Titanic

Nedanstående innehåll är skapat av Mimers Brunns besökare. Kommentera arbete

What would it be like? To know your destiny? To see everybody around you, their eyes, filled with panic. They all knew, their dreams and hopes would never be fulfilled. The orchestra who was playing "Be courageous and be brave, and in my heart you´ll always stay" became silent.
Their destiny was fulfilled.

It all began in the 1840´s when the man behind Titanic was born. His name was William James Pirrie, and he was born in Canada, but his family immigrated to Ireland when his father died. At the age of 27 William became a partial owner in a shipyard called Harland & Wolff. That was the birthplace of the magnificent Titanic.

In 1207 William formed an idea, together with the shipping company White Star Line, he wanted to build three gigantic ocean liners to make the immigration to "The New World" less expensive, and the need for transport-ships grew all the time.

Over a dinner in 1907 William Pirrie and J.P. Morgan, the owner of White Star Line discussed on how to build the greatest ships ever. They planned three identical ships, to give the possibility to travel across the Atlantic Ocean in luxury, at the cost of £30. Today that amount of money represents about 53 800 SEK. Even the third class tickets were expensive; you would have to pay £8 (14000 SEK)

In December 1908, the construction of the first ship, Olympic started; three mounts later the Titanic started to take form. Olympic was launched as a health-service ship during World War I. Since the Olympic was launched first, she gave a lot of new ideas for improvements for Titanic. The excitement when Titanic was launched wasn’t as big as it was for the first ship, Olympic. Titanic was only no 2, and Britannic, the third ship, was never used in a commercial purpose. Just like the Olympic, the Britannic was used as a health service ship during World War I.

Titanic was truly gigantic, through history there hadn’t been seen anything quite like it. The ship was long as four passenger planes; it was eleven floors high and had nine decks. In other terms; 256 meters long, 28 meters wide, and 53 meter high. Without the cargo she weighed 46 000 tons.

Ten thousand of workers had been working with the building of the ship and the cost came to be 60 million SEK. Today, that represents 4 billion SEK. That amount of money could financially support our school for about 40 years. Titanic was the first ship who had four funnels, only three of them were used, the fourth had no function; it was only there to make a more powerful impression.

Titanic was also loaded with 50, 5 tons of fresh meat, 200 barrels of flour, 5 tons of sugar, 40 tons of potatoes, 7000 heads of lettuce and 600 kg of jam and marmalade among other things. With that, Titanic didn´t just set the record of the biggest ship ever, she was also the biggest moveable object ever!

When boarding the ship people were divided in three classes. First, with all the rich and famous people, second, with the middleclass people, and third with most of the poor emigrants from Europe. Onboard Titanic people (well, first and second class anyway) were amazed by the luxury, the beautiful paintings, the carefully decorated stairs. The first class cabins were like little apartments, with a private bathroom per cabin.

First class was just like a floating palace, to enter the great lounge you had to walk down the golden stairs, crystal chandeliers were hanging from the roof and on the oak walls there was
paintings from famous artists.

First class passengers could choose the style in their room, the cabins were decorated in many different ways. There was everything from Italian, Gregorian, Renaissance to modern Old Dutch, Queen Anne and Louise XIV.
There was special promenade decks where people could walk for hours. Titanic was the first ship ever with a indoor pool. There was also a gym, but only for the first class passengers of course. Titanic had a hospital with well educated doctors and nurses. Hairdressers and servants had to work hard to keep the first class passengers satisfied, and every first class corridor had a steward.

Second class on Titanic can be compared with first class on many other ships. Every room had 2-4 beds, water toilets, and water containers which were filled and emptied every day. A small salon and a library was available.

The emigrants in third class lived very simply, but although compared to many other ships, the standard on Titanic was higher than they were used to. These cabins were situated in the bottom of the ship which resulted in higher engine sounds .

Captain Edward J. Smith was given the honor of being the captain on Titanic´s maiden voyage. He´d been working as a captain at White Star Line for 32 years. His career had been flawless, except from that night in April in 1912. Titanic took off after the first passengers had boarded in Southampton, the 10th of April. Thousands of people had gathered to say goodbye and wave to their dearly beloved or just to take a look at the magnificent ship. Titanic almost collided with a ship called New York before she´d even left the harbor:
When the engines of Titanic started, currents were created that made New York detach and almost crash in to the big ship. The next stop after Southampton was Cherbourg, France. Because of the problems in Southampton, there had long a big delay. The irritation from the passengers was big and many of them refused to board and tarred their tickets into pieces, that decision saved their lives.

The next stop was Queenstown, Ireland. A 24yearold machine worker sneaked out, his rescue… No other machine worker survived. When they left Queenstown they received all kinds of telegrams, mostly well wishes from other ships, but also iceberg warnings.

It was a beautiful Sunday, with a great blue sky, and calm waters.
People were having lunch at the deck. The weather report said that the calm weather would hold on for a couple of more days. But calm waters is sometimes big problems, it´s harder to see icebergs.

At 23:05 Titanic received a telegram from the ship the Californian who had the same course as Titanic during the whole trip. The telegram said "We have stopped, and are now surrounded by ice." The answer that the Californian got was: "Shut up. I am busy. I am working." The Californian got sick and stopped the warnings for the night. This was ten minutes before Titanic´s big crash.

A lookout called Fredrick Fleet saw a big black object straight ahead at 23:40. There wasn´t any moonlight and no waves so nobody saw the iceberg, until it was too late. Titanic was doing 20,5 knots at this time and nothing could stop the disaster. Orders were given to turn, but 37 seconds later, Titanic hit the iceberg with her right side. Another scene from the movie Titanic.

People who were sleeping woke up by the noises and went out to see what was going on. All passengers were told to put their lifebelts and stay in their cabin. Firstclassers were drinking champagne in the lounge, while thirdclassers had water up to their ankles. During damage control , Officer Joseph Boxhall came back with a report which said that there wasn´t any significant damages to the ship, but there was… The rip was near 100 m long, just too big for the "unsinkable" Titanic.

Captain Sm...