One hundred years after the sinking of the Titanic during its maiden voyage to New York, the story of the UK s most famous liner is being retold like never before, writes Richard Johnstone-Bryden A TITANIC YEAR As the centenary of the RMS Titanic s tragic demise approaches, the city of Belfast will embrace its heritage as the birthplace of the world s most famous ship when the 97million visitor attraction Titanic Belfast opens its doors to the public. Standing a mere 100 yards away from the slipway where Titanic was built, the museum s eye-catching building has been inspired by the rich history of the legendary liner and the Harland & Wolff shipyard. Its profile represents four 90ft-high hulls, while its façade has been influenced by ice crystals and waves. Inside, visitors will be able to explore nine galleries devoted to Titanic s captivating story. As the second member of White Star s Olympic class, Titanic s origins date back to the debut of Cunard s Lusitania and Mauretania in 1907. Their size, luxury and speed gave Cunard a significant advantage in the highly competitive transatlantic passenger market. To counter the threat posed by this duo, White Star s chairman, Bruce Ismay, ordered three new liners from the Belfast shipyard of Harland & Wolff. They would have a similar speed but exceed their rivals by an additional length of nearly 100ft and be fitted out to more lavish standards throughout. Harland & Wolff s managing director, Thomas Andrews, took charge of the design work for these leviathans which, on completion, became the ALAMY 102 Discover Britain discoverbritainmag.com
TITANIC S 100th ANNIVERSARY Facing page, left: workmen are dwarfed by Titanic s propellers. Bottom left: a bell recovered from the ill-fated liner s wreck. Here: illustration used to promote the 1953 film Titanic, one of many inspired by the tragic events a century ago discoverbritainmag.com Discover Britain 103
world s largest ships. Two new slipways, topped by the towering Arrol Gantry, had to be built before the keels of Olympic and Titanic could be laid on 16 December 1908 and 31 March 1909 respectively. Four thousand tradesmen participated in the construction of each ship. Titanic s launch on 31 May 1911 attracted 100,000 spectators and also marked the official completion of Olympic. Afterwards, Titanic s hull was brought alongside the fitting-out berth for the installation of her machinery and lavish interiors, while Olympic embarked on her maiden voyage. The disruption caused by Olympic s return for repairs on two separate occasions turned Titanic s final months in Belfast into a race against time. Despite these problems, White Star pressed on with the preparations for Titanic s maiden voyage by announcing the appointment of Edward Smith as her first captain. Titanic passed her sea trials with flying colours on 2 April 1912 before leaving Belfast that evening for Southampton. To regain lost time, the publicity visit to Liverpool was cancelled. As the location of White Star s head office and the liner s registered home port, Liverpool boasts a rich Titanic heritage including links to the lookout Fred Fleet, who spotted the fatal iceberg, which will form the basis of a new exhibition at the Merseyside Maritime Museum. The majority of Titanic s crew were recruited during her week-long visit to Southampton, which proved to be a hectic period as workmen completed the 104 Discover Britain remaining unfinished areas. As the visit drew to a close, the activity increased with the embarkation of stores, cargo and passengers. Southampton s own connections to Titanic will be portrayed within the new Sea City Museum, due to open on 10 April to coincide with the centenary of the liner s departure from Southampton s docks. The museum s displays include re-creating the experience of joining Titanic from the quayside, an audio visual show based on the British inquiry and the disaster room which describes the liner s final hours. Titanic s departure nearly ended in disaster as she passed the moored liner New York. The powerful surge created by Titanic s hull snapped New York s mooring lines and swung her hull perilously close to Titanic s stern. Quick thinking by Captain Smith, the local pilot and the captain of the tug Vulcan averted a serious accident. That evening, the passengers enjoyed a beautiful sunset as she dropped anchor in Cherbourg harbour. A lack of suitable facilities meant that all of the passengers who used the French port had to be conveyed to Titanic by White Star s tenders Nomadic and Traffic which had been built at Harland & Wolff. Once capable of transporting 1,000 first- and second-class passengers, the 220ft Nomadic is now the sole surviving White Star vessel. She was brought back to Belfast in 2006 for restoration in the Hamilton Graving Dock near Titanic Belfast. Within two hours of arriving in Cherbourg Harbour, Titanic sailed for
TITANIC S 100th ANNIVERSARY Clockwise from facing page, top: passengers take a stroll on deck while docked in County Cork; tugs give Titanic a helping hand; eye witness sketches of the ship s final moments; the radio station from where the doomed vessel issued an SOS signal; original poster advertising Titanic s maiden voyage TITANIC S SISTER SHIPS Attempts to avoid the fatal iceberg failed to prevent a lethal glancing blow along Titanic s starboard bow ThefateoftheWhiteStarLine s other mighty passenger vessels ALAMY, MARY EVANS/THE HERDMAN ARCHIVES, ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS LTD/MARY EVANS Queenstown, since renamed Cobh. Among those leaving at the liner s final port of call on 11 April was the trainee Jesuit priest Father Francis Browne, whose photographs provide a unique insight into life onboard. Following the disaster, Browne s photographs appeared in newspapers across the world and subsequently inspired some of the scenes in James Cameron s 1997 film. From Ireland, Titanic set sail for the North Atlantic s southern sea lane. Normally, it would have been free of ice but that winter was the mildest for 30 years, which led to an unusually high number of icebergs along the route. Titanic s date with destiny occurred on the fifth night of her voyage. Although several warnings had been received of icebergs ahead, a speed of 21 knots was maintained, even though the clear, calm, moonless conditions significantly increased the risk of not being able to see an iceberg. The lookout Fred Fleet saw the fatal iceberg at 11.40pm on 14 April and immediately alerted the bridge. The subsequent attempts to avoid it failed to prevent a lethal glancing blow along the starboard bow. Titanic had been designed to remain afloat in the event of her first four watertight compartments being flooded, yet the collision breached the first five, thereby sealing her fate. Her designer, Thomas Andrews, inspected the damage and predicted that she might stay afloat for between 1½ and 2 hours. Captain Smith responded by issuing orders to uncover the lifeboats and for the wireless operators to issue the standard CQD distress signal that night Titanic became the first ship in distress to issue a SOS signal. At a distance of 58 miles, the Cunard liner Carpathia was the closest ship to respond, but she could not reach the stricken liner in time, so Captain Smith gave orders to load the Nicknamed The Old Reliable, the lead ship of White Star s Olympic class proved to be the longest serving of the trio. Olympic s (see above right; Titanic on left) chequered 24-year career included colliding with the cruiser HMS Hawke in 1911, rescuing the crew of the battleship HMS Audacious, serving as a troopship in the First World War, sinking the German submarine U103, and colliding with the floating lighthouse Nantucket in 1934. A review of the combined fleet created by the merger of White Star and Cunard in 1934 led to the withdrawal of Olympic in 1935, by which time it had steamed over 1,500,000 miles and completed 257 round trips to America. She was sold for scrap in September 1935 and her interior fittings were sold by auction. Many of her elaborate wooden panels were sold for re-use in hotels and private homes, including the White Swan Hotel in Alnwick, Northumberland, where her dining room can still be seen. Britannic, the last of the trio, never carried a fare-paying customer due to the outbreak of the First World War before her completion. She was requisitioned by the government and commissioned as His Majesty s Hospital Ship Britannic in 1915 to bring the wounded back to the UK from the Gallipoli campaign. A German mine brought her brief career to a halt on 21 November 1916 off the Greek island of Kea with the loss of 28 lives. Her wreck was discovered lying on its starboard side by the French explorer Jacques Cousteau at a depth of approximately 400ft in 1976. discoverbritainmag.com Discover Britain 105
TITANIC S 100th ANNIVERSARY Clockwise from right: Explore Southampton s connections to Titanic at the new Sea City Museum; the ship s last resting place; a pocket watch salvaged from the wreck; a partially full lifeboat flees the stricken vessel; news eventually breaks of the scale of the disaster 1,503poeplelosttheirlivesintheicy waters that night, while 705 survivors endured the cold on the lifeboats lifeboats, starting the process with the women and children. Despite complying with the Board of Trade s regulations, Titanic s 16 wooden and four collapsible lifeboats could only carry 1,178 of the 2,208 people onboard. The situation was compounded by the reluctance of some passengers to board the first lifeboats, thereby resulting in the dispatch of lifeboats with unused capacity. Many believed that help would arrive in time not least because the lights of another ship could initially be seen on the horizon. The identity of this ship has remained the subject of intense debate with Captain Lord s freighter Californian identified as the principal suspect, even though evidence suggests that up to five other vessels may have been closer. The salvation offered by the approaching Carpathia was nearly two hours away when Titanic met her end at 2.20am (local time) on 15 April 1912. 1,503 people lost their lives in the icy waters that night, while 705 survivors endured the cold on the lifeboats until Carpathia s arrival. News of the tragedy took hours to emerge. Remarkably, some initial press reports stated that everyone had been saved and Titanic was being towed to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Such optimism quickly evaporated as those left behind were forced to deal with the loss of their loved ones. The death toll confirmed that neither wealth nor seniority guaranteed survival with Captain Smith, Thomas Andrews and the American multimillionaire Colonel John Jacob Astor among the dead. Afterwards, four vessels retrieved 328 victims from the Atlantic, of which 150 were buried in Halifax. Official inquires were subsequently held on both sides of the Atlantic and the ongoing Titanic Industry established itself within days of the disaster. The prospect of locating and raising the wreck captivated the public s imagination for decades and even inspired the film Raise The Titanic based on Clive Cussler s novel. However, hopes of finding Titanic intact were dashed on 1 September 1985 when Dr Robert Ballard s joint American and French team discovered her upright wreck in two pieces at a depth of 2½ miles. Stripped of all her woodwork by wood-borers and covered in rusticles formed by iron-eating bacteria, Titanic s devastated wreck is a shadow of her former glory. The 1,970ft gap between the two sections contains a debris field strewn with thousands of items, ranging from personal possessions to large pieces of the ship. The most poignant discoveries were pairs of shoes lying side by side which serve as a lasting reminder that the wreck is a grave site and should be treated with respect. Not all subsequent expeditions have heeded Ballard s calls to treat the site with dignity and only take photographs. Of these, RMS Titanic Inc, the official salvager, has attracted the most criticism by recovering more than 5,000 artefacts from the wreck to form a unique collection, offered for sale as one lot by the New Yorkbased auctioneers Guernseys on 11 April. The rules governing the future public access to this collection and the opening of the new museums will ensure that the RMS Titanic remains the world s most famous ship for the foreseeable future. db ALAMY, NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM, 106 Discover Britain