Activities 2

The Titanic

At a dinner party J. Bruce Ismay, President of the White Star Line of passenger ships, and Lord Pirrie, chairman of Harland & Wolff shipbuilders, discussed a plan to build three enormous ocean liners. Four years later the first of these three ships, the Olympic, was completed.

On May 31, 1911 the hull of the Titanic was launched at the Harland & Wolff shipyards in Belfast, Ireland. One hundred thousand people came to watch the event. For the next ten months the Titanic was prepared down to the last detail.

The command of the ship was given to the senior captain of the White Star Line, Captain Edward J. Smith. Smith was a natural leader and was loved by both crew members and passengers. He had an excellent safety record and thirty-eight years of service.

On Wednesday, April 10, 1912 the Titanic's passengers began to arrive in Southampton for the trip to New York. The first class rooms were decorated with thick carpets, carved wooden panel on the walls, and marble sinks.

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First Class Cabin	Gym

The lower decks had a squash court, swimming pool, and a Turkish bath. The gymnasium was equipped with exercise equipment including stationary bicycles and rowing machines. The Grand Staircase was lit by a huge glass dome.

Colonel John Jacob Astor
world's richest man

Mr. and Mrs. Straus
founders of Macy's of
New York

J. Bruce Ismay
president of the White Star Line

In 1912 people were divided into social classes according to their background, wealth, and education. The bottom layer of the Titanic was for the manual workers. The next layer was for the third-class passengers. Many of these were from other countries hoping to start a new life in America. The second class layer was for teachers, merchants, and professionals. The top layer was for first class. These were the rich and aristocratic.

At noon on Wednesday, April 10 the Titanic cast off. As the Titanic was moving past the dock the mooring ropes holder the passenger liner the New York snapped. Some quick action by Captain Smith and a tugboat captain nearby allowed the Titanic to slide past with only an inch or two to spare.

Jack Phillips, the wireless operator, took down a message warning of icebergs. Captain Smith posted the note on the bulletin board for the other officers on watch to read. Two more ice warnings were received from nearby ships around lunch time. In the chaos of the radio room, Harold Bride only had time to take one of them to the bridge.

By late afternoon the temperature began to drop. At 7:30 the radio room received three more warnings of ice about fifty miles ahead. Bride took this message up to the bridge. Captain Smith was at a dinner party and he never saw the message. Around 9:00 the captain went up to the bridge. Before going to bed the captain ordered the lookouts to keep a sharp watch for ice.

Another ice warning came, but the two radio operators were so busy they dismissed the final ice warning. It was from the Californian. She was trapped in the ice and had stopped for the night about nineteen miles north of the Titanic.

The radio room had received a total of seven ice warnings that day. At 11:40 Fred Fleet was on watch in the crow's nest. Fleet saw a huge, dark shape directly ahead of the Titanic. He sounded the alarm and picked up the telephone.

Immediately the officer on the bridge ordered the wheel to be turned as far as it would go. The engineers were told to reverse the engines. A button was pushed to close the doors to the watertight compartments in the bottom of the ship. The Titanic missed a head-on crash, but was stuck on the starboard bow. Several tons of ice fell on the ship's decks. A few minutes later the ship came to a stop.

Many of the passengers didn't even know the ship had hit anything. In the bowler room several stokers were hit with the icy water. Within twenty minutes Captain Smith and Thomas Andrew, the ship's builder, went below decks to inspect the damage. The mail room was filling up with water. Two of the boiler rooms were filling up with water. They knew the ship would sink.

The radio room was asked to send a distress call. The steward began telling the passengers to put on their life vests. At midnight Captain Smith ordered the lifeboats be uncovered. Captain Smith ordered the white distress rockets to be fired to get the attention of a nearby ship. The ship never came.

A number of ships responded to the distress calls. Most were too far away to come to the rescue in time. Even an hour after the crash most of the passengers still did not realize the seriousness of the situation.

At 12:30 Captain Smith gave the order to start loading the lifeboats. He knew the Titanic only carried enough lifeboats for half the estimated 2,200 people. At 12:45 the first lifeboat was lowered. It could have carried sixty-five people, but left with only twenty-eight.

By 1:30 the bow was down in the water and people noticed the slant in the decks. By 2:05 there were still over 1,500 people left on the sinking ship. All the lifeboats had been sent. Captain Smith told Bride and Phillips in the radio room to save themselves. The ship's band had finally stopped playing.

Suddenly the Titanic began to slide into the water. Hundreds of cries came up from the people in the icy cold water. It was not until dawn that the Carpathia came to rescue those in the lifeboats.