.40pm as he is busy sending and receiving Ireland to pick up
7. New York on 14 April, the Titanic passenger messages. its final passengers.
The passengers rescued by the strikes an iceberg. 20
ship Carpathia arrive in New York minutes later the captain
on 18 April to be met by friends, orders the crew to ready
family and a throng of press. the lifeboats.

4. Ice warnings 2. First stop
While en route through the The ship stops at
Atlantic, the Titanic receives Cherbourg in France
numerous ice warnings from to pick up more
other vessels. passengers.

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