The Titanic Essay

Submitted By COKIS
Words: 1689
Pages: 7

British luxury liner Titanic departed from Southampton,England towards New York April 1912. Not too far from New York, Titanic ignored iceberg warnings and blazed onwards, struck an iceberg, then sank less than three hours later in the North Atlantic. This marked the death of the “Unsinkable” ship and the beginning of new safety precautions for sea travel.

The Titanic, also known to be the greatest ship made in the history of ships, was “unsinkable.” “According to one deckhand onboard to a passenger as stated in (Disasters: Natural & Man-Made Catastrophes Through the Centuries) “Not even god himself could not sink this ship.”” Those words would soon be considered tough talk after the Titanic began her journey across the North Atlantic. The Titanic took 3 years to build with 15,000+ men to construct it, the ship consisted of 26 boilers and each was as tall as a house , three million rivets to hold the steel plates together which were installed by the newly invented hydraulic machines, but hand hammering was required on the curved bow of the ship. The rivets used on the bow were composed of wrought iron and slag which would later play a very important role in the life of the Titanic. On top of all the rivets and boilers that were used in the construction of the ship, (she) was fitted with turbo engines that could provide extra power without using more coal, a double bottom hull, and fifteen watertight compartments that could be closed by “Simply moving an electric switch.” (Disasters: Natural & Man-Made Catastrophes Through the Centuries) Although the compartments were designed to make the ship unsinkable by preventing the flow of water, the walls of these compartments did not extend to the next floor, leaving a gap for the overflow of water if it reached to high, a flaw in the ships design by Thomas Andrews.

It may be unknown that the Titanic encountered a serious issue in the departure from Southampton. While cruising out of the harbor the massive ship passed by the New York, which sucked the smaller ship towards the Titanic. The massive ship kicked it's turbines into reverse while Tug Boats pulled against the pull of the New York. As the Titanic reversed, the bow of the small ship swung out in front of the larger ship, the location of where she would have been had she not backtracked. This incident caused great fear among passengers and those on land, they feared that some ships were just to large to handle and serious accidents would result in such great behemoths. After an hours delay the Titanic sailed off towards New York across the North Atlantic without fear, it was the very first journey the ship had ever been taken on. Captain Edward J. Smith was chosen to command the Titanic during her journeys, he had 24 years of experience and was favored greatly by many passengers, but the indecent in the harbor of Southampton caused some passengers fear that he wasn't cut for the job of commanding the Titanic.

April 10th1912 the Titanic begins her journey towards New York after several stops along the way; Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland. Over the next few days the passengers experience the calm peacefulness of a smooth and safe journey, some passengers swam in the onboard swimming pool; a first to any ship in the history of the world, a gymnasium, Turkish baths, barbershops, and some even listened to the musicians onboard who played at all times with short breaks besides the night time hours. That Sunday the radio room on the Titanic received multiple warnings of icebergs in the vicinity from a nearby ship the Californian. That night around 10:55p.m the Senior Radio Operator, Jack Phillips received another warning from the Californian stating that she was stopped and surrounded by ice and icebergs. Jack, already bogged down by incomming messages from a nearby station was furious and told the operator aboard the Californian to “Keep out! Shut up” (Disasters: Natural and Man made