More than 100,000 people were crowded into the shipyard of Harland and Wolff that day, each one of them craning to see this unsinkable ship, this defier of god, this 882 foot miracle. And the Titanic truely was one of White Star line's miracle ships. Even at this time of the launch, when it didn't have it's four glorious smokestacks (even though only three were used as smokestacks the other one was simply used for ventilation and a more glorious look.) or it's glamerous interor, the ship was truely beautiful. Everybody whatched as red rockets were shot in the air to singal other ships in the river. And in those 62 second in between the Titanic became the largest object ever moved.
Now the White Star line's miracle ship lays at the bottom of the atlantic ocean, Harland and Wolff shipyards no longer stands and the White Star line's other miracle ships are gone. But these things live on in our hearts and they will forever. I know a lot about the Titanic and love it a lot but I created this blog to teach others about the Titanic and the importance of this disaster that is still clear more than 100 years after.
At the time of the launch the ship was only an empty hull. Later it would be "fitted out" for passengers to be able to board it. Locals of Belfast, Ireland could buy tickets to the launch and all the money made was to go to charity.
It took ten months for the ship to be fitted out for her voyage. In the fitting out they would put on the propeller blades, the smokestacks, and of course everything that was to be inside the ship had to be placed in during this time. Yes, the Titanic did have electricirty and was one of the first ever ships to have a swimming pool. It also had turkish baths, a gym were first class passengers could stay fit, and a Parisan cafe as well as other reastaurants. The Titanic and her sister ships (Britannic - orignally supposed to be called Gigantic - and Olympic) were very famous for being luxourious, and of course unsinkable. People believed these ships were unsinkable because of their 16 watertight compartments. If for whatever reason the ship started to fill with water then with of a push of a button on the bridge these watertight doors would slam shut, preventing the water to get to the rest of the ship. The Titanic could stay afloat with 4 of the compartments flooded. In the actual sinking, 5 were flooded.
The world was very excited for these new unsinkable, luxourious ships. But were they ready?
No comments:
Post a Comment