She was Truly a Titan

     Let's travel back in time to 1912 New England, Arizona was just becoming the 48th state of America and women of each class unless married worked as domestic servants, cooking, cleaning and caring for children of different families. Transatlantic travel was blossoming and several families of high society took place on them, shuttling from England to the Untied States. While families of lower class or English immigrants used these ships to begin a new life away from England's monarchy. For the largest ship on the water of 1912, she was a titan as her name intended. She was the RMS (Royal Mail Service) Titanic a ship deemed unsinkable. Why on that horrific night did over 1,500 passengers fall death to the Atlantic sea? Was each death due a lack of passenger safety?

Built in Belfast, Ireland by Harland and Wolff under the watchful eye of the White Star Line company, she had the height of 104 feet, length of 882.4 feet and weighed in at 46,328 tons.  The pure man power needed was austonishing, Her interior was handcrafted from the mind of Thomas Andrews, a naval architecture. In which he gave Titanic her most distinctive features, a Grand Stair case that descended through seven decks, full sized gymnasiums for each class, rooms in which the passenger was swaddled in lavishness.

     Of course Upper and second class cabins were of luxury but what shocked most passengers was that even in third class, beds weren't made out of straw but real mattresses. Even privacy, a privilege we don't often think about was given to several immigrants and lower class families. Third class sleeping cabins were quite smaller then the first class bathroom, families and passengers felt as if they weren't on a ship but a hotel of royalty. The Titanic and her older sister ship, Olympic, set new standards of transatlantic travel. In which every Passenger liner competed for.

       

    Her maiden voyage carried a total of 3,327 men, women, children, and crew. However she only had lifeboats to save 1,178 people at full capacity. So why were 1,500 lost? Those lifeboats were intended to ferry passengers to a rescuing ship, not keep them afloat while the ship sank. The amount of lifeboats the Titanic carried was more than legally allowed on any White Star ship. But the rescuing ship, Carpathia arrived too late to ferry the passengers and successfully rescue all the passengers in the frigid water but 705. In fact The RMS Carpathia wasn't the closest ship to the Titanic when it's distress calls were given, the SS Californian was about 14.4-16.7 miles away. A report from the Californian look out tells of them watching the Titanic's Distress flares in the sky. The Californian crew also attempted to single the Titanic by Morse lamp, but never wireless. As the lookouts unknowingly watched the Titanic sink they reported having a conversation 

"A ship is not going to fire rockets at sea for nothing" stated Second Officer Herbert 
Stone. 

"Have a look at her now. She looks very queer out of the water — her lights look queer." observed apprentice officer James Gibson. 

At about 1:15am on April 15th Gibson called down to the sleeping captain asking what they should do after seeing more  flares. Captain Stanley Lord gave no orders of rescue but  to just watch the ship. Again at 2:00 am Gibson asked the captain what orders should be sent after seeing eight distress flares. Still no orders were given, twenty minutes later the Titanic sank, dumping passengers into the sea. Later lookout reports from Gibson state that at 3:30am he saw a ship firing rockets into the air around the area where he saw the previous ship. Gibson believed it was the Titanic not the Carpathia. Finally at 4:30am Captain Stanley Lord awoke wondering how to navigate out of the icebergs. At 5:30am April 15th Lord turned the wireless back on to discover the news of the Titanic, passenger safety wasn't at fault but of captain negligence. 

My next question am going to follow will be of each of the captains of the ships, Titanic,  and Carpathia. 

Work citied:

 McCaughan, Michael. The Birth of the Titanic. Montreal: McGill-Queen's UP, in Association with The National Museum and Galleries of Northern Ireland, Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, 1999. Print.
RMS Titanic." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 July 2013. Web. 18 Oct. 2013.