191April 10, the Titanic set off from Southampton, England, passing through Cherbourg-Oaktville, France and Queenstown, Ireland, and planned to go to new york, USA, and began the journey of this "dream passenger ship". On the evening of April 4th 1 1: 40, Titanic hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic (about 4143' 55.66 "north latitude, 49 56' 45.02" west longitude), two hours and forty minutes later, 5438+April 6th, 2005. The movie Titanic is based on this real shipwreck.
The last three survivors of Titanic were all women. On May 6, 2006, the last survivor who witnessed the incident died at the age of 99, five years after the incident. June 65438+10/October 65438+June 2007, another survivor died at the age of 96. She was less than one year old at the time of the incident, so she has no memory of the incident. At present, only one survivor is still alive, but she was only two months old at the time of the accident and has no memory of the incident.
RMS Titanic was translated into the Royal Cruise Titanic (Hong Kong and Taiwan translated into Titanic). The origin of this name is because when ocean-going cruise ships prevailed, all large cruise ships in Britain belonged to the British royal family, so "Royal Mail Ship" was added before the ship name, and "RMS" was the abbreviation of "Royal Mail Ship". The meaning of Titanic can be divided into two parts: "Titan | nic", which is the name of Titan in Greek mythology. Maybe what the British mean is to show that the ship will never sink. So the official name of Titanic is the Royal Cruise Titanic.
190 1 year, after British White Star Company was acquired by IMM International Shipping Company of American chaebol Julius pierpont Morgan, his target was Canard Company. Canard, who was in financial trouble, was forced to turn to the British government for help. 1907, two unprecedented clippers-Lusitania and Mauritania, which used large steam turbines for the first time, joined the huge postal fleet of Kanade Company. Now White Star Company has fallen behind in the competition. With the support of IMM, White Star Company decided to catch up.
/kloc-one night in 0/908, Lord Piry, the owner of Harlan Wolff Shipyard, and Bruce Ismay, the chairman of White Star Company, had dinner at Lord Piry's residence in levia, Berger, London. Harland Wolf Shipyard in Belfast (Harland &; Wolff, HW) has been a loyal partner of White Star Company since 187 1. They talked about two new ships of the Duck Company. Ismail proposed to build two unprecedented giant ships at HW Shipyard, each with three chimneys, with a tonnage about 15000 tons higher than that of the two new canard ships. There were two people in peary's study, two boats became three, and three chimneys became four. These three unprecedented giant ships will become the undisputed overlord of the Atlantic route, not only in tonnage, but also in speed and luxury. The new ship will have a first-class restaurant with a height spanning three decks, and even the decoration of the third-class cabin will be far more comfortable and advanced than other mail ships. The new ship must reach a high speed of 26 to 27 knots. White Star will install three propellers on the new ship. In order to test the reliability of this new configuration, White Star Company purchased two 15000-ton passenger ships from Dominion Shipping Company in 1909, and made a comparative test. Three propellers proved to give the mail ship a speed advantage.
The first Olympic-class mail ship "No.400" started construction at Harlan Wolf Shipyard on June1908+February 16. Different from other companies' practice of keeping the new ship name secret before launching, White Star Company soon announced the names of three ships-Royal Navy Olympic, Royal Navy Britain and Royal Navy Giant (Royal Navy Giant, renamed British Nick after the sinking of Titanic). Because the hull size is too large-880 feet long, it is obvious that the shipyard of Harlan Wolf Shipyard cannot start three ships at the same time. They decided to build 1 (Titanic) and No.2 (Olympic) first, and then start building No.3 (Giant).
1909 On March 3 1 day, the Titanic started construction at Hanand Wolf Shipyard in Belfast, the largest city in Northern Ireland. Hull launching may 3 19 1 1. All works were completed on March 3, the following year. Titanic was designed by William peary, director of Harlan and Wolff Shipyard, Thomas Andrews, chief designer, and Alexander Carlisle, general manager. Bruce Ismay, managing director of White Star Shipping Company, provided many suggestions in the design process. The funds to build Titanic came from J.P. Morgan and his international merchant shipping company. At that time, it was the largest and most famous manned mail ship. The total length of Titanic is about 269.06 meters (882.75 feet), the width is 28. 19 meters (92.5 feet), the waterline to deck height is 18.3 meters (60 feet), and the registered tonnage is 46,328 tons (net weight is 2183/kloc-0 Although it contains more space, it leads to a larger gross tonnage (more than her sister ship Olympic 1600 tons). Only three of the four huge chimneys are really used to emit smoke. The other is foil, which is actually used as a chimney and ventilation in the main kitchen. The power of 25 double-ended boilers and 4 single-ended boilers on board comes from 159 coal-fired boiler, and the powerful power makes the maximum speed of Titanic reach 23 knots. The power system has three sets of main engines: two sets of four-cylinder reciprocating steam engines and one set of steam turbines, and the power of the main engines reaches 5 1000 horsepower. The ship has 89 1 crew and can carry more than 2200 passengers.
At that time, the largest ship in the world was called "the unsinkable Titanic"
But White Star is not interested in pursuing speed. At that time, the luxury and exquisiteness of Titanic were unprecedented. The ship is equipped with an indoor swimming pool, gym, bathroom, library, elevator and squash room. The lounge in the first class is decorated with exquisite wooden panels, equipped with high-grade furniture and other high-grade decorations, and tries its best to provide unprecedented service level. The sunny Paris Cafe provides all kinds of high-class snacks for first-class passengers. The living environment of the second class or even the third class of Titanic was as high-grade as the lounge, even comparable to the first class of many passenger ships at that time. Three elevators are specially designed for first-class passengers; As an innovation, second-class passengers also have elevators. Biggs, the baker of Titanic, recalled, "... there won't be another ship like her. I have worked on the Olympic, Solemn and Queen Elizabeth. No ship can compare with the Titanic. Yes, just like the Olympic Games, but much more luxurious. For example, in a big restaurant, the Olympic Sports Center doesn't even have a carpet. The carpet of Titanic is knee-thick ... and the furniture is too heavy for you to carry. And those partitions ... they can build a bigger and faster ship, but Titanic put all her strength into building a luxurious and comfortable space ... She is really a big ship ... ". What Biggs said is a general view. Titanic seduced everyone who built and designed her. This temptation made her more and more popular after many years. In the words of Shipbuilder magazine, Titanic "imitated the Palace of Versailles in many details" ... The lounge was filled with Louis XV-style furniture, similar in style to the salon of the Little Trianon Palace in France, and the sculpture on the fireplace was "the hunting goddess of Versailles". There are other exquisite reliefs and artworks ... exquisite teak and brass decorations, chandeliers and murals, carpets from India and Persia. " Even the third class cabin has a marble washbasin and bedside heating equipment. Titanic was an unparalleled luxury at that time. Although she was not the first ship to provide deck swimming pool, gym, bathroom and elevator, she tried her best to provide a level of service that she had never seen before. For first-class passengers, she provided three elevators; As an innovation, she provided an elevator for second-class passengers. However, third-class passengers still need to climb stairs.
The most luxurious part of the ship is the grand staircase of the first class, which is located between the first and second chimneys. The grand staircase with oak paneling and gold-plated railings extends all the way to the E deck, and the top is a glass dome supported by wrought iron brackets, which fills the grand staircase with natural light. A clock is embedded in the wall at the top of the stairs, and fables symbolizing nobility and dignity are carved on both sides of the clock. There is also a relatively simple staircase between the third and fourth chimneys. James Cameron faithfully recreated this staircase in his film Titanic.
Although the Olympic and Titanic are sister ships, some details are different. After the observation of the first flight of the Olympic Games, it was found that passengers on deck A would be drenched by water mist, and the corridor running through deck B was not highly utilized. Both of these defects were improved on the Titanic, and part of the B deck was transformed into a private terrace of the first-class luxury suite.
Titanic is a fixed-point work of technological achievements. Titanic talked more about safety. The two-story ship bottom is divided into 16 watertight compartments by 15 watertight partitions, with automatic watertight doors, spanning the whole ship. 16 watertight compartment to prevent her from sinking. Strangely, these waterproof compartments do not extend very high. The first two watertight partitions and the last five are only built on the D deck, and the eight walls in the middle are only set on the lower E deck.
Even so, any two cars are full of water, she can still drive, and even four cars are full of water, which can keep floating. People at that time could not imagine a worse situation, so Shipbuilder magazine thought it was "impossible to sink". A crew member said to Sylvia Caldwell, a second-class female passenger, during the voyage, "Even God himself can't sink this ship."
1965438+On February 3, 2002, the Titanic completed its renovation work, and its maiden voyage was originally scheduled for March 20. However, the unfortunate collision of191/kloc-0 with the Royal Navy cruiser Hawke in September 2000 delayed the final work of Titanic. Her maiden voyage is scheduled for April 10. Before that, there will be a sea trial on April 1 day. Everything is perfect. Titanic arrived in Southampton Port on the 3rd, anchored at No.41and waited for the exciting moment of No.4 10. As an unpleasant episode, the coal loading work encountered a little setback because of the coal workers in Southampton Port. IMM Company didn't want to postpone the maiden voyage of Titanic any longer, so it searched all the coal blocks from all the coal cabins of the company's mail ship moored in Southampton Port.
1912 April 10, the "unsinkable" Titanic set sail at the ocean pier in Southampton Port and sailed for the new world. The captain's name is Smith Prize. The dock was crowded with passengers, family members who came to see me off, baggage handlers and customs inspectors. In the morning 1 1, 1 chimney emitted white steam. Twenty-five of the 29 boilers started to fire in turn. At noon 12, Titanic slowly left the dock under the traction of tugboat. Two external propellers began to stir the sea water in Southampton Harbour. Titanic passed the ship Solemn (not the one compensated by Germany later), Philadelphia, St. Lewis, Ocean and New York in turn, and honked its horn to welcome her. This 46,000-ton ship seems to be very attractive to other ships. Just before sailing, another conventional ship, the New York, was moving in the water because of its huge size, which caused the attraction of a large amount of backfill water to almost hit her hull, which was delayed for an hour. Titanic's tugboat Vulcan hijacked the hull of the New York. The world's largest mail ship began its first and only voyage.
Titanic divided passengers into three classes. The third-class cabin is also the cheapest to get off the hull. Most of these passengers are immigrants who plan to build a new life across the Atlantic. The decoration of the second-class cabin and the general guest room was actually the same as that of the first-class cabin of other general ships at that time. Many second-class passengers originally positioned the first class on other ships, but gave up because of the voyage of Titanic. The first class is the most expensive and luxurious part of the whole ship, and some of the richest celebrities in the world were on this journey at that time.
At 7 o'clock that evening, Titanic arrived in Cherbourg, France. Another group of passengers and goods boarded the Titanic were two special ferry boats, namely nomads and transporters, including American rich people Astor and Margaret Brown-later called "unsinkable aristocratic Mrs. Brown" by newspapers. At noon the next day, Titanic arrived in Queenstown, Ireland. A group of Irish immigrants full of longing and hope for the new world boarded the ship. A passenger landed here, and his photos later became out-of-print photos of Titanic, which is of great value to today's collectors.
In order to cross the Atlantic faster than the Olympics, Titanic chose a shorter northern route. The temperature keeps dropping. But the weather is very sunny. The surviving crew said that they had never seen such a calm North Atlantic.
According to Ismail's orders, the Titanic accelerated to 25 knots the next day. Although people think that Kanade is only looking for a quick strategy to reduce its image, White Star also wants a blue ribbon to show off. Nothing important happened on the Titanic along the way. Philip, the ship's operator, is busy sending expensive private telegrams for first-class passengers, mostly instructions for peace and stock trading and delivery.