Titanic

Titanic

I’m going to tell you something about the Titanic. At the time it was built, it was the biggest moving object ever created. She was nearly the length of three football fields, that’s nearly a sixth of a mile. The Titanic was built in Belfast, Ireland, by Harland and Wolff shipbuilders.
They decided to build 3 ships that would be the largest and most luxerious ships the world had seen so far. It contained 2 swimmingpools, a gym, squash courts, private promonade. These were all unusual things to have on a ship.

The ship was devided into the first, second and third class. The first class was very sumptious and therefor attracted many important and rich people. A first class ticket cost about $ 4,000 which translates into $50.000 dollars today.
In the second class, which was still very luxerious, were mostly middle class people like schoolteachers. Third class was filled with emigrants of europe who went to the New World, hoping to build a better life.

It was April the 10th, 1912, when the Titanic leaved her mooring-place, to start on her first ocean trip. After short stops in France, Ireland, the Titanic would be ready to begin her first crossing over the Atlantic to her final destination New York. Two days later was the first icebergs-warning and on April the 14th saw Fred Fleed out of the crow’s nest a very big iceberg straight ahead, he calls the bridge to raise alarm. First Officer William Murdoch ordered the engines stopped and turned hard to port and he secured the 15 watertight doors. Despite these efforts, the Titanic scraped against the iceberg for 10 seconds on her starboard side. Captain Smith and Andrews inspected the ship for themselves and found that the iceberg had damaged the ship’s plates in five or six of her watertight compartments. They quickly realized that the ship would sink, since it could not remain afloat with more than four compartments flooded. Seawater had already risen 14 feet above the keel, and water was bursting in from the forepeak to boiler room 5 as the ship began sinking by the bow. Many of the passengers, however, had no idea that the ship was in grave danger. After the collision, many gathered in the corridors half-dressed. Passengers at first refuse to believe the floating palace would indeed founder, as the Titanic was known as unsinkable. They even said that God himself couldn’t sink the ship.

There where 16 wooden lifeboats and four collapsible boats. There where only seats for just 1178 people, but the ship carried about 2208 souls. So only the half of the people on board of the ship could be saved. 20 minutes later the order is given to start loading women and children into the boats. The orchestra starts playing ragtime music.

It was 20 minutes to 2, and the bow of the titanic was already under water. Suddenly the first funnel broke, and smashed many swimmers.

The hull broke between the third an fourth funnel. At 2:17 the stern rose almost vertically into the sky, stopped and pivoted. The Titanic’s light flickered and finally went out, as the ship at last eased into the water and sank below the surface of the sea. And at 20 past 2 am was the titanic disappeared. There were 1500 victims. And there where 705 survivors.

Today she is known as the ship of the widows, because so many women lost their husband that night. Captain Edward Smith went into the deep too.

How was it ever possible that the Titanic sank?
At first it was because they ignored the ice warnings. They were so busy with the private telegrams, that they only sent it to the bridge when they weren’t so busy anymore. They even sent a telegram to one of the ships that warned them: Shut up, shut up. I’m busy.

Also captain Smith ordered to speed up that night. They think that he was trying to break the record of Titanic’s sister the Olympic.

But that wasn’t enough trouble yet. The people in the crows nest couldn’t find there telescope. That night was a calm, moonless night. With more wind they would have seen the iceberg earlier, because of the breakers that would have smashed against the iceberg.

And last: because the Titanic scraped against the starboard, 5 compartments flood. Probably when she just striked head-on, she would not have been sunk.

This all together was the beginning of the end.

Once again the Titanic has become the talk of the day. But why? The story of the Titanic has become a legend probably because the world changed after the Titanic slipped beneath the waves of the Atlantic ocean. Before that time man's faith in human achievement was infinite. The captain of the Titanic, Smith put it into words:"I cannot imagine any condition that would cause a ship to founder. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that. "

James Cameron was very interested in the unsinkable Titanic. Likes he sais himselve:
“that’s one of the interesting things about the Titanic disaster. They thought they were the lords of the sea. They thought they had dominated nature. But nature will never be dominated.
They thought they could pave the world and drive their big, metal ships across the ocean with impunity. They were wrong.”

Cameron was even so impressed by the story, that he decided to make a movie about it; the Titanic. The movie cost about $250 million.
The model of the ship in James’ film was built 90 percent to scale. He replicated everything from the original ship, from chandeliers to wallpapers. It took 3 years to make the movie. With a great cast the movie was a big succes. They received 11 oscars out of their 14 nominations.