100 years ago today, on the 15th of April 1912,
the Titanic sunk in the Atlantic Ocean. 1,517 people lost their lives because
of the sinking, most of which were in third class. Without a doubt, the sinking
of the Titanic is the most famous sinking ever, but why?
The Titanic and her sister ships Olympic and Britannic were
the largest ever built at the time. Harland and Wolff, the company that built the ships,
had to demolish three slip ways and replace them with two in Belfast, Northern Ireland
to accommodate the giant ships. The Titanic’s fame has been helped by films
such as Titanic and A Night to Remember. The ship is connected to many cities,
it was built in Belfast and registered to Liverpool, it launched from
Southampton and picked up passengers in Cherbourg, France and Cobh (formally Queenstown),
Ireland. The ship was destined for New York City and had many American
passengers.
The reason for the Titanic being designated "the unsinkable ship" isn't as absurd as it sounds. The reason for this is that the ship's exterior was built with lots of compartments along the hull. If the hull was breached in one compartment then the ship would not sink as only that compartment would be affected. What happened with the Titanic was that the iceberg hit the side of the ship and ruptured the hull in numerous compartments, this caused these compartments to flood with water. With so much weight on one side of the ship, the Titanic began to lean to one side. From there on in the Titanic was doomed.
The most infamous reason for the loss of so many lives is the lack of lifeboats and the fact that many were only half full. What is not widely known is the fact that the tragedy could have been far worse, due to a coal miners strike the Titanic was significantly under capacity. Excluding crew, the ship had capacity for 2,566 passengers whereas only 1,317 actually were on the ship. This meant that there were 1,239 spaces on the ship! If the ship had been full to capacity then the death toll could have been closer to 3,000 people! At this time it was very unusual that a ship leaving Britain for America would have been under capacity, if it hadn't been for the strike then it almost certainly would have been full.
Unfortunately the last survivor of the disaster, Millvina Dean, died in 2009 at the age of 97 (she was only nine weeks old when the Titanic sunk). With the final human connexion to the Titanic gone the ship can begin to fade into memory. Yet it will never disappear, the Titanic is hugely important to the revival of Belfast, the new Titanic museum came at a price of £100 million and is aiming at attracting 400,000 people annually. It is also a horrible human tragedy, one of worst cases of accidental death in history. The romance and mysticism surrounding the Titanic will also never go away and it will continue to amaze people for generations. Supposedly the last song played on the Titanic is "Nearer my God to Thee", the hymn has been immortalised by tragedy, the bravery of many of the crew and others aboard the Titanic is beyond touching. The band that played to the end, the captain of the ship and the men that could have survived but let women and children go first. These people will never, and should never be forgotten. Lest we forget.
The reason for the Titanic being designated "the unsinkable ship" isn't as absurd as it sounds. The reason for this is that the ship's exterior was built with lots of compartments along the hull. If the hull was breached in one compartment then the ship would not sink as only that compartment would be affected. What happened with the Titanic was that the iceberg hit the side of the ship and ruptured the hull in numerous compartments, this caused these compartments to flood with water. With so much weight on one side of the ship, the Titanic began to lean to one side. From there on in the Titanic was doomed.
The most infamous reason for the loss of so many lives is the lack of lifeboats and the fact that many were only half full. What is not widely known is the fact that the tragedy could have been far worse, due to a coal miners strike the Titanic was significantly under capacity. Excluding crew, the ship had capacity for 2,566 passengers whereas only 1,317 actually were on the ship. This meant that there were 1,239 spaces on the ship! If the ship had been full to capacity then the death toll could have been closer to 3,000 people! At this time it was very unusual that a ship leaving Britain for America would have been under capacity, if it hadn't been for the strike then it almost certainly would have been full.
Unfortunately the last survivor of the disaster, Millvina Dean, died in 2009 at the age of 97 (she was only nine weeks old when the Titanic sunk). With the final human connexion to the Titanic gone the ship can begin to fade into memory. Yet it will never disappear, the Titanic is hugely important to the revival of Belfast, the new Titanic museum came at a price of £100 million and is aiming at attracting 400,000 people annually. It is also a horrible human tragedy, one of worst cases of accidental death in history. The romance and mysticism surrounding the Titanic will also never go away and it will continue to amaze people for generations. Supposedly the last song played on the Titanic is "Nearer my God to Thee", the hymn has been immortalised by tragedy, the bravery of many of the crew and others aboard the Titanic is beyond touching. The band that played to the end, the captain of the ship and the men that could have survived but let women and children go first. These people will never, and should never be forgotten. Lest we forget.
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| RMS Titanic |
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