- Considering going on the Titanic II may be a big risk because you just never know.
Did you read Titanic Fun Facts: The Most Infamous Ship Wreck In History? Because this is part two.
The Blue Star Line
The company behind Titanic II, The Blue Star Line, is taking some cues from the same company that owned and operated the original RMS Titanic, The White Star Line. Differences will be that Titanic II is meant to hold 2,400 passengers, when the original was only 2,200. There will be 900 crew members as well. Titanic II will also be 13 feet wider to meet safely regulations (ie the lifeboats) and instead of steam engines and boilers, it will run off of a diesel engine system. And of course, enough lifeboats for everyone on board. Do you think Titanic II would be an infamous ship wreck as well?
The Canines
There were 12 dogs on board the RMS Titanic, however, only three survived. The dogs were tiny dogs owned by first-class passengers, all of whom smuggled their little loves onto the lifeboats to secure their safety in their owners arms.
A Crew Member With “3” Lives
You know, like cats and their nine lives? It turns out that stewardess Violet Jessop already lived through one White Star luxury liner wreck when she boarded Titanic. In 1911 she was on the Olympic when it collided with a smaller ship, though both were repaired and went back into service. She was in the 16th Titanic lifeboat that was picked up by the Carpathia. Then in 1916, during WWI, she also survived the Britannic wreck that hit a mine in the Mediterranean Sea. Shockingly, Jesop went on to work at sea until 1950. Crazy that she was on this infamous ship wreck, among others, and she still worked at sea after it all.
Sir Ernest Shackleton
Sir Ernest Shackleton was called as an expert witness in the British government’s inquiry about the Titanic sinking. According to him, the lookouts missed the gigantic iceberg until it was too late.“ With a dead calm sea there is no sign at all to give you any indication that there is anything there. If you first see the breaking sea at all, then you look for the rest and you generally see it,” Shackleton said. “From a height it is not so easily seen; it blends with the ocean if you are looking down at an angle like that.”
Hundreds Saved, More Than 1,000 Dead
711 out of 2,201 passengers were saved when Titanic foundered, leaving a death toll of 1,490. (Though other stats say as many as 1,635 passengers lost their lives.) Out of the classes, 62% of first-class survived, 203 out of 325, 41% of the second class or 118 out of 285 and in the third-class, only 25% survived, only 178 of the 706 lived. These stats are sad and hard to read about the infamous ship wreck.
20 Tons of Lubricant
A lot of lube was needed to launch the Titanic. The lubricant was made up of animal fat and soap and applied to the slipway to help it into the water. It worked, too, and the Titanic was in the water in just over a minute. Once it was on the water, there was another substance left in the water, roughly 110 tons of ash from the coal burning throughout the trip.
The Bulkheads
The bulkheads were designed to save the ship, but we all know that didn’t happen. Titanic was equipped with 16 watertight bulkheads that were meant to keep the ship afloat even if the first four of them were breached. A series of cuts happened when Titanic hit the iceberg stretching across six of the watertight bulkheads, 10 feet above the keel. This is a big part of what made this such an infamous ship wreck being that it was thought to be unsinkable.
The Money-est Man
As we saw in the movie, John Jacob Astor IV was the wealthiest man aboard Titanic. We remember him from his famous New York City hotels like the St. Regis, the Knickerbocker and the Astoria half of the Waldorf-Astoria. His wealth was mainly due to generational wealth as his ancestors had success in the fur trade.
What else do you know about this infamous ship wreck? Let me know in the comments!