The Loss of the S.S. Titanic | Page 2

VIII. THE LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE LOSS OF THE TITANIC
IX. SOME IMPRESSIONS

ILLUSTRATIONS
THE TITANIC From a photograph taken in Belfast Harbour.
Copyrighted by Underwood and Underwood, New York.
VIEW OF FOUR DECKS OF THE OLYMPIC, SISTER SHIP OF
THE TITANIC From a photograph published in the "Sphere," May
4,1918 TRANSVERSE (amidship) SECTION THROUGH THE
TITANIC After a drawing furnished by the White Star Line.

LONGITUDINAL SECTIONS AND DECK PLAN OF THE
TITANIC After plans published in the "Shipbuilder."
THE CARPATHIA From a photograph furnished by the Cunard
Steamship Co.
CHAPTER I
CONSTRUCTION AND PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST
VOYAGE
The history of the R.M.S. Titanic, of the White Star Line, is one of the
most tragically short it is possible to conceive. The world had waited
expectantly for its launching and again for its sailing; had read accounts
of its tremendous size and its unexampled completeness and luxury;
had felt it a matter of the greatest satisfaction that such a comfortable,
and above all such a safe boat had been designed and built--the
"unsinkable lifeboat";--and then in a moment to hear that it had gone to
the bottom as if it had been the veriest tramp steamer of a few hundred
tons; and with it fifteen hundred passengers, some of them known the
world over! The improbability of such a thing ever happening was what
staggered humanity.
If its history had to be written in a single paragraph it would be
somewhat as follows:--
"The R.M.S. Titanic was built by Messrs. Harland & Wolff at their
well-known ship-building works at Queen's Island, Belfast, side by side
with her sister ship the Olympic. The twin vessels marked such an
increase in size that specially laid-out joiner and boiler shops were
prepared to aid in their construction, and the space usually taken up by
three building slips was given up to them. The keel of the Titanic was
laid on March 31, 1909, and she was launched on May 31, 1911; she
passed her trials before the Board of Trade officials on March 31, 1912,
at Belfast, arrived at Southampton on April 4, and sailed the following
Wednesday, April 10, with 2208 passengers and crew, on her maiden
voyage to New York. She called at Cherbourg the same day,
Queenstown Thursday, and left for New York in the afternoon,

expecting to arrive the following Wednesday morning. But the voyage
was never completed. She collided with an iceberg on Sunday at 11.45
P.M. in Lat. 41° 46' N. and Long. 50° 14' W., and sank two hours and a
half later; 815 of her passengers and 688 of her crew were drowned and
705 rescued by the Carpathia."
Such is the record of the Titanic, the largest ship the world had ever
seen--she was three inches longer than the Olympic and one thousand
tons more in gross tonnage--and her end was the greatest maritime
disaster known. The whole civilized world was stirred to its depths
when the full extent of loss of life was learned, and it has not yet
recovered from the shock. And that is without doubt a good thing. It
should not recover from it until the possibility of such a disaster
occurring again has been utterly removed from human society, whether
by separate legislation in different countries or by international
agreement. No living person should seek to dwell in thought for one
moment on such a disaster except in the endeavour to glean from it
knowledge that will be of profit to the whole world in the future. When
such knowledge is practically applied in the construction, equipment,
and navigation of passenger steamers--and not until then--will be the
time to cease to think of the Titanic disaster and of the hundreds of men
and women so needlessly sacrificed.
A few words on the ship's construction and equipment will be
necessary in order to make clear many points that arise in the course of
this book. A few figures have been added which it is hoped will help
the reader to follow events more closely than he otherwise could.
The considerations that inspired the builders to design the Titanic on
the lines on which she was constructed were those of speed, weight of
displacement, passenger and cargo accommodation. High speed is very
expensive, because the initial cost of the necessary powerful machinery
is enormous, the running expenses entailed very heavy, and passenger
and cargo accommodation have to be fined down to make the resistance
through the water as little as possible and to keep the weight down. An
increase in size brings a builder at once into conflict with the question
of dock and harbour accommodation at the ports she will touch: if her

total displacement is very great while the lines are kept slender for
speed, the draught limit may