On May 31, 1911, in Belfast, the brief and tragic life of one of the most famous passenger ships, the Titanic, began. The liner became the largest vessel of its time and a literal embodiment of progress. However, the giant was destined to complete only one voyage, after which the ship would forever remain in history.
Ruler of the Seas
According to contemporaries, about 100,000 spectators gathered that day at the Irish shipyard Harland & Wolff. The ceremony proceeded without champagne – two signal rockets were fired instead. By that time, the second of the three Olympic-class ships of the White Star Line was not yet fully ready: the engine room, interiors, and funnels were yet to be installed in dry dock. The empty Titanic’s weight was 24,360 tons – less than half of its final weight. Nevertheless, launching such a behemoth was no easy feat.
The inclined slipway down which the ship’s hull slid was lubricated with 22 tons of soap, animal fat, and solidol. The liner made its way to the water in 62 seconds. Chain brakes prevented it from colliding with the opposite bank, but not without incident: a worker, James Dobbins, fell under a collapsing wooden support and died from his injuries. In total, eight people died during the construction of the Titanic.
By April of the following year, the liner was ready, becoming the largest moving object ever created by man. Its dimensions were 269 meters long and 28 meters wide, with a displacement exceeding 52,000 tons. The four funnels of the colossus were visible from several miles away (only three were functional – the fourth was for ventilation). The construction cost was colossal – about 1.5 million pounds sterling. The White Star Line anticipated a long and profitable period of operation.
Critical Vulnerability
On April 10, 1912, the Titanic set sail from Southampton on its first and only voyage to New York. On board were 2,208 people, including the crew. Among the first-class passengers were industrialists, politicians, and other members of high society. For instance, millionaire John Jacob Astor IV, Benjamin Guggenheim, one of America’s wealthiest men, Isidor Straus, co-owner of Macy’s, with his wife Ida, and others. In third class, Irish and Eastern European emigrants traveled, with all their belongings fitting into a single suitcase.
The White Star Line advertised the vessel as “practically unsinkable.” Structurally, the liner had 16 watertight compartments, with bulkheads between them controlled from the bridge. Theoretically, the ship could stay afloat even if four of these compartments were flooded.
In the evening of April 14, 1912, the Titanic was crossing the North Atlantic at full speed – about 22 knots. During the day, the ship received six ice warnings from other vessels, but Captain Edward Smith did not alter course. At 23:39, lookout sailor Frederick Fleet spotted an obstacle. “I reported – iceberg right ahead. I rang the alarm bell three times. Then I immediately went to the telephone and called the bridge” (from testimony at the US Senate hearings).
The lookouts did not have binoculars, so Fleet saw the danger too late. The officers on the bridge managed to order “full astern” and turn left, but the submerged part of the iceberg scraped along the starboard side, breaching the first five compartments for nearly 90 meters. The Titanic’s safety system was not designed for such extensive damage.
Drowning by Their Own Hand
The ship’s designer, Thomas Andrews, who was also on board the liner that fateful night, was urgently summoned by Captain Smith for consultation. Andrews confirmed: the ship would sink within an hour and a half. At 0:05, the captain ordered the crew to prepare the lifeboats and also instructed the radio operators to transmit a distress signal.
Carl Jönsson, a young Swedish emigrant and third-class passenger, later recalled feeling only a slight jolt and a creak that woke him. He was about to go back to sleep, and only the visit of ship officers forced him to start getting ready. “As I began to dress, I noticed that water was coming up to my feet. At first, it rose very slowly, but after some time, it was already up to my ankles” (The New York Times, April 19, 1912).
At 1:20, water began to flood the forward part of the deck. Meanwhile, third-class passengers could not ascend to the upper decks because the security personnel, not realizing the scale of the disaster, did not unlock the gates separating them from the first and second-class areas. Jack Thayer, a seventeen-year-old heir to a wealthy Pennsylvania family, jumped into the water minutes before the ship broke apart. In the icy water, he managed to witness the final moments of the Titanic, which he later described in his memoirs.
“The cold was monstrous. The impact with the water knocked the air out of my lungs. I twisted in all directions, swam with all my might – and finally surfaced. The ship was forty yards from me. The water was already at the base of the first funnel. A mass of people on board shifted backward, further and further towards the stern. Then, with a dull sound of bursting bulkheads, the ship silently slipped away from us into the sea” (from Jack Thayer’s book “The Sinking of the Steamship Titanic”).
Magnate Guggenheim was traveling on the Titanic accompanied by his mistress, Leontine Aubart, and his valet, Victor Giglio. After colliding with the iceberg, he put his companion and her maid into a lifeboat, and he, realizing there wouldn’t be enough space for everyone, dressed in a tuxedo and took a seat in the main lounge, where he leisurely sipped whiskey and observed the catastrophe. When someone offered him a chance to save himself, Guggenheim, according to eyewitnesses, replied, “We’re dressed in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen” (The New York Times, April 20, 1912).
According to Purchased Tickets
There were 20 lifeboats on board with a capacity for 1,178 people. Some of them were launched half-empty: first-class passengers simply did not believe the ship was sinking. For example, the first lifeboat, with a capacity of 40 people, took only 12 from the distressed liner. To avoid disturbing passengers on a Sunday, Captain Smith canceled the drill scheduled for that morning, rendering them unprepared for evacuation.
Third-class passenger Emily Goldsmith, who survived with her son but lost her husband in the disaster, described her rescue: “The descent to the water was the most terrifying part. The lifeboat bumped against the side of the Titanic, and once so many people were on one side that it seemed it would capsize and throw us all into the sea. <…> As we rowed away, the cries of the dying could be heard from the water, but it was so dark that we couldn’t see the people floating on the surface” (Detroit News, April 24, 1912).
Eighteen-year-old second-class passenger Bertha Ilett nearly drowned while already in a lifeboat: the rescue boat developed a leak, but she managed to transfer to a neighboring one. The young woman recalled: “I heard the band on the Titanic playing ‘Nearer My God to Thee’ and other hymns, as well as the heartbreaking screams of those who went down with the Titanic” (Passaic Daily News, April 19, 1912).
At 2:20 AM on April 15, the ship completely disappeared underwater – two hours and forty minutes after the collision. Jönsson was hit by a wave and went overboard precisely as the liner itself rapidly sank.
“When I surfaced, I saw a piece of wood floating on the water and grabbed onto it. A wave carried me away from the ship, and I began to swim, holding onto the board to keep from drowning. <…> The air was filled with shouts and curses, and there were many men and women around, trying to swim away from the ship to avoid the terrible whirlpool as it went down” (The New York Times, April 19, 1912).
Defying Death
Of the 2,208 people on board, only 710 were saved: they were picked up by the liner Carpathia, which passed through the same area four hours after the Titanic sank. Of the 79 children traveling in third-class cabins, 52 drowned, while only one child died in first and second class. “This night was a brilliant confirmation of the ‘women and children first’ principle, and yet for some reason, the mortality rate among third-class children was higher than among first-class men” (from historian Walter Lord’s book “The Last Night of the Titanic”).
“The most heartbreaking aspect of the entire tragedy was the refusal of the half-empty lifeboats to pick up the unfortunates in the water immediately after the Titanic’s sinking. There they were – perhaps four or five hundred yards away, hearing the cries – and yet they did not return” (from Jack Thayer’s book “The Sinking of the Steamship Titanic”).
American socialite Margaret Brown made history for her attempt to turn back lifeboat No. 6, where out of 65 seats, only 26 were occupied. “[Helmsman] Hitchens refused, stating that ‘there was no use going back, as they were all dead.’ <…> Angered, Brown pushed her way to the stern and took the helm herself. When he protested, she said that if he tried to approach her, she would throw him overboard” (from Stephanie L. Barczewski’s book “Titanic”: The Night That Cannot Be Forgotten”).
However, by that time, it was indeed too late to return to the crash site. When the lifeboat reached the Carpathia, Brown was distributing blankets, compiling lists of survivors and missing persons, and seeking food for the injured. Later, she organized a relief committee for the survivors and became one of the most famous symbols of the disaster, earning the nickname “The Unsinkable Molly.”
Only lifeboat No. 14, under the command of Fifth Officer Lowe, returned for passengers who were in the icy water. However, even they were too late – by then, most had died from hypothermia, as the water temperature was two degrees below zero. Officer and amateur historian Archibald Gracie spent the night on an overturned lifeboat. He began writing a book directly on board the Carpathia and died eight months later from the consequences of hypothermia. His “The Truth About the Titanic” was published posthumously in 1913.
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