You have probably watched the film Titanic. However, there are facts about it that you don’t know.
“Until the moment she actually sinks, the Titanic is unsinkable.” — Julia Hughes
Titanic The Ship
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The making of the largest ship listed 246 wounded accidents and two lives lost in Belfast. Only 23 out of the 885 workers were females. The anchor needed twenty horses to carry it, and the ship’s passage to River Lagan smeared over 22 tons of soap and beef or mutton fat.
The interior of the large ship was inspired by a Hotel in London, Ritz Hotel. The amenities in the hotel included a gym, pool, a kennel for high-class dogs, and a squash court. The Ship even had its own publishing paper on board, titled The Atlantic Daily Bulletin.
Measuring 882 feet in length, and the largest moving object in the world, it was the largest ship during its time. At the time of its sinking, there were only four collapsible boats on board and sixteen wooden lifeboats. These lifeboats could accommodate 1, 178 persons, accounting for just a third of its passenger capacity.
Many individuals who held ticket of the Titanic had bought the ticket but failed to actually sail on board. Among them were Milton Hershey and Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt.
The Luxury
On the 31st of May 1911, over a hundred thousand people attended the launch of Titanic. Aboard the Titanic were the 26 honeymoon couples. One hundred and seventy-six men hand shoveled 600 tons of coal, 100 tons of which went into the sea each day. For the first-class passengers were about 20,000 beer bottles on board, 1,500 bottles of wine, and about 8,000 cigars.
The musicians on board Titanic needed to know a lot of songs in case there were requests by the passengers. There were 352 two songs. Furthermore, 11 courses were served to the first-class passengers’ last meal. Cherbourg in France and Cobh in Ireland were the two stops that Titanic made after leaving Southampton.
The Tragedy
Six warnings were given to the Titanic throughout the journey. The infamous iceberg that was hit by the Titanic came from a glacier in Greenland, which was around 100 feet tall. All it took were just 37 seconds between the time of sighting the iceberg and its collision with the ship. Due to unknown reasons, a lifeboat drill was cancelled on the 14th of April.
It was around 2:20 in the morning when the ship broke down into two with its passengers down in the cold ocean. Only a few were expected to have survived temperatures of -2 °C in 15 minutes while one out of five would have died of shock in the cold. When the ship sank, the musical players had been playing for two hours and five minutes.
Titanic’s baker, Charles Joughin, trod the cold water for over two hours before he was rescued. Thanks to the amount of whiskey he had taken, he had not felt the cold.
Only 306 bodies were found and brought to Nova Scotia, and only two of the nine dogs on board were rescued. Sunk by a German submarine, SS Californian was criticized for neglecting Titanic’s distress signal. Over 40,000 people waited at Pier 54 for the RMS Carpathia at 4am for the arrival of survivors in New York.
The Shipwreck
The ship was ordered to turn by First Officer William McMaster Murdoch, but it was too large. Experts say that had it met the iceberg head-on, the Titanic wouldn’t have sunk. The Maritime Museum reserved a section containing the things recovered from the shipwreck.
The shipwreck was discovered in the year 1985, 370 miles off Newfoundland and 12,500 feet below the surface. It had sunk 18 meters into the seabed. Expeditions have offered trips to the shipwreck, but this stopped it in 2012. Among all the documentaries and films made about the ship, one stood out from the rest. Joseph Goebbels released it in 1943.
The Passengers
Frederick Fleet proclaimed that he saw the iceberg at 11:40pm. He survived the disaster and even served in the Second World War.
Millvina Dean, 97, died on May 31, 2009. She was two months old at the time of the sinking of the Titanic. She was listed as the last remaining survivor.
The richest passenger aboard the Titanic was John Jacob Astor IV. His net worth was around $85 million (an equivalent of $2 billion today).
Titanic’s captain, Edward Smith went down with the ship. Speaking his last words, he told the crew to do their duties well and releases them to save themselves.
An American businessman Benjamin Guggenheim and his valet, Victor Giglio, changed their clothes into a proper evening wear to prepare ‘going down’ like gentlemen. They were last spotted drinking brandy and smoking cigars.
The Film
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The 1997 James Cameron-film was, without a doubt, one of the most successful movies. It earned over $2 billion and won 11 Oscars Awards.
“My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion got the biggest single in 1998 and was covered by many other famous artist worldwide.
