It was one of the high points of Victorian engineering, but it became famous for tragedy rather than its innovative design. The legendary Titanic set sail and sank on its maiden voyage on this month in 1912.
The Titanic was the largest passenger steamship in the world, and was built in Belfast’s shipyards. Besides being big and very fast, it was one of the most luxurious liners ever built, and included a gym, indoor swimming pool, lifts, Turkish baths, libraries and indoor racquet courts.
“Unsinkable”
The Titanic was designed using the latest naval architecture at the time, and was thought to be unsinkable. Its double-bottom hull was divided into 15 almost watertight compartments, operated by latches which could be closed with a switch operated from the bridge.
Other advanced features for the period included an extensive electrical subsystem, with electric lights ship-wide and advanced wireless communications.
Disaster
The Titanic set out on her maiden voyage from Southampton in April 1912, stopping at France and then at Queenstown (now Cobh) in County Cork before setting out across the Atlantic to New York.
Three days after leaving Ireland, the ship struck a large iceberg, and six of the 15 compartments were flooded. The pumps and hull subdivisions could not cope with the massive inrush of water and the ship began to sink. Almost 1,500 people drowned and only 711 survived.
Lessons
The disaster had a huge influence on maritime practice and ship design:
- An International Ice Patrol was set up to monitor icebergs
- New regulations made it mandatory to have enough lifeboats for everyone on board
- Ship compartments were made fully watertight
- Radio communications were operated 24 hours a day
- Ships began to travel at lower speeds in areas of icebergs
There have been many underwater expeditions since 1985, when the wreck was discovered, and scientists have been able to discover more about how the ship sank and to recover artefacts and materials.
The site where the ship was built in Belfast is now home to the Titanic Quarter, a large waterfront development, and today there are many Titanic attractions in the city, including trails and exhibitions.
The Titanic exhibition at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in Hollywood, County Down, illustrates the ship’s construction and tells the story of its loss with photos, recordings and newsreels.
Learn more
Visit the Titanic’s online museum
See deck plans and photos or look up passenger lists at Encyclopedia Titanica
Visit the website of the International Ice Patrol
