It was 104 years ago, in the early hours of April 15 at 2:20 am that the reportedly “unsinkable” Titanic went down to its resting place at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
It had struck an iceberg hours earlier at 11:40 pm, April 14 and the events that happened prior, during and after, have fascinated billions of people around the world from that time to this time.
But separating fact from fiction, what exactly do we know about the Titanic? Were Rose and Jack real persons or fictional characters as portrayed in the movie, Titanic, among other related questions. This article seeks to get to the bottom of these questions.
On Her Maiden Voyage
RMS Titanic was the pride of the British shipping line, the White Star Line, having been built by 3,000 workers over a span of nearly three years at the Belfast shipyards of shipbuilders, Harland and Wolff based on the design of naval architect, Thomas Andrews.
She was the largest ship of her time, replete with immense proportions, and set out on her maiden voyage on April 10 1912 from Southampton in Southern England for New York City, United States. She made brief stop-overs in Cherbourg, France and Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland, picking up more passengers.
When she left Queenstown, and sailed west into the waters of the Atlantic for New York; she had aboard 2,224 passengers (some say 2,435) and 892 crew members (some say 885), which was below her carrying capacity of 3,500 passengers and crew. Yes, the Titanic was truly of titanic proportions.
She Hits an Iceberg
The Titanic was cruising at 22 knots through the cold waters of the Atlantic when Frederick Fleet, the ship’s lookout saw the iceberg and alerted First Officer William Murdoch who ordered the ship to be steered around the obstacle and the engines put in reverse, but by this time it was too late. The iceberg struck Titanic on her starboard side, just as the clock on the ship read 11:40 pm.
The impact with the iceberg created a series of holes below the waterline, and five of her nine watertight compartment were quickly filled with icy water. At this point, her fate was sealed because she was designed to survive not more than four compartments being flooded.
Hence, began Titanic’s slow descent to her watery grave as she sank bow-first, as water spilled from compartment to compartment and her angle in the water gradually became steeper – which an eyewitness put somewhere between 65° and 70° – as her stern rose out of the water exposing her propellers, before she broke in two due to the immense strain on her keel and disappeared beneath the dark, icy North Atlantic waters at exactly 2:20 am, April 15.
She finally succumbed after rallying for two hours, forty minutes – a remarkable feat, given the extent of damage she suffered.
Who Was Aboard The Titanic?
One fact that we know clearly is that Rose DeWitt Bukater; her mother, Ruth; her fianceé, Cal Hockley; Jack Dawson and a slew of other characters were not aboard the real Titanic.
But some characters who were featured in the movie like: American multimillionaire businessman John Jacob Astor, his wife Madeleine; Ben Guggenheim; Denver millionairess, Margaret “Molly” Brown; the Countess of Rothes; Colonel Gracie; Sir Cosmo and Lady Duff Gordon; the ship’s architect, Thomas Andrews and White Star Line president Bruce Ismay; Captain Edward J. Smith; 1st Officer Murdoch; 2nd Officer Lightoller as well as other officers and crew members; Ida and Isidor Strauss (the old couple shown lying on the bed near the end); Charles Joughin (the baker on the railing with Jack and Rose),along with several who were unnamed were aboard the Titanic.
Quick Facts
- The Titanic came to rest 3.78 kilometres below the ocean’s surface, about 560 kilometres South East of Newfoundland, a province of Canada.
- Contrary to popular belief that the high death toll was due to insufficient lifeboats, The Titanic actually had more lifeboats than the number required by law. Rather, it was because the crew was not trained well enough in evacuation procedures and let some of the boats go without reaching their maximum capacity.
- The SS Californian was the closest ship to the Titanic, but because of miscommunication between the two, was unable to render any assistance, and had she responded would have resulted in the saving of many more lives.
- The SS Carpathia responded to RMS Titanic‘s signals and was able to rescue 705 persons, while 1,522 passengers and crew were lost to the sea. She docked at New York’s harbour, Pier 54 on April 18 at 9:30 pm, and the original pier and entry archway used by Titanic’s survivors are still standing to this day.
- Only 333 bodies were recovered from the wreckage of the Titanic, including that of her wealthiest passenger, John Jacob Astor IV. Due to the badly decomposed state of many of the bodies, 119 of Titanic’s victims were buried at sea, and the remaining 214 were buried in Halifax, in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.
- It is generally agreed that Titanic’s band played till she went down, but what the last tune was remains a subject of contention.
No doubt, the story of the Titanic will continue to fascinate and intrigue humans for many generations to come. It appears everything about the Titanic really was larger than life!
