Titanic- A history
In 1907 J. Bruce Ismay "Bruce" met at the home of the managing director of Harland & Wolff Ship Yards- Lord Pirrie for dinner with Pierrie and his wife- After dinner when the ladies retired to the reading room the men retired to the sitting room to talk- The talk led to the idea of 3 ships to compete in sizre and luxary againest the British owned Cunard ships Lusitania and Mauritania. The idea was for 3 large liners each waying 45,000 tons and nearly 900 ft long- The resulting ships were Olympic, Titanic and Gigantic (later Brittanic {2}). The ships would begin consuction in slipsthat featued the larges cranes ever bult and slips that were enlarged to build them- The first keel laid down was Olympic given yard number 400- and then Titanic a few months later with 401. Then on May 31st 1911 The Titanic was launched on the same day that Olympic was top begin her sea trials.
During construction of the Titanic there was several things that halted the work- a curse was thought to excist because it was believed that workers were trapped in the hull because of the speed of the work.
No one knows how this actually occured but in a city of Catholics it was bound to happen- The hull number appeared to spell NO POPE to a group of men who quickly stopped work- The number was- 3909 04 and given the 4 is fudged a little could spell out that title- It took the officals at the yard to convince the men that number meant nothing-
Work was halted twice do to mishaps of the Olympic- After a collision the Olympic was brought to the yard for repairs- this ment pulling men off Titanic to make the repairs- Then a second situation occured in February 1912 when Olympic lost a propeller blade. This again took workers from Titanic.
The origianal sailing date for Titanic was in February, 1912 but the 2 situations with Olympic made that impossable and caused the date to be pushed back- April 10,1912
A coal strike in England had just ended in early April 1912 and a lot of people were out of work- This meant transferring people to a different ship- Titanic.
April 14,1912- 11:40 pm- Titanic's crows nest bell is rung 3 times- Fredrick Fleet- one of the 2 look outs picks up[ the phone in a box and rings for the bridge- The officer on the other end picks up- "Yes what do you see?"
"Iceberg- right ahead" States Fleet
"Iceberg Right Ahead thank you -iceberg right ahead"
The officer in charge- WM Murdoch orders "Hard a Starboard" and at the same time rings to the engine room Full Speed reverse- in an effort to "port" around the ominous berg- the at 11:40:30 the accsident happens- The Titanic strikes a fatal blow. Shortly after the master ship builder- the nephew to Lord Pierrie- Thomas Andrews states that the first 5 compartments are foloded and gives an hour, hour and a half at the most.
At 2:20 am April 15,1912 the ship sinks below the waves with over 1500 people still on board
Today- the ship rests 2 and a half miles down and is expected to collapse on itself with in 10 to 20 years- She is in a fitting spot on a gently sloping Alpine like setting-
- The new Titanic is to be built to thesame look however a few notable (and to me incorrect) differeces- First- noticable will be a lower boatdeck instead of the boat deck up top- this is called a safety deck- second a casino- Pre-screening will take palce before anyone can use it- Price for 1st class ticket 1 way will be $80,000 minimum. The builder states that he will observe the 3 classes. He also says prnsioners be ware- in otherwords the tickets are beyond reach of most.
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