The Titanic
Here are some facts about the Titanic.
- The RMS Titanic was launched in 1911.
- It took its maiden voyage in May 1912.
- Its captain was Captain J. Smith.
- When the Titanic left Cobh there was around 2223 passengers on board.
- There were only 16 lifeboats on board , the recommended amount was 64.
- Father Browne took the last photos of The Titanic when he disembarked in Cobh.
- The Titanic hit an iceberg in the middle of The Atlantic Ocean.
- It took two full hours for the ship to go down.
- As the ship was sinking it split in two.
- If only four compartments at the hull of the ship filled with water, it still would of been able to stay afloat.
- It cost $7,500,000 to build The RMS Titanic.
- 2 people were killed during the build.
- 20 horses were needed to transport the main anchor.
- 14,000 gallons of drinking water was used every 24 hours.
- It took 74 years to find the wreck of The Titanic.
- 2 of the 12 dogs on the boat survived.
- There was 40,000 eggs on the ship.
- The ship burned around 600 tonnes of coal a day, hand shovelled into its furnaces by a team of 176 men. Almost 100 tonnes of ash were ejected into the sea each day.
- There were 20,000 bottles of beer on board, 1,500 bottles of wine and 8,000 cigars, all for the use of first-class passengers.
- 100,000 people turned up to see the ship’s launch on May 31, 1911.
- Of the 885 crew on board, just 23 were female. 699 boarded in Southampton, and four in 10 were natives of the town.
- First-class passengers were given a music book containing 352 songs. Musicians on board were required to know them all, in case requests were made.
- The last supper served to first-class passengers consisted of 11 courses.
- John Jacob Astor IV was the richest passenger on board, with a net worth of around $85m (approximately $2bn today), and went down with the ship. One legend claims that after the ship hit the iceberg he quipped to a waiter: “I asked for ice, but this is ridiculous”.
- Another notable victim was Benjamin Guggenheim, an American businessman. Realising that the ship was going down, he and his valet, Victor Giglio, reputedly changed into their evening wear while he remarked: “We've dressed up in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen." They were last spotted on deck chairs drinking brandy and smoking cigars.
- Numerous people held tickets for the journey, but did not actually sail, including Milton S. Hershey, founder of the chocolate firm, Guglielmo Marconi, and Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, who died on the RMS Lusitania three years later.
- The last remaining survivor of the disaster, Millvina Dean, died on May 31, 2009, aged 97. She was two months old at the time.
- The iceberg was spotted at 11.40pm on April 14, 1912, by lookout Frederick Fleet, who proclaimed: “Iceberg! Right ahead!” Fleet survived the disaster and was a lookout on the RMS Oceanic during the Twenties, before serving in the Second World War. Pranksters placed a pair of binoculars on his grave in 2012 with a note “sorry they’re 100 years too late”.
- The iceberg was around 100 feet tall and came from a glacier in Greenland.
- Just 37 seconds elapsed between the sighting of the iceberg and the collision.
- First Officer William McMaster Murdoch ordered the ship to turn, but it was too large to do so in time. It has been suggested that the ship would not have sunk if it hit the iceberg head-on. Murdoch went down with the ship; a memorial to him is found in his hometown of Dalbeattie, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland.
- Edward Smith, the ship’s captain, also went down with the vessel. His last words were “"Well boys, you've done your duty and done it well. I ask no more of you. I release you. You know the rule of the sea. It's every man for himself now, and God bless you." A statue of him can be seen in Lichfield, Staffordshire.
- A lifeboat drill, scheduled for April 14, was cancelled for unknown reasons.
- Only 306 bodies were found.
- The Titanic movie was filmed in a paddleing pool.