On this day in 1912, RMS Titanic departed from Southampton on its first and only voyage.
The White Star Line was one of the major British shipping lines carrying passengers between Europe and America. White Star faced an increasing challenge from its main rivals, Cunard Line—which had recently launched the twin sister ships Lusitania and Mauretania, the fastest passenger ships then in service—and the German lines Hamburg America and Norddeutscher Lloyd. White Star opted to compete on size rather than speed and proposed to commission a new class of liners larger than anything that had come before, which would be the last word in comfort and luxury.
The ships were constructed by the Belfast shipbuilder Harland & Wolff, which had a long-established relationship with the White Star Line dating back to 1867. Titanic was the largest ship afloat upon entering service. The first-class accommodations were designed to be the pinnacle of comfort and luxury. They included a gymnasium, swimming pool, smoking rooms, fine restaurants and cafes, a Victorian-style Turkish bath, and hundreds of opulent cabins. A high-powered radiotelegraph transmitter was available for passenger use. Titanic had advanced safety features, such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, which contributed to the ship’s reputation as “unsinkable”.
The maiden voyage began at noon, as scheduled. At 11:40 pm (ship’s time) on 14 April, lookout Frederick Fleet spotted an iceberg immediately ahead of Titanic and alerted the bridge. First Officer William Murdoch ordered the ship to be steered around the iceberg and the engines to be stopped, but it was too late. The starboard side of Titanic struck the iceberg, creating a series of holes below the waterline. The hull was not punctured, but rather dented such that the steel plates of the hull buckled and separated, allowing water to rush in. Five of the sixteen watertight compartments were heavily breached and a sixth was slightly compromised. It soon became clear that Titanic would sink, as the ship could not remain afloat with more than four compartments flooded.
Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, approximately 1,400 – 1,500 died (estimates vary), making the incident one of the deadliest peacetime sinkings of a single ship.
RMS Titanic departing Southampton on April 10, 1912.
Today is the birthday, in 1959, of Katrina Leskanich from British-American rock band Katrina And The Waves, best known for the 1985 hit ‘Walking on Sunshine’. They also won the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest with the song ‘Love Shine a Light’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPUmE-tne5U
