The idea for Titanic came from White Star Line chairman Bruce Ismay, who wanted to build three liners, all of the highest quality in luxury and safety. The company wanted to provide greater competition to the Cunard Line, which boasted the Lusitania and Mauretania amongst their pride. Ismay wanted his new ships to surpass the Cunard vessels.
Work On Titanic Begins
On 31st March 1909, work on Titanic began but it would take over two years to complete the hull alone. In January 1910, Ismay and Titanic’s designer Alexander Carlisle met to discuss amendments to her design. They agreed to lower the bulkheads from fifteen to just ten feet and to reduce the number of lifeboats from 48 to just 16, the minimum amount allowed by the Board of Trade, whose regulations stated that all vessels over 10,000 tonnes must carry at least sixteen lifeboats; Titanic would be over 46,000 when finished.
At the same time these changes were being discussed, a huge chunk of ice weighing over two million tonnes broke off from an ice shelf off the coast of Greenland. The iceberg didn’t head straight into the Atlantic, but instead moved north around Baffin Bay in the Labrador Current before it travelling south and a collision course with the liner.
The Features Of Titanic
Titanic surpassed all other liners with luxury. It was over eight hundred feet in length and boast 416 First Class staterooms, 162 second class and 262 third class. In addition, there was an on board swimming pool, squash court, libraries and a gymnasium. The ship was equipped with two Marconi radios, one of which would be manned by two operators working alternate shifts, allowing passengers to send and receive messages, for a heavy price. Many of the operators made their wages up by sending passenger messages.
Launch Date Delayed
Work on the ship progressed and the hull was launched in May 1911. Work then began on the fitting, which would take another ten months to complete. Titanic’s launch date had initially been set for January 1912, but was delayed as the ship’s builders, Harland & Wolff had to pull resources from Titanic to carry out emergency repairs on her sister ship Olympic, which had collided with British warship HMS Hawke. The new launch date for Titanic was March 20th, but in February 1912, the Olympic again came in for emergency repairs, which again pushed Titanic’s launch date back to April, a month where icebergs in the shipping lanes were common.
Captain Smith Takes Charge
On 10th April 1912, Titanic arrived in Southampton. Captain Edward Smith, who had been with White Star Line for twenty two years, was chosen as the man to take charge of Titanic for her maiden voyage. The journey was rumoured to be his last journey before retirement, although Smith had stated he would remain in charge of Titanic until White Star Line had built a larger and finer steamer. Other than Titanic, Captain Smith had also taken charge of another White Star liner; the Olympic. Crucially, it was Captain Smith who had been in charge of the Olympic when it collided with HMS Hawke, causing Titanic’s first delay. Because of the postponed launch date, Smith made a small crew amendment, but one member he replaced had the only key to a locker that housed the binoculars and as such, they remained locked away, never to be used by the crew.
Titanic left for New York and, after stopping in France and Ireland, headed into the Atlantic to face its destiny.
Source: National Geographic: The Unsinkable Titanic, Channel 4 broadcast November 2008
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