titanic full essay

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By: History.com Editors

Updated: May 2, 2024 | Original: November 9, 2009

The RMS Titanic, a luxury steamship, sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912, off the coast of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic after sideswiping an iceberg during its maiden voyage. Of the 2,240 passengers and crew on board, more than 1,500 lost their lives in the disaster. Titanic has inspired countless books, articles and films (including the 1997 Titanic movie starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio), and the ship's story has entered the public consciousness as a cautionary tale about the perils of human hubris.

The Building of the RMS Titanic

The Titanic was the product of intense competition among rival shipping lines in the first half of the 20th century. In particular, the White Star Line found itself in a battle for steamship primacy with Cunard, a venerable British firm with two standout ships that ranked among the most sophisticated and luxurious of their time.

Cunard’s Mauretania began service in 1907 and quickly set a speed record for the fastest average speed during a transatlantic crossing (23.69 knots or 27.26 mph), a title that it held for 22 years.

Cunard’s other masterpiece, Lusitania , launched the same year and was lauded for its spectacular interiors. Lusitania met its tragic end on May 7, 1915, when a torpedo fired by a German U-boat sunk the ship, killing nearly 1,200 of the 1,959 people on board and precipitating the United States’ entry into World War I .

Did you know? Passengers traveling first class on Titanic were roughly 44 percent more likely to survive than other passengers.

The same year that Cunard unveiled its two magnificent liners, J. Bruce Ismay, chief executive of White Star, discussed the construction of three large ships with William J. Pirrie, chairman of the shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff. Part of a new “Olympic” class of liners, each ship would measure 882 feet in length and 92.5 feet at their broadest point, making them the largest of their time.

In March 1909, work began in the massive Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, on the second of these three ocean liners, Titanic, and continued nonstop for two years.

On May 31, 1911, Titanic’s immense hull–the largest movable manmade object in the world at the time–made its way down the slipways and into the River Lagan in Belfast. More than 100,000 people attended the launching, which took just over a minute and went off without a hitch.

The hull was immediately towed to a mammoth fitting-out dock where thousands of workers would spend most of the next year building the ship’s decks, constructing her lavish interiors and installing the 29 giant boilers that would power her two main steam engines.

‘Unsinkable’ Titanic’s Fatal Flaws

According to some hypotheses, Titanic was doomed from the start by a design that many lauded as state-of-the-art. The Olympic-class ships featured a double bottom and 15 watertight bulkhead compartments equipped with electric watertight doors that could be operated individually or simultaneously by a switch on the bridge.

It was these watertight bulkheads that inspired Shipbuilder magazine, in a special issue devoted to the Olympic liners, to deem them “practically unsinkable.”

But the watertight compartment design contained a flaw that was a critical factor in Titanic’s sinking: While the individual bulkheads were indeed watertight, the walls separating the bulkheads extended only a few feet above the water line, so water could pour from one compartment into another, especially if the ship began to list or pitch forward.

The second critical safety lapse that contributed to the loss of so many lives was the inadequate number of lifeboats carried on Titanic. A mere 16 boats, plus four Engelhardt “collapsibles,” could accommodate just 1,178 people. Titanic could carry up to 2,435 passengers, and a crew of approximately 900 brought her capacity to more than 3,300 people.

As a result, even if the lifeboats were loaded to full capacity during an emergency evacuation, there were available seats for only one-third of those on board. While unthinkably inadequate by today’s standards, Titanic’s supply of lifeboats actually exceeded the British Board of Trade’s requirements.

Passengers on the Titanic

Titanic created quite a stir when it departed for its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912. After stops in Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown (now known as Cobh), Ireland, the ship set sail for New York with 2,240 passengers and crew—or “souls,” the expression then used in the shipping industry, usually in connection with a sinking—on board.

As befitting the first transatlantic crossing of the world’s most celebrated ship, many of these souls were high-ranking officials, wealthy industrialists, dignitaries and celebrities. First and foremost was the White Star Line’s managing director, J. Bruce Ismay, accompanied by Thomas Andrews, the ship’s builder from Harland and Wolff.

Absent was financier J.P. Morgan , whose International Mercantile Marine shipping trust controlled the White Star Line and who had selected Ismay as a company officer. Morgan had planned to join his associates on Titanic but canceled at the last minute when some business matters delayed him.

The wealthiest passenger was John Jacob Astor IV, heir to the Astor family fortune, who had made waves a year earlier by marrying 18-year-old Madeleine Talmadge Force, a young woman 29 years his junior, shortly after divorcing his first wife.

Other notable passengers included the elderly owner of Macy’s, Isidor Straus, and his wife Ida; industrialist Benjamin Guggenheim, accompanied by his mistress, valet and chauffeur; and widow and heiress Margaret “Molly” Brown, who would earn her nickname “ The Unsinkable Molly Brown ” by helping to maintain calm and order while the lifeboats were being loaded and boosting the spirits of her fellow survivors.

The employees attending to this collection of First Class luminaries were mostly traveling Second Class, along with academics, tourists, journalists and others who would enjoy a level of service and accommodations equivalent to First Class on most other ships.

But by far the largest group of passengers was in Third Class: more than 700, exceeding the other two levels combined. Some had paid less than $20 to make the crossing. It was Third Class that was the major source of profit for shipping lines like White Star, and Titanic was designed to offer these passengers accommodations and amenities superior to those found in Third Class on any other ship of that era.

Titanic by the Numbers: From Construction to Disaster to Discovery

More than just facts and figures, these statistics highlight the massive scale of Titanic's ambition—and of its tragic sinking.

What Was the Titanic’s Captain Doing While the Ship Sank?

Edward Smith's body was never recovered, and his final moments remain a mystery—with no shortage of conflicting accounts.

Titanic Rescue Effort: 5 Ways the World Tried to Help

The sinking of the RMS Titanic on the night of April 14‑15, 1912 is among the most infamous disasters in history. Yet, both factual and fictional accounts of the event often skip from the mayhem and death at the ship following its collision with the iceberg, to the lives of the survivors, once safely back […]

Titanic Sets Sail

Titanic’s departure from Southampton on April 10 was not without some oddities. A small coal fire was discovered in one of her bunkers–an alarming but not uncommon occurrence on steamships of the day. Stokers hosed down the smoldering coal and shoveled it aside to reach the base of the blaze.

After assessing the situation, the captain and chief engineer concluded that it was unlikely it had caused any damage that could affect the hull structure, and the stokers were ordered to continue controlling the fire at sea.

According to a theory put forth by a small number of Titanic experts, the fire became uncontrollable after the ship left Southampton, forcing the crew to attempt a full-speed crossing; moving at such a fast pace, they were unable to avoid the fatal collision with the iceberg.

Another unsettling event took place when Titanic left the Southampton dock. As she got underway, she narrowly escaped a collision with the America Line’s S.S. New York. Superstitious Titanic buffs sometimes point to this as the worst kind of omen for a ship departing on her maiden voyage.

The Titanic Strikes an Iceberg

On April 14, after four days of uneventful sailing, Titanic received sporadic reports of ice from other ships, but she was sailing on calm seas under a moonless, clear sky.

At about 11:30 p.m., a lookout saw an iceberg coming out of a slight haze dead ahead, then rang the warning bell and telephoned the bridge. The engines were quickly reversed and the ship was turned sharply—instead of making direct impact, Titanic seemed to graze along the side of the berg, sprinkling ice fragments on the forward deck.

Sensing no collision, the lookouts were relieved. They had no idea that the iceberg had a jagged underwater spur, which slashed a 300-foot gash in the hull below the ship’s waterline.

By the time the captain toured the damaged area with Harland and Wolff’s Thomas Andrews, five compartments were already filling with seawater, and the bow of the doomed ship was alarmingly pitched downward, allowing seawater to pour from one bulkhead into the neighboring compartment.

Andrews did a quick calculation and estimated that Titanic might remain afloat for an hour and a half, perhaps slightly more. At that point the captain, who had already instructed his wireless operator to call for help, ordered the lifeboats to be loaded.

Titanic’s Lifeboats

A little more than an hour after contact with the iceberg, a largely disorganized and haphazard evacuation began with the lowering of the first lifeboat. The craft was designed to hold 65 people; it left with only 28 aboard.

Tragically, this was to be the norm: During the confusion and chaos during the precious hours before Titanic plunged into the sea, nearly every lifeboat would be launched woefully under-filled, some with only a handful of passengers.

In compliance with the law of the sea, women and children boarded the boats first; only when there were no women or children nearby were men permitted to board. Yet many of the victims were in fact women and children, the result of disorderly procedures that failed to get them to the boats in the first place.

Exceeding Andrews’ prediction, Titanic stubbornly stayed afloat for close to three hours. Those hours witnessed acts of craven cowardice and extraordinary bravery.

Hundreds of human dramas unfolded between the order to load the lifeboats and the ship’s final plunge: Men saw off wives and children, families were separated in the confusion and selfless individuals gave up their spots to remain with loved ones or allow a more vulnerable passenger to escape. In the end, 706 people survived the sinking of the Titanic.

Titanic: Stewardess Survival

This video clip from ‘What Happened After’ looks at the life of Violet Jessup, a stewardess aboard the Titanic who would ultimately become the only woman to survive the sinking of the Titanic and her sister ship, the Britannic.

Titanic’s Lookout

This video clip from ‘What Happened After’ looks at the life of Fredrick Fleet, the infamous lookout aboard the Titanic who first saw the iceberg that would sink the ship.

Coroner’s Report: Titanic

When the “unsinkable” ocean liner Titanic was lost after hitting an iceberg on April 15, 1912, lifeboats saved only 700 of her passengers. What did the 1,500 people who went down with the ship experience in the icy waters of the North Atlantic?

Titanic Sinks

The ship’s most illustrious passengers each responded to the circumstances with conduct that has become an integral part of the Titanic legend. Ismay, the White Star managing director, helped load some of the boats and later stepped onto a collapsible as it was being lowered. Although no women or children were in the vicinity when he abandoned ship, he would never live down the ignominy of surviving the disaster while so many others perished.

Thomas Andrews, Titanic’s chief designer, was last seen in the First Class smoking room, staring blankly at a painting of a ship on the wall. Astor deposited his wife Madeleine into a lifeboat and, remarking that she was pregnant, asked if he could accompany her; refused entry, he managed to kiss her goodbye just before the boat was lowered away.

Although offered a seat on account of his age, Isidor Straus refused any special consideration, and his wife Ida would not leave her husband behind. The couple retired to their cabin and perished together.

Benjamin Guggenheim and his valet returned to their rooms and changed into formal evening dress; emerging onto the deck, he famously declared, “We are dressed in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen.”

Molly Brown helped load the boats and finally was forced into one of the last to leave. She implored its crewmen to turn back for survivors, but they refused, fearing they would be swamped by desperate people trying to escape the icy seas.

Titanic, nearly perpendicular and with many of her lights still aglow, finally dove beneath the ocean’s surface at about 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912. Throughout the morning, Cunard’s Carpathia , after receiving Titanic’s distress call at midnight and steaming at full speed while dodging ice floes all night, rounded up all of the lifeboats. They contained only 706 survivors.

Aftermath of the Titanic Catastrophe

At least five separate boards of inquiry on both sides of the Atlantic conducted comprehensive hearings on Titanic’s sinking, interviewing dozens of witnesses and consulting with many maritime experts. Every conceivable subject was investigated, from the conduct of the officers and crew to the construction of the ship. Titanic conspiracy theories abounded.

While it has always been assumed that the ship sank as a result of the gash that caused the bulkhead compartments to flood, various other theories have emerged over the decades, including that the ship’s steel plates were too brittle for the near-freezing Atlantic waters, that the impact caused rivets to pop and that the expansion joints failed, among others.

Technological aspects of the catastrophe aside, Titanic’s demise has taken on a deeper, almost mythic, meaning in popular culture. Many view the tragedy as a morality play about the dangers of human hubris: Titanic’s creators believed they had built an unsinkable ship that could not be defeated by the laws of nature.

This same overconfidence explains the electrifying impact Titanic’s sinking had on the public when she was lost. There was widespread disbelief that the ship could not possibly have sunk, and, due to the era’s slow and unreliable means of communication, misinformation abounded. Newspapers initially reported that the ship had collided with an iceberg but remained afloat and was being towed to port with everyone on board.

It took many hours for accurate accounts to become widely available, and even then people had trouble accepting that this paragon of modern technology could sink on her maiden voyage, taking more than 1,500 souls with her.

The ship historian John Maxtone-Graham has compared Titanic’s story to the Challenger space shuttle disaster of 1986. In that case, the world reeled at the notion that one of the most sophisticated inventions ever created could explode into oblivion along with its crew. Both tragedies triggered a sudden collapse in confidence, revealing that we remain subject to human frailties and error, despite our hubris and a belief in technological infallibility.

Titanic Wreck

Efforts to locate the wreck of Titanic began soon after it sank. But technical limitations—as well as the vastness of the North Atlantic search area—made finding it extremely difficult.

Finally, in 1985, a joint U.S.-French expedition located the wreck of the RMS Titanic . The doomed ship was discovered about 400 miles east of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic, some 13,000 feet below the surface.

Subsequent explorations have found that the wreck is in relatively good condition, with many objects on the ship—jewelry, furniture, shoes, machinery and other items—are still intact.

Since its discovery, the wreck has been explored numerous times by manned and unmanned submersibles—including the submersible Titan, which imploded during what would have been its third dive to the wreck in June 2023.

HISTORY Vault: Titanic's Achilles Heel

Did Titanic have a fatal design flaw? John Chatterton and Richie Kohler of "Deep Sea Detectives" dive the wreckage of Titanic's sister ship, Britannic, to investigate the possibility.

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• Collectibles

The Tragic Tale of the Titanic: A Maritime Disaster That Shocked the World

• by history tools
• May 26, 2024

Introduction

The RMS Titanic, a marvel of engineering and luxury, set sail on her maiden voyage from Southampton, UK, to New York City, USA, on April 10, 1912. The largest and most opulent ocean liner of her time, the Titanic was a symbol of the Edwardian era‘s confidence and optimism. However, just four days into her journey, the ship struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank, taking the lives of more than 1,500 passengers and crew. This tragic event shocked the world and left an indelible mark on history.

Construction and Design

The Titanic was built by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, and was owned by the White Star Line. Construction began on March 31, 1909, and took nearly three years to complete. The ship was built using a combination of steel and wrought iron, with a double bottom and 16 watertight compartments designed to keep her afloat in the event of a collision (Hutchings & de Kerbrech, 2011).

The Titanic measured 882 feet 9 inches (269.06 m) long and 92 feet 6 inches (28.19 m) wide, with a gross tonnage of 46,328 tons. She had 10 decks, four funnels, and three propellers, and was powered by two four-cylinder steam engines and one low-pressure turbine. The ship‘s interior was equally impressive, with luxurious accommodations for first-class passengers that included a grand staircase, a swimming pool, a gymnasium, and a Turkish bath. Second-class and third-class accommodations were also of a high standard for the time (Beveridge & Hall, 2011).

Societal Context

The Titanic‘s maiden voyage took place during the Edwardian era, a time of great social and economic change. The ship‘s passengers were divided into three distinct classes, reflecting the rigid class structure of the time. First-class passengers, who included some of the wealthiest and most prominent individuals of the day, enjoyed luxurious accommodations and amenities, while second-class and third-class passengers had more modest quarters and facilities (Maltin & Aston, 2011).

The Titanic was seen as a symbol of progress and modernity, reflecting the confidence and optimism of the age. However, the disaster that befell the ship would ultimately serve as a stark reminder of the dangers of overconfidence and the limits of human technology.

The Fateful Journey

The Titanic set sail from Southampton on April 10, 1912, with 2,224 passengers and crew on board. The ship made stops at Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland, before heading out into the open Atlantic. The weather was calm and clear, and the ship‘s captain, Edward Smith, ordered the ship to maintain a speed of around 22 knots (25 mph) (Maltin & Aston, 2011).

On the night of April 14, the ship received several ice warnings from other ships in the area, but these warnings were largely ignored. At around 11:40 PM, a lookout spotted an iceberg directly ahead, but it was too late to avoid a collision. The Titanic struck the iceberg on her starboard side, causing the hull plates to buckle inwards and opening five of her sixteen watertight compartments to the sea (Hutchings & de Kerbrech, 2011).

The Sinking and Rescue Efforts

Despite the damage, the Titanic remained afloat for over two hours as her crew and passengers struggled to evacuate. However, the ship had only enough lifeboats to accommodate about half of those on board, and many of the boats were launched only partially filled (Beveridge & Hall, 2011).

The evacuation process was chaotic and disorganized, with many passengers and crew members unsure of what to do. First-class passengers were given priority in boarding the lifeboats, while many third-class passengers were left to fend for themselves. Some lifeboats were launched with only a handful of people on board, while others were filled to capacity (Maltin & Aston, 2011).

As the ship began to sink faster, panic set in and chaos ensued. Many passengers and crew were left stranded on the ship as it tilted towards the bow and began to fill with water. The Titanic finally sank at around 2:20 AM on April 15, 1912, taking the lives of more than 1,500 people. Only about 700 survivors were rescued by the nearby ship Carpathia (Hutchings & de Kerbrech, 2011).

Table 1: Titanic passenger and crew survival rates by class. (Maltin & Aston, 2011)

Aftermath and Consequences

The sinking of the Titanic sent shockwaves around the world and led to widespread public outrage and calls for reform. In the United States, a Senate inquiry was launched to investigate the disaster, while in the United Kingdom, a formal investigation was conducted by the British Board of Trade (Barczewski, 2011).

The inquiries revealed numerous shortcomings in the Titanic‘s design and operation, including the lack of sufficient lifeboats, inadequate evacuation procedures, and the failure to heed ice warnings. The disaster also highlighted the need for better communication systems and safety regulations in the maritime industry (Maltin & Aston, 2011).

In response to the Titanic tragedy, the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) was adopted in 1914, establishing new standards for ship design, safety equipment, and emergency procedures. The convention required ships to carry enough lifeboats for all passengers and crew, as well as other safety measures such as 24-hour radio communication and regular lifeboat drills (Hutchings & de Kerbrech, 2011).

Discovery and Cultural Impact

The wreck of the Titanic was discovered in 1985 by a team led by oceanographer Robert Ballard, using advanced underwater imaging technology. The discovery sparked renewed interest in the Titanic story and led to numerous expeditions to study and document the wreck site (Ballard & Archbold, 1987).

Since its discovery, the Titanic has become a cultural icon, inspiring countless books, films, documentaries, and exhibitions. The most famous cinematic depiction of the disaster is James Cameron‘s 1997 film "Titanic," which won 11 Academy Awards and became one of the highest-grossing films of all time (Lubin, 1999).

The Titanic story has also had a lasting impact on popular culture, serving as a cautionary tale about the dangers of human hubris and the limits of technology. The ship‘s legacy has been commemorated in museums, memorials, and cultural events around the world, ensuring that the memory of the Titanic and those who perished on board will never be forgotten.

The tragic tale of the Titanic remains one of the most enduring and fascinating stories in modern history. The ship‘s construction, design, and societal context offer a glimpse into the world of the Edwardian era, while the events of her fateful journey and the aftermath of the disaster continue to captivate and inspire people around the globe.

More than a century after her sinking, the Titanic serves as a poignant reminder of the fragility of human life and the importance of safety, responsibility, and humility in the face of nature‘s power. As we continue to study and remember the Titanic, we honor the lives lost and the lessons learned from this tragic event, ensuring that her legacy will endure for generations to come.

• Ballard, R. D., & Archbold, R. (1987). The Discovery of the Titanic. Warner Books.
• Barczewski, S. (2011). Titanic: A Night Remembered. Continuum.
• Beveridge, B., & Hall, S. (2011). Titanic: The Ship Magnificent. The History Press.
• Hutchings, D. F., & de Kerbrech, R. P. (2011). RMS Titanic Manual: 1909-1912 Olympic Class. Haynes Publishing.
• Lubin, D. M. (1999). Titanic. BFI Publishing.
• Maltin, T., & Aston, E. (2011). 101 Things You Thought You Knew About the Titanic… But Didn‘t! Penguin Books.

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RMS Titanic

An introduction to the greatest shipwreck drama of all time discover the key titanic facts and find out how to learn more..

The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 was a catastrophic event which has since passed into myth and legend. But what is the truth behind the myth?  Encyclopedia Titanica is here to help answer that question.

What was the Titanic?

RMS Titanic was a British registered four-funnelled ocean liner built in 1912 for the transatlantic passenger and mail service between Southampton and New York.

According to legend RMS Titanic was conceived at a dinner between Lord Pirrie of the Harland & Wolff shipyard and Joseph Bruce Ismay , Chairman of the White Star Line, at Downshire House, Lord Pirrie's London home.

Did you know? The RMS Titanic was named after the Greek Mythological creatures Titans . Read more...

With the introduction of the Lusitania and Mauretania  the Cunard Line had stolen a march on the White Star Line; with Olympic , Titanic and Britannic Bruce Ismay and Lord Pirrie saw a golden opportunity to regain the initiative and with it a hefty slice of the transatlantic passenger trade.

The new vessels would forsake speed for the increased safety and comfort that would come with a significant increase in scale. Fittings and appointments would also be improved over the competition. Lavish staterooms, a swimming pool, squash racquet court, gymnasium, stylish cafe and plush a la carte restaurant would attract the wealthy, while significantly improved accommodation in other classes was also provided. Millionaires might grab the headlines but it would be steerage (Third Class) and the growing middle class (Second Class) that would drive economic success.

When and where was the Titanic built?

RMS Titanic was designed and constructed at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast (Yard No. 401), Northern Ireland under the supervision of marine architect Alexander Carlisle and chief designer Thomas Andrews .

Having been laid down in 1909 it would take three years of construction and fitting out before RMS Titanic was ready for sea, commanded by veteran Captain Edward John Smith . After brief sea trials she departed for Southampton on 1 April 1912.

How big was the Titanic?

Lifeboats 2 Emergency Cutters 14 Standard Lifeboats 4 Engelhardt Collapsible Lifeboats See Lifeboat Specification .

Although she was the largest ship in the world, she was only fractionally greater in size than her sister ship RMS Olympic . RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic were constructed side-by-side and less than one year would elapse between their respective maiden voyages. They were practically identical in both appearance and fittings. A third sister Britannic would follow, but would enter World War One as a vast hospital ship; she would never see service as a passenger liner.

J. Bruce Ismay

Edward John Smith

Thomas Andrews

Lord Pirrie

Titanic Deckplans

Harland & Wolff

Design and Construction

How was the titanic propelled.

The Titanic was propelled by a novel arrangement of traditional steam powered reciprocating engines and a more modern steam turbine.

Engines: Two triple-expansion reciprocating steam engines One low-pressure Parsons turbine 25 double-ended and 4 single-ended Scotch-type boilers 159 coal burning furnaces Propulsion: Three propellers 5,892 tons of coal Total horsepower - 51,000 H.P. Service speed - 21 knots Top speed : 23 knots.

Learn more in the Engine Room Engines & Propulsion Systems forum

Titanic's Prime Mover

'Olympic' Class Propulsion System

Cold Starting the Titanic

Speed and revolutions.

Titanic's Central Propeller

More Engineering Articles

Engines, engine room and propulsion

When was the titanic's maiden voyage.

On 10 April 1912 the Titanic sailed from Southampton, England with 2,200 passengers and crew she was bound for New York. Titanic's Schedule took in stops at Cherbourg, France and Queenstown, Ireland.

• Keeping Track of a maiden Voyage

Encyclopedia Titanica contains a biography for every single person that travelled on the maiden voyage as well as information about the places people came from and the ships her crew served on.

Titanic Passengers and Crew

Aboard were 2208 people - all ages, creeds and colour; the wealthy, middle class and the poor. If you could walk her decks of you would hear a dozen or more languages being spoken with every imaginable dialect.

Quick Facts

• Includes 4 members of the Harland and Wolff Guarantee Group (all lost).
• Includes 8 Musicians (all lost)
• Includes 5 Postal Clerks (all lost)

More Titanic statistics

Make your own Titanic ticket Print a passenger ticket, based on a 1912 White Star Line original then print out and look up your passenger to find out all about them. Try it now...

Passenger List

What happened and why is the Titanic famous?

Four days after leaving Southampton the Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank: 1500 people died and 700 survived.  The Titanic is famous for many reasons, these include

• She was the largest ship in the world
• She sank on her maiden voyage
• Her Captain received many warnings of ice on the route but did not reduce speed.
• There were not enough lifeboats for all the people on board.
• Many crew and paying passengers lost their lives but the man that effectively owned the Titanic somehow survived.
• With millionaires as well as people in dire poverty there was a diverse mix of passengers and crew and we have been left many fascinating stories of their lives.

Titanic in modern culture

RMS Titanic forms part of our cultural landscape. Since 1912 she has been depicted in countless films and books.

Through art, drama and music her tragedy is replayed and reinterpreted and collections of her relics can be seen in museums and exhibitions across the globe.

RMS Titanic has even entered the language: the phrase re-arranging deckchairs on the Titanic exemplifies a futile exercise and the essence of her tragedy has formed the metaphorical basis of many an academic thesis.

Encyclopedia Titanica enables you to learn about how the RMS Titanic has been reflected in contemporary culture; Titanic on film and record, in photographic image and in art.

You can also learn about the true stories that inspired the movie makers including The Real Jack Dawson , the story of a real life Titanic victim who's namesake was the hero of James Cameron's 1997 epic Titanic movie.

You can also watch the rarest of all motion pictures: RMS Titanic archive film .

The Real Jack Dawson

Titanic As Metaphor

Archive Film

Archive Recordings

Titanic Sheet Music

How can i get involved.

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Wreck of the RMS Titanic: A Resource Guide

Introduction.

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Local History & Genealogy : Ask a Librarian

Have a question? Need assistance? Use our online form to ask a librarian for help.

Author: Mark F. Hall, Reference Librarian, Researcher and Reference Services Division

Created: June 10, 2019

Last Updated: June 10, 2019

The sinking of the ocean liner RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912 was one of the most dramatic events of the twentieth century. In a mere four hours after striking an iceberg, the largest passenger ship yet built sank while on its maiden voyage, claiming the lives of over 1,500 persons. Many of those lost were from the upper crust of British and American society. The sinking of the Titanic, which had been popularly regarded as unsinkable, punctured the aura of man's triumph over nature that had grown out of the Industrial Revolution and the Progressive Era.

Photograph of front page of The world 16 April 1912 headlining the sinking of the Titanic. 1958. New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection (Library of Congress). Prints and Photographs Division.

TITANIC life boats on way to CARPATHIA. 1912. George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress). Prints & Photographs Division.

The great Titanic disaster. 1912. George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress). Prints & Photographs Division.

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April 4, 2012

Titanic : Resonance and Reality

A century ago a great ship struck an iceberg and sank, earning a permanent place among the stories we tell—and lessons we should learn

By Daniel C. Schlenoff

The tragedy One hundred years ago, during the night of April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic collided with an iceberg, and in the small hours of the next day went down into the cold Atlantic Ocean with the loss of 1,517 lives.

There have been worse tragedies in history. Some were more violently spectacular, some still govern the daily routines of the survivors. Yet the Titanic disaster has strongly resonated with us for a century. Why? Because it is a tale of humanity as classic as a Greek tragedy. The story has been told and retold for the past century in movies , books , songs and magazine articles. Even James Cameron made a film using the Titanic saga as a backdrop.

Hubris—an excess of pride and confidence—is central to any classical tragedy. The Titanic set out from Queenstown, Ireland, on April 11, 1912, as a grand symbol of modernity and comfort. As she steamed at high speed through the dark of night her captain ignored the Cassandra-like warnings that icebergs lurked nearby, and through hubris the ship collided with one.

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Within the tale of the sinking are interwoven many ( mostly true ) vignettes of human suffering—and also some cathartic scenesof triumph. Benjamin Guggenheim and his valet shucked off their life belts and donned their formal wear, saying, "We've dressed up in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen." Thomas Andrews , the designer of the flawed ship, sat forlornly in the opulent smoking lounge awaiting death, perhaps contemplating this awful reversal of fortune. J. Bruce Ismay , chairman of the White Star Line (which owned the Titanic ), quietly slunk into a lifeboat and was later widely excoriated by the public for taking up a place when so many women and children were left to die on his ship. Charles John Joughin , the kitchen staff's chief baker, provides the comic relief in our retelling: He was the last person to step off the sinking ship into the ice-cold water, but was so well-fortified with liquor he survived to be picked up, his hair still dry. The " Unsinkable Molly Brown " was arguably the ship's most famous survivor: she defied convention and in an act of compassion commandeered her lifeboat to go back and look for survivors in the frigid water.

Heroes and villains. The quick and the dead. And all of this pathos communicated to the world by radio and by newspaper within hours of the tragedy.

The reality Over the past century, a more prosaic reality has appeared in our path and the mythic tale has collided with it. Every detail mentioned here has been endlessly disputed (or fabricated) since April 15, 1912. With the growth of the Internet, a host of Titanic experts have become newly obsessed with the details down to the nanoscopic level. Google shows there are now 11 million sites with "Titanic" in the URL. (There are only 1.9 million for "gigantic.")

With every assertion and counterclaim, a pattern emerges, one that is not far different from the one that Scientific American reported  two weeks after the ship went down . Despite some wonderfully creative conspiracy theories that have been floated in the past 100 years, the building and sinking of the ship is a study in failure: of engineering systems, of law, of design, of private profit versus public safety.

Unsinkable The ship was never touted by the White Star Line as unsinkable—the term " practically unsinkable " appeared in a couple of admiring reviews of the ship beforehand and was played up for ironic effect afterward. The perception in the public mind was that the ship exuded modernity and comfort, giving a great impression of solidity and safety—the same way a bank built of solid masonry does even as it founders from unstable finances. The article "Wreck of the White Star Liner Titanic " from Scientific American from April 27, 1912, shows how the ship was designed with safety in mind. Unfortunately the ship was not designed with safety as the first priority . There were watertight doors and bulkheads, but even in 1912 engineers recognized that the bulkheads did not rise high enough—some were only three meters above the waterline. But such barriers cut up the interior space and made it harder to accommodate the easy flow of fare-paying passengers, and so they were discouraged. The ship had a double bottom for safety, but the company decided to save money and interior space and not build double sides. After the sinking, engineers immediately retrofitted the Titanic ’s sister ship Olympic with a double hull.

Lifeboats These days we believe there must have been a special kind of Dionysian madness to send a ship into the ocean without enough lifeboats to carry every soul on board. Early designs for the Titanic did in fact call for 64 lifeboats, but by the time the ship was launched, the company had whittled that complement down to 20.

Astonishingly, the number of boats carried was actually above and beyond what was legally required by the British Board of Trade for seagoing ocean liners. One argument said that a full complement of lifeboats would have made the ship too top-heavy, perhaps risking capsize. Another argument was that in an emergency the lifeboats would not have time to be loaded and launched, especially if the ship was heeling over. But the main reason for dispensing with lifeboats may have been to provide plenty of room for luxurious sundecks and sumptuous parlors for the pleasure of the well-to-do passengers. There were certainly plenty of technical fixes available: the front cover of Scientific American from April 27, 2012 , shows one possible solution of stacking all the boats on the top deck.

Speed in ice fields The Titanic was never designed to be as fast as more powerful competitor ships. A fast first crossing, though, made for good media image and better business for the White Star Line in the highly competitive transatlantic steamer business. Therefore, quite possibly, the chairman of the company, J. Bruce Ismay, pushed the venerable Capt. Edward John Smith to steam ahead with all possible speed. Other ships in the area had radioed that they had seen icebergs, and Smith may have altered course slightly to avoid possible locations of these known hazards, but in the balance between speed and risk, the company line won out. Yet there was no shortage of knowledge about the perils of ice, as you can see from this April 27, 1912, Scientific American article . Sonar was developed within the next two years as a way to avoid icebergs.

The blow For many years it was widely believed that only a giant ripping gash torn by the iceberg could have doomed such a magnificent ship. A " 300-foot gash in the hull " was often mentioned—just like the image we show in our issue from two weeks after the tragedy:

Later calculations looked at the rate with which water flooded the ship during the two hours and 40 minutes it stayed afloat after the collision and showed that "the gash" in reality would have resulted in only slight damage to the hull, perhaps amounting a dozen square meters in total. This deduction was confirmed in 1985 when submersibles imaged the hull of the Titanic resting on the ocean floor four kilometers down. The images revealed several small gashes, or perhaps several hull plates had popped apart giving the illusion of gashes. (Historians have suggested that the wrought iron rivets holding the plates together were not as strong as they should have been.)

Conclusion As the complexity of engineering projects increases exponentially, so does the focus on safety. Within any system there is no danger more potent, more capable of causing harm, than human frailty. In January of 2012 the Costa Concordia, the largest luxury liner built in Italy, manufactured at the Fincantieri shipyards in the ancient seafaring city of Genoa to the highest standards of safety specified by law, struck a reef in the Mediterranean, and partially capsized, killing dozens of people. The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, seems to have steered his ship onto the rocks in a moment of weakness : The courts and the tabloids as well as armchair experts of the Internet are still disputing whether that weakness had anything to do with a comely 25-year-old Moldovan ex-dancer —and a Roman god called Cupid.

“Titanic” by James Cameron: Storyline, Language & Characters Analysis Analytical Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Screenplay Storyline

Use of strong language, characters, and action, screenplay: creative writing, works cited.

The “Titanic” movie starts with a scene under the ocean where pictures are dark blue, and then a light appears in the background. There are few submarines movements in the darkness and then light shines on a “ghost ship emerging from the darkness” (Cameron 2). Some fans of this movie say that, the first scene is remarkable because the shots were taken from actual recording of the real Titanic (Barton 119).

The head of the excursion is Brock Lovett and is just exploring to find valuables, which might have been carried to the ship. However, the team finds a safe with drawings and other decomposed papers. Interestingly, one of the drawings is of a naked woman wearing diamond. This drawing is suitably named “The Heart of the Ocean” (Cameron 70).

As this picture is shown on camera, Rose Calvert calls Lovett claiming that she is the woman in the drawing. She is flown in immediately. She begins to narrate the story of a seventeen-year old girl, Rose DeWitt Butaker, forced into marrying a man she does not love, Cal Hockley. Cal is rich, eccentric, and materialistic. Rose is naïve and troubled (Barton 121) while Cal is old and seemingly experienced These characters set up a distinctive, but anticipated storyline.

The story starts at a farewell of the RMS Titanic. The ship is nicknamed “Unsinkable” (Cameron 25). The first class passengers board with their bags and even pets while third class passengers are checked for lice and diseases.

This scenario is an intriguing contrast of the two groups – the rich and the poor. Jack Dawson, a poor artist, also gets onboard with a friend, Fabrizio De Rossi, who wants to escape to America (Cameron 29). Jack spots Rose on first class level shortly after the ship departures. She is miserable because of her upcoming wedding to Cal. She wants to commit suicide, but luckily, Jack stops her.

A friendship immediately spurts, later to turn into a romantic affair. With the story developing, the ship, on the other hand, is pushed to the limit. The captain wants to break a speed record. Bruce Ismay, one of the passengers, lures Captain Smith into the challenge despite fair warnings. He says, “…Captain, the press already know the size of Titanic, lets amaze them with her speed, as well. We have to give them something new to write…” (Cameron 207).

Taking up the challenge, Captain Smith pushes to full power. It is tragic that the speeding Titanic hits an iceberg leading to its demise in the end. The scenes in the movie are astounding. As the ship hits the iceberg and begins to sink, the experience is one of the most exhilarating moments ever on television (Sandler, and Studlar 15). In essence, the awesome grandeur of actions as the sequence unfolds is perfect for movie making. The intense and suspenseful sinking is thrilling and spectacular.

Every movie has some flaws, and there could be moments when the momentous effects and animations are in waver. Nevertheless, the scenes from the sinking ship are particularly crucial for the development of this great story. The lighting effects and soundtrack make it near perfect. The incredible suspense created in the intertwining scenes surpasses most movies ever created, with the audience terrified, as it tries to guess who survives and who dies.

Essentially, the movie seems not to have been meant for children even with a rating of PG-13. The film may be tenser, irritating, and disturbing for younger children. The movie does have some foul language like the use of ‘F’ word twice. However, with three hours running time, profanity is sparse.

Cameron seems to have been extremely keen when writing the script to avoid profanity as much as possible. The film hence develops to be mature even though there is an incidence of nudity (naked Rose)…”In her late teenage or early twenties, a nude woman, posed with some casual modesty” (Cameron 13).

Compared to most movies of today, nudity in Titanic was chaste and brief considering that, Jack did not exploit it. The scene is not presented in a coarse and overly sexual manner; though that was not right for the lead character in a movie rated PG 13. Even with a love scene, the movie just builds this love story, and with that brilliant use of language, children understand that the movie is not promoting sexual behavior.

The thing to worry about is probably the disturbing violence in the movie. There is mass panic when people begin to drown and plunge into the sea as Titanic sinks. Confusion reigns and families stressed as some children get lost amid the ensuing hysteria. “There is a picture of a child, a three year-old, ankle deep at the center of an endless corridor.

The child is alone, seemingly lost and crying” (Cameron 23). Some people even commit suicide by just jumping into the water out of desperation. At the end of the film, there are many dead bodies including infants, floating and frozen.

There is an unbelievable combination of humor, romance, suspense, and action into the script beyond words. The central story is re-invented, by the scriptwriter, to fit the characters. For teenagers to develop immediate interest into each other, (Jack and Rose), is understandable. Rose is suffering emotionally, and Jack supports her, something she is not getting from her fiancé, Cal.

Looking at the use of main characters, there was a unique presentation. Titanic is an emotional epic of a love story on a doomed sea voyage (Lubin 8). Only one character lives long enough to tell the story by the time the ill-fated ship is found. One can easily cry because of the intense emotion.

The dialogue in the movie is somehow lame though it brings about humor and moral righteousness. However, as one reads the script, there emerges a passionate love and romance between Jack and Rose. Because Rose’ fiancé, Cal, is an in love with his money more than he is with Rose; therefore, the story gives a reason why Rose falls for Jack (Lubin 18). Nevertheless, one wonders why Cal is presented as selfish uncaring rich man.

Essentially, if Cal Hockley were to be nice, but weak, probably the story could have developed more diminution. Jacks Dawson, on the other hand, is presented as a character with unknown past and a hazy future having only won a third-class ticket in a poker game. This character develops to become the object of seditious object for Rose DeWitt Bukater fall in love (Sandler, and Studlar 16).

He becomes the showpiece of the film. This relationship is not well developed though, as the two do not have a history together; it is merely a crush. It is tremendously refreshing to have a script with characters relationships that mean something. In the end, the film is a grossly sentimental story, but then it could have strained more if the characters had a deep history together.

Characters bring life to a movie and help to develop the theme of love knowing no boundaries (Lubin 38). An upper class girl, Rose, falls in love with Jack from lower class. They have an emotional connection; an overt move, but it fuels the movie. After a series of trials, Jack and Rose are finally over that and the ship crashes. There are few lifeboats for only 700 out of the 2,200 people onboard (Sandler, and Studlar 15).

The naive love story feels real each time in the movie, and dialogue in such moments is not easy to consume as real life situation. For teenagers in love, it is the innocence and pureness of this, which relationship makes the Titanic disaster more beguiling and extreme. Combined with thrilling action and exceptional animations, the audience feels that Titanic is the ultimate tragedy love-story.

There are different forms of creative writing ranging from poetry, to playwriting, and there is screenwriting. Plays and screenplays have distinct format that has to be followed (Burt-Thomas 64). A screenplay tells the film producers what to film. It is often highly complicated though it sounds easy.

The difference between screenplay and other forms of creative writing is the dialogue, description of each action, and description of anything that needs to be seen (Burt-Thomas 64). The names of the characters are centered, and every scene has a heading, a slug line. This describes the location as in indoors of outdoor, night or day among others, and it is always in caps.

Barton, Geoff. Developing Media Skills . London: Heinemann, 2001. Print.

Burt-Thomas, Wendy. The Everything Creative Writing Book: All You Need to Know to Write Novels, Play, Short Story, Screenplay, Poem, or Article . Holbrook: Everything Books, 2002. Print.

Cameron, James. “ Titanic ”. The Internet Movie Script Database, 1996. Web.

Lubin, David. Titanic BFI modern Classics. London: BFI Publishing, 1999. Print.

Sandler, Kevin, and Gaylyn Studlar. Titanic: Anatomy of a Blockbuster . New Jersey. Rutgers University Press, 1999. Print.

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IvyPanda. (2018, December 27). “Titanic” by James Cameron: Storyline, Language & Characters Analysis. https://ivypanda.com/essays/titanic/

"“Titanic” by James Cameron: Storyline, Language & Characters Analysis." IvyPanda , 27 Dec. 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/titanic/.

IvyPanda . (2018) '“Titanic” by James Cameron: Storyline, Language & Characters Analysis'. 27 December.

IvyPanda . 2018. "“Titanic” by James Cameron: Storyline, Language & Characters Analysis." December 27, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/titanic/.

1. IvyPanda . "“Titanic” by James Cameron: Storyline, Language & Characters Analysis." December 27, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/titanic/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "“Titanic” by James Cameron: Storyline, Language & Characters Analysis." December 27, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/titanic/.

Like a great iron Sphinx on the ocean floor, the Titanic faces still toward the West, interrupted forever on its only voyage. We see it in the opening shots of “Titanic,” encrusted with the silt of 85 years; a remote-controlled TV camera snakes its way inside, down corridors and through doorways, showing us staterooms built for millionaires and inherited by crustaceans.

These shots strike precisely the right note; the ship calls from its grave for its story to be told, and if the story is made of showbiz and hype, smoke and mirrors–well, so was the Titanic. She was “the largest moving work of man in all history,” a character boasts, neatly dismissing the Pyramids and the Great Wall. There is a shot of her, early in the film, sweeping majestically beneath the camera from bow to stern, nearly 900 feet long and “unsinkable,” it was claimed, until an iceberg made an irrefutable reply.

James Cameron’s 194-minute, $200 million film of the tragic voyage is in the tradition of the great Hollywood epics. It is flawlessly crafted, intelligently constructed, strongly acted and spellbinding. If its story stays well within the traditional formulas for such pictures, well, you don’t choose the most expensive film ever made as your opportunity to reinvent the wheel.

We know before the movie begins that certain things must happen. We must see the Titanic sail and sink, and be convinced we are looking at a real ship. There must be a human story–probably a romance–involving a few of the passengers. There must be vignettes involving some of the rest and a subplot involving the arrogance and pride of the ship’s builders–and perhaps also their courage and dignity. And there must be a reenactment of the ship’s terrible death throes; it took two and a half hours to sink, so that everyone aboard had time to know what was happening, and to consider their actions.

All of those elements are present in Cameron’s “Titanic,” weighted and balanced like ballast, so that the film always seems in proportion. The ship was made out of models (large and small), visual effects and computer animation. You know intellectually that you’re not looking at a real ocean liner–but the illusion is convincing and seamless. The special effects don’t call inappropriate attention to themselves but get the job done.

The human story involves an 17-year-old woman named Rose DeWitt Bukater ( Kate Winslet ) who is sailing to what she sees as her own personal doom: She has been forced by her penniless mother to become engaged to marry a rich, supercilious snob named Cal Hockley ( Billy Zane ), and so bitterly does she hate this prospect that she tries to kill herself by jumping from the ship. She is saved by Jack Dawson ( Leonardo DiCaprio ), a brash kid from steerage, and of course they will fall in love during the brief time left to them.

The screenplay tells their story in a way that unobtrusively shows off the ship. Jack is invited to join Rose’s party at dinner in the first class dining room, and later, fleeing from Cal’s manservant, Lovejoy ( David Warner ), they find themselves first in the awesome engine room, with pistons as tall as churches, and then at a rousing Irish dance in the crowded steerage. (At one point Rose gives Lovejoy the finger; did young ladies do that in 1912?) Their exploration is intercut with scenes from the command deck, where the captain ( Bernard Hill ) consults with Andrews ( Victor Garber ), the ship’s designer and Ismay ( Jonathan Hyde ), the White Star Line’s managing director.

Ismay wants the ship to break the trans-Atlantic speed record. He is warned that icebergs may have floated into the hazardous northern crossing but is scornful of danger. The Titanic can easily break the speed record but is too massive to turn quickly at high speed; there is an agonizing sequence that almost seems to play in slow motion, as the ship strains and shudders to turn away from an iceberg in its path–and fails.

We understand exactly what is happening at that moment because of an ingenious story technique by Cameron, who frames and explains the entire voyage in a modern story. The opening shots of the real Titanic, we are told, are obtained during an expedition led by Brock Lovett ( Bill Paxton ), an undersea explorer. He seeks precious jewels but finds a nude drawing of a young girl. Meanwhile, an ancient woman sees the drawing on TV and recognizes herself. This is Rose (Gloria Stuart), still alive at 101. She visits Paxton and shares her memories (“I can still smell the fresh paint”). And he shows her video scenes from his explorations, including a computer simulation of the Titanic’s last hours–which doubles as a briefing for the audience. By the time the ship sinks, we already know what is happening and why, and the story can focus on the characters while we effortlessly follow the stages of the Titanic’s sinking.

Movies like this are not merely difficult to make at all, but almost impossible to make well. The technical difficulties are so daunting that it’s a wonder when the filmmakers are also able to bring the drama and history into proportion. I found myself convinced by both the story and the saga. The setup of the love story is fairly routine, but the payoff–how everyone behaves as the ship is sinking–is wonderfully written, as passengers are forced to make impossible choices. Even the villain, played by Zane, reveals a human element at a crucial moment (despite everything, damn it all, he does love the girl).

The image from the Titanic that has haunted me, ever since I first read the story of the great ship, involves the moments right after it sank. The night sea was quiet enough so that cries for help carried easily across the water to the lifeboats, which drew prudently away. Still dressed up in the latest fashions, hundreds froze and drowned. What an extraordinary position to find yourself in after spending all that money for a ticket on an unsinkable ship.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson
• Kate Winslet as Rose Dewitt Bukater
• Bill Paxton as Brock Lovett
• Kathy Bates as Molly Brown
• Billy Zane as Cal Hockley

Written and Directed by

• James Cameron

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Prologue Magazine

They Said It Couldn’t Sink

Nara records detail losses, investigation of titanic’ s demise.

Spring 2012, Vol. 44, No. 1

By Alison Gavin and Christopher Zarr

The Titanic during sea trials. (306-NT-1308-91560)

View in National Archives Catalog

Perhaps no other maritime disaster stirs our collective memory more than the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912.

The centennial of this event brings to mind the myriad films, books, and electronic media the disaster engenders. The discovery of the ship at the bottom of the sea in the 1980s brought to view intriguing artifacts.

The National Archives holds Titanic -related "treasures" as well: Senate investigation records, documents pertaining to Titanic passengers from limited liability suits, and congressional resolutions. These records tell the stories of the survivors in their own words.

When Titanic set sail from Southampton, England, for New York City on April 10, 1912, no one, especially its builders, dreamed of its demise. The ship's owners, the White Star Line, boasted of the size and stamina of the largest passenger steamship built until that time. Yet the "ship that could never sink" sank less than three hours after the crew spotted an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. on April 14. Of the 2,223 people aboard, 1,517 perished.

The lack of sufficient lifeboats was chief among the reasons cited for the enormous loss of life. While complying with international maritime regulations ( Titanic carried more than the minimum number of lifeboats required), there were still not enough spaces for most passengers to escape the sinking ship.

The Carpathia was the lone ship to respond to Titanic' s distress signals, risking a field of icebergs in a daring rescue. The Carpathia' s passenger manifest includes the names of the 706 persons it picked up from Titanic' s lifeboats on the morning of April 15, 1912. The manifests collected by the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization list 29 categories of questions asked of all persons entering the United States, from birthplace to where the person would be staying in the United States.

The Titanic Relief Fund, set up by Ernest P. Bicknell in his capacity as director of the American Red Cross, raised $161,600.95 for Titanic survivors and families of the victims. (the British component raised $2,250,000). According to Red Cross "Titanic Relief Fund" documents in the National Archives:

The Director and other representatives of the Red Cross Committee were present when the Carpathia landed its passengers [at the port of New York on April 18]. The office of the committee was opened on the following morning, equipped with telephone service, printed stationery, the necessary blank forms and record cards, and with a staff of visitors and clerks supplied by the Charity Organization Society. Within two days substantially all the survivors of the third cabin passengers and many of the second cabin passengers had been visited and interviewed in their places of temporary shelter or at the Committee's Office. . . . This was extremely important. because comparatively few of the third cabin passengers remained in New York City.

A third-class (steerage) passenger's contract ticket for the White Star Line, similar to those used on the Titanic. (Records of District Courts of the United States, RG 21)

The highest percentage of victims were steerage, or "third cabin" passengers, who were mainly poor immigrants coming to America. The ethical question of why first-class passengers were allowed to get into lifeboats ahead of those in second and third class became an issue for future investigation.

The unimaginable scale of the disaster led many people to write to the President of the United States. Dozens of letters came to President William H. Taft from citizens who were angered, inspired, or moved by the loss of the Titanic. They demanded an investigation into the sinking, shared ideas for the prevention of such disasters in the future, or expressed sympathy for the death of President Taft's military aide, Maj. Archibald Butt. Butt, one of Taft's closest friends, was returning from a six-week vacation aboard the Titanic, and his leave of absence papers and a copy of a letter of introduction from Taft to Pope Pius X are also in the National Archives.

Congressional Hearings Lead to Legislation, Regulations

Almost immediately after the disaster, a congressional hearing was convened on April 19, 1912. Extensive documentation of the Titanic' s voyage is contained within the proceedings of the U.S. Senate's "Titanic Disaster Hearings." The report's 1,042 pages document what a commerce subcommittee learned over its 17-day investigation of the causes of the wreck. The subcommittee's chairman, Senator William Alden Smith (R-Michigan), spoke fervently of why he wished to document the event quickly:

Our course was simple and plain–to gather the facts relating to this disaster while they were still vivid realities. Questions of diverse citizenship gave way to the universal desire for the simple truth. . . . We, of course, recognized that the ship was under a foreign flag; but for the lives of many of our own countrymen had been sacrificed and the safety of many had been put in grave peril, it was vital that the entire matter should be reviewed before an American tribunal if legislative action was to be taken for future guidance on international maritime safety.

The subcommittee interviewed 82 witnesses and investigated everything from the inadequate number of lifeboats to the treatment of passengers riding steerage to the newly operational wireless radio machines. Smith also wanted to know why warnings of icebergs had been ignored.

The Navy Hydrographic Office's daily memorandum notes both ice reports in the North Atlantic and the Titanic' s collision with an iceberg. (Records of District Courts of the United States, RG 21)

One of the themes emerging from the " Titanic Disaster Hearings" is the excesses of the "Gilded Age"—wealth, power, and business in a newly technological world gone wild. The hearings were held in the glamorous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. (Ironically, John Jacob Astor IV, who perished aboard the Titanic, had built the Astoria Hotel, which later became part of the Waldorf-Astoria.)

Opposite the senators sat the first witnesses, White Star's managing director J. Bruce Ismay and other company officials. Ismay was also president of the International Mercantile Marine Company, White Star's American parent company. He was vilified in the press as a monster, as one who had put his own life and safety before that of women and children as the lifeboats were launched.

Throughout the hearings, he remained confident, almost hubristic, regarding the ship's stamina under pressure. In explaining how Titanic' s disaster could have been averted, he stated simply, "If this ship had hit the iceberg stern on, in all human probability she would have been here to-day [the stern being the most reinforced part of the ship]."

Instead, he said, the iceberg made "a glancing blow between the end of the forecastle and the captain's bridge." He remained sentimental regarding the ship's demise. In the lifeboat, he rowed the opposite direction of the sinking Titanic: "I did not wish to see her go down. . . . I am glad I did not."

Ismay said the trip was a voluntary one for him, "to see how [the ship] works, and with the idea of seeing how we could improve on her for the next ship which we are building." He told the subcommittee, "We have nothing to conceal, nothing to hide." He was grilled again on the 10th day of the investigation, when he denied reports of speeding up the ship to "get through" fields of ice; other eyewitnesses, however, would contradict him.

Also interviewed the first day was Arthur Henry Rostron, the captain of the Carpathia. Rostron gave detailed information about the circumstances under which Titanic' s distress signals had been heard: the wireless operator was undressing for the night but still had his headphones on as the signal came across.

Rostron also related the details of how he prepared the Carpathia to receive the hundreds of survivors in the lifeboats. He came alongside the first lifeboat at 4:10 a.m. on April 15 and rescued the last at 8:30 a.m. He then recruited one of the Carpathia' s passengers, an Episcopal clergyman, to hold a prayer service of thankfulness for those rescued and a short burial service for those who were lost.

The Carpathia was the only ship to respond to the Titanic' s distress signals. The Carpathia' s manifest records the names of the 706 person it rescued from lifeboats on the morning of April 15, 1912. (Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85)

Rostron would later receive a special trophy as a symbol of gratitude from the survivors of the Titanic. It was presented to him by the legendary "Unsinkable Molly [Margaret] Brown," a wealthy Denver matron who assisted with the lifeboats. Rostron received many other memorials and a Medal of Honor from President Taft.

The outcome of the hearings was a variety of "corrective" legislation for the maritime industry, including new regulations regarding numbers of lifeboats and lifejackets required for passenger vessels. In 1914, as a direct result of the Titanic disaster, the International Ice Patrol was formed; 13 nations support a branch of the U.S. Coast Guard that scouts for the presence of icebergs in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.

Survivors, Families Seek Millions from White Star

Beyond simply seeking corrective legislation to prevent future disasters, the survivors and the families of victims also sought redress for loss of life, property, and any injuries sustained. The limited liability law at the time, however, could restrict their claims significantly. The Titanic' s liability was protected by an 1851 law ("An Act to limit the Liability of Ship-Owners, and for other Purposes," 9 Stat. 635) designed to encourage shipbuilding and trade by minimizing the risk to owners when disasters occurred.

Under this law, in cases of unavoidable accidents, the company was not liable for any loss of life, property, or injury. If the captain and crew made an error that led to a disaster, but the company was unaware of it, the company's liability was limited to the total of passenger fares, the amount paid for cargo, and any salvaged materials recovered from the wreck. The 706 survivors and the families of the 1,517 dead therefore might be entitled to only a total of $91,805: $85,212 for passengers, $2,073 for cargo, and a $4,520 assessment for the only materials salvaged from the Titanic —the recovered lifeboats.

In October 1912, the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company (more commonly known as the White Star Line) filed a petition in the Southern District of New York to limit its liability against any claims for loss of life, property, or injury. In this petition, the White Star Line claimed that the collision was due to an "inevitable accident." "In the Matter of the Petition of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, Limited, for Limitation of its Liability as owner of the steamship TITANIC" (A55-279) is a part of the National Archives holdings in New York City.

Profiles of the Titanic and its decks. (Records of District Courts of the United States, RG 21)

The only way to remove limits on the company's liability would be to prove that the captain and crew were negligent and the ship's owners had knowledge of this fact.

Those individuals seeking payments slowly began to build their case against the White Star Line. They held that although the crew had received wireless messages about the presence of icebergs, the Titanic had maintained its speed, stayed on the same northern course, posted no additional lookouts, and failed to provide the lookouts with binoculars.

In addition, they faulted the White Star Line for not properly training the crew for evacuation, leading to the launching of partially filled lifeboats and the loss of even more lives. For these reasons, combined with the fact that the managing director of the White Star Line, Ismay, was on board the Titanic, claimants believed the liability should be unlimited.

After White Star filed its petition, several notices were placed in the New York Times between October 1912 and January 1913, asking people who claimed damages to prove their claims by April 15, 1913. Hundreds of claims totaling $16,604,731.63 came from people around the world. Claims were divided into four groups: Schedule A: Loss of Life, Schedule B: Loss of Property, Schedule C: Loss of Life and Property, and Schedule D: Injury and Property.

The Schedule D claims for injuries and property detail the harrowing experiences of many survivors of the Titanic. In nearly 50 claims, survivors describe how they lived through the disaster and the physical and mental injuries they sustained.

Anna McGowan of Chicago, Illinois, was unable to get on a lifeboat and jumped from the Titanic onto a lifeboat and sustained permanent injuries from the fall, shock, and frostbite. The experience left her in a state of "nervous prostration" (most likely something similar to post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD) and unable to provide for herself.

Survivors of the Titanic disaster aboard a lifeboat on April 15, 1912. (Records of District Courts of the United States, RG 21)

Patrick O'Keefe of Ireland also jumped overboard to save his life, but he remained in the cold Atlantic waters for hours before being rescued by lifeboat B.

Bertha Noon of Providence, Rhode Island, asked for more than $25,000 due to injuries she sustained after being pushed onto a lifeboat and being exposed to the cold for several hours before being rescued by the Carpathia . Her injuries included an injured back and spine that left her "unable to wear corsets," severe nervous shock, a "misplaced womb," and a recurring congestion in her head and chest that left her delirious and unconscious for days at a time.

Though the Schedule A claims filed by family members for loss of life did not include first-hand accounts of the accident, they document tragic losses of entire families. Finnish immigrant John Panula was preparing for a reunion with his family in Pennsylvania when his wife and four children died on the Titanic. The Skoogh family with their four children Carl, Harold, Mabel, and Margaret Skoogh (ages 12, 9, 11, and 8 respectively) were returning to the United States aboard the Titanic.

Claims for Losses Reveal Class Differences

The loss of life claims also reveal the variety of values assigned to a human life. While Alfonso Meo's widow, Emily J. Innes-Meo, asked for only £300 (approximately $1,500 at the time), Irene Wallach Harris, the widow of Broadway producer and theater owner Henry B. Harris, sought $1 million in her claim. Some of the documents state the ages and annual salaries of the deceased to justify the amounts they were seeking in their claims. The most detailed claim involved the $4,734.80 claim filed by the family of 41-year-old James Veale:

That the said James Veale was by profession a granite carver; that he was earning at the time of his death $1,000 per year or more. That according to the Northampton Table of Mortality, the said James Veale, deceased probably would have lived, except for his death aforesaid, 11.837 years more; that the said James Veale did not expend upon himself more than $600 a year; that his personal estate has been damaged in the sum of $400 per year during the period of 11.837 years and to the extent of $4,734.80 by reason of the aforesaid breach of contract committed by the petitioner herein as aforesaid.

Charlotte Drake Cardeza's claim is the largest and most detailed claim among the Schedule B claims for loss of property. In nearly 20 pages, she itemized the lost contents of 14 trunks, 4 suitcases, and 3 crates. (Records of District Courts of the United States, RG 21)

The claims also reveal the vast class differences apparent among the passengers of the Titanic. This is most apparent in the Schedule B claims for loss of property. The most detailed and largest property claim belongs to socialite Charlotte Drake Cardeza, who occupied the most expensive stateroom on the ship. After surviving the sinking of the Titanic aboard lifeboat 3, Cardeza filed a claim for the lost contents of her 14 trunks, 4 suitcases, and 3 crates of baggage (a total of at least 841 individual items) for a sum of $177,352.75. The nearly 20-page itemized claim includes objects such as her 6 7 / 8 -carat pink diamond ring valued at $20,000. On the other end of the spectrum, Yum Hee of Hong Kong filed a claim for $91.05. His most expensive item: a suit of clothes valued at £2.5 (approximately $12.50 at the time).

From the claims for loss of property, we also discover that Margaret ("Molly") Brown's three crates of ancient models destined for the Denver Museum, Col. Archibald Gracie's documents concerning the War of 1812, and over 110,000 feet of motion picture film owned by William Harbeck are all now at the bottom of the Atlantic. The most expensive individual item lost during the sinking was H. Bjornstrom-Steffanson's four-foot-by-eight-foot oil painting La Circasienne Au Bain by Blondel, valued by him at $100,000.

Schedule C claim 72 was filed on July 24, 1913, by Mabelle Swift Moore, widow of businessman Clarence Moore. Moore had been a member of a Washington, DC, brokerage firm W. B. Hibbs and Company and owned extensive real estate. A "master" of the hunt, he had been in England looking for a pack of 50 hounds. (The dogs, however, were not carried on the Titanic.) Mrs. Moore sued for $510,000.

Survivors Give Eyewitness Accounts of the Sinking

Though the White Star Line filed its petition in October 1912 and individual claims were due by April 1913, hearings were not held in the Southern District of New York until June 1915. Depositions filed with the court throughout 1913 and 1914 provide conflicting reports on blame for the disaster.

In June 1914, White Star Line's Ismay was questioned about the speed of the Titanic, its lifeboats, the lookout, and other issues that may have contributed to the disaster. Throughout his testimony, Ismay restated many of the same opinions given during the congressional hearing—that all decisions were made by Capt. Edward Smith and he was onboard to consider passenger accommodation improvements for the White Star Line's next ship, the Britannic.

The "Unsinkable Molly Brown" filed a claim for lost property that included an extensive collection of gowns, hats, and jewelry as well as "ancient models for Denver Museum." (Records of District Courts of the United States, RG 21)

Statements by two of the survivors, Elizabeth Lines and Emily Ryerson, seemed to contradict Ismay's statements. Lines declared that she overheard parts of a two-hour conversation between Captain Smith and Ismay on Saturday, April 13. Sticking in her mind was Ismay's statement, "We will beat the Olympic and get in to New York on Tuesday," meaning they would arrive one day earlier than originally planned. The following day, Ryerson recalled Ismay holding a message and stating to her that "We are in among the icebergs." Despite this, he told her that they would be starting up extra boilers that evening to surprise everyone with an early arrival.

Other depositions filed by survivors give us eyewitness accounts to the dramatic and tragic final moments aboard the Titanic. Ryerson described the bitter cold of that April night before being told by a fellow passenger to put on her life belt. Though she described the initial scene on the boat deck as without confusion, the situation changed quickly. Passengers were thrown by crew into the lifeboats; Ryerson even describes falling on top of someone. After lifeboat no. 4 was loaded with 24 women and children (far below the 65 it could hold), it was lowered toward the water. Before being fully lowered, the lifeboat jammed, and men swarmed into the boat, which was intended for women and children only. After being lowered, the survivors and crew began to row for their lives, fearing that the sinking Titanic might suck them down with it. Later on that night, near dawn, Ryerson's boat returned to the site of the sinking and began rescuing some 20 survivors.

Among those rescued survivors was George Rheims, who remained for some five hours in waist-high water on a partially submerged collapsible lifeboat. In his deposition he recounts how hours earlier, after Rheims noticed "a slight shock" when returning from the bathroom, he looked out the nearest window and saw a massive white iceberg pass by. He then reported witnessing several lifeboats launching that were between half and three-quarters full. He also described seeing men scrambling onto lifeboats as they were lowered and hearing pistols being shot during his last hour aboard the ship. In the final minutes before Titanic disappeared into the depths, Rheims jumped into the cold waters and waited for his rescue.

Over several days in June and July 1915, testimony continued. Negotiations carried on outside of court led to a tentative settlement with nearly all of the claimants in December 1915. The settlement was for a total of $664,000 to be divided among the claimants. A final decree, signed by Judge Julius M. Mayer in July 1916, held the company guiltless of any privity and knowledge and not liable for any loss, damage, injury, destruction, or fatalities.

In a page from her testimony, passenger Elizabeth Lines recounts overhearing Bruce Ismay remark to Captain Smith on the speed of the ship's crossing, saying that they will beat the Olympic and get in to New York on Tuesday. (Records of District Courts of the United States, RG 21)

George Rheims recalled that as he swam away from the sinking Titanic, he looked back and saw the screws [propellers] out of the water in the air; she went down perfectly straight. He was rescued the next morning. (Records of District Courts of the United States, RG 21)

The Titanic' s tragic story fascinated people both at the time of the disaster and for generations after. For more than 70 years, the exact location of the ship's remains was unknown. On September 1, 1985, a joint American and French expedition team found the vessel under more than 12,400 feet of water off the coast of Newfoundland. On November 21 of the same year, Rep. Walter Jones, Sr., of North Carolina, chairman of the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, submitted a report to accompany House Resolution 3272. It recommended that the shipwreck Titanic be designated "as a maritime memorial and to provide for reasonable research, exploration, and, if appropriate, salvage activities."

Perhaps in the end, the 1986 Memorial Act sums it up best by stating, where marine resources are concerned, at least, "we must maintain a sense of perspective regarding man's abilities and nature's powers." Nature's power, in the form of an iceberg in the frigid north Atlantic Ocean one April night in 1912, seems to impress us all the more 100 years later.

Alison Gavin received her M.A. in history from George Mason University in 2004; she was the 2003 Verney Fellow for Nantucket Studies. She has worked in the National Archives since 1995, and her work has appeared in New England Ancestors, Historic Nantucket, Quaker History, and Prologue.

Christopher Zarr is the education specialist for the National Archives at New York City. He works with teachers and students to find and use primary sources in the classroom.

Note on Sources

Learn more about:

• Other Titanic records online
• Stories from the Titanic on the Prologue blog
• The sinking of the Christmas tree ship in Lake Michigan

Additional research for this article was conducted by William Roka at the National Archives at New York City.

The Carpathia' s passenger manifests listing survivors of the Titanic are in Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85, at the National Archives Building (NAB), Washington, DC. They have been microfilmed as T715, Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, 1897–1957, roll 1883.

The letters to President Taft regarding the disaster are in "Letters Sent by President Taft to the Department of Commerce and Labor," Entry 15, General Records of the Department of Commerce, Record Group (RG) 40, National Archives at College Park, MD (NACP).

Archibald Butt's leave of absence papers and a copy of his letter of introduction to Pope Pius X are in Records of the Adjutant General's Office, RG 94, NAB.

The largest and most far-reaching of the documents NARA has concerning the sinking of Titanic (at 1,176 pages) can be found in the United States Congressional Serial Set (serial 6167): U.S. Senate, Subcommittee of the Committee on Commerce, " Titanic " Disaster: Hearings before the Subcommittee of the Committee on Commerce United States Senate, pursuant to S. Res. 283 directing the Committee on Commerce to investigate the causes leading to the wreck of the White Star Liner " Titanic ," S.Doc. 726, 62nd Congress, 2nd sess., 1912 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1912), Publications of the U.S. Government, RG 287, NACP.

A more accessible source for the Senate hearings, at only 571-pages, is The Titanic Disaster Hearings: The Official Transcripts of the 1912 Senate Investigation, edited by Tom Kuntz (New York: Pocket Books, 1998). It gives accounts of the 17 days of hearings, an introduction and epilogue, an appendix, a list of witnesses, and a digest of testimony.

The records from the limited liability suits are in the case file "In the Matter of the Petition of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, Limited, for Limitation of its Liability as owner of the steamship TITANIC"; Admiralty Case Files Records of District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21; National Archives at New York City.  

Explore the disastrous sinking of the R.M.S Titanic

Bestowing Blame

A Survivor’s Perspective of Responsibility

Complexity of Blame

There is never any one person or thing to blame in the context of disasters.  While some subjects of blame may seem more obvious than others, it is impossible to determine just one factor that is completely responsible for the devastation in a given disaster, particularly because everyone has different ideas who or what is the culprit.  The following section investigates the survivor’s perception of blame in the Titanic disaster.

A Survivor’s Account

Lawrence Beesley was a second-class passenger aboard the R.M.S Titanic and published his eye-witness account of its sinking just two months after the disaster in June 1912.  His hope in publication was to provide an accurate account of the disaster in the midst of false information spreading through media at the time.  He also hoped to bring awareness to the catastrophe in order to spark necessary reforms to prevent disasters like the Titanic in the future.  Through his account, he called into question the dominant narratives of responsibility as he attempted to make sense of the complications of blame.  In his analysis of blame, Beesley extended his scope of responsibility to include a range of people and entities, demonstrating the many ways he believed blame was shared across a wide sphere.

Link to Beesley’s Book

Titanic survivor and author of The Loss of the S.S Titanic It’s Stories and Its Lessons. “Titanic Survivor Lawrence Beesley.” Digital Image. Titanic Universe.

Captain E.J. Smith:

As the Captain of the Titanic, many people point to E.J. Smith has the immediate subject to blame for the 1912 disaster.  After all, it is the captain’s duty of the ship to navigate the correct course, set the designated speed, appoint the correct number of lookouts, respond timely to warning calls, and ensure the safety of all passengers and crew members.  While Captain Smith certainly held significant responsibility due to his specific duties of overseeing all of the ship’s operations, the assertion of blame in the wake of disaster is never straightforward.

Lawrence Beesley was aware of the complicated and impossible process of assigning blame and therefore he saw several faults in shouldering the fault on Captain Smith entirely.  Instead, he claimed, “Every captain who has run full speed through fog and iceberg regions is to blame for the disaster as much as [Smith] is: they got through it and he did not.” (Beesley, 1912, 235-236).  While Captain Smith was responsible for the decisions he made when navigating the dangerous conditions on the night of the disaster, Beesley asserted that it could have been any other liner to strike an iceberg as the Titanic did because many other captains would have likely done the same in Smith’s position.  With all of the uncertainty and chaos at the time, Beesley questioned the claim that Smith held complete responsibility, instead expanding the scope of blame to others.

Corporations

Beesley explained that blame could easily be stretched to the White Star Line and Harland and Wolff, which were the companies that owned and built the Titanic, respectively.  According to Beesley, “The White Star Line has received very rough handling from some of the press, but the greater part of this criticism seems to be unwarranted and to arise from the desire to scapegoat.  After all they had made better provision for the passengers the Titanic carried than any other line has done, for they had built what they believed to be a huge lifeboat, unsinkable in all other ordinary conditions” (Beesley, 1912, 240).  In this sense, while the ship was an entirely manmade piece of material, the iceberg it struck was a natural force.  Beesley saw the companies that others deemed responsible for the disaster as part of an extraordinarily unfortunate event that they were unprepared for.  Instead, their preparations protected them against “ordinary” conditions, and unfortunately, there was nothing ordinary about the night the Titanic sank.

To many, the Titanic was thought of as “unsinkable” such that when disaster struck, several passengers chose to stay inside the warm, dry ship rather than making way into cold, dark lifeboats.  In his eyewitness accounts, Beesley claimed he observed minimal panic on deck due to the pervasive idea of the “unsinkable ship.”  He stated, “while the theory of the unsinkable boat has been destroyed at the same time as the boat itself, we should not forget that it served a useful purpose on deck that night—it eliminated largely the possibility of panic, and those rushes for the boats which might have swamped some of them (Beesley, 1912, 241).  Rather than blaming the White Star Line, Harland and Wolff, and the media for this utterly false narrative, Beesley saw it as somewhat of a blessing in disguise rather than a source of blame.

More recent evidence, however, suggests it was unfair to assume the Titanic was practically unsinkable in “ordinary conditions.” A 1998 article in the New York Times discussed research on recovered rivets from the hull of the Titanic which disclosed issues in the quality of the ship’s construction.  The structure of the ship was held together with millions of wrought iron rivets to which the article claimed, “The microstructure of the rivets is the most likely candidate for becoming a quantifiable metallurgical factor in the loss of the Titanic.” (Broad, 1998, 5).  While investigating the quality of rivets in modern times suggests that Beesley was wrong in his assessment of the “unsinkable” ship, his argument held true based on the knowledge that he and others had at the time.

Public Demand

The context of the Titanic disaster is important because it occurred at a time in which companies were competing to be proud owners of the largest and most luxurious of their time, all of which was driven by public demand, as this was the very context in which Beesley wrote his book.  Beesley argued the scope of blame should be expanded to include this public demand and wrote, “What the public demanded the White Star Line supplied, and so both the public and the Line are concerned with the question of indirect responsibility,” (Beesley, 1912, 237). The role of the media is also included in this aspect of blame, as advertisements included promises of making the transatlantic journey in just a few days such that liners had to, “go full speed nearly all the time.” (Beesley, 1912, 236) Beesley went so far as to assert, “all of us who have cried for greater speed must take our share of the responsibility.” (Beesley, 1912, 239).  The idea of blaming everyone who wished for faster ships is one that perhaps more is far-fetched, simply because these demands were likely unconscious tradeoffs for safety.  This concept of blaming individuals with no direct connection to the disaster itself can be hard to fathom, but valid, nonetheless.  Beesley’s assessment of blame in this sense also contributed widely to the sense of shared responsibility for the disaster.

Government(s)

As with every disaster, blame can always be traced back government(s).  While the Titanic “complied to the full extent with the British government” (Beesley, 1912, 243) in terms of lifeboat and inspection requirements, there were no speed or communication regulations for dangerous conditions at sea.  To this, Beesley proposed, “The regulation of speed in dangerous regions could well be undertaken by some fleet of international police patrol vessels, with power to stop if necessary, any boat found guilty of reckless racing” (Beesley, 1912, 246). Not only did Beesley attempt to extend blame for the disaster across the global stage, however, he also extended the responsibility to international governments in order to prevent future maritime disasters.  Along with this, Beesley proposed that blame will continue to be shed on governments in future maritime disasters until precautions are taken in response to the Titanic tragedy.  Therefore, his analysis of blame even expanded past the 1912 disaster and looked into the future in hopes of preventing similar catastrophes.

• Senate Inquiry
• Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry

Limitation of Liability Hearings

• About The Project
• Acknowledgements

At approximately 12 p.m. on April 10, 1912, the new Royal Mail Steamer Titanic , flagship of the White Star Line, cast off from Southampton, England, on her maiden voyage to New York. She stopped at Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland, picking up additional passengers and mail, as well to debark cross-channel passengers.

Steaming west from Queenstown, she carried 2,208 passengers and crew - an eclectic mixture of Edwardian society. From the affluent first class, the likes of Astor , Straus and Guggenheim , to the largely forgotten third class and crew, with names such as Kirkham , Sage and Ward - each with their own unique story to tell.

Titanic's speed had been steadily increasing during the voyage as additional boilers were brought online, and on Sunday, April 14, the vessel was making approximately 21.5 knots. Throughout the day and into the night the temperature outside had been falling until some time shortly before the collision when it dipped below the freezing point.

At 11:40 p.m. Frederick Fleet , one of the lookouts stationed in the crow's nest , noticed something in the distance. He rang the warning bell three times, signalling the bridge of an object directly ahead, and picked up the bridge-crow's-nest telephone. A terse exchange over the telephone effectively warned the bridge of the impending danger, however, the warning had come too late to avert a collision.

First Officer William Murdoch was entering the bridge from the starboard wing when the warning came and quickly ordered the ship's helm turned hard astarboard. He was hoping to maneuver Titanic's bow away from the danger, then attempt to work the stern around but the iceberg was too close. The ship brushed along a submerged spar of the iceberg along her starboard side, opening several varying sized holes along her length an inrush of water.

Thomas Andrews , the ship's designer from Harland and Wolff, informed Captain Smith that the pumps were incapable of keeping up with the amount of water entering the vessel and would only buy them some extra time. The crew began hastily uncovering and readying the lifeboats to evacuate the vessel. Being aware there was barely enough lifeboat accommodation for slightly more than half of those on board must have weighed heavily on the captain's mind.

At 2:20 a.m., two hours and forty minutes after the collision, the vessel broke in two and sank, taking with her over 1,500 lives.

The Cunard Company's steamship Carpathia arrived on the disaster scene shortly after 4 in the morning. Her captain, Arthur Henry Rostron , expected to see Titanic , but was instead confronted with a lone green light, lying low on the water, one of Titanic boats.

As daylight crept over the disaster area, lifeboat after lifeboat was sighted as they closed in on the Carpathia's position. The following hours were expended embarking the survivors and retrieving what little remained of Titanic , her boats.

Shortly after sunrise the Leyland steamer Californian , commanded by Captain Stanley Lord , arrived. Rostron requested that the Californian continue searching the area for any survivors. He then turned Carpathia west and steamed for New York with 705 survivors.

The world that morning began hearing news of the collision. Early stories of the disaster were often rushed and erroneous, relying on fragmented information coming from various stations listening to the tragedy unfold.

Carpathia hadn't helped matters very much. Her Marconi operator, Harold Cottam , along with Harold Bride from Titanic , began sending out lists of survivors and ignored requests for details of the disaster. During the following days question followed question with very few answers forthcoming. Both in America and England pressure rapidly built to determine the factors leading to this disaster.

This site contains the complete transcripts of both the US Senate and British Board of Trade inquiries into the disaster, along with their final reports.

American Inquiry

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9 Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 Day 13 | Day 14 | Day 15 Day 16 | Day 17 | Day 18

Final Report

British Inquiry

Expenses Index of Minutes Witnesses

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9 Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 Day 13 | Day 14 | Day 15 Day 16 | Day 17 | Day 18 Day 19 | Day 20 Day 21 Day 22 | Day 23 | Day 24 Day 25 | Day 26 | Day 27 Day 28 | Day 29 | Day 30 Day 31 | Day 32 | Day 33 Day 34 | Day 35 | Day 36

- Main Page - Depositions - Claims - News

Other Inquiries

- Lusitania Inquiry - Empress of Ireland

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by James Cameron

Titanic summary and analysis of part 1.

The film opens with sepia-toned images of the RMS Titanic embarking from Southampton, England, then shifts to the present day, where an array of deep-sea submersibles are descending upon the wreckage of the Titanic . Inside one of the vessels, team leader Brock Lovett records video footage and muses over the grandeur of the ruins. Brock's partner, Lewis, remotely pilots a drone into the shipwreck and finds a safe, which the men excitedly recover and bring to the surface. The jubilant team expects to find priceless treasure, but Brock is disappointed to find nothing but muddy papers inside the safe. Preservation archivists aboard the ship clean the papers and find an intriguing portrait of a nude woman wearing an enormous diamond necklace.

Elsewhere in America, a 101-year old woman named Rose Calvert catches a glimpse of Brock on television explaining how he recovered the drawing. She calls Brock and asks him whether he has found, "the heart of the ocean," and tells him that she is the subject of the portrait. Brock swiftly flies her out to the research vessel, though Lewis remains skeptical. After Rose settles into her new abode at sea, Brock shows her the portrait and explains that his team is primarily after a massive jewel known as "the heart of the ocean," believed to have been lost at sea.

Rose examines other recovered artifacts, like a silver mirror and a butterfly brooch, then listens as Lewis talks her through a CGI model of how forensic experts believe the Titanic sank: first by plunging into the water by the bow, then cracking in half down the middle, and finally vanishing underwater. Rose is at first overcome with emotion but remains determined to provide her testimony to Brock, Lewis, and the others. As Rose launches into her tale, the film flashes back to April 15th, 1912, the day the Titanic set sail from Southampton.

A young Rose steps out of a coach, accompanied by her fiancé Cal Hockley , and her mother Ruth. The trio board the Titanic , which Rose remembers as a "slave" ship consigning her to a miserable marriage in America. At a bar nearby, a penniless artist named Jack Dawson is immersed in a high-stakes poker match where two tickets for the Titanic have been wagered. Jack wins the bet five minutes before Titanic is due to depart, and sprints off to the ship with his friend Fabrizio, and they barely make it aboard. Jack and Fabrizio wave goodbye as the ship departs, and settle into their third class cabin as Rose and Cal unload artwork in their ostentatious suite in first class. Cal expresses distaste for the works of Pablo Picasso, whom Rose admires.

In voice-over, Rose recounts other notable passengers aboard the Titanic such as "The Unsinkable" Molly Brown , heir to a recent gold fortune. Jack and Fabrizio rush to the ship's bow and peer over the edge, spotting dolphins, and Jack ecstatically spreads his arms and shouts, "I'm the king of the world!" In first class, Rose, her mother, and Cal dine with Molly, along with Thomas Andrews, the architect of the Titanic , and J. Bruce Ismay, the director of the White Star Line. After provoking Cal's ire by smoking at the table, and offending her mother with an off-color remark about Freud, Rose excuses herself from the table and goes on deck. While talking to a fellow third-class passenger named Tommy Ryan, Jack spots Rose from afar, and Fabrizio and Tommy tease Jack about his starstruck expression.

Desperately unhappy as Cal's fiancee, Rose remembers running to the back of the ship on the first night, intending to throw herself off. She steps entirely over the railing before Jack, smoking a cigarette nearby, approaches her and tries to coax her back. Taking off his shoes, Jack tells her that if she jumps, he will have to jump in after her, even though icy water feels like, "a thousand knives." Rose finally relents and grabs Jack's hand, but slips on her dress and hangs precariously over the edge of the ship before Jack pulls her back over, collapsing to the ground.

Hearing Rose's screams, White Star Line officials descend on the scene, assuming she has been attacked. After Cal arrives, Rose improvises a lie about wanting to see the ship's propellers and slipping, before being saved. In return for saving Rose's life, Cal gives Jack twenty dollars, and at Rose's behest, invites him to dinner the following evening. Cal's valet, Spicer Lovejoy, makes a comment to Jack that suggests he remains skeptical of Rose's account. Later that night in their cabin, Cal gives Rose "the Heart of the Ocean," a diamond necklace, as a gift.

James Cameron 's Titanic aspires throughout to blend historical fact with fictional narrative, incorporating real-life historical figures, diligently researched settings, and reported testimony into its dramatization of the British passenger liner's doomed voyage across the North Atlantic. The decision to open the film with sepia-toned moving images of the ship's departure, which resemble stock footage but are actually a carefully staged recreation, reflects Cameron's desire to use the medium of cinema to magically transport audiences back to one of the most well known historical tragedies of the twentieth century.

Cameron uses the character Brock Lovett, and his mission to recover the "Heart of the Ocean," as a frame narrative for the film's major plot arc: the sweeping love story between penniless artist Jack Dawson and heiress-to-be Rose Dewitt Bukater. Cameron successfully convinced studio executives to allow him to descend into the North Atlantic via the Russian vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh to obtain firsthand footage of the RMS Titanic , the wreckage of which was only discovered in 1985. Brock's character develops from a cynical treasure hunter to a compassionate observer of history after hearing the full extent of Rose's tale.

The "Heart of the Ocean," a massive jewel valued at more than the Hope Diamond, is one of the film's key symbols, at once capturing the mystery of love, the power of memory, and the folly of greed, pride, and excess. Brock's dogged pursuit of the diamond is the plot device that leads to Rose's testimony, but ironically, by the end of the film, the power of her recollections has bewitched Brock and the others so entirely that his hunt for the jewel falls by the wayside. Rose's insistence on setting up picture frames in her bedroom aboard the research vessel reflects the premium she places on her memories. Other recovered artifacts, like Rose's butterfly brooch and silver mirror, also spur her memory, becoming symbols of loss and the passage of time.

The film stages a show-stopping, opulently-produced sequence to represent the grandeur of the Titanic 's departure from Southampton. Cameron exploits the fact that audiences knew the fate of the Titanic by making liberal use of foreshadowing in the film's script, such as when Cal Hockley declares, "God himself could not sink this ship!" or when Jack tells Fabrizio, "We're the luckiest sons-of-bitches in the world!" Class is also a key theme in Titanic: Cameron joked that the film's vilification of the super-rich approached "Marxist dogma," and originally pitched Titanic as " Romeo and Juliet on a boat," given the seemingly-insurmountable obstacles that continually keep Jack and Rose apart.

As a vessel containing a vibrant cross-section of society, the ship is a fantasy space that creates possibilities between people who would typically never meet. Jack, although a destitute artist, imagines himself to be a "king" on the ship. On the other hand, Rose, soon destined to be a queenlike figure in Philadelphia society, longs to be liberated, calling the Titanic a "slave ship." Whereas the bow of the ship is a space of power and limitless potential, the stern of the ship (where Jack and Rose meet as she is about to commit suicide) represents grief and loss. From the very beginning, Jack is fully prepared to sacrifice his life for Rose, reflecting the classic theme of "love at first sight" that also invites comparison to Romeo and Juliet.

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Titanic , American romantic adventure film , released in 1997, that centres on the sinking of the RMS Titanic . The film proved immensely popular, holding the all-time box-office gross record for more than a decade after its release.

The film begins with the robotic exploration of the Titanic ’s wreckage by treasure hunters who hope to locate a fabled massive blue diamond, known as the Heart of the Ocean, that was supposedly lost when the ship sank. They recover a safe that contains some papers, including a drawing of a nude woman wearing a necklace with the gem in it. After the illustration is aired on television, the team is contacted by an old woman (played by Gloria Stuart) who tells them that she is the one depicted in the drawing, Rose DeWitt Bukater, thought to have died in the accident. Hoping that she can help them find the jewel, the treasure hunters bring Rose to their expedition ship. Most of the film’s story is then told in flashbacks as she recounts the Titanic ’s fateful 1912 voyage.

Upper-class Rose (now played by Kate Winslet ) boards the ship with her mother (Frances Fisher) and her well-to-do fiancé, Cal ( Billy Zane), whom she is marrying for financial reasons. Distraught by the pressure of her arranged marriage, Rose contemplates suicide on the ship’s stern. She is talked down by third-class passenger Jack Dawson ( Leonardo DiCaprio ), a handsome but penniless artist. Over the course of the voyage, she becomes increasingly attracted to Jack. Meeting in secret, Rose asks him to draw her wearing the Heart of the Ocean necklace, which was a gift from Cal. Rose and Jack subsequently make love, and Rose tells Jack that she will go with him once the ship docks. Later that night, however, they witness the Titanic ’s fatal impact with an iceberg.

As the ship begins to sink, the couple seeks out Rose’s mother and Cal, who has discovered Rose’s romantic entanglement. He frames Jack for theft by having the necklace placed in Jack’s coat pocket. Jack is arrested, and Cal later puts the necklace in his own pocket. Though she initially hesitates, Rose comes to believe Jack’s claims of innocence, and she eventually finds him in the master-of-arms’ office, handcuffed around a pipe. Using an axe, she is able to free him as water floods the room. The lower-deck gates are locked, but Jack helps break down the one trapping them. He and Rose return to the upper deck, where Rose is placed in a lifeboat by Cal, who wraps his jacket around her—still containing the necklace. Cal lies to her, saying Jack will be able to leave the Titanic safely, but she refuses to leave Jack behind and jumps back onto the ship. Cal chases them in a jealous rage but eventually gives up to board a lifeboat, using a crying child as an excuse for passage. Rose and Jack are left on the ship as it breaks apart and sinks, the lifeboats having all been launched. Jack helps Rose onto a floating piece of the wreckage so that she can later be rescued by a returning lifeboat, while he himself dies of hypothermia . Onboard the Carpathia , the ship that rescued Titanic ’s survivors, she adopts the name “Rose Dawson” and discovers the necklace in Cal’s jacket. The film returns to the present day, and centenarian Rose is revealed to still have the jewel in her possession. Her story told, she drops the famous necklace into the ocean.

Though much of the film’s plot deals with the fictional romance between Rose and Jack, writer/director James Cameron put a great deal of work into the historical accuracy of the sets and story. Many real-life figures are featured throughout the film, including Capt. Edward J. Smith (Bernard Hill), J. Bruce Ismay (Jonathan Hyde), and “Unsinkable” Molly Brown ( Kathy Bates ), and actual underwater footage of the wreck was used for the opening scenes. Cameron himself went on several dives to explore the sunken ship, and he designed an almost-to-scale replica of the Titanic for the film’s production. At the time of its production, Titanic was the most expensive film ever made, costing some $200 million. However, it recouped its expenses several times over. The film was somewhat of a phenomenon, especially among teenage girls and young women enamoured with DiCaprio, and the media widely reported on instances of individuals seeing the movie dozens of times in the theatre.

Titanic was nominated for 14 Academy Awards , tying the record set by All About Eve (1950), and it won 11, equaling the record set by Ben-Hur (1959), which was later matched by Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). In addition to winning Oscars for best picture and director, Titanic also received an Academy Award for the song “My Heart Will Go On,” performed by Céline Dion . A 3-D version of the film was released in 2012, shortly before the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking.

• Studios: Twentieth Century-Fox , Paramount Pictures , and Lightstorm Entertainment
• Director and writer: James Cameron
• Producers: James Cameron and Jon Landau
• Music: James Horner
• Running time: 194 minutes
• Leonardo DiCaprio (Jack Dawson)
• Kate Winslet (Rose DeWitt Bukater)
• Billy Zane (Caledon [Cal] Hockley)
• Kathy Bates (Molly Brown)
• Gloria Stuart (Old Rose)
• Lead actress (Kate Winslet)
• Supporting actress (Gloria Stuart)
• Art direction*
• Cinematography*
• Costume design*
• Film editing*
• Original dramatic score*
• Original song (“My Heart Will Go On”)*
• Sound effects editing*
• Visual effects*

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Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Titanic — Descriptive Paper: The Titanic

Descriptive Paper: The Titanic

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The Ill-Fated Maiden Voyage

The tragic aftermath and legacy.

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