Titanic
RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States.
Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, more than 1,500 died, making it the deadliest sinking of a single ship up to that time.[a]
It remains the deadliest peacetime sinking of an ocean liner or cruise ship.[4] The disaster drew public attention, spurred major changes in maritime safety regulations, and inspired many artistic works.
RMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat at the time she entered service and the second of three *Olympic*-class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line.
She was built by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast.
Thomas Andrews, the chief naval architect of the shipyard, died in the disaster.
Titanic was under the command of Captain Edward Smith, who went down with the ship.
The ocean liner carried some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of emigrants from the British Isles, Scandinavia, and elsewhere throughout Europe, who were seeking a new life in the United States and Canada.
The first-class accommodation was designed to be the pinnacle of comfort and luxury, with a gymnasium, swimming pool, smoking rooms, high-class restaurants and cafes, a Turkish bath, and hundreds of opulent cabins.
A high-powered radiotelegraph transmitter was available for sending passenger "marconigrams" and for the ship's operational use.
Titanic had advanced safety features, such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, contributing to its reputation as "unsinkable".
Titanic was equipped with 16 lifeboat davits, each capable of lowering three lifeboats, for a total of 48 boats.
However, she actually carried only 20 lifeboats, four of which were collapsible and proved hard to launch while she was sinking (Collapsible A nearly swamped and was filled with a foot of water until rescue; Collapsible B completely overturned while launching).
Together, the 20 lifeboats could hold 1,178 people—about half the number of passengers on board, and one-third of the number of passengers the ship could have carried at full capacity (a number consistent with the maritime safety regulations of the era).
When the ship sank, the lifeboats that had been lowered were only filled up to an average of 60%.
Titanic's passengers numbered approximately 1,317 people: 324 in First Class, 284 in Second Class, and 709 in Third Class.
Of these, 869 (66%) were male and 447 (34%) female.
There were 107 children aboard, the largest number of whom were in Third Class.[116]
The ship was considerably under-capacity on her maiden voyage, as she could accommodate 2,453 passengers—833 First Class, 614 Second Class, and 1,006 Third Class.[117]
Usually, a high-prestige vessel like Titanic could expect to be fully booked on its maiden voyage.
However, a national coal strike in the UK had caused considerable disruption to shipping schedules in the spring of 1912, causing many crossings to be cancelled.
Many would-be passengers chose to postpone their travel plans until the strike was over.
The strike had finished a few days before Titanic sailed; however, that was too late to have much of an effect. Titanic was able to sail on the scheduled date only because coal was transferred from other vessels which were tied up at Southampton, such as SS *City of New York* and RMS *Oceanic, as well as coal that *Olympic had brought back from a previous voyage to New York, which had been stored at the White Star Dock.[94]
Some of the most prominent people of the day booked a passage aboard Titanic, travelling in First Class. Among them (with those who perished marked with a dagger†) were the American millionaire John Jacob Astor IV† and his wife, Madeleine Force Astor (with John Jacob Astor VI in utero); industrialist Benjamin Guggenheim†; painter and sculptor Francis Davis Millet†; Macy's owner Isidor Straus† and his wife, Ida†; Denver millionairess Margaret "Molly" Brown;[i] Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon and his wife, couturière Lucy (Lady Duff-Gordon); Lieut. Col. Arthur Peuchen; writer and historian Archibald Gracie; cricketer and businessman John B. Thayer† with his wife, Marian, and son Jack; George Dunton Widener† with his wife, Eleanor, and son Harry†; Noël Leslie, Countess of Rothes; Mr.† and Mrs. Charles M. Hays; Mr. and Mrs. Henry S. Harper; Mr.† and Mrs. Walter D. Douglas; Mr.† and Mrs. George D. Wick; Mr.† and Mrs. Henry B. Harris; Mr.† and Mrs. Arthur L. Ryerson; Mr.† and Mrs.† Hudson J. C. Allison; Mr. and Mrs. Dickinson Bishop; noted architect Edward Austin Kent†; brewery heir Harry Molson†; tennis players Karl Behr and Dick Williams; author and socialite Helen Churchill Candee; future lawyer and suffragette Elsie Bowerman and her mother Edith; journalist and social reformer William Thomas Stead†; journalist and fashion buyer Edith Rosenbaum, Philadelphia and New York socialite Edith Corse Evans†; wealthy divorcée Charlotte Drake Cardeza; French sculptor Paul Chevré; author Jacques Futrelle† with his wife May; silent film actress Dorothy Gibson with her mother Pauline; President of the Swiss Bankverein, Col. Alfons Simonius-Blumer; James A. Hughes's daughter Eloise; banker Robert Williams Daniel; the chairman of the Holland America Line, Johan Reuchlin [de]; Arthur Wellington Ross's son John H. Ross; Washington Roebling's nephew Washington A. Roebling II; Andrew Saks's daughter Leila Saks Meyer with her husband Edgar Joseph Meyer† (son of Marc Eugene Meyer); William A. Clark's nephew Walter M. Clark with his wife, Virginia; a great-great-grandson of soap manufacturer Andrew Pears, Thomas C. Pears, with wife; John S. Pillsbury's honeymooning grandson John P. Snyder and wife Nelle; Dorothy Parker's New York manufacturer uncle Martin Rothschild with his wife, Elizabeth; and many others.[118]
Titanic's owner J. P. Morgan was scheduled to travel on the maiden voyage but cancelled at the last minute.[119]
Also aboard the ship were the White Star Line's managing director J. Bruce Ismay and Titanic's designer Thomas Andrews†, who was on board to observe any problems and assess the general performance of the new ship.[120]
The exact number of people aboard is not known, as not all of those who had booked tickets made it to the ship; about 50 people cancelled for various reasons,[121] and not all of those who boarded stayed aboard for the entire journey.[122]
Fares varied depending on class and season.
Third Class fares from London, Southampton, or Queenstown cost £7 5s (equivalent to £800 today) while the cheapest First Class fares cost £23 (£2,400 today).[104]
The most expensive First Class suites were to have cost up to £870 in high season (£92,000 today).[117]