Titanic Essay, Research Paper

Titanic

On April 12, 1912, the Red Star Liner Company commissioned a luxurious ship. This luxurious ship was set out to go on its Maiden Voyage from Southampton, England to New York City. The Red Star Liner claimed that this ship was unsinkable (Titanic 1998). The So-called the unsinkable ship was known as the Titanic. The Titanic was one of the biggest ships ever built. The Titanic was 888.2 feet long (Britannica 1998).

The Titanic was considered to be the Ship Of Dreams (Titanic 1998). The Titanic was designed and made by Mr. Thomas Andrews. The Managing Director of the Red Star Line was Mr. Bruce Ismay. They both were on the ship on its maiden voyage. The captain of the Titanic was Captain E.J. Smith. After the Titanic s maiden voyage Captain E. J. Smith was going to retire.

The Titanic was commissioned because Red Star Line wanted to create a ship So Extravagant and So Luxurious that it would beat other ships (Titanic 1998). The Titanic had about 2,200 passengers on board. On the Titanic all the Chinas, Linens, Silver, and Sheets were brand new.

On April 14, 1912, the Titanic was still on course to New York City. The Titanic had two Lookouts on the watch that night. The Lookouts were there to watch out for Icebergs and other Ships. At 11:40 P.M. the Lookouts saw an Iceberg, they called the bridge and said Iceberg! Iceberg! Dead ahead! (A Night 1956). Then First Officer Murdoch ordered the crewmen to Steer to Starboard side (A Night 1956).

The Titanic then turned to the Starboard side. When the Titanic was at Starboard side the Iceberg caused friction with the ship. The friction between the Iceberg and the Ship caused multiple scratches and holes on the starboard side of the ship. The entire ship felt the friction because it caused a big jar noise and the ship shook a little.

Captain E.J. Smith went to the bridge after he felt the jar. First Officer Murdoch told the Captain what happened. The Captain saw the damage and started to head for Mr. Andrews s cabin. The Captain told the Mr. Andrews everything that just happened. The Captain asked Mr. Andrews How much time we have? (Disaster 1997). Mr. Andrews said, We have an hour or two (Titanic 1998).

Then Captain E. J. Smith ordered his officer to Abandon Ship with Women and Children first (Britannica 1998). The Officer s then tell all the Stewards. The Stewards in first class told every passenger in first class to put on their life jackets and meet the other passenger in the first class stateroom.

Most of the first class passengers went up but the passengers didn t put their life jackets on. The first class passengers didn t want to put on those life jackets. The first class passengers said that their Life Jackets don t match their Clothes (A Night, 1956). The Stewards directed the passengers to go outside and wait to get on the boat. Most of the passengers ignored the Stewards and went back to their cabins.

The crewmen were outside with the officers following the Captain s orders. The crewmen were trying to detach the lifeboats from the ship. The Officers were holding the passengers back away from the lifeboats. The Officer also carried guns to prevent panic and chaos on the ship. Most of the passengers on the ship didn t have any idea on what was going on.

The Officers only allowed women and children first and they made so no men could get on the ship. Only first class passengers were being evacuated. The passengers in steerage were told to put their life jacket on and just to line up. On the Starboard side there were officer that let men get on the lifeboats. All the life could hold up 30-66 people but most of the boats had about 10 to 22.

The captain ordered one crewman to fire flare in the air. The captain also ordered the officer in wireless to send out a new signal SOS (A Night 1956). The officer in wireless spent all their time locating other ship and asks them for help.

The only ship that responded was the Carpathia (A Night 1956). The Carpathia was about 50 miles away. The Carpathia told Titanic that it is going to be able arrive at its destination in four hours. The people in steerage were still waiting in their cabins, so the officers to let them go on those lifeboats. That night there were many other ships closer to the Titanic than the Carpathia.

The Californian was so close that it saw the flare. The Californian did minimal to respond. The Titanic didn t take the Iceberg warning clearly. The Other ship in the area thought that the SOS message from the Titanic was a hoax. At 2:20 A.M. the Titanic sank with a total of 1,600 deaths.

Most of the people that died were from steerage. The steerage weren t even given the chance to live. The rest of the people who died were men from first class. The total number of survivor were 600 people mostly all from first class. The men from all class gave their lives up to save the women and children.

In Conclusion, the Titanic could have been saved from the iceberg and all the live on the ship could have been saved. The way that could have happened is following a couple of steps. The first step is not ignoring all iceberg warnings. The second step was to slow the ship down. Third step could have helped if the first two steps were ignored.

The first officer should have gone straight instead of starboard side. That could have caused only a little damage to the Titanic. They could have repaired it in matter of days. They could have also save a lot of life if the crewmen had taken the dining table from the First Class Stateroom and use it as life support vehicle to keep most of the passengers afloat until the rescue ship

After the Titanic Disaster there have been many improvements in preventing iceberg accident. The International society commissioned an International Ice Patrol (Britannica Online 1998). This organization keeps it eyes on iceberg and warns cruise liner and other ships and boats. The Titanic was one of the biggest disasters in this century.