The Birth Of Titanic

Titanic - A Night To Remember

The Birth Of Titanic

Titanic is a word which derives from ancient Greek mythology. The Titans were a race of giants well known for their great size and force, but were eventually overthrown by the Olympian gods.

The word Titanic in English now likewise means very great size:

colossal, gigantic, enormous magnitude, great power, and superior Strength.

Titanic in its day was known for its tremendous size and strength.

It was the year 1907, years before Titanic would even touch the water, managing director of the White Star Line, J. Bruce Ismay, and chairman of the shipbuilder Harland and Wolff, Lord William James Pirrie, met for dinner in London and began discussing plans for three new liners that would be like nothing the world had seen.

The three ships were to be called, Olympic, Titanic, and Gigantic.

The three ships were to be the virtually identical in size and structure, but Titanic was to be the best of all three ships. White Star, and Bruce J. Ismay came to the shipyard of Harland and Wolff in Belfast, Ireland to overlook the tentative plans for the conception of the ships.

The creation of these initial plans was under the direct supervision of the managing director and senior draftsman for Harland and Wolff Thomas Andrews. He oversaw virtually every detail from blueprint to maiden voyage.

Harland and Wolff and the White Star Line had always had a very loyal partnership, but White Star was in great competition with another shipbuilding company called Cunard line.

The Cunard line was highly successful with the Mauretania and Lusitania and their speed records for crossing the Atlantic.

At this time in history ships were the only means for crossing the oceans, and since crossing the Atlantic still took several days, people would unfortunately spend a great amount of time on ocean liners.

Both ocean liner companies understood this.

The Cunard company put more emphasis on speed, and their revolutionary turbine engines. The White Star Line company however thought more of size, luxury, comfortability with a slightly slower voyage. The newly designed liners promised to be better than the Cunard ships in more than one respect. The White Star Line ships would have both steam engines,(which was normal for that time period), and a turbine engine. Which was to power the center of three propellers. Watertight compartments, and a double plated hull was to promise the maximum in security.

A year and a half after the plans were idealized for the three grand ships, the keel was laid for the first of the three, Olympic.

The plans for Titanic transpired at the home of Lord James Pirrie. Which is known as the Downshire House.

Bruce Ismay met with Pirrie and discussed the Lusitania and Cunard. The Lusitania was said to be able to break speed records, and this scared the two men. It also induced both men to use their partnership against Cunard, and in the end obtain the Atlantic route. Thus, the Titanic was born.

The two men created a plan that was a sure fire way to beat Cunard. Using both men's knowledge, they would build two ships that would be bigger than the Lusitania.(Almost 100 more feet than the Lusitania) The ships would be so big that no shipyard in the world would have a dock big enough to build them.

There would be no crane large enough to build such grand ships.

These would be the new luxury liners.

The two men wasted no time transferring from idea to drawing board. The Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, began talking of converting three berths into two. The biggest gantry in the history of the world was about to be built for the Titanic.

Over time the plans for Titanic were to be edited and re-edited. In the first set of plans there were to be three stacks, but Pirrie believed that four stacks would work better with the design. So the plans were re-edited with four stacks instead of three. The gym was moved to the top deck instead of being in the lower decks. To save room the spa was to be smaller in size. The number of elevators for each class of passengers were changed. In the end there would be three elevators for the first class passengers, and only one for the lower class passengers.

And thus is the birth of Titanic

One of the most interesting fact about Titanic was that she was never christened. The shipyard Harland and Wolff never christened any of their ships. They still don't to this day. That was very odd for a ship in that day and time.Some believe that was the reason Titanic sank.

At exactly 12:05pm two rockets were fired into the open air. Five minutes after that a single rocket was fired into the air also, bidding Titanic a fond farewell.

In an instant all of Titanic's surroundings magical came to life. The tugs blew their horns, men whistled, women waved their handkerchiefs, and multitudes of people cheered as Titanic made her sixty-two (900ft) journey.

Titanic traveled almost 12 knots before she was stopped by two 80 ton cables, and six anchors.

Much work was done to make this event spectacular. It took nearly twenty-three tons of soft soap, oil (train), and tallow, to make Titanic's launching possible. There was a lot of work involved in this as well.

Titanic was placed in the fitting-out basin. Once this was done, it took nearly ten months, and millions of man hours to finish her luxurious interiors.

Titanic was dry-docked and her propellers were fitted on February 3, 1912.

The final coat of paint was applied to Titanic's hull, and the Titanic was now ready for her voyage.

Captain Smith boarded the ship at around 7 in the morning on April 2, 1912. Later in the day the streets became crowded. They became even more crowded as the ticket-holders came in multitudes to board the famous "Ship Of Dreams".

Everything was going well by noon, and Titanic pulled in her anchors, and along with tugs, she began her journey into history.