Quote:
- It took the Titanic around two hours and forty minutes to sink (160 minutes).
- The Titanic was as long as four city blocks (882 1/2ft or 269m), as wide as a four-lane highway (92 1/2ft or 28m), and weighed over 53,000 tons (53,800t).
- The Titanic's top speed was 24 knots (28mph/45kph on land). It never reached that speed on it's maiden voyage.
- The Titanic disaster was actually 'predicted' 14 years prior to it's sinking by Morgan Robertson in his novel Futility which was published in 1898. (A fabulous passenger liner [Titan], larger than any other that had been built, and it was unsinkable. As it sailed across the North Atlantic in the month of April carrying many rich and famous passengers, it hit an iceberg and sank. Many lives were lost because there weren't enough lifeboats. Sound familiar?)
- Today, ships are twice the size of the Titanic. The ship Grand Princess, has 18 decks. The Titanic only had 9.
- Work on the Titanic was started on March 31, 1909.
- The Titanic was buily at Harland & Wolff shipyears in Belfast, Ireland. It's sister ship, the Olympic was built right beside it (however, work on the Olympic started around 3 1/2 months earlier).
- The approximate total construction cost for building the Titanic was $7.5 million, about $123 million in today's money.
- The hull of the Titanic alone weighed 26,000 tons (23,600t). This included three large anchors which weighed 31 tons (28t) altogether.
- At the time of their launches, the Olympic and the Titanic were claimed to be the largest man-made objects ever moved.
- It took 10 months to "fit out" the Titanic (adding top decks, making sure the kitchens have enough pots & pans, etc).
- The first things to be installed were 29 boilers (15ft/4.5m high), the huge reciprocating engines, and the turbine.
- The original plans of the Titanic call for 64 lifeboats. But that was cut down to 32, and then 16 to increase space on the deck. They then added four lifeboats with collapsible canvas sides to bring the total of 16 lifeboats to 20 (the regulatory amount at that time was 16).
- The Titanic carried 5,892 tons (5,344t) of coal. At a cruising speed of 21-22 knots, it used 620 to 640 tons (562-581t) per day.
- The two three-bladed side propellers were each 23 1/2 ft (7m) across % weighed 38 tons (34t) each.
- The four bladed center propeller was 16 1/2ft (5m) wide and weighed 22 tons (20t).
- There were around 2,000 portholes and windows on the Titanic.
- The fourth funnel on the Titanic was a fake, only three were needed. They thought a fourth funnel would make the ship look grander (the fourth funnel carried vents from the turbine engine room and from the huge coal stoves in the main kitchen).
- April 2, 1912 was the Titanic's "test drive". It lasted less than a day.
- In it's cargo the Titanic held 76 cases of dragon's blood, a sap from a type of palm tree found in the Canary Islands (used to color wood varnish and women's makeup).
- The most exotic object in the Titanic's cargo was The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, a book of ancient sayings. The illustrated copy in the Titanic's hold was adorned with 1,050 precious stones, each set ingold. It had recently been sold for $2,025 (about $33,000 in today's dollars) at a Londom auction and was being sent to it's new owner, Gabriel Wells, a New York book dealer.
- The Titanic was as long as four city blocks (882 1/2ft or 269m), as wide as a four-lane highway (92 1/2ft or 28m), and weighed over 53,000 tons (53,800t).
- The Titanic's top speed was 24 knots (28mph/45kph on land). It never reached that speed on it's maiden voyage.
- The Titanic disaster was actually 'predicted' 14 years prior to it's sinking by Morgan Robertson in his novel Futility which was published in 1898. (A fabulous passenger liner [Titan], larger than any other that had been built, and it was unsinkable. As it sailed across the North Atlantic in the month of April carrying many rich and famous passengers, it hit an iceberg and sank. Many lives were lost because there weren't enough lifeboats. Sound familiar?)
- Today, ships are twice the size of the Titanic. The ship Grand Princess, has 18 decks. The Titanic only had 9.
- Work on the Titanic was started on March 31, 1909.
- The Titanic was buily at Harland & Wolff shipyears in Belfast, Ireland. It's sister ship, the Olympic was built right beside it (however, work on the Olympic started around 3 1/2 months earlier).
- The approximate total construction cost for building the Titanic was $7.5 million, about $123 million in today's money.
- The hull of the Titanic alone weighed 26,000 tons (23,600t). This included three large anchors which weighed 31 tons (28t) altogether.
- At the time of their launches, the Olympic and the Titanic were claimed to be the largest man-made objects ever moved.
- It took 10 months to "fit out" the Titanic (adding top decks, making sure the kitchens have enough pots & pans, etc).
- The first things to be installed were 29 boilers (15ft/4.5m high), the huge reciprocating engines, and the turbine.
- The original plans of the Titanic call for 64 lifeboats. But that was cut down to 32, and then 16 to increase space on the deck. They then added four lifeboats with collapsible canvas sides to bring the total of 16 lifeboats to 20 (the regulatory amount at that time was 16).
- The Titanic carried 5,892 tons (5,344t) of coal. At a cruising speed of 21-22 knots, it used 620 to 640 tons (562-581t) per day.
- The two three-bladed side propellers were each 23 1/2 ft (7m) across % weighed 38 tons (34t) each.
- The four bladed center propeller was 16 1/2ft (5m) wide and weighed 22 tons (20t).
- There were around 2,000 portholes and windows on the Titanic.
- The fourth funnel on the Titanic was a fake, only three were needed. They thought a fourth funnel would make the ship look grander (the fourth funnel carried vents from the turbine engine room and from the huge coal stoves in the main kitchen).
- April 2, 1912 was the Titanic's "test drive". It lasted less than a day.
- In it's cargo the Titanic held 76 cases of dragon's blood, a sap from a type of palm tree found in the Canary Islands (used to color wood varnish and women's makeup).
- The most exotic object in the Titanic's cargo was The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, a book of ancient sayings. The illustrated copy in the Titanic's hold was adorned with 1,050 precious stones, each set ingold. It had recently been sold for $2,025 (about $33,000 in today's dollars) at a Londom auction and was being sent to it's new owner, Gabriel Wells, a New York book dealer.
Some of these are just what I remember off the top of my head, others I had to dig through my old books to find (and correct). I hope most of this information is still correct.
I'll add more later. Maybe.
