April 15th, 2012, marks the 100th year anniversary of the most memorable marine tragedy in the world: the sinking of Titanic.
Known to many as “the ship of dreams,” Titanic, because of its magnificent structure, was said to be unsinkable and indestructible.
According to historyonthenet.com, the 882 foot, 9 inch, 52,310 ton ship began its construction in Belfast by the shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff. The oversized vessel was constructed with 16 water tight compartments which had the ability to sense water levels and shut down automatically if the water levels exceeded a specific height. As quoted from the previous mentioned site, “Titanic was designed to stay afloat if any two to four compartments became flooded”. Unfortunately, Titanic had six compartments that flooded enabling it to sink.
“The ship of dreams” contained 24 double-ended boilers and five single-ended boilers. The ship was made up of 70,000 tons of steel. By the time Titanic’s construction was complete, the total cost came to $7.5 million (1912).
Titanic was designed to give its first class passengers room to make their voyage as comfortable and luxurious as possible. There were 337 people in first class, 285 in second class, 721 in third class and 885 crew members on board as written on titnaicfacts.com. This makes a total of 2,228 lives on board the most magnificent ship in history. For a ship of this magnitude and high volume of passengers, many would be surprised to know that Titanic was only equipped with 20 life boats; each of which had a maximum capacity of 65 individuals. This was hardly enough room for even half of the amount of people on board. Why such a deficit of life boats? Besides the rumor that Titanic was “unsinkable”, the builders believed that more room was needed for the decks. It was all about luxury, not safety per say.
On April 14th, 1912, tragedy struck when Titanic side-swiped a large iceberg. No one, not even Captain Edward John Smith, could have predicted the history about to be made. Around 11:50 p.m., 14 feet of water had poured in and rose above 14 feet on the bow. This was when the captain realized that the “ship of dreams” was going to sink. Life boats began to fill quickly and when the final life boat left the ship, 1,500 people were still on board. As stated by historyonthenet.com, 2:20am on April 15th marked the splitting point of the ship. The grand vessel split violently, leaving the decks unbelievably steep. The ship slowly sunk vertically into the below freezing waters. If passengers didn’t drown from the vessel’s suction upon entering the water, they either froze to death or committed suicide in some form.
That cold spring night, 1,523 lives were lost, while only 705 survivors made it to Carpathia, Titanic’s rescue ship. Around 9 p.m. on April 18th, 1912, Carpathia made her way safely to New York. From April 22nd to May 15th, several ships were sent to the disaster site to recover bodies. Of the 1,523 individuals that died, only 328 were found floating in the area.
In remembrance of Titanic, several memorial cruises are setting sail in April 2012 to give passengers the Titanic experience (minus the sinking). Cruises will either depart from New York or Southampton, England, as did the original Titanic. They will take the same route as the “ship of dreams” and make a stop over the crash spot of the real Titanic, as well as hold a memorial service for the many lives lost. For more information about the 100th year anniversary of the Titanic cruise, you can log onto titanicmemorialcruise.co.uk/ or call 866-800-0719 toll free.
ELENA ESPOSITO
Sophomore, Manatee High School
Activities: Volunteer ministry and helps her mom who is a teacher. Medical academy.
Quote: “I love writing, which is why I chose to take Journalism. I like a challenge, so school is always an adventure.”
