20 Things You Might Not Know About The Titanic

I am a die-hard Titanic fan, and I am not just talking about the movie! While growing up, everything about the Titanic fascinated me, even the movie was interesting to me.

So, I decided to compile a list of facts that you might not know about the RMS Titanic.

By
F.G.O. Stuart (1843-1923) – http://www.uwants.com/viewthread.php?tid=3817223&extra=page%3D1, Public Domain, Link

1. Titanic had two sister ships, that looked most alike to their middle sister, Titanic. The eldest ship was the Olympic, then the Titanic, then the Britannic.
   1. The Olympic was a passenger ship, and then a troop ship during WW1, only to be scrapped in 1935.
   2. The Britannic was intended to be a transatlantic ocean liner like her older sisters but was used as a hospital ship during the First World War. She was sunk by a naval mine in 1916 – surprisingly sinking in only 55 minutes.
2. There was actually supposed to be a lifeboat drill the same day that the ship hit the iceberg but had soon been canceled for an unknown reason.
3. Remember the famous scene on the ship where the musician’s played while the ship as in distress? Well, that was real! Sadly, they all went down with the ship. They played for two hours and five minutes.
4. Only three of the smokestacks actually worked on the ship! The fourth was really just for show, although they did store electrical wiring in the fourth stack.
5. The New York Times devoted 75 pages to coverage of the Titanic in the first week after the disaster.
6. There was actually ship particularly close to Titanic, the Californian, as it was sinking, but there are rumors of why the ship really did not respond to them. The radio operator had already gone to bed while the distress calls were being sent out. Imagine if the ship did respond, more lives would have been saved.
7. The lifeboats were not filled to capacity, as seen in the movie, and there were actually enough lifeboats on the ship for everyone to be saved.
8. There were on 336 bodies recovered from the wreckage. To put this in perspective, there were 1514 deaths that ill-fated night.
9. The infamous iceberg that sank Titanic, was believed to be formed somewhere around 1000 B.C.E
10. How expensive were the First Class Parlor tickets to New York? Well, then it as $4,350. Now, it is 96,600.
11. The ship contained 20,000 bottles of beer. 1,500 bottles of wine, and 8,000 cigars – only for the use of first-class passengers though.
12. The Grand Staircase actually went down to seven out of ten of the ship’s decks. The staircase included oak paneling, paintings, and bronze cherubs.
    By White Star Line – “White Line Triple Screw Steamers” booklet, Public Domain, Link
13. During the construction of the ship in Belfast, there were 246 injuries and two deaths that were recorded.
14. The very last supper that had been served on the ship, consisted of 11 courses.
15. Only two of the nine dogs that were on board the Titanic were saved.
16. The iceberg itself was from a glacier in Greenland that was about 100 feet
17. There was only a 37-second time lapse from the time the iceberg was spotted, and when it actually hit.
18. The ship had received right around six warnings of ice during the voyage.
19. The water that night was 28°F that night, which would have kicked in hypothermia in about two minutes.
20. There have been 18 theatrical released cinema dramas(movies), and documentaries all about Titanic, and this does not include television shows.